Real estate agents and developers have long known the importance of timing when it comes to listing and selling a property. But buyers and investors can also benefit from making smart decisions when it comes to timing their purchases, leading to big savings or extra customization, depending on their goals.
Eric Lavey, director of The Agency’s estate division, helped a client take advantage of timing when they locked down a $7 million-plus Hollywood Hills, Los Angeles, property over the Fourth of July weekend. After the house hit the market right before the holiday, the client, an all-cash buyer in town from the U.K., saw the property and loved it. Knowing that another potential buyer had also seen the property before heading off on vacation, Mr. Lavey recommended that his client move quickly when her competition was away. This plan worked, and they were able to swoop in and get the property at almost 10 percent below asking price.
In addition to making a deal when others are out of town, buyers can also use timing to their advantage by getting in before peak buying season to check out inventory before it comes to market (these are often called “whisper listings”) or waiting until after the main season has passed to pick up what’s left at a discount, says Edward de Mallet Morgan, a partner on Knight Frank’s international residential team.
Of course, a lot depends on your personal needs from a property.
“If you’re looking to live in it, you probably want to do it sooner rather than later,” he says. “But if it’s an investment, you can wait, follow the market a bit, track properties through the season and pick your moment.”
For year-round homes, that means checking out properties before the spring push or waiting until November or December, characteristically slow months, to see what’s left.
And in the case of summer vacation properties, looking in the late-fall—before the December to March peak season—or waiting until summer to pick up what’s left. The only catch? If interested buyers wait too long to enter the market, the current owners will likely rent out the property for the peak holiday season, making it impossible for buyers to see available properties or to close a deal until they’re vacant in the fall.
A final way buyers can use timing to their advantage is to get in early on a new development, says Jonathan Miller, president and CEO of Miller Samuel Real Estate Appraisers. In Manhattan, that’s meant a sometimes steep discount in a development’s early days, like a $5 million price tag on a unit that’s listed at $7 million two years later, once construction is complete.
David Martin, the president and co-founder of Terra, a Miami-based real estate development firm, agrees that the discounted price is a perk of getting in early, but more importantly, these first buyers have the pick of whatever unit they want, and the ability to customize layout and flow. In his recent building, Grove at Grand Bay in Miami, for example, he had 77 custom floor plans out of 98 units.
“Everybody has a different way of living,” Mr. Martin says. “What happens is that the earlier you buy, the more flexibility and opportunity you have to design something unique, that is tailored exactly to your lifestyle.”
Here’s a look at other news from around the world compiled by Mansion Global:
Chinese developer to build condo in New York's Hell’s Kitchen Neighborhood
Xinyuan Real Estate has filed plans for a 105,000-sqaure-foot condominium project in Manhattan at 615 10th Ave. in the Hell’s Kitchen area. Xinyuan closed on the site in January, buying the property for $57.5 million, paying just under $500 a square foot, and has indicated that the 82 condo units will be listed at up to $2,000 per square foot, citing the over saturation of the uber-luxury residential market. (The Real Deal)
MORE:Home Prices Rise to New Heights in New York
Brexit means a great time to refinance your home
The Federal Reserve's decision to keep interest rates low in the wake of economic uncertainty following Britain's decision to leave the E.U. is good for American homeowners, U.S. News reports. “We have people that have a 4 percent, 30-year fixed interest rate. And you think wow, that’s great, it doesn’t make sense to refinance. But when you can get a 2.5 percent, 15-year [rate], cut your term in half and your payment doesn’t go up much because you’re dropping your rate a point and a half—that’s what a lot of consumers are really picking up on,” said Whitney Fite, president of Angel Oak Home Loans in Atlanta. (U.S. News)
Britain’s housing market has taken a post-referendum nosedive
The U.K. real estate market has seen a sharp drop in purchase inquiries at real estate agents, a reduction in the number of a contracted sales, and expectations that prices will fall, the Financial Times reported. In the first nationwide confirmation that Brexit has put the brakes on house purchases and related spending, a survey of estate agents and surveyors, conducted after the June 23 vote to leave the E.U., found a “marked drop in activity in the housing market." (Financial Times)
MORE:Even Before Brexit, Prices Were Down For London’s Luxury Housing
Canada's tax agency tracking foreign tax cheaters buying Vancouver homes
Canada Revenue Agency auditors are being assigned to investigate purchases funded by unreported foreign income, according to a government document obtained by Hong Kong's South China Morning Post. Vancouver is known as a hotspot for immigrant “astronaut families” whose breadwinners often work in mainland China and Hong Kong, buy multi-million-dollar homes and declare virtually no income. Home prices in Vancouver have risen 30% in the past year. (SCMP)
'Irrational' 10-year home price spike transforms Vancouver, data show
The proportion of million-dollar detached homes in Vancouver jumped from just 11% a decade ago to more than 90% last year—an increase that financial experts and the Bank of Canada have said is unsustainable. "We've got a market in Vancouver that is appreciating too quickly," said Phil Soper, chief executive officer of real estate firm Royal LePage. (Globe and Mail)
This a good time to buy that waterfront French vacation home
Recent data from the association for French notaries showed that average prices fell last year in more than three-quarters of the coastal towns and cities surveyed. On the Côte d’Azur, Saint-Raphaël fell 12.8%, and Hyères dropped 11.1%. Saint-Malo, a walled town with a marina on the English Channel in Brittany, saw average home prices decline 11.4% in 2015. (The New York Times)
MORE:In Honor of Bastille Day, 5 Paris Homes With Views of the Eiffel Tower
Hamburg's port area is striving to become a new Williamsburg
Germany's largest port city is in the midst of transforming parts of its working seaport from grim industrial relics into a chic neighborhood just blocks away from the piers and ocean-going freighters. The district has been dubbed HafenCity, and a centerpiece is the Elbphilharmonie, with a concert hall in a landmarked warehouse at its base and a hotel and condo tower designed by Herzog & de Meuron above. (The New York Times)
Melbourne vacancies are up, rents down, signaling an overbuilt market
The Australian city's median rent for apartments was stagnant over the second quarter of 2016, at a record A$380 a week, but the citywide vacancy rate jumped from 2.5% over the month to 2.7% in June, according to a report by the Domain Group. There is also no relief for house renters, who continue to face a median weekly asking rent of A$400. “We are starting to see signs that increased supply is having an impact,” said Domain Group chief economist Andrew Wilson. (Domain.com.au)
Qatar to build Zaha Hadid-designed hotel shaped like desert flower
Qatar will construct two buildings designed by late Iraqi-British architect Zaha Hadid, including a tower shaped like a desert flower close to the site of the 2022 World Cup final, said a member of the country’s ruling family. Sheikh Mohammed bin Hamad al-Thani, the brother of Qatar’s Emir, commissioned Ms. Hadid in 2013 to create the structures, one of which is a 38-story hotel in the form of a hyacinth and which features a nine-pointed base to shield visitors from the searing Gulf sun. (Reuters via The National)
MORE:This Dubai Residential Development Will Have Its Own Rainforest