Selling in Spring: Is It Worth the Wait?
The light improves, gardens wake up, and buyers often feel more motivated after the New Year. But timing your move purely around the season can be a costly oversimplification. The better question is this, will waiting improve your outcome, or simply delay your plans while the market moves around you?
If you are considering a sale in Hertfordshire, here is a practical way to think about it.
Why spring feels like the best time to sell
There is a real behavioural lift in the market at the start of the year. More people are browsing, more people are booking viewings, and more people are having the “shall we actually move this year?” conversation at the kitchen table.
Recent early-year indicators support that sense of momentum. Rightmove has reported January website visits running around 69% higher than the first week of December, and a sharp uplift in new listings, up 143% compared with the same period.
In simple terms, more buyers are leaning in again, and that matters.
The hidden downside of waiting for “peak season”
Spring does not just bring more buyers, it brings more competition.
When the market floods with new listings, buyers become choosier. They book more viewings, compare more options, and negotiate harder because they can. If your home is one of five similar choices, it has to be positioned properly, not just “available”.
Waiting can also put pressure on your onward plans. If you are buying as well as selling, delaying your launch can compress your timeline later in the year, especially around school terms, holidays, and chains. The cost of waiting is not only time, but it is also optionality.
The stats that matters most, saleability
One useful lens is completion rate, in other words, how often properties listed in a given period go on to complete.
Research shows that in most years, homes listed in February and March have the highest completion rates, at around 66.3%, compared with an average of roughly 55% in other months. That does not mean February and March are “magic”, it means that the homes coming to market then are often the ones that are most ready, best presented, and most realistically positioned.
So if you are asking “Should I wait?”, the better question is, “Will waiting make my home more ready, more compelling, or more correctly priced?”
When waiting does make sense
Waiting can be the right call when it gives you a genuine advantage, for example:
If your garden, plot, or outlook is a major selling feature, and spring will showcase it properly in photography and viewings.
If you need a short, controlled window to finish preparation, such as minor repairs, redecorating key areas, decluttering, or sorting paperwork (title, lease details, planning paperwork, guarantees).
If your household needs breathing room to get the home launch ready without the stress of constant viewings.
In these cases, the objective is not “spring”, it is presentation and confidence.
Why you do not always need to wait
The market is already active before the daffodils appear. Many serious buyers start early, particularly organised homeowners, relocators, and families working around schools. Those buyers tend to be decisive, because they are acting on a plan, not a browse.
Also, in a market where buyers have more choice, the winners are usually the homes that are best positioned, not simply the homes that are listed in the “right” month. A disciplined pricing strategy, strong launch, and clear buyer management will outperform seasonality almost every time.
A sensible decision framework for sellers
If you want a clean way to decide, run your situation through these three questions:
- If you marketed in the next 14 to 21 days, would your home be ready in terms of presentation and paperwork?
- Is your price expectation supported by evidence, not hope, and does it reflect how buyers are behaving right now?
- Does waiting improve the product (your home) or does it simply change the date on the calendar?
If waiting improves the product, it can be worthwhile. If it only changes the date, it often is not.
What we recommend at Putterills
We are big believers in evidence over opinion. Spring can be a strong window, but only when the launch is handled properly.
That means being deliberate about the marketing price, planning the launch, and creating competition, not simply uploading photos and hoping the season does the heavy lifting. When you combine timing with a structured process, you give yourself the best chance of achieving the right outcome, with fewer surprises.
Clear next steps
If you are thinking about selling this spring, here are two useful options.
Book a Spring Strategy Valuation
We will give you a clear recommended launch price, the evidence behind it, and a launch plan designed to attract the right buyer activity quickly.
Ask for our Spring Launch Checklist
Reply and we will send a simple checklist you can work through over the next two weeks, covering presentation, paperwork, and the small details that protect your sale later.
If you would like us to sense-check whether waiting helps or hinders in your specific case, send over your street, property type, and your ideal moving timeframe, and we will give you a straightforward recommendation based on current buyer behaviour in your micro-market.
