The Thrifty Buyer’s Guide to Getting a Great Deal on a House

It’s tough to get a great deal on a house when the trend is to pay over the asking price. A study from the National Association of Realtors (NAR) revealed that 25% of all buyers paid more than 100% of the asking price for their home.

With this guide, we’ll help you develop a razor-sharp bargain house-hunting strategy, featuring clever ways to save and tips for spotting an opportunity in disguise. Play your cards right, and you’ll be happy you stayed right on budget without having to settle for a total dud of a home or even sacrifice your must-haves.

Watch for listings with high days on market, price reductions

When you start your search for a home, you’ll gravitate toward listing photos and property stats like beds, baths, and square footage as any house hunter would. A bargain hunter should also pay extra attention to two often overlooked details: the property’s days on market and pricing history.

Days on market is a real estate industry term for how long a home has been available for sale. Conventional wisdom says that if a house sits on the market longer than usual, then it must be flawed in some way.

“Some buyers shy away from homes that sit on the market for too long, because they think there’s something wrong with the house,” says Gail Carillo, a top-selling real estate agent in Holbrook, New York.

“But if you look at the pricing history, you might find that it’s a wonderful house that was simply overpriced.”

That gives you a window to swoop in, make an offer, and negotiate without worrying about much competition from other buyers.

To execute this strategy, some real estate apps for house hunters will allow you to sign up for notifications whenever there’s a price cut on a house in your target search area. Most of the time, you can also find a property’s days on market directly on the listing page and toggle over to its pricing history from there.