When is the best time to sell a house?

Selling a home has long been known to be one of the most stressful experiences you can go through. However, with a little bit of research, it is possible to increase the saleability of your home and make life a little easier.

What time of year do homes sell quickly?

If you’re deciding whether to sell your home and would like to know the best time to sell, a quick chat with anyone who works in the property industry will reveal that there two periods each year that are considered the best time to sell. But why is this?

Those who are lucky enough to live in countries with a warm climate and dependably long days often don’t realise how good they have it. In the UK, the colder weather and varying hours of sunlight are a huge hurdle for those who are trying to present their home in the best way possible¹.

Similar to attempting a sale at an exhibition, your house is a product as well as an asset, and to engage a consumer – or in this case, a potential buyer – it’s always important to get the lighting right and portray your home as a product worth buying. The problem is that British winters appear to go out of their way to shroud your home in darkness 18 hours a day – making any effort you invested in increasing its aesthetic power feel like wasted time¹.

With longer hours, the number of viewings you are able to fit into a single day increases, and the more willing potential buyers will be to attend them².

As a result, many within the industry prefer to choose their optimal selling times based on the season.

Is there an optimum season for selling?

Spring is widely considered to be the best time to sell a house. This is thanks to the mental boost many people experience as they head out of the colder months and towards the warm embrace of summer. This seasonal shift has, in the past, been known to act as a catalyst for buyers and sellers alike to spring into action – and the resulting increase in sales, and increase in house prices across the UK reflects this³.

While it is entirely possible to sell a home in winter, if you need to sell your home fast, you may be in for a disappointing result – this is not to say that you can’t sell your home fast but you may be forced to accept an offer below that which you expected⁴.

Many people – wrongly – believe that summer can be a great time to sell their home, which is understandable given the extra hours of daylight. However, summers are often an inconvenient time for buyers to look for a home thanks to the likely increase of spending on holidays and outdoor activities – and if they have children, dealing with a house move during a school holiday can often be too much stress to bear⁵.

While autumn is the best ‘runner-up’ with regard to seasonal selling, it still pales in comparison to spring in terms of the number of active potential buyers⁵.

Is there a best month to sell a house?

The worst month to sell a home is undoubtedly December due to the added complications that arrive with the festive period¹. With shorter, darker days combined with school holidays and the extra expenditure on meals and presents – few buyers will be considering a purchase until the new year is in full swing⁶.

Obviously, you can place your house on the market during December but by time February rolls round, many potential buyers will find themselves asking why your home has been on the market for two months without a sale.

In a buyer’s mind, if a house has been on the market without a sale – then it’s not worth taking a chance on unless the sold house price is substantially lower than it was originally⁴.

The best months to sell a house, however, arrive as winter draws its last breath – and with so many things in life, it appears to be the early bird who catches the worm⁶.

Winter comes to an end towards the latter half of March, so those who make sure that their house is listed with an agent and displayed on a property portal such as RightMove are likely to enjoy higher levels of success than those who bide their time⁵.

In fact, there are industry professionals who believe that you should begin to advertise your home as early as late February, although the general consensus for the best month to sell your home is either March or April.

At this time of year, children are in school, the clocks have just gone forward and buyers are preparing to hit the market hard. And thanks to the number of properties available to them, purchases tend to happen faster than you might think, which is why it is vitally important to make sure your own home is listed.

In June there can often be a dip in market activity once the first wave of completed sales has occurred, rebounding somewhat for a brief period in July.

Of course, market conditions can fluctuate from year to year – but traditions do not – so if you want to have the greatest volume of potential buyers attending viewings, go with the crowd and stick to March or April.

Is there a best day to sell a house?

Interestingly, yes there is.

While a single day from any given month can not be pin-pointed as being ‘the best day to sell a house’, there is a lot of evidence to suggest that the day of the week you choose to put your house on the market can make a huge difference to the time it takes to sell.

