We closed in August.  Not our first home.  We started looking seriously in May due to a relocation.  At one time we were placing several offers every weekend.  We had 20% down and were going conventional.  We lost out to lower all cash offers.  We lost out to unknowns.  

Typically standard sales are low during the holiday season unless the seller has to move.  Sometimes buyers don't want the stress of looking over the holidays.  

The biggest problem I've seen is diminished inventory since summer.   

I think its a wait and see what happens. 

I'm also still looking to buy my first home and am getting frustrated at the small inventory of homes in my price range.  I almost closed on two homes since summer but issues cropped up during the attorney review period, which enabled me to exercise my right to cancel the contract.  Brent gave a good suggestion, such as increasing earnest money, but I wholeheartedly disagree with his suggestion of bypassing the home inspection.

I can't stress enough how valuable a home inspection is for buyers, especially those that are not handy or knowledgeable in building/construction.  This contingency is there for the buyer's protection.  That's how I found out one of the homes had high levels of radon in addition to needing repairs in the high $thousands within the year.  In my opinion, passing up the home inspection option is not worth getting to escrow sooner...unless you know people who can do repairs for free or a low price and money is not really an issue.

I never said to "NOT" do the home inspection. I said to exercise the right to bypass the inspection if and only if there doesn't seem to be significant deficencies. If you have a GREAT agent they should be able to assess or estimate the ages on the roof, windows and mechanicals (furnace, A/C and electrical). When I see a home with my clients and know the ages are half the life expectancy or near the life expectancy I'll inform my clients to either budget or replace. This is only if you bypass the inspection.

I do agree the inspection is crucial in buying a home. Lastly what I do for my clients is find out about their background if I haven't found that out yet. I'll find out what they do and if they have a family and will send the offer with a cover letter. On the cover letter I will have a personal message about that person, what they do for a living and how I consider them an asset to purchase that home and to the neighborhood.

I hope this helps.

I agree with Halloween.  There are areas that a home inspector takes time to go into (e.g. crawlspaces) / get on top of (e.g. roof) / look under (e.g. whirlpool, if the house has one) that just doesn't happen during a regular viewing with an agent - no offense BrettW.  It sounds like you are giving your clients good service by pointing out issues you see, but sellers have ways to cosmetically cover up problems that a home inspection could discover.  If anything, a buyer could use the home inspection report and say hey although these issues were found, we don't feel they are reasons to hinder going forward with this transaction, etc. to show how motivated they are to buy the place.  Knowledge is power...just my opinion.