Some see this as a depressing end to summer sun, deep tans and endless nights with no concern for tomorrow. Others see it as a refreshing return to temperatures that don’t make getting into a parked car an event that should require a stunt double. Either way, ready or not, here she comes.

It is a time when the mountains turn spectacular, the air turns crisp and we collectively forget what may or may not be coming next. There is another reason I love fall as well, and this one in particular. Stay with me here.

For the past couple of years, a lot of would-be homebuyers have been playing the waiting game. I hear it all the time: “We’re going to wait for housing prices to drop,” or “We are holding off until mortgage rates go back down.” Ultimately, there is a fair amount of waiting for some unmistakable sign from the real estate universe that says, “Okay, now you may proceed.”

Well, guess what? The real estate universe is not great at sending notifications. Believe me, I would have seen them. I am up in their business all the time (whoever “they” are).

But every year, the weather does begin to change. And I look forward to it because fall can be a surprisingly good time to buy a house. Certainly not because houses go on clearance next to the patio furniture and pool noodles, but because the market tends to shift in some very useful ways once summer winds down. Especially in Utah.

Since Utah real estate trends are tightly tied to school schedules, fall brings buyers an opportunity to choose from a more ample selection than they may have had during spring and summer. Spring tends to get all the attention in real estate. The weather gets nice, yards look good, sellers start listing and buyers come out of their proverbial bear lairs, or wherever buyers spend the winter.

Yet not everything listed in spring sells in spring. Or summer. Some houses sit. As a result, come fall, some houses get price reductions. Sellers who had previously sworn that they were absolutely, positively, definitely not going below a certain price in May might feel a little more flexible when the cooler weather hits. Especially with the prospect of having to move during unpredictable Utah weather.

There are also sellers who simply want to be done before the holidays. They don’t want showings during Thanksgiving week. They don’t want strangers wandering through the house while Christmas decorations are up. And they definitely don’t want to still be discussing price reductions in January. Motivation has a funny way of making people more flexible.

That doesn’t mean every seller is desperate, every house is overpriced or buyers can march into a showing and start demanding the refrigerator, closing costs and somebody’s riding lawn mower. It does mean there may be more room for an actual conversation.

Small negotiations can become big money. Take a $500,000 house. A 5% reduction is $25,000. That is significant. It isn’t pocket change.

Unfortunately for a seller, a house that hasn’t sold after 60, 75 or 90 days starts creating a very different conversation between the seller and their agent. In May, the conversation may have been, “Let’s give it another week.” By September, it can sound a lot more like, “Okay, what do we need to do?”

That is a more powerful conversation if you happen to be the buyer. This is where the term “negotiating room” comes into play. A seller who listed last Thursday and has six showings scheduled for Saturday probably isn’t terribly interested in your creative proposal involving a price reduction, closing costs and the patio furniture. However, a seller who has been listed for three months may at least hear you out.

Overall, this could potentially mean borrowing less. Maybe it leaves money for new flooring, paint or the inevitable project you discover approximately 14 minutes after getting the keys. Maybe it simply makes the payment easier to live with.

Of course, none of these factors mean mortgage rates no longer matter. Stay with me a little longer here. I get it. Rates absolutely matter. Your payment matters far more than whether the seller is feeling festive and generous in October.

However, buyers sometimes become so focused on waiting for one particular thing to improve that they miss the other things already moving in their favor. This may include more inventory, longer days on market, price reductions, fewer competing buyers and sellers who are increasingly ready to make a deal.

There is one more problem with waiting for the “perfect” market: everybody else is waiting for it too. If rates make a significant move downward (not likely, but possible), you probably won’t be the only person who notices. Buyers who have been sitting on the sidelines may jump back in, competition can increase, and some of the negotiating leverage buyers have now can disappear right along with it.

Thus, perhaps the question isn’t, “Should I wait until the market gets better?” Maybe it’s, “Better in what way?”

The opportunity you’ve been waiting for may not arrive as a dramatically lower mortgage rate or a giant drop in home prices. It may look a lot less exciting than that.

It may simply look like October.

Jen Fischer is an associate broker and Realtor. She can be reached at 801-645-2134 or jen@jen-fischer.com.