What you need to know when buying or selling your house

Cape Town - When buying or selling your home, you should consider whether it's a buyer's or a seller's market, explains an industry expert. 

You should also look at how it would affect the offers received on your house or how it will change things on the new holding you want to obtain.

Buyer's and seller's markets don't last forever so it's hard to predict what the market will do with any accuracy, and things can change slowly or quite rapidly depending on the economic and political outlook. 

You might end up waiting months or years for things to change, and when circumstances do change, it may not be in your favour. 

In a buyer's market there is more supply than demand. There are more people looking to sell houses than there are people looking to buy. 

“In a buyer's market, sellers need to ensure that the pricing of their property is fair and on par as buyers have more options and therefore will not settle for overpriced property” said sales director of Engel & Völkers Southern Africa Wendy Williams. 

Staging your home in the right light could also play an important factor to ensure that you can set the scene for a buyer to want to live there. This is the ideal situation for buyers as their options are significantly better.

A seller's market is just the opposite. The demand is larger than the supply. 

“If stock is low, buyers are more likely to spend a little extra to ensure that they get the property they want,” noted Williams. 

Sellers will often see several buyers competing to purchase their property, which drives up the price. This is the ideal situation for sellers because they get a great price on their homes.