Would you put your house on the market in december

[Brieandjam]

The market has really softened or even stagnated in my town. Supply has increased significantly but because we are upgrading to a hopefully forever home, we are choosing carefully and slowly. A house came up that we both liked, put in an offer 3 weeks ago (at about 7% under asking) , came back last week saying it is accepted and we are given the month of december to sell our house.
Aibu in thinking that it is a bit mean? Christmas is the busiest month especially for families with kids, which is my tsrget market. I need a week (at least) to get the house ready. So that will bring us to 7th dec. School breaks up on 16th. Can people really be bothered with house hunting in Dec? My house is in a nice location but isnt that special.
I am thinking January would be better, but what do i tell the vendor?

I have had this situation before, though it was in July rather than December. I worked like a machine to get the house on the market within the week and it sold 10 days later. If you are serious about the house you want to get yourself moving, OP!

We found the house we really liked while ours was just up on the market - the most we did in terms of putting "offers" in was just to ask the EA to let the vendor know we were really interested and just waiting for interest in ours to make an "official" offer. That worked out for us - but we did have a vendor not in any rush to get moving.

People wait for the chain to complete if you don't have an onward purchase.

We've found our perfect house so went on the market on Monday. We had 3 viewings booked within 24hrs. The good news is at least you're more likely to get serious buyers at this time of year.

I put my mums on so yes . Hopefully we will be ahead of the January crew !

Thanks all, i will go back ask for a week past january as the date line..

I wouldn’t have chosen to market my property in December as always so much going on and with decorations being up etc. we put ours on the market in Jun when the garden looked nice, weather pleasant etc. i don’t think I would have wanted the hassle around Christmas but obviously you’re in a different position as you’ve seen a house you want to buy.
we sold first and then started looking and made an offer but sometimes you’re not looking and the perfect house comes up!!

In your case I would get it marketed pronto but maybe get photos done before Christmas decorations up etc

I know locally to me there is very few new properties coming on the market now and most people will be focusing on Christmas - good luck whatever you decide

Oh for what it's worth, when we bought 6 years ago our sellers accepted our offer but told us they wouldn't take it off the market until DH had sold his flat. It took 3 weeks and luckily they only had an offer that was 1k more so they gave us the opportunity to match it. I knew the estate agents through working at a solicitors and I'm confident it was a genuine other offer rather than an attempt to get more money.

We were in almost this position, although we didn't actually offer on thr property we wanted because without being proceedable we have a much weaker negotiating position.

Found house. Put ours on market in December. Estate agent was amazing and got us online within 24 hours of call.

Lots of viewings, no offers. 2nd week of Jan, sold. People really aren't in buying mode in December and sorry to say but the longer the property has been on the market the lower your offers will be.

They're not being entirely unreasonable but given thst they've technically not accepted your offer given that the property is still being marketed I'd say you're equal.

If you do sell quickly, you can always reduce your offer on the basis that they didn't remove it from the market initially, but that's a risky one.

Our sellers are looking for their onward purchase. They chose us over another offer as we are FTBs and willing to wait.

Given the direction of the market, your November offer might sound even better for the seller than what they may get in January. They put a deadline but have no leverage unless they intend to prioritise speed over price.

We refused offers unless they were proceedable. You're lucky they accepted. If someone who has already sold offers, they should take it.

In what sense have they accepted your offer if the house is still on the market and available?

Like 99% of house sellers then?

It used to be like that here too (Yorkshire) but like op said market has really slowed and we're being allowed viewings, we're just getting ours ready to go on market and waiting for another valuation before deciding on estate agent,

That said I wouldn't be hanging around not listing if we had an offer accepted

My flat has had on offer in oh, about a week. Despite estate agent being negative - 'put it on at x price but we would recommend dropping to Y after a month or so'.
Also went for higher than expected.
People move for all sorts of reasons beyond their control.

Most agents wouldn't accept an offer from someone who is unproceedable, so really you should be pleased and thankful that they have given you this opportunity. Get your house on ASAP, and hope it all works out.

People are off work and get bored the week after Xmas so it might be a good time to put it on and do viewings. Just get it on ASAP. If it's not on then it won't sell. Also the vendors are likely to give you longer in reality- they're just hurrying you along which is fair enough in the circumstances.