Im not a flipper. Im a home buyer. I have a question. The home market is hot in my area. Houses in neighborhoods where prices were $160's last year are now in the $220's. Where it used to be $350K, its now $450K. Its insane. Not only that, they are gone in minutes of being listed.

My question. Would it be good to rent for a year and let the market cool off, then buy? Or are we risking interest rates increasing? We sold our house and have been looking for a month - putting in offers and getting outbid. But...our house is sold so we are free to do what we like.

I wish I knew how to rehab a property. There's a couple on the market that I love, but never really looked into costs to fix them.

Hey @Charles Montgomery

If you were an investor, I'd tell ya now is always the best time to buy, as long as it's a good deal. As a homebuyer, now is never the best time to buy since you are just buying a liability. 

So, why wait a year to purchase? Is the process sapping too much of your time/energy right now? How do you know the market will even cool off in a year? I won't even touch on interest rates since no one has a clue where those are going. 

If you do take a year off from looking, it might be wise to educate yourself on rehabbing and investing. I would highly recommend purchasing a distressed property and fixing it up while you live in it. Obviously live-in flips aren't for everyone but it's a great way to turn your liability into an income-producing asset. House hacking is another fantastic option that works well in hot markets. 

Hope this helps a bit. Please, feel free to reach out anytime if you have other questions or just want to chat!

No one knows what the market will do.  I have rentals that I bought about 5 years ago in an area where I want to retire as the market there is quite different than where I live.  At the time house prices there were increasing (at a normal rate of a few percent per year) whereas where I was they increased a lot about 15 years ago and have stayed the same since then.  Around the time I got my first rental, prices started going up there and it never stopped.  Had I not bought when I did, I'd be priced out of the market.  House prices have gone up 60-65%.

Two cities, two very different things happened with house prices.  Try broadening your scope of what you are looking for.  I'm not saying buy a place that needs massive renos, but be open to places that might need a little bit of cosmetic work or where the layout might not be perfect, but you could live there for a few years and maybe turn it into a rental and then buy your forever home.