There are only 14 weeks until Christmas, which means that if you’re hoping to be settled and in your new home by Christmas, we need to start talking now.
On average, it takes Your Key Advocacy around 40 days to find and secure the right home for our clients. Add a fairly standard 60-day settlement, and there is still time — but there isn’t much time to waste.
That doesn’t mean rushing into the first property you see. It means approaching the search with a clear brief, realistic expectations and a strategy designed to make every week count.
One of the biggest ways buyers lose time is by focusing on properties that aren’t realistically achievable. A home may be advertised within budget, but comparable sales, buyer interest and local market conditions might suggest it will sell well above the quoted range.
Spending weeks inspecting and pursuing properties you were never realistically going to secure can be both exhausting and demoralising. It can also leave you scrambling as Christmas gets closer.
Part of my role is helping clients understand what their budget can genuinely achieve — and where. That may mean refining the brief, adjusting expectations or looking slightly beyond the original search area. These conversations aren’t always easy, but they help ensure we’re spending time on homes that have a genuine chance of becoming yours.
Once we find the right property, we also need to be ready to move.
That means having finance organised, understanding the property’s value, completing the necessary due diligence and being prepared to negotiate quickly when the situation calls for it. My relationships with local agents, building inspectors, conveyancers and other trusted professionals can help keep everything moving when timing is tight.
It doesn’t mean cutting corners. It means knowing which corners need to be checked — and having the right people ready to check them.
As we move closer to December, urgency tends to build on both sides of the transaction. Buyers want to secure something before the year ends, while many vendors are equally motivated to have their property sold and settled before Christmas.
That can create opportunities, including the possibility of negotiating a shorter settlement. But it can also create extra competition, which is why having a clear understanding of value and a firm limit becomes even more important.
Of course, wanting to be in a new home by Christmas doesn’t mean you should buy a home just to be in one by Christmas.
There is still a balance to strike. If the right property doesn’t come along, it is perfectly acceptable to pause over the holiday period and resume the search when fresh stock begins appearing towards the end of January.
But if being home by Christmas is the goal, the best thing you can do is start early.
The more time we have to clarify your brief, set realistic expectations and prepare you to act decisively, the better our chances of securing the right home without making a rushed decision.
So, if you’re hoping to put up the Christmas tree in your new home this year, let’s start the conversation now.
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