When Is The Best Time Of Year to List Your Home?

By Lyssa and Carly Seward, The Seward Group

TTR Sotheby’s International Realty

When we tell our clients January is the best time to list their home, they look at us incredulously.

This can’t be right.

Ah, but it is!

Our Spring Market in Northern Virginia truly starts the week after New Year’s. 

We can point out a few reasons why this has historically been happening in our metro area.

First and foremost, not a lot of inventory pops up in January, making it an ideal time to beat any influx of Spring listing inventory and standing out.

Secondly, January is full of the doldrums.  The sky is gray, the leaves are gone, it is cold and people don’t have as many social engagements. 

People start to dream about Spring, warmer weather, about resolutions, changes, and goals.  Home ownership, home downsizing, home upsizing, investing are all tied to goals and dreams.

Buyers come out of the woodwork January through Spring Break, but getting an early start on listing your home before others pays dividends towards your net proceeds.

Sellers who hire The Seward Group have a strategic advantage if they truly listen to our professional recommendations. One recommendation we make that never fails: for our listings launching in Q1, we encourage exterior photos to happen by the early fall while there is still foliage, enabling our listings to pop online. What we have seen play out in January 2026 has confirmed our assertion- all of our listings that launched in January went under contract immediately (some before the first open house.) Thinking of selling?  Thinking of buying?

We would love to help you achieve your real estate goals- no matter the time of year.

-Lyssa, Carly, and the entire Seward Group Team