Selling your home is not only a big decision financially, but also emotionally. Your home is no longer the bricks, drywall and hardwood floors you fell in love with when you bought it. You have tackled some of life’s many milestones and made memories in the house you now call “home.” Whether you have simply grown out of the house, are choosing to downsize, or are looking for a new location, there are many factors that may influence your decision to sell your house.
It is not a decision you can be cavalier about, so you will need to perform your due diligence, research the market, and speak with a real estate agent.
Check Your Finances
Is it time to cash out and tap into your home’s equity? Do you want to downgrade and use the proceeds to pay down your debt? Is your current home creating too much of a financial headache for you and your household? Remember, home prices continue to remain sky-high across the Canadian real estate market, and much of the appreciation for the last few years has remained intact. As a result, you can use this to your advantage and sell your home to downsize your living arrangements and overall lifestyle.
Do some research to determine the payoff amount of your loan so you can determine what your sales proceeds will be after you have paid off all the costs associated with selling. The closer you are to the end of your mortgage term, the fewer additional expenses you will incur.
Do Some Comparisons
Before you decide when to list, it helps to know what kind of market you are in. Many sellers start by asking when is the best time to sell a house, but the answer depends on how balanced the supply and demand are in their area.
Doing your homework is always important! Do some research on the current condition of the real estate market, and look into some comparable properties that have recently sold in your neighbourhood. You may want to consider selling when it is a seller’s market.
What Is a Seller’s Market?
A seller’s market is when there are more buyers than available homes, and for many homeowners, it can feel like the best time of year to sell a house. Good listings can sell quickly, sometimes with multiple offers and firm conditions. In this environment, your focus is less on whether the home will sell and more on how to position it to achieve the best price and terms.
What Is a Buyer’s Market?
A buyer’s market happens when there are more homes for sale than buyers. Properties sit longer, buyers have more choice, and they feel comfortable asking for conditions, repairs, and price reductions. As a seller in this type of market, you need sharp pricing, strong presentation, and realistic expectations about timing, so you can decide if selling now or waiting makes more sense for you.
What Is a Balanced Market?
A balanced market is when the number of buyers and listings is roughly in line. In this kind of environment, many homeowners start wondering when is the best time to sell a house, because conditions feel steady rather than urgent. Homes still sell, but usually with fewer bidding wars and fewer steep price cuts. If your home is well prepared and properly priced, you can expect a fair result without the extremes of either a very hot or very slow market.
How Can You Tell What Market You Are In?
One simple gauge professionals use is the monthly sales-to-new-listings ratio, which compares how many homes sold to how many were listed within a specific month (for example, 60 sales and 100 new listings in December equals a 60% ratio). Ratios below about 40% often point to a buyer’s market, around 40% to 60% suggest a balanced market, and above 60% point to a seller’s market. Ask a local real estate agent for these monthly numbers in your area, since national headlines may not match what is happening on your own street.
Is Your Home Ready to Sell?
We have all heard of the many ways you can improve your home to get the biggest return on your investment when selling. While you may not want to make any major improvements, it’s important to ask yourself if your home is in its best condition to sell.
Remove Buyer Question Marks
Buyers get nervous when they see signs of “unknowns,” even small ones. Walk through your home and look for anything that could raise questions: water stains (even old ones), unfinished projects, missing outlet covers, odd patches, or mystery switches. If something is harmless but looks suspicious, fix it or be ready to explain it clearly with notes or documentation. The fewer question marks buyers see, the less they imagine hidden problems behind the walls.
Make Key Areas Easy to Inspect
Buyers and inspectors will want to see mechanical areas, not just pretty rooms. Clear access to the electrical panel, furnace, water heater, attic hatch, and under-sink plumbing so no one has to move your belongings to check them. This small step signals that you’re not hiding anything and makes the inspection go smoother. It’s a tiny detail that can leave a surprisingly strong impression of transparency and care.
Show Your Maintenance Track Record
A lot of peace of mind comes from proof. When people start wondering about the best time of year to sell a house, they often forget how reassuring a solid paper trail can be. Gather warranties, service records, manuals, and receipts for work you have had done: roof, furnace, air conditioning, windows, major appliances, or any permitted renovations. Keep them in a simple binder or folder you can leave out during showings. When buyers see that the home has been maintained and you can show when, how, and by whom, it makes the property feel cared for instead of just “spruced up.”
Control Sound and Scent
Sellers often focus on how things look and forget how they feel. Notice what buyers will hear and smell the moment they walk in. Loud fans, humming appliances, creaky doors, barking dogs next door, or strong cooking smells can all distract from your home’s best features. Use soft-close pads on banging doors, oil squeaky hinges, and open or close windows strategically. Aim for a light, neutral scent and calm background noise, so the home feels relaxed, not busy or overwhelming.
Four Questions to Ask Yourself
Take a second to think about your answer to these four very important questions. If you’re happy with your answers, you may be ready to sell, and if not, it may be worth it to continue weighing the pros and cons of your decision to sell or speak further with a real estate agent to get their opinion.
- After selling this home, where will you move?
- Are you still emotionally attached to your current home?
- Are you financially ready?
- Are you willing to make changes to paint colours or upgrades to the home?
When is the Best Time to Sell a House?
Most real estate professionals will tell you that the best time to sell would be the spring, followed by the fall. Spring is desirable for many sellers as it is a great time to showcase your home’s best features, and many buyers want the transaction to be completed before the summer months. It’s important to remember that since it is the busiest time of the year, you will face more competition, increasing the importance of making sure your home shows at its best.
Lower Interest Rates
After a period of aggressive hikes, the Bank of Canada has shifted into a lower, more stable rate environment, holding its policy rate around 2.25 per cent as of late 2025. That has filtered through to mortgages, with many lenders offering five-year fixed rates in roughly the mid-four per cent range instead of the 5–6 per cent levels seen at the peak. For sellers wondering if now is the best time to sell a house, this really matters. More buyers can qualify and feel comfortable moving ahead with a purchase. Existing homeowners who want to move up to a larger or better-located home may also find that the monthly payments feel workable again, even if borrowing is not as cheap as it was before 2022.
Fewer Listings
According to recent CREA reports, there were roughly 173,000 properties listed for sale across Canada at the end of November 2025. That is roughly 8.5 per cent higher than a year earlier, but still about 2.5 per cent below the long-term average for that time of year. The national sales-to-new-listings ratio is in the low-50 per cent range, which usually points to a balanced market rather than a clear buyer’s or seller’s market. If you are asking when is the best time to sell a house in this kind of environment, the answer often comes down to your own situation. The timing is usually best when your finances, timeline, and home preparation all line up. Buyers now have more choice, but well-presented, accurately priced homes can still attract solid offers, especially in areas where local inventory is tighter than the national picture suggests.
School-Aged Children
You and your significant other moved into your home because you needed the extra space for your newborn baby – or babies. Now that they are nearing school age, you might want to consider your elementary school options. Indeed, not all schools are created equal; the school in your neighbourhood might be overcrowded or not the best. And, of course, it may not be possible to enrol your children in a school outside of your district. Therefore, if you wish to have your children attend a better school, you may need to relocate to a better part of the city or province.
Wondering if this is really the best time to sell a house for your specific situation? Connect with REMAX to get a personalized home value estimate and a clear strategy for when and how to list.
