To Sell or Not to Sell (Pre-Xmas)

We are officially on a sleigh ride towards Christmas and even though we’ve still technically got just over 7 weeks until the big day…. In the real estate world, if you’re not ready to take photos by the second week of November, you’ve officially missed the boat for an auction campaign. 

If you’ve been sitting on the fence about whether or not to push your sale through this side of the new year, or wait until the dust has settled and everyone’s back from school holidays next year… we thought we cover a few pros and cons of both. 

There is generally an end of year / pre-Christmas frenzy amongst buyers and it can be a time where we see strong competition on property going to auction or for sale. This is often due to a sentiment from those buyers who've been in the market for most of the year not wanting to take their search into the new year, keen to secure something before the listings dry up. 

The real estate industry, generally speaking, shuts down over much of January. Yes you will have those agents who know it's a good time to stick around mopping up all the leftover private sales from the previous year and being first in line for the inevitable call from a vendor or two wanting to get their place ready to sell within the first quarter of the year. But most of the agents are off on holidays from Christmas right through to February. 

The last round of auctions this year is likely to be on the 9th December, many agents may suggest to vendors keen to sell this year who need an extra week or two to get ready that the 16th Dec is fine, but we wouldn't take the risk unless it was absolutely necessary. 

The reason being that if the property passes in and you now need to revert to private sale, you have little to no time between auction and Christmas day in which to get buyers through and get the property sold. By the 16th Dec majority of the buyers will have given up on the prospect of buying property this year and moved onto more important things like where they’ll get their prawns from and who's bringing the ham. 

So if you're very near to being ready and can make it to an auction on the 9th Dec without adding too much stress it is likely going to pay off on price if you market yourself correctly. 

However, if you aren’t going to make that deadline, you have a few options agents may suggest. One being advertising for private sale over the Christmas / New Year period as the stock levels will be low and buyers will still be around, you’ll even likely be offered a deal on your marketing costs! This is not something we suggest our vendors do. The risk is simply too high that you won’t get the volume of buyers necessary for a successful sale. 

They may also suggest an auction date at the end of January… meaning your first weekend of opens will be just after New Years… unless you live in a holiday destination where you’ve got an increased number of people (potential buyers) already in the area, again, we would steer clear. 

For our vendors who haven’t quite made the deadline this year, we are gearing up for an auction date mid February. This allows everyone plenty of time to prepare for the sale as well as ensuring buyers are back from holiday and ready to get stuck back into their property search. It also avoids being the first or second cab off the rank for the year. Many buyers will hold back in the beginning of any year watching and waiting to see what happens in the market. They are the market, so if they’re not making moves, very little is happening!! Mid Feb is an easy way to avoid that, you’ve had a couple of weeks of auctions ahead of you, and you’re well and truly avoiding the Easter break later in the quarter. 

If you need any further guidance on when is best to sell your property, you know who to call! 

Prop Culture