What Is The Best Time to Sell a House?

Knowing the best and worst time to sell a house can help you have a more successful home sale. Yes, you can time the market when selling homes because the residential real estate market has a strong cyclical correlation to the seasons. I’ll cover this and how you can answer for yourself is it a good time to sell a house. Deciding to sell your own home depends on factors occurring in your life, currently.

What Is The Best Time Of Year To Sell A House Nationwide?

Nationally, the best time of year to sell a house is between early March and mid-July. Knowing what time of year is best to sell your house can help you get a higher purchase price and more favorable purchase terms.

The audience of active homebuyers from March through very early August. Additionally, the earlier in this range the better. This is because more home sellers will list their homes as spring turns to summer.

According to the National Association of REALTORS®, the peak time for closed home sales in each region is May through August. Home sellers must keep in mind closing occurs 30 to 60 days after accepting an offer.

In addition, you must consider the expected days on market for a home like yours, at that price point, in your local area. For example, a closing in June is likely the product of a home that was listed sometime in late March through early May.

What Is The Best Time To Sell A House In Indiana?

Most Indiana home sales occur from May through August. This is most likely due to Indiana having a four seasons climate and most of the state following the traditional school schedule of having summer off. Due to this, the best time to sell a house in Indiana is early March through mid-July.

Home sellers wanting the highest offers and most favorable terms should list their home for sale at the beginning of the period of time with the highest active homebuyer audience. The time of the year with the most active homebuyers is March through July. Because home sales typically close 30 to 60 days after accepting an offer and considering the time on-market, home sellers should be listing their homes in early spring through early summer.

Standing out ahead of the pack can help you, too. Every year the most popular time to sell a house is in late May through August. However, the active homebuyers actually get started sooner. Home sellers who get listed before other competing houses are more likely to get more and stronger offers.

If you’re asking is now the time to sell a house and you need help take a look at what the Quadwalls Real Estate Team can offer you with our full-feature home selling service.

A Look At Selling In Each Season

There are benefits and consequences of selling in each season. Let’s take a look at the pros and cons of selling your home at different times of year.

Selling A House In The Spring

If you want to get the highest price and most favorable terms, spring is the best time to sell your house. This would be the months of March, April, and May. The time with the most active homebuyers is in the spring.

Pros Of Selling A House In The Spring

• Improved curb appeal as landscaping, lawns, and flowers come back to life
• More daylight which helps your home look its best even at a late afternoon or evening showing
• Time with the most active homebuyers and homebuyers competing against each other offering sellers higher prices and more favorable terms

Cons Of Selling A House In The Spring

• The number of showings and offers can overwhelm some home sellers
• There may be too few options on the market for a home for you to buy or rent
• Your children may have to switch schools before the end of the school year

Selling A House In The Summer

Summer offers a slightly more relaxed time of year to sell a home. The real estate seasonal cycle is still booming, but has usually settled down from the highest volume experienced in the spring. Summer is the most popular time to sell a home, but not the best time.

Pros Of Selling A House In The Summer

• Curb appeal is usually at its best with all plants in full bloom
• The longer days allow showings to be more spread out including during the evening
• Likely to have better weather when moving
• Volume is still high enough to get competing homebuyers offering higher prices and seller favorable purchase terms

Cons Of Selling A House In The Summer

• Landscaping will require full attention and need continual maintenance
• Uncertainty about what school children will attend due to if and when the home will sell
• The later summer goes it can get challenging to find a replacement home
• More competition because “everyone” lists in the summer

Selling A House In The Fall

Selling a house in the fall is where the special challenges exist. Everyone thinks it’s winter, but that is incorrect. The fall is actually the most challenging time to sell a home. The typical consumer has a lot of distractions occurring in the fall which makes it a difficult time to sell a home.

Pros Of Selling A Home In The Fall

• Less competition from other homes for sale
• Cooler temperatures which can make moving a little more comfortable
• Stronger comps in a rising market since the spring and summer sales have now closed

Cons Of Selling A Home In The Fall

• Need to maintain the curb appeal which will get uglier each day as plants drop leaves and annuals die off
• Consumers are very distracted in the fall. Re-establishing routines at back-to-school time, shortening days, enjoying autumn activities, and the onset of major holidays are all major distractions.
• Late fall has the fewest active homebuyers
• Online home search activity falls to its lowest level of the year from mid-November through Christmas

Selling A House In The Winter

Believe it or not, winter is a good time to sell a house. Serious homebuyers will trudge through the snow and cold winds of January and February to buy a home. Also, home search activity begins immediately after Christmas. Seriously, on December 26th it starts going up and continues until hitting its maximum in June.

Pros Of Selling A House In The Winter

• Sellers do not need to keep up with landscaping tasks to maintain good curb appeal
• The most serious, driven homebuyers show up in the winter
• Fewer but a meaningful amount of homebuyers which can keep you from getting overwhelmed

Cons Of Selling A House In The Winter

• Short days will lead to more showings on the weekends and late showings can go poorly due to low lighting in the home
• You may find it very difficult to find a home to buy or rent
• Moving in the winter is never fun
• Interruption children’s school year with a move

What Is The Best Day To List A House?

