Trying to sell a house in Oct/Nov - any point ot wait until New Year??

[PogoBaby]

Have decided that we need to bite the bullet and move out of our 2 bed house as poor DH (SAHD) is getting cabin fever in a tiny house with a toddler.

It's the classic 2 bed starter home in a popular area, quiet end of a cul de sac, bigger than average garden, up to date kitchen and bathroom so should be pretty marketable. There are a few houses of this type on the market and there is movement - at least where the price and presentation is realistic/good.

It will take us until late October to get it ready to market as we need to do a major declutter, re-decorate the main bedroom and pretty extensively tidy up of the back garden. In more experienced opinions, is there any point in marketing a house in late October / early November or should we wait until Feb?

Not in any particular rush to move and will be moving into a friends place while we house hunt so no chain but now we've made the decision to move I want to be doing something proactive before we the lose steam!

Hopeful bump

You don't have to decide now what to do though do you?

Crack on with the garden now now now! Otherwise it will get too cold, and you won't want to (voice of experience). If you might be selling in spring, put lots of nice snowdrops/daffs in.

Then you can crack on with your decluttering/decorating!

I'd put it on the market now and just do what you need to do ASAP whilst it's on the market.

I bought my house at the end of Sept.

There may be a few less people looking in the winter - but people still need to move for various reasons and with less houses on the market yours stands about the same chance of selling as it does in the summer really doesn't it :)

You can make a house look & feel really lovely & homely in the Autumn/Winter. Just make sure it's nice & warm when you have viewings and do all the 'bake bread', 'put the coffee on' and have nice lighting :)

Good Luck.

Put it on the market in Feb. Get your garden done now like pootles said, before it gets too cold. Very few people will be moving before Christmas etc, also some people get put off if something has been on the market for any length of time so don't risk having dead months during the winter. Get all your work done now so you can hit the spring market running.

I was wondering this as well, as I am looking at selling my house (used to live in it but now it is rented). Hmm what to do.

My house sounds incredibly similar to yours actually OP.

I had no choice but to put my house on the market 3 weeks before Christmas , it was very des res so that helped but it sold early January and I bought somewhere mid February.

As said earlier people do have to move for different reasons.

I would certainly get on and do the prep asap whatever you decide

Thanks for all the comments, a variety of opinions

going to crack on with the garden this weekend and see how much we get done - if it's all done by the beginning of October (mum thinks it will actually be quicker than I think if we rope in a few willing friends ) we will look at putting it on then otherwise it may be Feb.

Our house is on the market just now and it is quiet but then it's the end of the summer holidays I guess. I think Sept, Oct, Nov can be a good time. Obviously Dec and Jan may be pretty dead though. I found a website a while back which rated each month as bad, poor, average, good, excellent for selling houses based on previous years figures. I am fairly sure Autumn generally came out good.

You could wait until Feb, but then the danger is if you have not sold by June you will be in for a quiet summer.

I would go ahead and put it on!!

Good luck whichever approach you choose.

I'd put it on now. There'll always be reasons to think the market will be better at a different time but if all you're basing it on is how it comes across (rather than, say, a massive change in the economy), that's not something that will affect the price massively.

Thanks JoJo, have spent the night moving furniture round the sitting room trying to find the best layout

I think I'd try for a big push with the jobs that need to be done and aim to get it on the market asap. You could probably redcorate the bedroom and sort out the garden in a weekend each if you are able to totally focus on the task in hand (when we really need to get stuff done one of us takes the dcs out for the day and the other gets on with stuff at home with TV/computer used banned until it's done!). Decluttering can be an ongoing process. We're about to put our house on the market too and have had a couple of estate agent valuations. One of them said Sept was a good time to go on the market because people are back from their summer holidays and like the thought of being able to move into a new place by Christmas (I guess he would say that though!).

Good luck!

Our house went on the market first week in September, sold it November and bought the one I currently live in in that November, moved in the February.

Was nice knowing it was the last Christmas in that house.

I would be doing it ASAP if it was me, because of the risk of further falls in the market.

Good luck PogoBaby. I think I am going to bite the bullett and outit on the market.

*put it

I would have thought in the current economic climate that you want to maximise any chance of finding a buyer by having it on the market?

"I would be doing it ASAP if it was me, because of the risk of further falls in the market."

Provided you have enough equity in the house (to use as a deposit for the next one), then further falls are a good thing for an upsizer, as the difference in price will be less.

TBH, if you are keen on moving and have equity, it doesn't matter when you do it, now or Christmas. If the market drops, so will everyone else's house - to your benefit. If it goes up, then all that happens is you'll need even more money to buy the bigger house.

Thanks for the recent comments, have decided to go ahead with getting it on the market asap. Just a little scared about sorting out the garden