Stop looking at the calendar. Seriously. Put it down.

If I hear one more person tell me they are waiting for the Jacarandas to bloom before they list their house, I might actually scream. It is the single most pervasive myth in Brisbane real estate. “Spring is the selling season!” Everyone says it. Your neighbor says it. The news says it.

Do you know who loves spring? Buyers.

They love it because suddenly there are fifty houses on the market in Paddington instead of five. They have choices. They can play you off against the guy down the street who is also trying to sell his Queenslander for a record price.

When you sell in peak season, you are voluntarily jumping into a shark tank of competition.

I saw this play out last year with a couple in Ashgrove. They had a solid place. Nothing fancy, but good bones. They wanted to list in July. Their friends told them to wait for September. “The garden will look better,” they said. So they waited.

September rolled around. Three other houses on their specific street went up for sale the same week. Buyers were spread thin. They ended up selling in November for roughly $40,000 less than the comparable sales we saw in July. That is a luxury car they basically set on fire because they wanted better lighting for the photos.

The smartest time to sell isn’t a season. It is a math equation.

Understanding Brisbane Real Estate Supply and Demand

You want to sell when stock is low. It’s basic economics.

In Brisbane, winter often sees listing volumes drop significantly. But buyers? They don’t hibernate. People still get divorced in July. They still get job transfers in June. They still have triplets and realize a two-bedroom unit in New Farm isn’t going to cut it.

These buyers are desperate. They are refreshing real estate apps every hour, hoping for something new.

When your house pops up in a low-stock market, you are the only game in town. You get all the eyeballs. You get the emotional buyers who are sick of waiting.

I track the numbers closely. In 2021, we saw frenzied buying regardless of the month. But even in a normal market cycle, days-on-market stats often barely budge during the cooler months, while prices hold steady or even creep up because of scarcity.

Why You Need a Professional Brisbane Property Valuation

Before you even think about “when,” you need to know “how much.”

And please, for the love of sanity, stop relying on automated online estimates. They are algorithms. They don’t know you just renovated the bathroom or that your neighbor has a barking dog that ruins the vibe in the backyard.

You need a proper Brisbane property valuation.

I’m talking about getting a human being to walk through your door. Someone who knows the difference between a flood pocket in Rocklea and a dry ridge. A generic online range of $800k to $1.2m is useless. You cannot plan your next move with a $400,000 margin of error.

Get three agents in. Ignore the one who promises you the moon to win your business. Look at the data they bring. Look at what actually sold in the last 60 days. That is your baseline. If the number doesn’t let you move on to your next life stage, the timing is wrong. Period.

Costly Mistakes Brisbane Financial Planners Can Help You Avoid

Here is the part nobody likes to talk about at dinner parties. Taxes.

Selling a house is expensive. You have agent commissions. Marketing costs. Conveyancing. And if this isn’t your principal place of residence, the ATO is waiting with its hand out for capital gains tax.

I watched a guy sell an investment property in a rush because the market was “hot.” He didn’t check his tax position. He sold in a financial year where his income was already abnormally high. He got absolutely hammered on tax.

If he had waited three weeks—literally 21 days—to push the contract date into the new financial year, he would have saved about $15,000.

This is why you talk to Brisbane financial planners before you talk to real estate agents.

They don’t care about the Jacarandas. They care about your net position. They can tell you if selling now destroys your retirement strategy or if it frees up the cash you need to buy that business.

I rely on these guys to tell me the truth about the money. An agent wants you to sell so they get paid. A planner wants you to sell only if it actually helps you. Big difference.

Prioritizing Your Lifestyle Over Market Timing

Ultimately, the market doesn’t dictate your timeline. You do.

The smartest time to sell is when you are ready to leave.

If you have outgrown the house, sell it. If you are drowning in a mortgage you can’t afford, sell it. If you want to move to the Sunshine Coast to learn how to surf, sell it.

Trying to time the exact top of the market is a fool’s errand. I have been in this game a long time. I have never met anyone who sold at the absolute peak and bought at the absolute bottom. It doesn’t happen.

You sell in the same market you buy in. If you sell high, you buy high. If you sell low, you buy low. The gap remains the same.

So stop overthinking it.

Clean the windows. Fix the front fence. Get the valuation. Check the tax math. If the numbers work and you hate your commute, put the sign up.

Waiting for the “perfect” time usually just means you spend six more months being miserable in a house that doesn’t fit you anymore. And honestly? Life is too short for that.