REAL ESTATE TOPICS...House-Hunting for the Holidays: Do's and Don'ts for Homebuyers

When I bought my first house, I began looking in December. In Toledo, Ohio. It was a snowy winter, and a visit to a prospective house typically went like this:

1. Find the neighborhood.

2. Get there early so I could pilfer a street-parking space that had been cleared of snow.

3. Extract the baby from the car seat.

4. Carry him in one arm as I traversed icy steps and driveways, while imagining heroic scenarios in which I fell and fractured my skull, all while holding my baby boy in a way that left him unscathed.

5. Remove my shoes in a mudroom or hallway.

6. Tour the house.

7. Reverse the previous steps.

Why did I house-hunt in the snowy north during the holiday season? For one thing, because my wife and I had a baby and we lived in a one-bedroom apartment and we wanted more space sooner rather than later. For another, because we figured that there weren't many homebuyers at that time of year, so we would gain our real estate agent's full attention.

And most crucially: My wife and I believed that anyone selling a house at that time of year had to be desperate. We're ruthless enough to exploit a home seller's urgency.

As Boston real estate agent Tim Deihl told Bankrate's Marcie Geffner: "A seller who's looking to move a piece of real estate during the holidays is a seller who needs to sell, because nobody in their right mind would pick that as the most convenient time to list their property."

Now, it's not really true that holiday home sellers are literally out of their minds. People can't always control the timing of their moves. But you really do have to be eager to sell when you have a house on the market in Toledo in December.

And you have to be a little crazy to brave the elements to look for a house. Most sellers were grateful for our interest in their homes. (And their agents were thankful that we took care not to track slush and mud in their clients' homes.)

Here's a tactic for holiday-season home shoppers: Call agents who do a lot of work in the neighborhood you're interested in, and ask them about homes that aren't listed yet, but are being prepared for sale. You might get an early look at a house that's set to go on the market in April or May.

Other tips for holiday homebuyers:

-- Sellers might be motivated, but don't expect them to accept lowball offers.

-- If snow covers the landscaping, ask for photos of the property that were taken when the place was snow-free. You don't want to be surprised by ghastly landscaping after the snow melts.

-- Don't be surprised when real estate agents, sellers, inspectors and appraisers have holiday-related things to do. There will be scheduling conflicts; be flexible.

-- Don't apologize for "intruding" on home sellers who are also celebrating holidays. They want to sell. If you end up buying, you'll make them happy, even if your visit was inconvenient.

The selection wasn't the greatest; we would have had a broader assortment of choices in the summer. But we had a baby who was about to learn to crawl, and the one-bedroom apartment was getting awfully cramped.

Plus, we were lucky because of my schedule: I worked nights that winter. It was important for at least one of us to see houses in daylight, and I was free to view houses during the brief daytime.

We eventually found our home one sunny January weekend as we drove through our target neighborhood and stumbled across an open house. Hardly anyone finds their home by visiting an open house, but we did.

Although we discovered our home after the holidays, we learned a lot when we were looking at houses during the holiday season. Specifically, we learned what we didn't want, and what to watch out for: cold drafts, no place to store wet coats and boots, weak lighting and exterior doorways without awnings or porch roofs.

By the way, I never fell with the baby in my arms, heroically or not.

Holden Lewis edits articles about mortgages and real estate for Bankrate.com. He has won numerous awards for writing about real estate and mortgages, and is a past president of the National Association of Real Estate Editors.