If you are ready to move to Santa Cruz and have the luxury of time on your side, you can plan the timing of your purchase carefully in order to get the best deal. The timing of your purchase could end up saving you thousands on the purchase price of the property. Remember, your goal is to approach the seller when he is the most motivated to accept an offer, even if it is less than he wants.

Plan Around Vacation Season

When vacation season hits, the Santa Cruz region is flooded with people. Some of these people are not only on vacation, but also looking to buy property, whether for a permanent move or a vacation home. The market is flooded with interested people. This is not a good time to make a low offer on a property. High vacation season in Santa Cruz is mid-June to mid-September.

On the other hand, you may find that there is less interest in the market during the low season, from mid-September to mid-June. After the vacationers have left and have forgotten about the sand and sun, home sellers may have a harder time finding an interested buyer, particularly if they are selling beachfront property or a vacation rental. This is the time to enter the home buying scene.

Plan the Day of the Week Carefully

Believe it or not, the day of the week that you make your offer makes a difference. Most buyers have open houses over the weekend. This means the end of the week is a bad time to make an offer on a home, because the seller is looking ahead to the potential buyers he will see over the weekend. Also, many offers tend to come in over the weekend, so he may not look at your low offer in hopes that something better will come his way. However, by Tuesday he is getting discouraged because no good offers came over the weekend. This is the time to step in with an offer, even if it is a little low, because the seller is motivated. He does not want to go through the hassle of another open house weekend!

The Beginning of the Month Is Golden for Buyers

On the first of every month, nearly every seller in Santa Cruz is doing the same thing: writing out a mortgage check. That painful reality is very motivating to sellers. They want to stop paying that mortgage, particularly if they have already moved out of the property. This is the time to make an offer!

Timing and the Financial Markets

Timing your Santa Cruz home purchase around the financial markets is difficult to do. If interest rates are low, you should move in and get a home. Do not try to wait for them to drop further, because predicting what the market will do is nearly impossible. Remember, you can lock in a loan at one rate, and then switch to a different lender if rates do happen to drop. If you wait to lock in a rate, you will risk facing an increase in interest rates.