New York Real Estate Lawyers Blog
The prevalence of pumpkin flavored products and the approach of colorful leaves signals that we have entered the Fall real estate market in New York. This post will address the implications of the change of seasons and how that affects real estate transactions. For the purposes of this discussion, single family homes are being analyzed because apartments and townhouses sell more easily during all times of the year.
Negotiation strategies employed by your attorney may change once the Spring market has passed. In the area served by our attorneys , many single family homes are listed in the late Winter or early Spring, are in contract by June and close in August. This typical schedule follows the needs of those purchasers who wish to have their children start school in early September in their new home.
A seller’s situation will depend upon whether her home was listed since the Spring and did not sell or is a new listing as of the Fall. A new listing may receive more attention from buyers because inventory is typically lower in the Fall and older listings have already been evaluated by buyers. Sellers who have listed their home for several months may already need to consider price reductions and other concessions in order to sell the property. It should be noted that reducing the price will potentially allow the property to more readily appraise to the figure indicated in the contract.
A buyer’s attorney may be able to take advantage of a seller’s predicament and negotiate more favorable terms in the contract of sale, particularly if the buyer does not have school-aged children and is not on the standard purchase schedule of other buyers. For instance, a seller in a Spring market may be able to successfully demand that the buyer waive the mortgage contingency. In a Fall market with a seller wishing to dispose of a house that has not sold for several months, such a buyer may not need to accept such a risky term. Likewise, a seller may be more willing to address repair issues in order to satisfy a buyer’s requests and sell the property.
Attorneys representing sellers need to be savvy and not submit to particularly undesirable terms, such as making the transaction contingent on the buyer’s sale of another property. Of course, sellers are not required to proceed if the terms dictated by the season are not sensible. Such parties may decide to remove the property from the market during the December holiday season and relist in the Spring. Our firm is prepared to address the concerns of our readers with respect to the real estate market and strategies to employ during the changing seasons.