If you are like most people who may be thinking of selling or buying, you’re probably wondering what’s the best time to buy a house in the current market?
Should you sell, should you buy or should you wait?
The news as you well know rarely delivers anything good. The negative portrayal of the property market by the mainstream media with headlines of a market crash has scared many buyers. Surely after a near doubling of prices since 2012, a slowdown and some sort of a decline in prices is in order. The long term fundamentals for our economy are still strong and a total collapse of property prices is highly unlikely.
“This is a buyers’ market but many buyers appear willing to let good deals and great opportunities pass by in the hope of getting a better deal later.”
Some buyers, afraid of paying too much, go too far and offer too little.
The desire to buy hasn’t gone away, it’s the heat that has gone out of the market. The market is still full of people who genuinely want to buy and sell. The question is – at what price?
“Properties that are attractively priced get noticed. Sellers who are slow to come to terms with the reality of the current market are overpriced and overlooked by buyers.”
Buyers are always looking for value. Irrespective of the market, they want the best property available at the best price.
It’s ironic that not long ago when it was a sellers’ market and prices were rising, it was a difficult time to buy at good value and yet buyers were buying like there was no tomorrow. Buyers were afraid of missing out. Now that the market has changed to a buyers’ market, fear of paying too much has creeped in and seems to stop many buyers from buying. When they should have been afraid of paying too much they weren’t and now when they can buy at much better value they are afraid. This is the typical herd mentality and these are the times when smart buyers detach themselves from the herd and buy.
When the market goes through its typical cyclical change, as we are currently experiencing, buyers can easily lose sight of the main reasons driving their home purchase – a larger/ smaller house, close to schools, a better area, proximity to work, or close to shops and transport – and they become super-focussed on price alone.
Buyers who believe they can time the market, develop a false sense that they have all the time in the world. The mentality that they can find a better deal later causes many to miss out on some great opportunities that are only possible in uncertain changing market environments such as the one we are in now.
No one knows the bottom until prices are already headed up and then everyone who was waiting scrambles to buy, pushing prices even higher. You will only know when the market has bottomed out after it starts to go back up. Don’t try to pick the bottom because no one can.
“Buyers who wait for the market to bottom always miss out on picking up great deals.”
The real question buyers should be asking is “if prices have already dropped, is it safe to buy now?” or “has the market dropped enough to now make a sensible purchase?”
If you’re looking to buy in 2019, here are our FAQs to help get you started.
