At the end of the year buyers become even more motivated to purchase their home.
There are a few reasons:
1. Tax purposes and being able to have additional write off's for the next year.
2. Buyer's want to be in that new home for the holidays and start making memories! For buyers this is a very emotional transaction and the sooner the fun can start the better!
3. Experienced agents ensure that when they work with buyers their buyers are qualified and pre-approved prior to looking at homes. Some agents even have a program where they pre-underwrite their customers up front. That means a clear to close in 6 days!!! Talk about taking any question off the table for a seller!! Being completely pre-underwritten is just like being a cash buyer. No stress 2 days before you close.
Less Competition
The common belief is that the end of the year is not a good time to sell your home. HOWEVER, when you put your home on the market at the end of the year it shows that you are motivated. There are many different reasons people sell their home. Bottom line is that there may be just as many homes on the market for buyers to chose from and sellers need to remember to understand their motivation and ask the right questions when choosing their agent.
We just talked about motivated and qualified buyers, but it doesn't mean that there will be as many buyers in numbers looking. We were specifically talking about the motivation and ability to purchase. Therefore, as a buyer you may not be going up against as many people for the same home. Recently, we've been seeing many multiple offer situations. We don't expect to be running into as many of those situations during the next few months.
Even many agents feel like the end of the year slows down. So when hiring an agent you always want to make sure you asked specific questions about their business plan, marketing, and other things that may be important to you........especially pertaining to time lines.
Interest Rates / Financing / Tax Breaks / cash at the end of the year
Interest Rates have nowhere to go but up! Interest rates are projected to go up starting at the beginning of 2015. If you are selling you want to make sure you are giving the best opportunities to purchase your home. When interest rates go up a single percentage point and buyer's purchasing power goes DOWN 10%!!! Your home may be perfect for someone else and it's in their price range now, but when interest rates go up, as a seller your pool of buyers will dramatically DECREASE!!
For a buyer this means it can completely change an entire neighborhood for them. A 1% increase interest rates can price a buyer right out a neighborhood, a builder, or even an entire area.
Like we said earlier, many buyers want to get in before the end of the year so they can benefit from the tax breaks that purchasing a home does. At the same quite often, sellers become buyers, and there are many tax breaks as well rolling that money into another as well as the purchase of your next property.
Specifically for sellers, depending on your situation you potentially can walk away with a large amount of cash at the end of the year. This can start your next project, dream, reinvest in other real estate, whatever your heart desires or what you may need a little extra cash for.