Winter can be a great time to purchase a home. There is less competition, sellers are motivated, and it is a lot easier to find moving companies that aren’t fully booked. But there are also seasonal challenges associated with buying a home during the coldest, snowiest months of the year. The most important strategy to ensure that your home purchase is a smart one is to partner with a skilled and knowledgeable Realtor® to help you navigate home buying during the winter. Here are some other important considerations when buying a home this winter season.
Are you ready to buy a home this winter? Contact our Realtors® to make sure your investment is protected.
Call 403-863-7434.
Tips From A Calgary Realtor®: What You Need To Know When Buying A Home In Winter
When you are house hunting in the winter months, you have the opportunity to really put the homes you are viewing through the paces. Frosty temperatures, heavy snowfall, and the freeze-thaw cycles of a Calgary winter put climate stress on every home. This lets you evaluate the home for sufficient insulation, heating efficiencies, and drafty doors and windows in a way you never could in the warmer months. But snowy conditions can also disguise certain deficiencies. Here are some important things to consider when viewing homes this winter.
A Comprehensive Home Inspection
Homes can be much harder to inspect in the winter. Access to the foundation can be difficult. Your inspector may be unable to get up on the roof to assess shingles and gutters, and problems with landscaping, outdoor sprinkler systems, and below-ground pipes are not easily apparent. It can also be more challenging to assess interior aspects of the home like the health of air conditioning systems, areas susceptible to leaks from rain, and crack where bugs or rodents could infiltrate in the spring and summer. To mitigate these challenges, ask your Realtor® for a recommendation for a trusted and reliable home inspector who will go the extra mile to evaluate all exterior and interior aspects of the home, despite the compromised access, snowy conditions, and colder temperatures.
The Festive Facade
If you are buying a home over the holiday season, it is likely the home seller has decked their halls and hung the mistletoe. Christmas lights adorning the eaves and enhancing the home’s curb appeal, garlands on the stair banisters, and the smell of holiday baking and a fresh-cut Christmas tree can plant visions of sugarplums and daydreams of celebrating upcoming holidays with your family in this picture-perfect holiday home. But don’t let the dazzling lights and seasonal decorations distract you from looking very carefully at the home. Be objective and get a clear picture of what the home looks like without all of the holiday decor. Remember Christmas comes just once each year and this home needs to serve your family for the other eleven months too.
Protect Your Investment With An Airtight Contract
If there are areas of concern noted in the home inspection or aspects of the home that were unable to be inspected before writing your offer (such as a pool or hot tub), ask your Realtor® for their advice in including a springtime reinspection condition or a reserve clause stipulating that unanticipated repairs will be paid for by the seller when identified. Your Realtor® could also suggest that you assume the risk yourself and write your offer reflecting that assumed risk and noting that there could be some costs associated with damage to the property come spring.
To learn more about other conditions you might want to include in your offer,
read Your Realtor® Might Recommend These Common Conditions When You Write An Offer.
Are You Ready To Buy A Home This Winter?
Although there are some challenges to buying a home in the winter months, there are also many benefits to leveraging a slower market and motivated sellers. If you are ready to find your first home, your next home, or your dream home before spring, partner with a Realtor® who understands the unique challenges of buying in the Calgary winter climate.
The Tanya Eklund Group is Calgary’s #1 Real Estate Team at the #1 RE/MAX office in the world. Buying or selling, whatever the season, we will guide you through the process and share our experience, knowledge, connections, and resources so when your contracts are signed, you will know that the city’s top real estate professionals are on your team. It is our goal to provide our clients with an elevated real estate experience. This means we are committed to standing beside you and advising you through each step of the process and always protecting your best interests. Your goal becomes our goal and a successful transaction for you means we feel the satisfaction of a job well done. We strive to ensure such a positive experience for you as you buy or sell, that you feel part of our community. Connect with our team by calling (403) 863-7434 or through our contact form.