When Should I Sell My House

When Should I Sell My House

Should I Sell My House?

Did your neighbour get a record breaking price for their home which has got you wondering, ‘should I sell my house?’  Well before you go putting your house on the market just know there is a method to the madness.  I can’t tell you how many times I have seen houses selling at record prices and by the time the neighbour wakes up and puts their comparable house on the market, they struggle to be as successful.  The result, not only do they not get the same price as their more successful neighbour but they sit on the market for months on end and sometimes sit there until the fall without an offer.  So the question you should be asking yourself is not ‘should I sell my house?‘ but ‘when should I sell my house?‘.

Before we answer that question, let’s consider the unique properties of the housing market.

• Unlike most products, houses are immobile.  This makes them very vulnerable to local market conditions.
• You have a unique product.  Especially in resale, rarely are homes equal in comparison.  Most houses have been cared for and upgraded to the discretion of the previous and current owners.
• Fixed.  Rarely can you pick up and move a house to a new market.
• Slow supply and demand adjustment.
• Private transactions.  Especially in Ontario, real estate transactions are private.  There is no bidding structure and the details of the sales is not public information.

So the question you should be asking yourself is not ‘should I sell my house?‘ but ‘when should I sell my house?‘.

So when we consider the fact the housing market is largely an unpredictable and unique based product, what can we consider is predictable?  Like retail, the housing does typically follow a predictable cyclic model usually and there are times when it is best to buy a house and times when it is best to sell a house.  So the question is:

When Should I Sell My House?

You will notice like the retail market, the housing market follows the school year which is not surprising.  According to Statistics Canada: Being in a conjugal relationship and having children are each associated with higher home ownership rates.  To read more on this click here.  Therefore it is not surprising if you are wondering ‘when should I sell my house?’, it is in fact in the spring.

As parents seek to enroll their children for the next school year in the spring, they are therefore biggest drivers of the housing market as parents with children want to have the purchased finalized by June and thus know what is the local school district for their new house.

You will notice like the retail market, the housing market follows the school year..

Some might ask, ‘well what if I sell my house in the summer?‘  Too late.  Families are then going on vacation over the summer months whether traveling to a foreign country vacationing at the cottage, they are not around to purchase.  So if your home is still on the market come summer you will either have to drop your price or take it off the market and try again come fall.

At the Trading Post Property Solutions Ltd we pride ourselves on being knowledgeable in real estate.  If you are looking to sell a home, we buy houses cash.

The Trading Post Property Solutions Inc