By Holden Lewis, NerdWallet
Want to be a successful home buyer this spring and summer? Act decisively and swiftly, whether your market is hot or cool.
That’s the advice from real estate agents in Boston (a hot, fast-selling market where buyers tussle over scarce houses) and in Dallas (a cooler, slower-selling market where competition isn’t so frenzied).
We’re entering the time of year when the sales pace picks up even in sedate housing markets. Around 4 million existing homes will be sold in 2025, and roughly half of them will change hands from April through August.
In the five years since the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic, demand has exceeded supply in most housing markets. That imbalance still exists in the hotter markets of New England, the Upper Midwest and much of California. The shortfall has eased (but not gone away) in some cities, notably in Florida, Texas, the Gulf coast and the Pacific Northwest — those are the cooler markets.
Real estate agents’ advice this homebuying season is consistent, no matter the temperature of the local market: Treat the search like a job. Get preapproved for a mortgage.
And remember that desirable houses go fast.
The race goes to the swift
“Properties that are move-in ready — they’re still flying off the market in a matter of days with multiple offers,” says Rich Rosa, a buyer’s agent and co-founder of Buyers Brokers Only in the Boston area (one of the nation’s hottest markets). Houses sold there in February had typically been on the market for 33 days, according to Realtor.com, making it one of the fastest-selling metro areas. Nationally, time on market ranged from a low of 22 days in San Jose to 118 days in Kalispell, Montana.
Kate Ziegler, a real estate agent with Arborview Realty in the Boston area, says it’s important to prioritize house-hunting on the weekends when you’re seriously searching. Relaxation might have to take a backseat to the job of finding a house.
“Being ready to see things the first weekend that they’re on the market really is important,” Ziegler says. If you don’t tour an attractive house this weekend, it might be gone before you can look at it next weekend, she says.
It’s not unusual for a Boston house to hit the market on Thursday morning, have multiple showings over the weekend, and for the sellers to request offers by Monday evening. Then the seller accepts one of several competing offers. Elapsed time: less than a week. You might find compressed timelines in other hot markets, too.
Buyers can take more time in cooler markets such as Dallas-Fort Worth, where the typical home had been on the market 56 days when it was sold in February. Even so, well-maintained properties are sold quickly. “You need to jump on the good houses because they’re going to sell, period,” says Cliff Freeman, a real estate agent with eXp Realty in Dallas.
Secure a preapproval to show sellers you’re prepared
It’s always a good idea to get preapproved for a mortgage when you shop for a home, whether sellers or buyers have the upper hand. When you get a preapproval, the lender takes your financial information, including credit score and income, and tells you how much you can borrow.
Not only does a mortgage preapproval show you how much home you can afford — it signals to sellers that you’ve rustled up your financial documents and a lender has already assessed your creditworthiness.
Freeman says one sign of having an experienced agent is that they will make sure you’ve talked to a lender. “Especially for first-time home buyers, and second and move-up buyers, having a true professional that has experience in several types of markets is the best asset you can have,” he says.
Don’t get hung up on asking price
You probably won’t pay the asking price for your next house. If the property attracts multiple offers in the first week or two, you might pay more than the asking price (if you make the successful bid). If the home lingers on the market for weeks without any serious offers, you might pay less than the asking price.
“What I tell my clients is don’t get too caught up in what the asking price is,” Rosa says. Pricing strategies vary from seller to seller, and every property is different. Just because one place sells for 3% more than the asking price doesn’t mean other houses will too.
An experienced agent who understands your local market can be an advantage here too.
In hot markets, consider fast-tracking the inspection
Buyers often waived property inspections in 2020 and 2021, when mortgage rates were low and competition was fierce. Today, most buyers insist on property inspections. But in fast markets, buyers can employ a few tactics to mollify sellers.
One such tactic is the “pre-offer inspection,” in which an inspector examines the house before the buyer makes an offer. “So you’re effectively submitting a ‘clean’ offer without an inspection contingency because you’ve already done inspection,” Ziegler says.
As an agent, Ziegler says she tries to avoid pre-offer inspections because they can be less thorough — and the buyer pays the inspector whether or not they end up making an offer on the house. The benefit of a pre-offer inspection is that it reassures the seller that this buyer won’t back out if their offer is accepted.
In another inspection-related tactic, the buyer promises to pay for repairs up to a specified dollar amount instead of expecting the seller to pay every penny. Ziegler calls it a partial inspection contingency; the goal is to avoid giving the seller the perception that they’re being nickel-and-dimed. “It mitigates the buyer’s risk and sort of caps what they are exposed to,” Ziegler says, while assuring sellers that the buyer won’t withdraw their offer over minor defects.
However you do it, make sure you do get a home inspection.
In growing areas, consider new homes
In some cities, new construction could be a solid option. We’re talking mostly about metros in the South and Southwest where developers build communities of hundreds of new houses. To make new homes affordable, developers often offer incentives such as reductions in mortgage interest rates.
“The reality is for first-time home buyers, it’s probably a great decision to buy a new home,” Freeman says, because a well-built new house won’t require expensive repairs or upgrades in the first few years.
Take a real estate agent with you the first time you look at a community of new houses, Freeman advises. The agent can help you negotiate discounts on mortgage rates or upgraded amenities.
Holden Lewis writes for NerdWallet. Email: hlewis@nerdwallet.com.
The article Homebuying Tips This Season for Markets Hot and Cold originally appeared on NerdWallet.
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