When is the best time to buy or sell?

In an active market with rising prices, you might consider trying to purchase your new house subject to the sale of your old one, with as long a period as possible to fulfill the condition. In a period of falling prices you may be better off selling first, with a possession date several months off. Of course, rising or falling mortgage rates may affect the calculation, as well as the time of year.

In an average year, roughly twice as many listings are taken by realtors as actually sell. The first two quarters of the year are generally the most active listing months, (accounting for, say, 27-29% of total listings each) with the third quarter contributing up to 25% and the final quarter about 20%, due largely to a slow December.

On the sales side, the quarters (using 1995 as an example) might run 25% - 31% - 25% - 18%. (On the other hand, in 1996 fourth-quarter sales were at 24%, thanks to falling mortgage rates.)

The Canadian Real Estate Association no longer publishes monthly MLS statistics on its web-site, but you may find useful information at your local library, in CMHC publications like Housing Facts, National Housing Outlook, or Canadian Housing Markets.

But in the end, your decision on when to offer your home may well depend on more personal considerations. And the care and attention you devote to its promotion may well have a larger affect on final results than waiting for the perfect selling environment.

How does timing apply to an offer?

Legal documments cannot be signed on a Sunday or statutory holiday in Canada. Any offers should normally be open for acceptance for a day or two (particularly if either party wants their lawyer to check it out), and "subject to financing" conditions (with the specific terms of the financing spelt out!) can reasonably be of ten working days' duration. Once all conditions are off, a standard title search may take another ten to fifteen days.

What's the best choice for closing and moving day?

Try to avoid the first or last of the month: moving companies and registry offices will be swamped. And check that you don't accidentally specify a week-end or holiday: the registries will be closed. And of course, whether you're moving into your new home from a rental property or from another property you just sold, it makes for a much less hectic move if you can arrange possession so that you have a week or ten days with access to both properties.