Cycle of Selling Property

Cycle of Selling Property 

Cycle of Selling property. Like the seasons selling property also goes in cycles and in reality, the seasons heavily influence the cycle of selling property.  At first this may seem slightly strange, after all what do the seasons have to do with selling a house?

In this article I hope to explain the cycle of selling property, the logic behind it and show you the best time to market your property.

As I have just mentioned selling property goes in cycles, there are good times to sell, ok times to sell and if I am being brutally honest times where it is best to wait.  A lot of things have an impact on when to sell and when not to sell, such as seasons – weather, school holidays.  All of these things go in cycles hence the cycle of selling property.  When looking at this, we can divide the year into various parts.

Spring and Summer

 The first part we should look at is spring time. Spring time being defined as March, April, May for property.   This is clearly the best time of year to put your property on the market.  The evenings have started to get lighter; the weather is improving and people seem to have more time.  These benefits I have just mentioned play very important roles.  The longer we have daylight the more viewings can take place.  Whilst you can have viewings when it is dark outside, it makes it difficult to have a proper look at gardens, and for applicants, it is hard to tell how much natural daylight the house gets.  Another valuable reason for putting your house on the market at this time is images.  Photographs always look much better when they are light and bright and you can see everything clearly.  While most people consider the viewing the first impression of a property, it is actually the images they look at.  At the end of the day, if the images aren’t great, it might put people off arranging a viewing. 

One final advantage to this time of year is time itself.  For whatever reason, people seem to have more time, kids are in school, there are no major holidays, and because the evenings are getting lighter, the weather is improving – daffodils and blossom trees are starting to come through, people are happy to come out of their self-imposed “winter hibernation”.   That brilliant spring period tends to slow down briefly at the end of May when Schools break up for half term.  I will come to the impact school holidays have in a moment.  June and July in some ways are a continuation of the Spring.  The days are at their longest, and we normally see the best of the weather at the start of summer here in the UK.  In the grand cycle of selling property Spring/Summer is the perfect time!

Before I continue with the cycle, allow me to explain school holidays.  Patterns show that the housing market goes very quiet during school holidays both vendors and viewers go on holidays, children are at home and need to be entertained more so than normal.  This means buying/selling a house is not at the top of the most people priorities.  After all who would give up their two weeks in the sun to view a property.  With the impact of school holidays cleared up, let’s get back to the cycle of selling property.

Autumn

The next period in the cycle of selling property is Autumn or more specifically September – October.  After the first three months of spring this is next best time to sell.  Most people have had some time out, allowing them time to think about where they want to move forward with their lives.  Moving house is an obvious choice for a lot of people.  September and October, is the last chance in the year to capture the lighter nights and better weather.  The UK always seems to have an Indian summer, making it an ideal time for photos etc just like Spring.  However, you should be aware this time is short lived as it tends to come to an abrupt end when October half term starts, which in reality only leaves about 6 -8 weeks.  In order to be ahead of the competition, I suggest you speak to some local agents towards the end of August.  This means you can get everything in place for the beginning of September, giving you as much time as possible before half term hits.

Winter

The final four months of the year – November, December, January and February are undoubtedly the hardest time of year in the cycle of selling property.  Starting with November and December.  The clocks have gone back, the long dark nights have arrived and people already have Christmas on their minds.  Decorations go up, entertaining becomes more frequent and the last thing people want is viewers walking round their houses.  Decorations can also affect the marketing of your property.  If you take pictures of a property leading up to Christmas it will be very hard to avoid getting trees etc in the images.  Having these in photos instantly dates them, so if on the rare occasion your property hasn’t sold straight away, those beautiful decorations become an automatic tell-tale sign of how long your house has been on the market.

January and February complete the cycle of selling property.  As with November and December the dark nights still apply, but the main issues with these two months is the weather.  Snow, cold and ice all add to the misery of the dark nights, with this in mind, I doubt there are many people who would want to be out viewing houses when they can be sat in the warmth and comfort of their own home.

While none of the above should stop you putting your house on the market whenever you want, it does allow you to make an informed decision. 

Till next time…