Knowing when is the best time to sell your house during the week can affect your home sale. Houses listed close to a weekend often perform better with Thursday and Friday being the best days of the week to list a house for sale.

More homebuyers are likely to have the free time to view a home in person during the weekend. When home sellers who have hired us to sell their homes list their homes on a Thursday or Friday the activity during the first weekend on the market is better compared to home sellers who list earlier in the week.

When Is The Worst Time To Sell A House?

Late fall is the worst time to sell a home. Each year, the audience of active homebuyers is smallest from mid-November through to Christmas. Immediately after Christmas home search activity increases.

On a more granular level, home search activity is lowest at the beginning of the week and increases as the weekend gets closer. Mondays are the worst time to sell a house when looking from the perspective of the best day of the week.

How To Know If It’s The Right Time To Sell A House?

Selling a house is a major life event not to be taken lightly. Knowing if it is now a good time to sell a house has a lot to do with your individual needs from the home sale. There are a few key considerations home sellers should make before deciding whether or not to sell their house.

Your Lifestyle Demands A Move

Housing decisions are driven by major life events. Some major events are exciting like a growing family, a new job or major pay increase from a promotion, or a new relationship, engagement, or marriage. On the other hand, negative major life events such as a divorce, death, or loss of income can also require a change to your housing situation.

Why are you thinking about selling your home? Do you need more space or less space? Can you no longer maintain or afford your current home? Or, has a relationship status change required you to need a different living arrangement? Or, is it just time for a change? Know the reason why you are deciding to sell your home.

Home Improvements Are Complete

It’s surprising how many homeowners view their home as a canvas. Some people are so obsessed with DIY projects and home design that once all the projects are done they are ready to move on to another home. If you are now finding your home to be boring because it is now complete it might be time to get your home listed.

On the other hand, maybe you for some time had been thinking about selling your home, but certain items needed to be fixed, first. This is a wise way to think about things. Early anticipation of a home sale causing you to kick in on tackling home maintenance projects will always end well at the time of selling.

You’re Financially Ready

Being financially ready to purchase your dream home, a home in a more desirable location, or which better fits your household’s needs is a great reason to sell your current home. It does not make sense to continue living in a home that is not the best fit for you while you are able to buy a home better suited to your needs. Make the change and move to the right home for your needs, especially if you can afford to do so.

Emotionally Preparedness

Selling a home is an emotional process. I have seen home sellers cry at the closing table. This can be due to the memories made in the home or due to dissatisfaction because they needed to sell. It is important that you are emotionally ready to part ways with the home you will be selling.

At the same time, make sure you are not making a knee jerk decision to sell based on emotions. I have seen home sellers decide drastically to sell their home over frustration or anxiety of what is really just a temporary circumstance.

How Long Does It Take To List A Home?

As of early 2022, the average time to sell a house is 18 days. This is the amount of time it takes to go from the moment the home is listed on the market to the seller accepting a contract to from a buyer making an offer to purchase the home. Home sellers should be aware many factors affect how quickly a home gets sold.

The average time it takes to sell a house is affected by the home itself. Factors such as its condition, cleanliness, price, and location all affect the amount of time it takes to get a home sold. Clean, well-maintained homes listed at a fair price sell extremely quickly. With how tight housing inventory is, homes like that are selling in hours to just a few days.

Conclusion

The best time of the year to sell your house is in the very late winter or early spring. This is due to the fact the homebuyer audience is larger than at other times of the year while competition from other homes is likely low. There are pros and cons of selling in each season. The late fall is the worst time to sell a home because that is when there are the fewest homebuyers in the market.

It can be hard to determine when is the right time to sell. A major life event is likely what is causing you to need a change to your current housing situation. Make sure your finances and emotions are in check for the upcoming home sale and possibly following home purchase. Homes sell quickly so expect activity on your home quickly after listing it for sale.

The Quadwalls Real Estate Team can help you sell your home in Indiana. We are a team of real estate agents with tremendous experience helping home sellers. We also have very low real estate commission fees. Click here to learn more about our fees, the services we offer, and our experience selling homes for our clients.

The Quadwalls Real Estate Team

About Quadwalls.com

Quadwalls.com is a real estate website founded in Valparaiso, IN dedicated to helping home buyers and sellers make better decisions when buying and selling real estate. We do this by giving clear, honest information to our clients based on what we have learned by completing hundreds of home purchases and sales.

How Quadwalls Helps Homebuyers

The Quadwalls Real Estate Team has some of the best Realtors® in Northwest Indiana. We are ready to help you find and buy your new home. Each of the Quadwalls Real Estate Team Northwest Indiana real estate agents is ready to provide you with attentive, personalized, warm, caring service to help you find and buy a home. Whether this is your first or fifteenth home purchase each of us has the skills and experience to represent you. Start viewing homes for sale in Northwest Indiana today!

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