It’s understandable that we’re regularly asked ‘when’s the best time of the year to sell my home?’
Our reply, although there are certain hotspots during a typical year there are usually a great many other factors that must to be taken into consideration before a decision can be made.
Even with over 20 years of successfully selling thousands of homes in Harrogate and the surrounding villages we cannot always say exactly how long it will take us to find a well-qualified buyer for every property instructed. Naturally we do know that certain properties will sell in days or weeks, sometimes we have buyers actually waiting to buy immediately in a specific location.
We also know that some properties with significant issues or complications, examples including boundary disputes or right of way access, are likely to stick for some time before a buyer can be found.
The selling profile in terms of time and house types for all Harrogate estate agents looks like this;
Detached sell the fastest, followed by semi-detached, terraced & apartments.
As a rule of thumb there are twice as many semi-detached houses offered for sale in the Harrogate marketplace than detached whilst there are approximately the same number of terraced properties as apartments.
Another controlling factor in terms of time and house types relates to the number of bedrooms, homes with 5 beds sell quickest, followed by 4/3/2/1 rooms in that order.
Based on the above you wont be surprised to read that houses over £1m sell fastest, quickly followed by houses in the £ 500,000 – to £1m range.
Broadly speaking the house selling/buying seasons in Harrogate are as follows
Spring: House-buyers plunge into the market as the daffodils start to bloom February & March
Summer: Sellers can expect fewer house-buyers in the prime holiday months of July & August
Autumn: Enthusiasm for buying homes returns with a surge in September, October, November
Winter: Interest diminishes in December in the final run up to Christmas
A single huge factor in all of the above are children and their schooling and holidays.
Residents moving into the catchment area of a specific school influence the local housing market in Harrogate to a very considerable extent.
Sellers sometimes delay putting a ‘For Sale’ board in the front garden until early Spring so that they can move in the summer school holidays. Others want to go to market in January, February time so that buyers can be sure of being in the right catchment area of a preferred school in plenty of time for the next academic year.
The slowdown over Christmas and mid-winter can be irksome for sellers, however Buy To Let landlords and investors can take advantage at this time of year to strike a better deal as there is less competition from owner occupiers.
In summary there are good months and times to achieve a quicker sale, Spring & Autumn being especially good. However, in the amazingly strong marketplace of Harrogate, prices consistently stay strong all year and even the average times to achieve a sale does not vary too much.
The best advice we can give to home owners and landlords in Harrogate is talk to us, and always buy and sell with both your head as well as your heart.
We’re here to help!
Please go to www.myringsestateagents.com to see all our properties available to rent.
For Sales contact us on 01423 5664oo or email sales@myringsestateagents.com
