Buying a home in 2026? These 3 hacks will save you a lot of money

Yes, the housing market is frustrating…

You see your perfect house on Funda, and you call the real estate agent immediately to book a viewing. You couldn’t have been any quicker, but you’re still told: “Viewings are already fully booked, I’m afraid”.

Or perhaps you did manage to get a viewing (by the skin of your teeth), and you want the house more than ever...but you know you’ll face an insane amount of competition. 

You’re drawn into a bidding war, without even knowing what to bid. Should you overbid, or not? Should you set conditions on your bid? 

And every month that passes, you’re paying a hefty amount towards your landlord’s mortgage, rather than your own. Or you’re stuck in a home you own that’s too small or in the wrong area, desperate to move. 

You want to act now, because mortgage interest rates are good and you have savings. You should be able to buy….but it seems almost impossible.

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Enter, AI. 

Hack #1: See new property listings before they go public

The problem: When a house is listed on Funda, it’s often already too late for you to secure a viewing.

Homes aren’t listed on Funda when they first become available. They’re only listed once the selling agent has taken photos, written a description and uploaded both. 

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By the time it’s listed, 100s of people have already seen the property’s details. 

• The selling agent will have shared them privately with buying agents in their network.
• Those buying agents will have forwarded them to their buyers. 
• Buyers will schedule viewings, up to 36 hours before you see the property on Funda. 

That’s why you miss out on viewings, even if you call the seller’s agent the second you see the listing. 

On top of that, there are some completely off-market homes that are only ever shared privately, and never appear on Funda at all.

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The solution: Get access to the same pre-market and off-market properties that any buyer’s agent can. 

3 ways you can do this:

1. Hire a buyer's agent.
   ‍If you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em! Of course, this option will cost you money, but your agent will (usually) forward pre-market listings to you.  

2. Check individual real estate agents' websites.
   ‍Selling agents sometimes post properties on their own site before they put them on Funda (or occasionally instead of putting them on Funda). This is incredibly time consuming, so be ready to spend a LOT of time checking websites.

3. Use a pre-Funda alert service.
   ‍You can get automatic alerts for pre-Funda properties if you sign up for a free service like Roofmatch. Roofmatch has specialist search bots that search 1000s of individual real estate agents' websites (as well as the major platforms). 

You simply set your criteria, and when the bots find you a home match, you’ll get an instant alert. You can then arrange a viewing immediately, before most buyers have any idea the property exists. 

Currently, Roofmatch is the only real estate agent in the Netherlands that offers free pre-Funda alerts.

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Hack #2: Have AI calculate your winning bid (and save tens of thousands of euros)

The problem: You’ve seen a house that you love. It’s perfect, and you really don’t want to risk losing it. But you don’t know how much to bid. 

You know you’ll need to bid over the asking price to stand a chance, but how much over? You don’t want to do this just on gut feeling, so you look at similar houses on Funda. 

One two streets away sold for €435K. Three months ago, a slightly larger one went for €448K. So…would €440K be enough? Or should you go higher, perhaps €455K (or even more) just to be sure?

If you have a buyer’s agent, you could ask them. They’ll say: "I reckon €450K should be enough. But yeah, you never know. The market is crazy."

Hmmm. Not the answer you wanted. Bidding feels like gambling, and everyone knows that when you gamble, you usually lose.

• You could bid €450K and get beaten by someone else’s €455K. 
• You could feel like you’re playing it safe with €490K, and then discover €440K would have been enough. Which means you’ve thrown away €50,000 that could have paid for a kitchen refurb and new furniture. 

Either way, you lose. And these aren’t unusual scenarios – they both happen all the time in the Netherlands. 

So how do you figure out what the perfect bid is?

The solution: Instead of going on gut feeling and guesswork, have AI calculate your bid.

AI tools can analyse large amounts of data quickly and calculate a bid very accurately.

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Here’s how AI bidding tools work:

• The tool starts with recent sold prices for similar homes in the same neighbourhood.

