The Best Time to Sell a House: Key Insights for Homeowners

Timing can be everything when deciding to sell your house. Knowing when is the best time to sell your house can determine how much the house sells for and how quickly that house sells. For example, while housing markets can be influenced by a variety factors (that may affect the market as a whole), consumer behavior is influenced by seasonal trends. Seasonal trends will also help you know the best months to sell a house. In this article we will explain what is the best time of year to sell a house, key takeaways for sellers, and helpful tools for maximizing your gains.

The Importance of Timing When Selling a Home

It is often said that with any investment timing plays an important role in obtaining the highest return. Those months of least likelihood of house sales are when buyers are least active- and when prices are more likely to be at their highest. Since real estate sales reflect market trends that fluctuate throughout the year, the advantage to sellers is to know the market trends and the seasonality of the fluctuations when it comes to selling the home.

In general, the best time to sell a house are spring and early summer. During this time, because of the better weather and longer days, homebuyers can’t be expected to sit on their hands, since most families want to settle down before school begins for the new school-year.

In retrospect, there exists an entirely different set of families with school-age children who also want to settle into a home before school starts.

Because of these seasonal factors, and the fact housing demand is greater in late spring and early summer, this makes spring the best time of year to sell a house.

When Is The Best Time To Sell a House:

May

From recent marketplace data, May is by far the best month to sell your house. From ATTOM Data Solutions recent status report, homes sold in May have a 13.1% selling premium. A seller premium is the percent above the market value of the home an owner can expect to receive for their home during peak months. Therefore, homes sold in May generally sell for much greater than homes sold another month, which means that May is the best time to sell your home.

Additionally, spring months are still following the trend of more profitable months than non-spring months to sell your house; sellers earned as much as 12%-13% over market sales price in the spring because buyers during those time periods tend to be much more competitive, which keeps their pricing above average.

More Prime Months to Sell

May is the best time to sell homes, but both February and April were prime selling months with average buyer premium percentages of 12.8% and 12.5%, respectively. With all buyers trying to finalize funding before summer, and secure homes before warmer weather hits, buyers wanted to get settled (and comfortable) into homes during warmer spring or summer months. June has wonderful temperatures and long days to show homes. So June also tends to have top prices, but not to the level that May does. The benefit of being on the market in early spring (February through April) is these buyers have urgency to try to finalize a sale and so you can tend to set the pricing higher than if you were in a more competitive time. If sellers made their best effort to care for the home during winter months – and tried to get their home in reasonable shape prior to their early listing – the buyer gets to see the difference in listing prices and get accustomed and familiar with the price of homes a little high because of the summer season approaching and buyer normal trends that have them a little more predisposed to finish that sale before summer provides them time benefits.

Also Read :- TOP 10 MOST EXPENSIVE HOUSING MARKETS IN THE US

When Not to Sell a House: Fall and Winter

As we approach fall and winter months, the housing market noticeably slows. By September and October of this year the average sellers premium has sunk down to near 9.5%. In October was considered one of the worst month to sell a home. The sellers premium that month was only 8.8%.

This drop off is probably likely because these prospective buyers are distracted by family demands associated with the opening of school or using the holidays to prepare financially for their next purchase. The holiday season can definitely create a lot of pressure or distractions on buyers and while this will stunt activity as we progress into the holidays, it will also hinder the overall number of homes sold. The fact is, as temperatures begin to drop and daylight disappears more quickly, will decrease some of your buyers exposure to the market.  Rereading this, buyers will likely and ultimately see fewer homes, thus they may or may or may not buy a home given they see so few houses.

While the fall and winter months may result in lower premiums for sellers, the months do open opportunities for buyers, and, in fact, by knowing there are lower listings for sale, buyers can negotiate a house – in certain circumstance they will come to realize if they are forced to sell they do not have as much competition during the holiday season as sellers.

Best Day of the Week to List Your Home

If you will be putting your house on the market anytime soon, you can influence the success of your listing by choosing which days of the week to list.

Thursday is the most suitable day to list a house.

Thursday listings tend to get more interest and sell quicker compared to listings made earlier in the week. This is likely because buyers and their real estate agents plan their weekend showings based on the latest listings and therefore there is a greater opportunity to expose your property to prospective buyers.

If you list on Thursday, you can feel confident that buyers will have your house firmly lodged in their minds when they start to plan their weekend showings. You don’t want to have your house listed on a Tuesday while letting days pass by before the showings happen.

Effective Tips for Sellers of Homes

If you are thinking about selling your home shortly,

Here are a few suggestions to get the best sale for your home:  

1. Prepare Your Home: Repair and complete a little maintenance before listing. Cleaning and decluttering to replace that light fixture, remember small updates can go a long way to a better look and feel to your home.  
2. Listing Date: Pay attention to your local seasons regarding home sales. If the query is regarding the best time to sell a house, the answer varies by location; thus, it is suggested that first you get in touch with a real estate agent from your place, who can help you find the peak selling months in your area.

       3. Professional Photos Matter: Due to the technology we have today, photos are extremely important. Buyers start their search for a new home online. If your listing has professional-grade quality photos compared to another listing without them, your home is more likely to get more buyers and likely to get a better offer.  

      4. Pricing Your Home: Finding the right price is key, especially in a peak season. With the help of your agent, they will have a better concept of pricing your home based on the market and current homes for sale in your area.

Conclusion

The timing of a sale is important to the size of the sale and the time the house is on the market. From now until next spring, and in particular May is the best time to sell a house, and the conditions often mean sellers enjoy premium. However, fall, and winter slow periods, are when buyers will make their deals on your terms. Timing is also about adjusting your listing periods and getting your house ready to sell so you can cash out well on any property transaction. It is good timing that is the shutter no matter whether you want a quick sale or a higher price to bask in.