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"When is the best time to buy?"

I'm often asked this question by my clients when what the buyer is really asking me is "When can I get the best deal on a home? When can I get the best value?"

Like farming, Real Estate is a cyclical business. Typically, we see more listings enter the market in the spring - weather permitting. This listing trend builds through March, April, and May, and then begins to slow down gradually once summer hits. August finds many people away for the entire month - translating to a tangible slooooow down in sales. However, listings bounce back a bit after Labor Day, with a last flurry of strong home sales, before Thanksgiving all but kills the marketplace for the next two months. (Many Realtors take this much needed break to go on vacation and recharge their batteries!)

Given the choice, very few people care to move during the holidays. Would you? It's just downright inconvenient, what with all those functions, dinners, shopping and school holidays! Homes that do hit the market between Thanksgiving and New Years, often represent listings that happen due to unforeseen stress: a divorce, a death, a job transfer - in essence, sales that were unexpected a few short months ago, but are now forced by new circumstances.

This is, in fact, the best time to buy. If dollars per square foot are all you are considering, this is the best chance to obtain a property below market value. (One caveat, there are typically many fewer homes from which to select during the months of November and December.)

Here's the real answer: buy a home when you find the property you can't stand to lose to another buyer. Buy a home when you desire it. Buy a home when you've outgrown your current home and need more space. Buy a home when you want to buy down and simplify your life. Buy a home when you've been promoted or received your end-of-the-year bonus and can now afford a bigger, better property. Buy a home when your finances allow you to make an informed choice. Buy a home because the timing makes sense for you and your families' needs - not because it's December.

Because more homes are available in the spring, chances are you are going to find yourself in a spring market. That's the reality for most buyers.

If you are fortunate enough to come across your "dream home" during the "off season," snap it up before you find yourself back in competition in the spring. Or worse yet, before the seller and his or her agent, decide to pull the property and bring it back on at a higher price come spring.

Last November, I worked with a buyer who after many months of looking, actually found two homes he could see himself happily ensconced in. Unfortunately, stories of the "declining marketplace" erroneously lead him to believe that prices would continue to drop after the new year. He passed on both properties when the selling agents were literally begging him to make "any offer." Citing "friends opinions," he walked away from the market.

Now he's back hunting, at the urging of his accountant and ready, willing, and able to buy, but we've been outbid in heavy competition on the last three purchase offers. (As a foot note, the homes he passed on last year, eventually sold to other savvy buyers who had the good fortune and good timing, to be the only buyer at the negotiating table. ) His well-meaning friends' advice cost this client a couple of great opportunities. Their advice may also have cost him tens of thousands of dollars when all is said and done.

If, at the end of the day, you end up paying a little more for your property in the spring, than you might have paid for a similar property in the fall, it's probably irrelevant. If you plan on staying in your property for at least five years (as most of us do) than the difference you pay to get the property you really want, is essentially moot. Properties are unique entities, identical ones don't exist. So buy the property when you find it!