Would you sell now or wait till Spring?

[Hummingbirdtree]

We want to sell and move across the country.
EA has advised that it’s a family home so most buyers will be looking to buy in the Spring to fit in with new school term.

I would quite like to be in a position to offer on houses in the Spring but that would mean having the house on the market for months probably over the winter or having to go into rental. I’m so tired of living here and just want to move.
We are on holiday till last week in September so would list in October .
Advice needed.

People always want to move all year round, families too. Whether that’s for work, relationships, financial or, as in your case, mental health by the sounds of it. So why put your life on hold for even longer when you sound very low about where you live.

Do you have schools to consider?

Get cracking!!
As a buyer I’m eagerly waiting for people to start putting houses on the market now the summer is over!

I would just get on with it particularly as you say that you are so fed up with living where you are. Ensure that you speak to several estate agent, closing one who can get the job done for you and ensure that you price realistically from the start. Presumably, once you are under offer yourselves, you could offer on houses in the new area prior to the Spring? I wasn't clear why you specified Spring in your post.

I'd sell now. The markets getting worse.

Well it’s not true people are looking all year around.
I would say if you got house ready and thought about possible scenarios - go ahead. Nothing less appealing than owner who is not sure about their next steps. This might really put some people off.

Very weird an Estate Agent turning down a possible sale. Sales where I live seem to be taking so long, even those with no onward chain are at 6 months now, I would start putting it on the market now. We started looking to move in Autumn as we lived in a very cold flat and didn’t want to spend another winter there, so people do move then.

It’s taken 15mths so far to get our house sold. We’ve relocated 120 miles & have been renting alongside owning all that time to get son in new school. Nearly there with sale but absolutely nothing coming to market, so I’m desperate for people to start listing. If your house is in a good location, condition and listed at a reasonable price, you should sell quickly at this time of year.

Do think sensibly about the right price to get a fairly quick sale, there are some ridiculous expectations in our new town & lots are having to reduce. I wish we had been more realistic when we 1st listed. We’d spent £70k doing it up so wanted to try and break even, the agent hadn’t spotted signs of a slowing market so made us believe it was still buoyant. In the end we had to change agents and take £60k less than 1st listed, so only increased the value by £10k on what we bought it for 3yrs ago 😭.

Good luck with the move, think of the long term goal

We’ve sold houses in February, March, May, August, November and December. If you’re keen to move, list it.

Do you know where you want to move to? Would you be prepared to rent, if you’re not sure where that should be?

The market isn’t buoyant, so make the house look as good as possible.

Just because that’s when I assume there are most houses on the market.

So if you accept an offer on yours in a month, you would be looking to offer straight away, depending on what is available in the new area. Overall, there are already lots of homes on the market but it will vary depending on the area.
I think you should consider listing just before you go on your holiday. It would make viewings in the first week or two, which should be the busiest period, much easier.

We've previously sold in August, September (twice), October (twice), March and May. However, the current market is very weird, so not sure the usual advice of Sept/Spring applies. Where we are (West Sussex) the only properties going sstc are the reasonably priced/unique ones.

We put our last house (rural Wales) on the market in November 2023 on the advice of our EA who suggested it wouldn't hurt (our original plan was to wait till early Spring 2024). Knowing it was a niche property that might take a while to sell, we took a punt.

We'd spent lots on renovating the property from a repossessed tip that had previously taken years to sell and hoped to make sufficient profit to enable us to return 'home' to southern England. Some of the EA valuations were wildly over/under priced imo, so we went for the middle ground.

We had zero viewings between November and January.

First viewings (late Jan) were from non-proceedable 'buyers' who more or less admitted to our EA they were being nosey.

First serious viewings were in early March and we accepted an offer (25k under asking price - so 400k which gave us a very decent profit) in early May from someone who'd first viewed in March.....

Tdlr: I don't actually think it would hurt to market now if you price realistically.

so you’re saying that some months there are zero sales across the country 😆

Over how many years have you sold 7 @LibertyLily ?!

No, didn’t say this at all

If we listed before we went on holiday we wouldn't be available to do viewings. Estate agents charge £20 an hour to do them and we have a cat in the house.

Get it on the market right now. There is a window of opportunity now that families are home from holidays and before we go into Christmas.

You don't need to choose that particular agent do you? Is it a low cost agent? They tend to put a lot of potential buyers off if so and tend to be less good at selling.

If the Autumn budget turns out to be as bad as people seem to think it's going to be, Spring 2026 could be carnage, with sellers gallore, because that's when everyone seems to think it's best to sell their home (esp if it has a nice garden).

I watched the UK Property Stats show yesterday and was quite horrified with the number of sales (rather, people trying to sell their home) for the year to date compared with previous years (good for estate agents, not good for people who are moving because they can no longer afford their mortgage).

At this point in

2023: 1,083,427

2025: 1,202,871

119,444 more attempted sellers than 2 years ago, and 11.3% higher than the 9 year average.

1

He lists the stats in the comments (which you can really only make sense of it you watch it, sorry about that), and there's also a link to download all the slides.

I also think that if a Stamp Duty break is announced on 26/11 (iirc they usually take immediate effect), there could be an absolute bloodbath later this year.

Personally, I'd be very surprised if that happens, as the government are already rummaging down the back of the sofa for spare change. But - if people THINK it might happen, it doesn't really matter. They're likely to hold off til after 26/11 to see if it does.

On the other hand, if you're selling an expensive home that has accrued a lot of value since you bought it, there's talk of capital gains tax on the sale of your primary residence (!!!!!), and that could either cause a massive flurry of people trying to sell up before November, or it could grind the market to a halt.

I do wish these 'leaked' policy thoughts would just stop happening. They do little for the economy and constantly mess with the housing market.

I would list after a holiday then as the first 2 weeks are really the busiest (at least in our area)

I have never, ever heard of Estate Agents charging per hour to do viewings? I mean you hire them to sell your house and then they charge extra for doing what's always been a bog standard part of their job?
Personally I wouldn't touch that EA with a bargepole, it smacks of desperation on their part to make more profit AND give a substandard service.

Me neither
ever

You said exactly that

Well it’s not true people are looking all year around.

People look all year round

I’m so tired of living here and just want to move.

it sounds like there isn’t just practical reasons at play here OP, sounds to me like your mental health would benefit from putting on market assp. Prioritise that op

They do where I live.