to put house on the market before Christmas

[MariaWaria]

Moving to live with family next year - flexible about timing but asap would be ideal; not buying another property.

AIBU to try to sell house (first-time buyer type; suitable for buy to let, I suppose) before Christmas? Don't mind about the possibility of having viewings during the festive season.

But is there any point in marketing it now? Estate agents obviously keen to get our business; say anyone showing an interest is likely to be a serious buyer, not a timewaster.

Will it just make it look like the house has been on the market for ages if interest doesn't start until Easter or whenever?

Any thoughts or maybe even estate agents out there?

The website you post it on (rightmove, zoopla etc) will have the date it was posted so shouldn’t have any worries about people assuming it’s been up for long. I’m currently looking to buy and am really struggling to find anything online as most properties seem to come up in the summer!

I'm not an agent but work in an Estate agents and things get seriously quite this time of year. I guess people have other things on their mind and house hunting gets put on the back burner.

If you put it on you might get lucky but if you don't people looking next year will pitch their offers based on the fact you've been on the market for months.

I guess there are pros and cons.

A pro might be that fewer new properties come onto the market at this time so less competition? And people who are serious about buying might use some time off over Christmas to look online, get viewings done etc. We’re selling our flat at the moment at our agent said that around Christmas is the busiest time for Rightmove enquiries with viewings getting booked for the new year (although I take everything he says with a large handful of salt and we’re changing agents in a couple of weeks due to multiple cock-ups with this agency so not sure that info is reliable).

Cons would be that Christmas might not show your home in it’s best light (for example, will your Christmas tree take up space making the room feel cramped?). Also will your estate agents be open over Christmas? If they’re closed 21st Dec - 2nd Jan then you’re adding to the length of time the house has been on the market, without even being able to utilise all of that time.

@MeredithGrey1 I see you have well functioning BS radar 😂😂😂 Most agents spout that twaddle about Rightmove at Xmas. Yes lots of people do look while they have time off over the holidays but it generally doesn't translate into useful viewings until the new year.

Useful points; thanks all.

The agent I'm planning to use sells lots of properties on our area and is cheaper than the big name estate agent that also covers the area, but the BS is so obvious, though I expect it goes with the territory.

I hadn't considered the space that Christmas would take up - tree etc - so I'm veering towards waiting until the Jan/Feb time. Will give us time for some cosmetic sprucing too

Ex Agent (30 years), wait until immediately after New Year.

First few weeks are important. Don't waste those now.

If you have chosen your agent you can always get them to do all the prep and photos now so no time is wasted in the new year.

Our EA were really on it with ringing round buyers they had on their books to book in viewings. Id be concerned that them closing over the christmas break would mean no known buyers getting calls.

We put on the offer on this house on 23rd December and completed 1st March- it’s a slower time maybe but people still move.
Easter is traditional but probably better to get on with it- Brexit.
Good luck

We had a viewing on our house on Christmas Eve and accepted an offer the same day!

Do it! We did, and sold in two days!

This was the year before last, so definitely a different market, but worth a try I would say.

DH would be starting his new job in January 300 miles away whilst I stayed to sell the house and find a new one and school etc before we moved - so I was keen to get going.

I met three estate agents - one who valued it really high and said wait until after Christmas, (and had other overpriced houses on the street that weren’t selling) one who valued really low and said to wait until after Christmas and one who gave a sensible figure and said go for it. We went with them and had a low offer and then an asking price offer within two days.

(My aunt then said prehaps we should wait and see if we got a higher offer.... but we had the amount we thought it would get, and within great timescales so we just went for it - definitely the right choice for us - we managed to move to the new city at Feb half term - so DH only had six weeks of living in a luxury hotel —the poor little lamb—

We were selling in London if that makes a difference- an our agents were sure that they had enough prospective buyers on their books for our type of house in our location....

I hadn't considered the space that Christmas would take up - tree etc - so I'm veering towards waiting until the Jan/Feb time.

The other thing to consider is that this will immediately date your photos. I once made a low offer on the basis that the property had been on the market for over five months. The agent told me rather condescendingly that I was mistaken and that it had actually been on the market for less than a month. I enjoyed watching his smug face squirm when I asked why the vendors had had their Christmas tree up in April.