Walton Street, Barnsley

Welcome to ELR estate agents, a friendly independent company that has been working on your doorstep since 1840, making us Sheffield's most established estate agent. We offer a range of services including residential sales, lettings, surveys, mortgages and property auctions, with offices across Sheffield, Rotherham, The Peak District and Hope Valley.

Broadly speaking the best time to sell a house is:

"When there are the most amount of buyers

actively looking to buy"

This is due to the positive effect that competition has on your achievable sale price.

Buyer competing over a property will force out the best offers.

When you sell a house, this is a key factor behind getting the best price.

Selling a House in Spring:

Spring is a great time to sell a house or flat!

• Gardens are in bloom
• There's plenty of good light and mild weather
• Properties look their best
• The market is full with buyers

Spring is a pretty up-beat time of year. In good weather buyers are more prepared to go house hunting.

Also, many families look to match their purchase with the end of the school year.

Selling a House in Summer:

High summer has never been the best time to sell a house (especially a family one).

School Holidays are the big reason for this. Entertaining kids leaves little time for house hunting.

Plus, everyone else goes away on holiday. This peaks around August and the market dies.

If you have to sell a house in the summer, try to get it on the market as early as possible.

If your home is not on the market by early July you'll be putting yourself at a disadvantage.

Selling a House in Autumn:

Autumn has always been a good time to sell a house.

However, it's not as good as the Jan - July period. Still, if you're trying to sell in late Sept or Oct you've nothing to worry about.

Remember though, not many people want to move over Christmas so don't leave coming to market too late.

After the 2nd week of November buyers, like bears, tend to go into hibernation.

Selling a House in Winter:

Winter can be a harder time to sell but if you have that one property that someone has been waiting for, then you'll sell it. Boxing Day is a great time to list a property on the web portals. This is a time when all the family are together and looking at the properties together. 

This is because you loose the impact that a "fresh to the market" house has.

Please don't underestimate the importance of this.

As a general rule of thumb, you'll want to sell a house within 4-6 weeks, while it's fresh!

After this period property becomes "old news" and buyers start getting suspicious. They tend to assume something is wrong with the property and stay away.

When this happens you terminally damage your chance of getting best price.

If your house isn't selling it can become neglected by some agents(!) and then you truly are in a downward spiral of disappointment.

Remember, it only takes one buyer to successfully sell a house!

In reality there are buyers out there 365 days a year. Just some days there are more than others.

If you are forced to sell a house during a quiet month - please don't worry!

You just need to recognise that you're at a disadvantage and act accordingly.

Be ultra-realistic about your price and concentrate twice as hard on how (and where) your property is marketed.  

As we mentioned at the top of this article, encouraging competition is the surest way to achieve the highest price when you sell a house.