When Is the Best Time To Sell a House?

In today’s competitive housing market, it’s helpful to decide when you want to sell your home in order to achieve your personal goals—maximum profit, fast home offer, etc. Timing when to list your house can avoid your home sitting on the market and becoming increasingly difficult to sell. The longer it sits, the more suspicion it garners as people begin to believe something’s wrong with the house. All this can be easily avoided by properly timing the market. 

With your personal situation and location in mind, let’s review the market trends in each selling season and their respective pros and cons. We’ll also discuss research findings on the best month and day to sell your house and consider local factors that might affect your sale. Diving in!

Local Weather & Seasonal Locations

Nice weather doesn’t just signal tropical vacations and fresh flowers—it attracts faster sales. After cold winter days, springtime’s refreshing weather brings buyers out of hibernation. Nationally, this has made spring the most popular season to sell a house. However, this is only applicable to locations that experience temperate springs and particularly all four seasons. In places such as Phoenix, Dallas and Orlando, springtime brings extreme weather like hurricanes and tornadoes, as well as high heat. For these cities, spring weather doesn’t add any selling points as it’s not ideal weather for showings. 

Know your local climate. Whatever the best season is weather-wise will most likely be the same season that sees droves of people showing up at open houses. For example, though spring isn’t the ideal season for Florida, people often travel south during the winter to escape the colder climates. Since winter is a popular time to experience what Florida has to offer, November and December are largely considered the best months to sell a house there. 

Likewise, ski resort towns receive an influx of winter visitors interested in buying homes in the area. Beach towns, on the other hand, receive high home interest just before and after summer when buyers are about to embark on or return from their summer vacation. 

Local weather clearly affects your town’s most popular selling season, and whenever the highest visitor influx occurs will also indicate the best time to sell your house.

Best Day and Month to Sell Your House

As mentioned above, springtime is generally regarded as the best season to sell your house nationwide. Historically, May is the best month to sell. Homes listed in May sell faster and above asking price, though homes sold the week of April 22nd also sold for a considerable percentage above asking price. Make sure you list your house on a Thursday! Homes listed on Thursday sold quicker and for more money. In a study Zillow did where homes sold in a week on average, Thursday listings were 1.5% more likely to sell above asking price.

As a general rule, list your house before September. By the time fall rolls around, most families are already settled for the school year and homes listed in October were the least likely to sell above asking price, giving sellers the worst profit margins. Also avoid listing on Sundays if you want the fastest sale you can get. In the same aforementioned Zillow study, homes listed on a Sunday took eight days longer to sell and were 1.3% less likely to sell above asking price than those listed on a Thursday. Saturday and Monday aren’t much better either, so make sure to list your house on Thursday!

Listing your house on a Thursday in May is generally a foolproof plan to sell your house fast and for the most money. Again, keep in mind local weather conditions and other local factors that could affect the best selling season, such as tax incentives and mortgage rates. It might be best to list your house on a Thursday in summer, fall, or winter, depending on your local housing market. 

Review Changing Real Estate Markets

Real estate markets can fluctuate between a seller’s or buyer’s market depending on various factors such as interest rates, economic conditions, housing supply and demand, and demographic shifts. These changes can impact both home sellers and homebuyers differently.

A seller’s market is a situation in which there are more buyers than available properties for sale. This often results in increased competition among buyers, driving up prices and allowing sellers to have more control over the terms of the sale. In a seller’s market, properties tend to sell quickly, and it may be difficult for buyers to negotiate lower prices or favorable conditions.

A buyer’s market occurs when there are more properties available for sale than interested buyers. This gives buyers more power and flexibility in negotiating deals, as sellers must compete with one another to attract potential buyers. In a buyer’s market, prices can be lower, and sellers may need to offer incentives or concessions in order to make their property stand out.

It is essential to consider the current market conditions when you list your home to decide if it is a good time to sell. If the local market conditions are unfavorable for sellers, your home may stay on the market longer, regardless of the selling season.

For example, spending more time of the year to sell a house in spring, even though it is considered the best selling season, can occur when there is a buyer’s market, high interest rates, or an unfavorable economy. 

You can check the current market conditions by reviewing data available at the National Association of Realtors without having to be a member. They provide current market data for housing statistics and real estate market trends. 

Each Selling Season’s Pros and Cons

Spring Pros

Not only does spring’s nice weather draw in buyers, but spring weather has landscapes in full bloom, enhancing your home’s curb appeal, as well as bathing your house in beautiful natural light with longer days. People have tax refunds to spend on renovations and repairs, and the incoming summer break to help with the move so they can ensure their kids are settled before school starts. 

It takes a few months for a deal to close, so buyers start looking in April and May. Though the spring season overall sees the highest national demand, the first two weeks of May is spring’s prime interval. Homes sell nearly 20 days faster and for 6% more money in May than any other month. 

