Selling
The quiet months are the best months to list
Everyone lists in May. Our best six sales of the last two years all went on in January or February, and there is a reason for that.
Callum Reyes
5 min read
Everyone lists in May. The reasoning is obvious — the gardens look their best, the light is long, and the house photographs like a holiday. It is also why May is the worst month to be one of nineteen comparable properties on the same coast.
Our best six sales of the last two years all went on the market in January or February. Two of them exceeded asking. The reason is not clever — it is simply that a serious buyer in February is a serious buyer, and there is almost nothing for them to look at.
Winter viewings also do something for you that summer viewings cannot. A buyer who walks a cliff-top house in a February gale and still wants it is a buyer who is not going to renegotiate in March. We have had far fewer post-survey price conversations on winter sales than on summer ones, and that is worth real money.
The counter-argument is photography, and it is a fair one. We solve it by shooting in autumn and holding the images, which is why we ask sellers to talk to us in September about a January listing.
If your house depends entirely on a garden in bloom, list in spring. If it depends on the water, the light and the structure — which on this coast is most of them — the quiet months will serve you better.
Callum Reyes
Partner, Head of Sales
Callum ran acquisitions for a regional developer for eleven years before joining, which means he reads a survey the way most agents read a floor plan. He leads our pricing work and negotiates the majority of our sales above three million.
