Why buy investment properties during football season?

By Paul Branton, Director of Investor Services for Home Rental Services, talking about acquiring investment properties during football season.

As the weather changes and the temperature begins to drop, so begins the “off-season” for housing activity. While things are heating up between your favorite football rivalries, we usually see the demand for housing cooling down. That’s exactly why football season is a great time to buy!

Now you might be asking “Why would I want to buy when there is less of a demand?”  Let me expand on this idea and give you a few reasons why:

• Not as much competition.
  • With families settled into school and not wanting to relocate during colder months, this leaves sellers with fewer buyers.
• Lower Prices! With less competition, prices are lower than in the summer months.
  • Summer is typically the most expensive time to buy real estate. When buying during the Fall (September through November) you can expect prices to be about 3% less than summer. If you wait to buy in the winter (December through February) prices in the KC metro are typically 6% lower than in the summer months.
• Inventory is lower. (Wait, how is that a good thing? Refer back to my first point about competition.)
  • Ok, I realize it would not be a good thing to simply have less inventory. The GOOD NEWS is that while there are fewer homes on the market, there are even fewer buyers. In some markets during this time, there are nearly double the number of homes per buyer than in the summer.
• Banks want to get bad debts sold by the end of the year.
  • In order to start off the New Year in a better position, banks tend to be open to offers in the fourth quarter that they might otherwise reject during the first three.
• Contractors are not as busy.
  • This allows you the opportunity to negotiate better deals for the home improvements and probably get the job done sooner too!

Now that you know it’s a great time to buy, are you ready to get started?