When should you list your home for sale? (INFOGRAPHIC)

The spring market tends to be the busiest time of year for selling real estate – but does that mean you’ll necessarily get the best price for your home?

Timing your home’s listing can be tricky – especially in a challenging market for sellers, such as the current one in the Lower Mainland.

Real estate website Zolo has issued a report analyzing the best time to list a home in Canada’s major cities, in terms of the premium that sellers achieve.

Zolo said of the spring market, “The assumption is the increased inventory on the market triggers higher sales activity, making [spring] the ideal time to sell a home. But that’s not always the case. Other factors can influence the best time to put your house on the market, including the specifics of your local housing market, job growth, current and projected mortgage rates, recent and proposed housing regulations as well as tax incentives.”

In Greater Vancouver, Zolo said, “The best-selling window to list if you’re selling a house in Vancouver, the North Shore, Squamish, Coquitlam, South Surrey and Richmond is sometime in early or late fall. Sellers who skipped the spring market and listed in the fall earned, on average, $15,000 to almost $150,000 more on the sale of their home.”

The report authors added, “Those selling a condo in the Vancouver, the North Shore, Surrey, Cloverdale and Langley regions may also want to wait and list in the fall, when sellers earned, on average, approximately $10,300 to just under $150,000.”

Check out Zolo’s infographic map below to see when you should list for your area, whether a house or a condo.

Source: Zolo