When is the best time to sell - and the worst?

[AnnabellesScarf]

DH and I own a property which we are currently letting out (we had to relocate for work reasons several years ago, and decided to let it rather than sell).

We have been renting ourselves whilst our property has been let, but we are now in a position (we think) to try and buy somewhere in our new location.

We will have to give our tenants 2 months notice, and want them to have moved out before we put the property on the market.

Once they have moved out, we need things to proceed quickly, (as obviously we won't be getting any rent from the property, but will still be liable for the mortgage payments, and the rent on the property we are living in ourselves.) Whilst we can probably manage for several months, it will eat into money we have put by for estate agents/legal fees.

Would we be better to sit tight and wait for next Spring, or should we try and move straight away? If everything went smoothly, we might be in a position to put the property on the market in October.

I know you can't really predict the market. And I know there is going to be a bit of uncertainty post-Brexit-vote. Should we wait it out a bit longer?

Property we have to sell is a small starter home in a not especially desirable part of the South East. Not that much similar for sale in the same area, so difficult to see any patterns really.

Does anybody have any advice or been through similar? Obviously we will have to take the plunge sometime, but it is hard to decide when.

As you are selling and buying surely it's irrelevant and doesn't matter whether it's a sellers or buyers market?

Well no because we are renting, and will keep on renting until we find a house we like - we aren't going to sell and buy at the same time. We don't want to be in a chain.

I would just keep a close eye on the local market via Rightmove, Zoopla etc over a period of a few weeks - that should help you to get a feel for how things are going. You could also look at sales charts for the past few years to see whether some months are generally better for sales

March/April is normally good for number of new property listings but people tend to seek higher asking prices as they often don't need to take first offer, usually followed by price reductions into summer / Autumn for those that have been on too high or not sold. For you that means more choice of houses to buy in spring, so you may want to have sold by then, but you could find yourself paying a little more to buy at that time of year.

there's usually a drop in new buyers between November - Feb as ideally no one wants to move at Christmas time. Likewise, there are also fewer listings which would mean if you listed to sell you would have less competition for good buyers from other sellers. As above, list in spring to try to achieve highest asking price.

In current market most people are simply glad to actually have a complete transaction at a fair price to be honest.

Conclusion: Without the benefit of a crystal ball, if I were you my focus would be on buying the right house, not selling at the right time. Therefore I would be putting my rental house on the market as soon as possible to try to be ready either for spring market next year or even for price reductions / good deals which could be done at the end of this year (if you were willing to either put on market with tenants in, or be part of a chain). Good luck

Hate to spread gloom, but remember that your tenants may not actually leave after 2 months. It is right to have the property empty before marketing it, but you take your chances.

Another option is to sell it as tenanted to another landlord.