•  It then takes into account factors like maintenance status, location, year of construction and the energy label. 

• It’ll also look at broader influences on sold prices, such as the performance of the selling agent, local price trends and overall sales trends.

All this means that over 12,000 data points are factored into calculating the ideal bid for your dream home. 

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AI tools work best with professional knowledge

AI tools like Walter Living and Huispedia  will provide you with simple data for a small monthly fee. But they don’t provide actual bidding advice. 

Enter the address of the home you want to buy into one of these tools, and it’ll analyse the data based and come back with something like: "This property is estimated to be worth €430K to €460K."

Interesting, but not actually that helpful. Do you bid €430K and risk losing out to a higher bidder? Or €460K and risk overpaying by €30K?

Here’s what you really need: to work with a professional buyer’s agent who can interpret this data for y0u, and give you an exact recommended bid, not a vague range.

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Hack #3: Be the buyer sellers want

The problem: the winning bid isn’t always the highest

Sellers don’t necessarily want or need to squeeze every last Euro out of their buyers. They also want a smooth sale, with people who are easy to deal with. They don’t want to risk delays or the sale falling through completely. 

A friendly, efficient buyer with rock solid finances and a reliable buyer’s agent is likely to win over a buyer who’s evasive about finances, and takes a week to respond to emails.

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The solution: do these 4 things to make yourself an irresistible buyer:

1. Have a rock solid financing structure. 
   ‍You should have this put together by a financial advisor, tailored to your situation and the house you want to buy. 
   This isn’t just about getting a mortgage calculation based on your income. Your financing plan needs to take into account your personal funds, appraisal value, the energy label, and current interest rates. This gives the seller confidence that you can secure the funds you need.

2. Don’t request contingencies on the deal that aren’t really necessary.
   ‍Each one is a risk to the seller, making it more likely that the deal will collapse. If you can, put bidding insurance in place instead of trying to negotiate a financing contingency (which also protects you if your financing falls through). 
   You could also consider making a dual bid: one bid without a financing contingency and a higher bid with a contingency. That way, there’s almost complete certainty for the seller.

3. Be friendly and helpful.
   ‍Sellers are people. They’re more likely to want to deal with you if you are friendly, professional and personable. If you bid anonymously, or you give the impression of being awkward and argumentative, then you risk putting them off. You could even send a personal letter to the seller letting them know why you love their home.

4. Hire a skilled buyer’s agent (one who knows how to use AI).
   Without an agent, you’re at an instant disadvantage. With one, your seller will know that you’re a serious buyer, and will have confidence that all the paperwork will be dealt with smoothly, by someone who knows what they’re doing. 
   And if you choose an agent who knows how to use AI, then you’ll be able to bid more competitively too. 

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Maximise your chances: combine all 3 hacks

You now know the 3 hacks you need to save money when you buy a house. Here’s how to combine them for maximum effectiveness:

• Use an AI search bot. The bot looks for new homes 24/7, via major platforms as well as off-market and pre-Funda channels. It sends you real-time alerts, so you can secure viewings easily and quickly. 
• Hire a buyer’s agent who can use AI to calculate your bid.  Tools like Walter Living and Huispedia show you data that indicates a property's value range, but this is not the same as bidding advice. You need an agent who can interpret this data and turn it into concrete bidding advice.
• ‍Make yourself an ideal buyer. Ensure you have a financing plan for the house you are bidding on and only add contingencies that are truly necessary. Increase your appeal by adding a personal letter to your bid. A good buyer's agent can support you with all of these components.

Don’t pick one hack. You need all three.

If you’re thinking ‘maybe it would be easier just to do one of these’, that’s fair enough. 

But know this: it is the combination of all 3 that will give you the edge over other buyers. 

1. Pre-Funda alerts → you see new homes days before everyone else

2. AI-driven bidding → you know what to bid to get the house without losing money.

3. Being a good buyer → you make yourself appealing, regardless of money.

This is what works for homebuyers in 2026.