“A little knowledge is a dangerous thing.” In home buying, that is true. There are many sources of data out for house hunters. Some are not meant to manipulate you. Some are. Some will confuse and overwhelm you. When you need help sorting the information overload, ask your agent.

Here is an example of perfectly good information presented in a way that doesn’t help a house hunter make a good decision. 

ATTOM Data does very good research. They have been tracking closing prices of single-family and condo sales over a decade. They concluded that the best days to buy a house were

  1. November 13
  2. October 2
  3. December 4.

Follow the link to a very nicely drawn chart.

What is true: Closing prices are lower in the last quarter of the year.

Why?

Demand for housing goes down in September. This is mainly due to the academic calendar. In the Greater Boston area, that academic calendar rules our lives in spades because of the high number of colleges we have here. Leases start in August or September. School starts. Many would-be buyers hunker down for the winter. Therefore, the intrepid house hunters who are not as tied to a school schedule have a window of opportunity.

What is not true: ATTOM data oversimplifies. There are no best days to close on a property.

Why?

Anyone who has ever bought a house knows that the negotiation to buy the house is done weeks, or even months, before closing day. You may close on November 13, but you set your price and terms in September or October. ATTOM can’t track when offers are accepted; they can only track closings. So their data, in regard to the exact days that are best, is bogus.

If you go house hunting on November 13, you missed the boat by a month or more if there was a perfect day to close. There are better and worse times to negotiate on a house or condo. The last quarter of the year is a good time for buyers, generally.

The normal timeline for a house hunter

It takes about three weeks, at a minimum, to buy a house or condo after your offer is accepted. If you are buying with cash, it still takes a week to ten days to get the Title cleared and the paperwork arranged. 

Typical timeline

Finding the property:

You might get lucky and find the right house or condo in a few house hunting trips. You might get lucky have a reasonable seller to negotiate with on your first offer. More likely, in the current market you will need about three months or more to find and negotiate for a house or condo.

Making an offer: 

It takes time for your agent to do a Comparative Market Analysis. Then you decide on your negotiation strategy, then your agent prepares your offer and negotiates it. That’ll take a day, maybe two.

After your offer is accepted: 

  • Signing a Purchase and Sales Agreement:

The complete paperwork — the Purchase and Sales Agreement — is usually signed about a week after the offer. You need that time to get your inspections completed.

  • Getting a mortgage:

You apply for a mortgage after signing your Purchase and Sale Agreement. The appraiser is hired after you pay for it. It takes a few weeks to get an appraisal report. Expect that you mortgage will take 2-3 weeks from the time you apply.

If someone tells you that a specific time is the best time for home buying, check to see whether they are talking about when the property closes or when you would have been negotiating your best price and terms.