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 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. You should be able to buy, but it seems almost impossible.

Enter, AI.

Hack #1: See new listings before they go public

The problem: when a house is listed on Funda, it’s often already too late 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. By the time it’s listed, hundreds 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, some homes are completely off-market: they are only ever shared privately and never appear on Funda at all.

The solution: get access to the same pre-market and off-market homes that a buyer’s agent sees. There are 3 ways to do this:

1. Hire a buyer’s agent. A good buyer’s agent forwards new listings to you before they reach Funda. At Roofmatch, AI search bots also scan thousands of estate agent websites day and night, and it’s no key, no fee: you only pay on success. Check in 60 seconds whether you qualify.
2. Check individual 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. Through our partner Roof Radar you can receive pre-Funda alerts. Roof Radar has built search bots that scan not only the major platforms but also thousands of individual estate agent websites. This lets Roof Radar find homes for sale ahead of the market and send them to house hunters, who can then schedule viewings before the crowd discovers them. Especially for readers of this e-book, Roof Radar offers 3 months of free use (worth €87). Just enter the code FREERADAR at checkout.

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

The problem: you’ve seen a house you love and don’t want to lose 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 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.” Not the answer you wanted. Bidding feels like gambling, and when you gamble, you usually lose.

• You could bid €450K and get beaten by someone else’s €455K.
• You could play it safe with €490K, and then discover €440K would have been enough. That’s €50,000 thrown away that could have paid for a new kitchen and 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 the perfect bid?

The solution: instead of gut feeling and guesswork, have AI calculate your bid. AI tools can analyse large amounts of data quickly and calculate a bid very accurately.

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 also looks at broader influences on sold prices, such as the performance of the selling agent, local price trends and overall sales trends.

All in all, over 12,000 data points are factored into calculating the ideal bid for your dream home.

AI tools work best with professional knowledge

Tools like Walter Living and Huispedia give you data for a small monthly fee, but no actual bidding advice. Enter an address and you get something like: “This property is estimated to be worth €430K to €460K.” Interesting, but not that helpful. Do you bid €430K and risk losing out? Or €460K and risk overpaying by €30K?

What you really need is a professional buyer’s agent who can interpret this data for you and give you an exact recommended bid, not a vague range. That is exactly what Roofmatch’s buying agents do, with an AI bidding model that weighs more than 12,000 data points.

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, and they don’t want to risk delays or the sale falling through.

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.

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

1. Have a rock-solid financing structure. Have it put together by a financial advisor, tailored to your situation and the house you want to buy. This isn’t just a mortgage calculation based on your income: your plan needs to take into account your own funds, the 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 ask for contingencies that aren’t really necessary. Each one is a risk to the seller and makes it more likely that the deal collapses. If you can, put bidding insurance in place instead of a financing contingency (it also protects you if your financing falls through). You could also make a dual bid: one bid without a financing contingency and a higher bid with one. 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. You could even send a personal letter telling the seller 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, the seller knows you’re a serious buyer and that the paperwork will be handled smoothly by someone who knows what they’re doing. And if your agent knows how to use AI, you’ll bid more competitively too.

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

If you’re thinking it would be easier to do just one of these, that’s fair enough. But it is the combination of all 3 that gives 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 the buyer sellers want: you stand out, regardless of money.

This is what works for home buyers in 2026. Roofmatch combines all three: we see homes before they reach Funda, calculate your bid with AI and make you the buyer the seller chooses. That is how our clients win 8 out of 10 bids. And it’s no key, no fee: you only pay on success.

Want to start with pre-Funda alerts yourself? Use the code FREERADAR at Roof Radar for 3 months of free access (worth €87).