Do Not Sell Your House In Winter!! 🥶
You hear it all the time - Spring is the time to sell your house… Agents are renowned for putting out their Selling Season marketing as we head into warmer weather - you get the Daffodil flower letter box drop telling you now is the time… would it surprise you to know this is good old propaganda?
Probably not… let’s face it real estate agents are not renowned as the most trusted breed of people, so let’s explore the subject.
When is the BEST time to sell your property?
The absolute best time is when you are ready and the season doesn’t play into it all that much unless you are in a beach / tourism / seasonal area. Last time I checked we are not in any of those markets ;-)
I often refer to our market as a simmer market - one where there is always buyer demand. Sure, we boil up with the rest of the country when markets heat up (as we saw throughout 2020 /2021 and early 2022), but once the market takes a step back towards “normal” we still have buyer demand - it just take a little bit longer, and the unicorn prices are fewer with prices becoming a little more unpredictable.
If you are wanting to move sometime in 2023 why would you do this during winter?
With all the economic changes since 2020 the landscape of life has been turned on it’s head. We are still seeing record low numbers of houses coming onto the market and thanks to the continuing interest rate rises, buyers are having their borrowing power eaten away so we are looking at a stalemate or cooling of the market to some extent.
This stalemate or plateau will continue only until more houses get put on the market for sale and this is more than likely to happen at the same time as the traditional “selling” season hits. As this double whammy hits, we are at the highest risk of seeing prices drop.
I’m hearing you groan … we weren’t going to sell until later in the year to time in the school year, we can’t possibly get the house ready in time, we don’t even know where we are going next, we haven’t seen anything come on the market that suits what are looking for next.
I refer back to my previous point - the best time is when you are ready …however, if you are wanting to get ahead of the game and maximise your price, all indicators are that putting your property on the market sooner rather than later is the key.
So what can we do to get you the higher price and still also meet your time preference?
Couple of options:
1: Longer settlement period.
The most commonly asked for settlement time is 60 days, but that’s not what “has” to happen. You could always make your preference 120 days or even longer if that suits you better.
2: Rent back.
Should you buyer be an investor, we can negotiate a rent back arrangement so you can stay in the home longer after the settlement date and move when it suits you.
While it is easy for me to sit here and assure you that everything will work out and that these things seem to just “work out” with the right thing happening at the right time, it’s not us taking that leap of faith.
All we can assure you is that we will guide you through the entire process, not just the selling side, but ensuring that you get where you want/need to be with the least amount of stress possible.
If you’d like to discuss what the timing looks like for you, we’re only a phone call away.