Now is the best time to buy a brand-new home! What are you waiting for?

This is the very best time of the year to get a deal on a new home from a builder. Builders want to get as many houses off their books by the end of the year as they can, so they will cut deals now. Here are some things to keep in mind as you prepare to shop for a new home:

1. Builders don't like to drop their sales price, but may be forced to at the end of the year. Unfortunately, lowering the sales price to you will make your neighbors mad if they find out. It could also cause the values throughout the neighborhood of comparable homes to fall.

2. Instead of getting a lower price, you're more likely to get significant upgrades and additional features, especially if the home isn't quite finished out. You could upgrade from vinyl to tile floors, or from tile to hardwood. You could replace basic light fixtures with ceiling fans or upgraded fixtures. If the home has already been completed, you could get a better landscaping package or a sprinkler system. You could replace standard appliances with top-of-the-line models.

3. The builder will want you to use their mortgage company and title company; they always do, since they are a profit center. But to make a deal by the end of the year, the builder could pay points to buy down your interest rate, and pay more of your closing costs than usual.

But before you jump in your car and head out to look at model homes, call your real estate agent. Because there isn't much time left, you might be pressured into a decision, and your agent will be a knowledgeable, unemotional third party acting on your behalf.

Your agent can help you get the most bang for your buck by negotiating to get the features and upgrades that will add value to your home, not just to the builder's bottom line. In San Antonio, for instance, a covered patio is very popular, and it is better to have the builder add it than to have a contractor do it later. 

The agent can also arrange for inspections and walk-throughs to make sure the home is finished out exactly the way it is supposed to be. This is a very important step that is often overlooked by home buyers who go it alone. An experienced, detail-oriented agent will make sure the construction superintendent completes every item on the punchlist.

What happens if home buyers deal directly with the builder instead? Do they get a rebate of the commission? Nope, the builder happily keeps it. Builders need real estate agents to bring them buyers, and they are careful to maintain a good relationship with them. This is why they pay bonuses and higher commissions to agents at this time of the year to get their homes sold.

So it's a win-win for everyone.

Help your agent make it worth their while to work during the holidays*; help a builder sell a home that is costing them money by sitting there unsold; and help yourself get a deal on a brand-new home, ready for 2011!

*I finalized a contract at 6:30 on New Years Eve for this new home. Everybody had something to celebrate that night!