is there a best time of year to buy or sell?

[UsingAPsuedonym]

We're thinking of selling our first house, so might be on here a bit as really don't know much about property and we don't want to lose too much money!

Our question is, does it make a difference what time of year you buy or sell?

Our house is nearly ready to put on the market -it's worth about 175. We can get a mortgage to about 230 .

We obviously would like to get as much as we can for our house! We could stay at parents in between selling and buying if thiswould help. (although can you still port a mortgage if you do this? I assume it makes chains a lot easier!)

Thanks

I think if it is prices right it will sell. Here are some factors

1. Who is your target market?
2. Which way round is your house? A west or south facing garden can look fantastic in summer (again depends on your target market)
3. What is the area like that you live in? In summer are their lots of children playing outside? Again your target market may find this off putting or reassuring depending on who is likely to buy.

Target will be first time buyers price wise or young families as we have a lot of families around here and good schools.

I guess rain always makes it look worse. Should we wait until spring?

Will selling first and moving in with parents give us an edge buying? Or not really?

Also wondering whether to paint all the walls magnolia or not. .

Check with your mortgage company...we could only transfer our fantastic rate to a new property if we completed within 30 days of selling. Think this is fairly standard.

I am not sure there is a good/bad time. If you put on during a so-called quiet time there will be less competition. If you put on in busy time there may more potential buyers but more to compete with.

Not sure where you live but spring round here is v rainy .

Try to appeal to the widest possible audience so cream is always neutral and will not put anyone off. I would move in with parents but I would de-clutter like made.

Check out Zoopla to see if the valuations that you are getting from agents are realistic or over inflated. See what other houses have sold at. Check out what your school catchment areas are like as this will be at the top of the list for people with families. Personally I quite like buying in Autumn so it wouldn't put me off.

sorry meant to say I would NOT move in with parents.

Used to say that people always seemed to want to move after Christmas as decs make house look smaller. Busiest time of year for completions always June-Aug/Sept.

In my area (next to an excellent school), most people put houses on market Feb-April, so sale is complete before the October deadline for school applications.

Try to get pics done on a good day.
End of chain/no chain will make you more attractive to FTB as and will hopefully make process quicker for both of you. You may be able to exchange and complete on the same day if they have their finances in order and neither of you have a chain. So if you think you can bear parents, may be worth it. If you end up with a buyer in a chain tho, don't move out :)

Yes DrD - lots of people move for schools and think that is why Aug/Sept are popular for completions. Always worth arranging for a month in advance though, especially if there is a chain that way you have a few weeks to sort out the last min problems that always occur in a chain

Thank you. Will investigate mortgage issues but like the idea of marketing ourselves as no chain. Also hoping it will put us in a good position to negotiate when buying. On the other hand moving twice is hard!

A friend just had some photos taken of their house to show their fantastic garden off to it's best but they aren't thinking of selling 'til Spring. I always notice when exterior pics were taken and might think the house had been on a long time & therefore ripe for a cheeky offer. What about you?

Spring/summer much better than autumn/winter. If I were you I'd wait till spring.

Do you want to stay in the same area?

We were thinking of selling, our house will go fast due to price and location. Eastate agents advised us to sell and move into rented while we found somwhere we wanted. A couple of people who had bought recently strongly advised against doing this. If you have nothing to sell then you may miss out on properties that are sold without getting into the open market as EA want double commission and will want to find somewhere for people who have buyers lined up.