Business

Timing is Everything

Lesson time 06:43 min

When should you buy real estate? Gain a deeper understanding of how to time your purchase by taking into account seasonal markets, mortgage rates, supply and demand, and the ups and downs of the housing market at large.

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Topics include: The Housing Market Is Seasonal · Supply and Demand · Reading the Tea Leaves

Robert Reffkin

Teaches Buying and Selling Real Estate

Robert Reffkin, the founder and CEO of Compass, helps you get closer to finding your dream home by simplifying and demystifying real estate.

Preview

[MUSIC PLAYING] - In most markets, there's a spring market and a fall market, where people list homes. And they list homes because-- disproportionately during those times, because they think buyers will disproportionately want to buy or in those times. The reason why the spring market is because it's before the following year, where people are going to come to new schools. So buyers will buy then and before the new school season, but also so they can buy before they're away for the summer. And so people tend to travel in the summer and the winter, and so if you want to buy at a time when there will be less competition to buy, it'd generally by the end of August and the winter, when people aren't really in the market. That said, there's also going to be less inventory, because the most inventory will come on in the spring and then in the fall and then it'll get purchased. And so if you're trying to play the game of let me time the market to a point where it's not as competitive, you're also going to not have the best inventory. [MUSIC PLAYING] One of the things that will affect your decision around when to buy is supply and demand. In recent years, there haven't been enough homes being built of any category to meet demand. Prices for homes will continue to increase in this country, because the demand for more space has permanently increased. More square footage, and more number of rooms, because everyone wants an extra room for a home office. And that demand will take years and years and years and years to satisfy. It's all about the demand and supply imbalance, and so right now, in the history of the last thing it was 35 years, where there's been a homebuilder index, the people that are putting capital to risk, putting their own money to work are saying, there's never been as much demand relative to supply. You have to understand that context, and that context can be different by city, by neighborhood, within a neighborhood. By a two bedroom, three bedroom, four bedroom, because there's a different supply demand in every different part of a community. The supply demand to be different on one part of the street versus another part of the street, because this part of the street one block over has a different school district versus this one over here. [MUSIC PLAYING] When people say the real estate market is great, it can mean a lot of different things. It can mean it's great because prices have continued to go up. It can mean that it's great because there are a lot of transactions. It can mean it's great because interest rates are really, really low, and it's a great time to buy. It can mean it's great because there's a tremendous amount of inventory. Like a lot of inventory of new listings are coming to market because people are selling their homes and developers are developing homes. It can mean it's great for buyers, it's a buyer's market, which means that there are so many new listings, and in so...

About the Instructor

As the CEO and founder of Compass, Robert Reffkin has used modern technology to revolutionize the real estate industry in the U.S. Now he’s demystifying the ins and outs of the American home-buying process and sharing tools that will help you buy or sell a home with confidence. Learn how to approach your search, choose an agent, make an offer, and more. Your future home is waiting—let Robert help you find it.

Featured MasterClass Instructor

Robert Reffkin

Robert Reffkin, the founder and CEO of Compass, helps you get closer to finding your dream home by simplifying and demystifying real estate.

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