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7 Reasons To Buy A Home In The Summer Months If you’ve been putting off your house hunting, it’s time to head out. Summer is the best season to go shopping for a new home, for a variety of reasons.

1. More Inventory

Homeowners list their homes for sale in the summer more often than any other season. When you shop for a new home during this time, you’ll have a much wider selection of homes to choose from.

2. Better Prices

More inventory in summer often turns the local real estate scene into a buyer’s market. Home sellers may have to compete with other sellers on the same block or even down the street. This gives buyers a nice position of leverage to possible get a better price on a new home.

3. More Neighborhood Activity

There’s no better time to get a true sense of the neighborhood than summer. In summer, kids are out playing, homeowners are out tending lawns and friends are gathering for backyard BBQs. These are all activities that can give you an accurate portrayal of the neighborhood culture. Take advantage of summer weekends, too; you’ll find even more neighborhood activity then.

4. More Visibility

By summer, all the snow, ice and autumn debris has either melted or been cleaned up by homeowners. You’ll have more visibility to view the condition of the roof, siding, deck, lawn, driveway and walkways. Under the cover of snow and ice, you might miss important issues.

5. Evidence Of Any Flooding Problems

Spring rains produce evidence of any flooding issues with water lines along foundation walls. Summer is the best time to go home shopping because this kind of evidence will be fresh and easily identifiable. Flooding isn’t always a reason not to buy a home, but it helps to know what potential issues you could be facing.

6. More Free Time

Most people have more free time in summer than any other time of year.

It is more relaxing to go home shopping when you know you aren’t taking valuable time away from work. On your summer vacation, you also don’t have to take unpaid days off to view homes with your real estate agent.

7. Easier School Transition

When you do go ahead and buy in summer, your kids will have an easier time of transitioning to a new school. Instead of breaking up the school year, your kids can end one grade in one school and start the new year at the new school.

Buying a home in summer just makes good sense. Contact your local real estate agent today so you can hurry and take advantage of the summer real estate market in your area.

3 Questions Not To Ask Your Real Estate Agent It’s an exciting time when you’re buying or selling your home and your real estate agent is your partner in this real estate endeavor. But there are some questions that your agent can’t or won’t be able to answer for you. These are the top three questions not to ask your real estate agent.

1. How High Will The Buyers/Sellers Go?

Knowing that your agent is in touch with their agent, you might think your agent knows the highest amount the prospective buyers or sellers will go. This question is problematic for several reasons.

First, would you want your agent to divulge how low of an offer you would be willing to accept? No. Second, the buyers agent would never share that kind of information with your agent anyway. That would violate the ethics code that all quality real estate agents go by.

2. Can You Please Not Divulge the Mold/Radon/Flooding Issue?

Homeowners and real estate agents are required by law to divulge any known issues such as mold. If you as a homeowner are aware of radon and/or flooding issues and you share it with your real estate agent, they may be required to disclose those issues to prospective buyers.

If you ask your agent to withhold that information or to fib about it, you’re really asking them to risk their license and source of family income. Obviously you wouldn’t want to do that. Instead, abide by the laws and let your real estate agent do the same.

Besides, when your buyer is fully aware there’s a better chance for a successful sale.

3. Can You Promise Me A Sale Within A Certain Timeframe?

Real estate agents can’t promise that your home will sell in a certain amount of time. They can offer you statistics in your area and give you an average amount of time when your home might sell. Other than that, there are no guarantees. If you want your home to sell fast take as much of your agent’s advice as possible.

Your agent will do everything they can to answer all your reasonable questions. Just don’t ask your agent to violate their ethics or make promises they can’t keep.