When the agents are getting ready for Europe, winter is the time to buy
June and July are always great times to buy property; I have noticed this over the last 8 years. The winter time is when the real estate agents really want to get rid of their stock to get ready for their spring campaigns.
In July, the senior agents typically go away, so you are dealing with the assistants or junior agents. It’s a great time to buy well, given the senior agents are drinking cocktails in Mykonos, and instruct their team to clear out their stock real quick. They also need to pay for their extravagant holidays.
Picking the right time to buy is crucial. December and January are also incredible times to buy as the vendors are super motivated to sell to celebrate Christmas and refresh for the new year. More importantly, most Aussies are at the beach burning themselves or having barbecues, so the competition is really low.
Use winter to your advantage to get some good deals. During the start of winter, when it gets cold, the auction market dips, indicating buyers and sellers jump into hibernation mode. It is different across all states; however, the clearance rates are down compared to spring and summer.
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Based on the clearance rates, it is a great time to be securing deals, especially under auction conditions or even when properties pass in. Low clearance rates are a great time to be jumping on deals.
In winter, I also find that people's moods and behaviors change which is great to leverage off, e.g. people would prefer to go home when it’s raining rather than looking at a property so you can really use the lower buyer motivation to snap up good deals.
Also, real estate agents don’t like running around to opens in the rain so they want to do a quick deal.
Use the low buyer and seller activity to your advantage. The winter time is an opportunity to negotiate hard, the buyer in my opinion holds more control. The agent is typically encouraging vendors to list their property in spring, and yes, there is typically more buyer and seller activity in spring.
For some reason, people like to follow the herd, e.g. if buyer activity is high people will buy, if it’s low, people will hold off. As Warren Buffet famously quotes, “Be fearful when others are greedy and greedy when others are fearful.”
So, if there are low clearance rates and buyer activity is down, be prepared to go in with power to source a good deal, especially during the winter period.