In 2017, Which? Money analysed 12 months of data from the Land Registry and found that houses placed on the market at the beginning of the week were selling up to a month faster than those placed on the market at the weekend⁷.

In fact, properties that were listed on a Monday sold after an average of 176 days – whereas homes that were listed on a Sunday took an average of 213 days⁷. But why is this?

Many people try to make the most of their weekends, and therefore tend not to spend as much time in front of their phone, tablet or computer browsing properties as they would during the week¹. This means that if you publish a listing over the weekend, once the masses start searching for properties after work on a Monday, your home is likely to become buried beneath the newer listings from if a user decides to sort by new.

But why is it important to sell your house fast?

In essence, the longer your house stays on the market, the less saleable it is, and the more likely you are to have to reduce your asking price in order to compete with the fresher listings that have appeared⁸.

When is the best time to sell your house?

Of course, while biding your time for the perfect moment to sell is great if you aren’t in a rush – life can often throw you a curveball, forcing you to sell as soon as possible.

In these situations, many individuals have found themselves benefiting from the services of house buying companies such as National Homebuyers.

National Homebuyers specialises in expediting the house buying process in order to help those who are unable to wait for a sale through the traditional house selling process.

The benefits of using a house buying company is that you will always receive a non-obligatory offer, regardless of location, situation or structural condition – helping you to bypass the established delays associated with valuations and Homebuyers Reports, allowing you to move on with your life⁹.

Selling a home is never an easy task to undertake, but it is important to remember that there is an immense amount of luck involved in marketing your house. It often depends on your property’s visibility in the marketplace via your agent and accompanying internet portals such as Rightmove, as well as being lucky enough to have the appropriate users in the market for a home such as yours at any one time.

If, however, you are not compelled to sell as a matter or urgency, following the advice in this blog should give you the best chance to sell in as shorter time frame as possible.

Need to sell right away? Why not ask National Homebuyers for advice, as we buy any house. Call 08000 443 911 or request a call back to find out how much you could get for your property before it’s too late.

Sources:

¹ Brazg, G. (2016). When Is The Best Time To Sell Your House?. Available: https://www.theadvisory.co.uk/house-selling/best-time-to-sell-house/. Last accessed 11th Oct 2019.

² Butterworth, M. (2016). What is the best time of year to sell your home?. Available: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/property/article-3628998/When-best-time-sell-home.html. Last accessed 11th Oct 2019.

³ Clark, Ele. (2019). What will Brexit mean for house prices?. Available: https://www.which.co.uk/news/2019/10/what-will-brexit-mean-for-house-prices/. Last accessed 11th Oct 2019.

⁴ Osborne, H. (2012). Would a reduced house price deter you from buying?. Available: https://www.theguardian.com/money/2012/mar/14/reduced-house-price-deter-buying. Last accessed 11th Oct 2019.

⁵ Anon. (2016). When is the best time to sell my home? . Available: https://hoa.org.uk/advice/guides-for-homeowners/i-am-selling/when-is-the-best-time-to-sell-my-house/. Last accessed 11th Oct 2019.

⁶ Chandler, D. (2018). What’s the best time of year to sell a home?. Available: https://themortgagereports.com/44135/whats-the-best-time-of-year-to-sell-a-home. Last accessed 11th Oct 2019.

⁷ Calver, T. (2017). The best day of the week to put your house on the market. Available: https://www.which.co.uk/news/2017/03/the-best-day-of-the-week-to-put-your-house-on-the-market/. Last accessed 11th Oct 2019.

⁸ Fahy, L. (2019). 5 Reasons Your House Is Not Selling & What To Do About It. Available: https://moneytothemasses.com/owning-a-home/buying-or-selling-a-home/5-reasons-reasons-your-house-is-not-selling-what-to-do-about-it. Last accessed 11th Oct 2019.

⁹ Brazg, G. (2016). I Need to Sell My House Fast, What Are My Options?. Available: https://www.theadvisory.co.uk/sell-house-fast/. Last accessed 11th Oct 2019.