Best time to put house on market

[dippypanda]

We are looking to sell our home, is there a "better" time of year to do this? Would it be pointless putting it up for sale now and wait for spring and have Christmas out of the way or does it not really matter?

I worry that waiting to spring/post Christmas is when everyone will do the same and there will be an abundance of houses for sale...

What's everyone's experience with this? Or does it really matter?

I personally think you will have more competition if you wait until post-Christmas because like you say, so many people do this and want to sell around this time.

Depends if you're looking to buy too - loads more choice after Christmas!

Thanks, yes we're looking to buy too. I have seen a few good properties already but ideally need an offer on ours first.
This is the first time buying and selling at the same time, last time I sold my property but didn't need to buy at same time so I wasn't as concerned.

We’ve sold twice in December and two friends have as well.
One was told by the E.A. that more people trawl Rightmove on the days off over Christmas.

We put our house up for sale this time last year. We had an initial flurry of interest, but only one person willing to make an offer.

We really needed to sell as we had bought another house already so reluctantly accepted less than we would have liked.

The sale fell through just before Christmas.

In January we put it back on the market.

Had absolutely tons of viewers and interest and went to sealed bids within a week, 5 bidders submitted bids and got £30k more than before Christmas.

Anecdotal I know, but the difference was amazing. I will never sell a house at this time of year again.

Anecdotally, people realise over Christmas that they're running out of space, so start looking in the new year!!
Run up to Christmas isn't great, as people are preoccupied with other stuff.

As an aside, the Bank of England have just confirmed an interest raise rise. I'm no expert, but it might be worth waiting a month or two for the dust to settle with that.

We had ours on July - October lots of interest but no offers. Nothong much is moving here. We have taken it off as I can not be dealing with viewings over Christmas. I had planned to put it back on in the spring but now you have got me wondering if January would be a better time 🤔

I think it depends on the house. If you have a wow garden in the summer, why sell it in the winter when a prospetive buyer will not see it at its best? However, if your house is cosy with a log fire, snug kitchen and homey feel, it may not matter. If you are likely to sell to people already in the area who know the road/house, then it will not matter either. If it is desirable, people will want it. My personal preference is for just before Easter so you have a long viewing weekend but it depends how much you need to sell and other factors.

I have just sold a very ordinary terraced house of which there are many just the same but not so many on the market on the estate and, of those, several are flying kites over prices. Prices are reducing around me due to over-supply of new homes near a new station. I would not have got more by waiting because the new homes are still being built and they have new kitchens and bathrooms, obviously. There is a wide choice of similar house. Mine is perfectly OK and it is not worth doing the work either, but I priced to reflect this. Other people have not and cannot sell.

I sold mine the first day I put it on in December right before xmas . If your house is nice and the price is right it will sell at anytime !

There are people looking to move all the time. We've agreed sales on our past two houses in November both times - one at the beginning of the month and one at the end. If your house is priced correctly, in good nick and well-presented it should sell and there may be less competition in the run up to Christmas.

Thanks everyone, really good to get different opinions.

We have a old end terrace house which is about 150 year old, needs a bit of work done to it but we have a newborn baby plus DD who is 7 and only two bedrooms. My OH wanted to renovate but there's a lot of work so we have decided to sell instead after a lot of discussion, we would price to sell based on work to be done though.

It depends where you are, but two bed terraces tend to be popular first time or investment purchases and appeal to people who want to put their own stamp on a house. They are often more spacious than a modern two bed too. As long as it's clean and tidy without any glaringly obvious problems, it should sell.

There are always people out there looking to move whatever time of year it is. I have been looking the last couple of months and have just put in an offer. There is less out there but this also translates to less competition for the seller. Would you mind viewings in the run up to Christmas?

Interesting point @wowfudge our house is large compared to new builds.

I don't mind viewings before Christmas at all, I'm on maternity leave so have the time!