Spring Cons

Since it’s widely known that spring is the best season to sell your house due to increased competition, fast home offers and quick deals at premium sale prices, more sellers are likely to list at this time. This becomes a con when the inventory balances out the demand, creating competition not only between buyers, but between sellers as well. Sellers need to make sure their home gets noticed and stands out, while making sure it’s competitively priced to other homes on the market. 

If your house is in worse condition than the others, it’ll most likely be a tougher sell. However, if your house sells fast and you have children, you might have to relocate during the school year, potentially disrupting their education. Spring events thrown by your neighbors or renovation projects might also make open houses more difficult.

Summer Pros

For the same reasons that spring is popular, summer is also one of the top seasons to sell your house. The weather is nice, the days are longer, and schedules are generally more flexible as people take vacations and time off. There’s increased pressure for buyers to make a competitive offer as their buying window is closing with the school year coming up and there’s data on spring’s sale prices and closed deals. 

Summer Cons

Buyers might be traveling and out of the area, unable to see the property in person, or the weather might be too hot to comfortably attend an open house; this may be offset by air conditioning, but it ups utility bills and the overall price of a showing. Professionals are busier during this time as well, making it harder and more costly to secure your top real estate agent, landscaper, etc. With kids out of school, it’s also harder to have your house prepped for showings with things lying around the house. 

Fall Pros

Buyers looking to purchase in the fall may be looking at properties with an increased urgency—whether that’s to get settled as quickly as possible for the school year and the holidays or beat intense winter weather. Especially if you live in a place with beautiful fall weather and changing colors, fall could be the best time to sell your house with seasonal homey decor. Repairs become more affordable as professionals start their slow season and safety increases as burglaries decrease. 

Fall Cons

Moving during this off-season is usually triggered by a job transfer, layoff, or familial conflict, so buyers might be on a tighter budget. There’s less inventory and less demand, so buyers are looking for bargains. You’ll have to drop the sales price of your home to remain competitive with the spring and summer homes that are still on the market and dropping their prices to stir up interest. Unless there’s beautiful fall foliage, flowers, trees, and other landscaping die off in the fall and dampen a home’s curb appeal. Heating costs also increase utility bills, as sellers need to keep homes comfortable for open houses.

Winter Pros

Though winter is generally regarded as the slowest season, if you live somewhere with year-round warm weather like Florida or a ski resort town, you can benefit from the extra foot traffic in the wintertime. Holiday decor and pretty snowfall help buyers picture themselves living in your house while tax breaks give buyers an incentive to close on a deal before the end of a year. Likewise, top real estate agents will have extra motivation to sell your house to up their end-of-year sales. Unless you live where winter’s a hot popular season, the housing market’s low inventory means less competition between sellers.

Winter Cons

Conversely, if winter is prime time to sell in your area, there will be increased competition between sellers with more homes on the market. Typically, days are shorter and colder and people tend to stay home, distracted by the holidays (the holidays also make it harder to keep your home presentation-ready). Heating bills go up and repairs become more difficult, time-consuming, and costly while buyers often look to lowball desperate sellers.

Overall

Don’t stress if you can’t perfectly time your home sale, especially if you need to sell your house ASAP. No matter what season you choose to sell your house or for whatever reason, there might be a buyer looking to purchase during an “off-season” for the same reason you’re looking to sell. Ideally, you’re emotionally and financially ready to make this transition whenever the time feels right for you.

Sell Your Home to a Cash Buyer in Any Season for Top Dollar

When you do not want to go through the traditional selling process or need to sell your home quickly, it can be advantageous to consider selling your house to a cash buyer, regardless of the season or current market conditions. Cash buyers have the funds readily available to make a purchase without relying on traditional financing. Some benefits of selling to a cash buyer are:

• Quick and efficient process: With a cash buyer, you can expect a quicker sale as they often have the resources to close the deal within days or weeks.
• Certainty and reliability: Since most cash buyers don't rely on external financing, there is minimal risk of deals falling through due to loan rejections.
• Savings on fees and commissions: When selling through traditional methods, sellers usually pay real estate agent commissions and various closing costs associated with loans and mortgages. Selling directly to a cash buyer eliminates these expenses, which means you may retain more of your profits from the sale.
• No repairs or renovations: Cash buyers often purchase properties in “as-is” condition, meaning you won’t have to spend time or money making extensive repairs or renovations.

To ensure you receive top dollar for selling your home to a cash buyer any season, conduct market research beforehand to understand its current value. Additionally, request a free, no-obligation purchase offer from 800CashToday. If you like our offer, we can close quickly when needed and also offer flexibility with your move out date, along with other great perks.