A guide to selling your home during the school holidays

Over the years Vivo has purchased a number of homes during the school holidays in super quick time, allowing families to successfully move before the new term starts. Although selling your home on the open market during the summer period tends to be difficult and advised against, there are a number of reasons why it may be necessary for a family to sell their home before school term starts.

So, why might someone want to sell during the school holidays?

Firstly, selling during this period will allow your children to feel settled into their new environment before they have to go back to school. Not only that, on moving day you don’t have to worry about taking your children out of school or them missing anything important. It will help them focus on their studies and give you peace of mind too.

In a similar vein, if you are relocating, your children can then start their school at the beginning of a new academic year, allowing them to fully integrate with their classmates from day one rather than play catch-up.

In addition, there are also benefits to selling in the summer:

• Longer days means more sunlight hours in the day to carry out viewings.
• Your garden will be in bloom, making your home more attractive to the extent that it can really be sold as an extension to your home. A well-kept garden can be as valuable as an extra room so just make sure you maintain it during viewings!
• Moving conditions are better than other times of the year, so you hopefully avoid poor weather and as the days are longer, you will have more time to move.

Why is it harder to sell your home in the summer?

Despite all of the reasons detailed above, the summer is a tough time to sell. This is because buyers tend to be busy going on holiday, entertaining their children and generally wanting to soak up the good weather before committing time to finding a house.

Given the time constraints, selling your house fast can be a tricky feat with many factors slowing down a sale, such as property chains, buyers pulling out and the extensive paperwork. This can be off-putting as it may prevent you from selling before term starts. Not only that, dealing with the sale and moving whilst the children are back at school can be a stressful time for all the family.

In order to sell in time for the start of the school term, you may have to compromise on the offer you are willing to accept as holding out for the highest offer can take many months. You should also try to avoid getting involved in a property chain as they are notoriously slow and can be riddled with problems; the ideal scenario would be to sell to a first-time buyer as they have no chain and tend not to be constrained by children at school age yet! However, these dream buyers may not always be around.

Can Vivo help you?

For a quicker option that is a guaranteed sale, you could use a fast house buying company such as Vivo Property Buyers. Whilst you may take a small hit on price (we usually offer between 85 and 90% of the market value) there are many great benefits which will ultimately facilitate your need to sell during school holidays and make it far less stressful:

• Guaranteed sale – once you accept our offer, the sale is guaranteed
• It’s fast – we can buy your home in as little as 7 days, but we will do it over whatever time period suits you. So, if you have a holiday in the middle of the sale, that’s no problem!
• No fees – unlike the open market, when you sell to us there are no estate agency fees; we pay for the solicitors, professional cleaning and the price we offer is the price you will get. This allows you to better understand your finances which is very important when you have to budget for your family.
• Stay in your home rent free – once the sale is completed, we let you stay in your home for a few weeks giving you time to sort out your belongings and avoid you and your family feeling rushed.

We have helped a number of people in this situation by buying their home quickly, before the start of the new term. If you’re finding yourself in a similar situation and you’d like to find out more about selling to Vivo, complete the form below or give us a call and we’d be happy to give you some impartial advice on the best way for you to sell your home in time.