Sold by Christmas, or Christmas in the new house: what Griffith sellers and buyers need to do this week

Christmas Day is a Friday this year, and it’s ten weeks away.

Ten weeks sounds like plenty. It isn’t, once you count in how a property sale actually runs: the preparation, the campaign, the contract, the finance, the settlement, the removalists. Every one of those has a lead time, and most of them have a deadline that doesn’t move for anybody, which is the week the banks and the land registry slow down.

So this post isn’t about whether it can be done in Griffith. It can. It’s about what each side of the deal needs to do, starting now, so that one of you is sold and the other is sitting down to Christmas lunch in a house that’s theirs.

The date everything works back from

Friday 18 December is the last comfortable settlement day of the year. After it you’re inside a week of public holidays, reduced staff at the lenders, and very little room if anything goes wrong.

That date also happens to be the buyer’s best result: keys on the Friday, a full weekend and a week of normal days to unpack, and Christmas morning in your own place. Settle on the 23rd and you’re moving boxes on Christmas Eve. It can be done, and plenty of people have done it, but it’s a different Christmas.

Count back from 18 December and the whole timeline falls out:

• A 30-day settlement means exchanging contracts by Wednesday 18 November.
• A 42-day settlement (the standard NSW default) means exchanging by Friday 6 November.
• A 21-day settlement means exchanging by Friday 27 November, which is possible, but only for a buyer with their finance already finished.

Everything else is working back from the exchange date. Which is where the two sides of this deal start to look different.

If you’re selling: this is the launch week

Griffith houses have been taking somewhere in the high thirties to low forties of days to sell. Call it 40. An average isn’t a promise, and a well-priced, well-presented home can go much faster, but it’s the honest planning number.

Put 40 days in front of a 27 November exchange (the latest date that still works with a 21-day settlement) and your launch date is around 18 October. For a 30-day settlement and an 18 November exchange it was 9 October, which has already passed.

None of that means the window has shut. It means the decision is a this-week decision, not a “let’s see how we feel in November” decision. A few things make the difference:

Have the contract drawn before you go live. A contract sitting with your conveyancer before the first inspection is the biggest single time saving available to a seller. It costs a phone call.

Be open to the settlement term. Thirty days is normal. Twenty-one is workable for the right buyer. The standard 42 days is a default, not a rule, and the date on the front page of the contract is negotiable like everything else.

Price it on current evidence. A property that starts above the market and then drops loses weeks it can’t afford before Christmas. This is the time of year to be sharp about the starting number, not hopeful.

Know your fallback. If the timeline doesn’t fit, a considered January launch is a good outcome in a market with around 25 houses listed. The outcome to avoid is the in-between: listing in late November, sitting through December, and starting the new year as a property that’s already been around for six weeks.

If you’re buying: Christmas in your own place starts with a phone call to your broker

If you want to be unpacking by Christmas, your real deadline isn’t settlement. It’s the day you’re ready to make an offer, and that date is earlier than most buyers expect.

Work back from 18 December again. A 30-day settlement means your contract is exchanged by 18 November. In NSW there’s normally a five business day cooling-off period after exchange, so the offer that leads to that contract needs to be accepted and the paperwork moving in the week before. And lenders typically need weeks to take a loan from application to signed documents, with cut-offs for Christmas settlements that fall in November and early December. Ask your broker for this year’s exact dates now, because those are the ones that matter, and they aren’t the same at every lender.

So the buyer’s checklist reads in this order:

1. Pre-approval first. Before you inspect, not after you fall in love with something.
2. Know your buffer. The RBA lifted the cash rate to 4.60% on 29 September, its fourth rise this year, and Cotality puts the hit to an average couple’s borrowing power at around $94,700 since January. Run your numbers at today’s rate with room to spare, not at the number you hoped for in the summer.
3. Tell the agent you can settle in 30 days. In a market this tight, being able to do that is worth real money to a seller who’s trying to beat the same calendar.
4. Book the practical things early. Building and pest, the conveyancer, removalists. December fills up quickly in a regional town.

A buyer who’s organised in October is in a much better position than one who finds the right house on 20 November and starts the loan application the next day.

Why Griffith makes this a seller’s calendar

National coverage says it’s a buyers’ market. In Griffith, it’s more complicated than that. Stock on market has been tight all year, with roughly 25 houses listed at any one time, and Griffith recorded the strongest increase in buyer enquiry per listing of any suburb in NSW in the twelve months to March. House values are still up 10.6% on the year, with Cotality putting the median house value at about $635,865.

What that means in practice: there are buyers, and they have limited choice. The ones still looking after four rate rises are, on the whole, the ones who’ve done their sums. That’s good news for a seller whose property is priced and presented properly, and for a buyer, it means the well-prepared get the pick of a short list. It also means the sensible buyer shouldn’t expect to find twenty options in November.

What this means for you

If you’re selling: call your conveyancer and book your appraisal this week. If the target is a pre-Christmas settlement, the campaign needs to be live in the next ten days, with the contract ready and a settlement term you’ve already thought about. If the timeline doesn’t fit, plan a proper January launch on purpose.

If you’re buying: get pre-approved now, ask your broker for their Christmas cut-off dates, and be ready to offer on a 30-day settlement. If you find the right place in early November, you’ll still have time. If you start looking in late November, you probably won’t.

If you’re investing: a pre-Christmas settlement also puts the purchase or sale inside this financial year, which your accountant may want to know about before you lock a date. With vacancy near 1% and median house rent around $523 a week, there’s no shortage of tenants for a property settled in time to be let for January. Tenants move heavily in December and January in Griffith.

If you’re downsizing or upsizing: this is the hardest version of the calendar because you’re on both sides of it. Talk to us before you list so the two settlements can be lined up in the same week.

The bottom line

Christmas in a new house, or a sale you can switch off from, both come from the same piece of arithmetic: 18 December, minus a settlement period you’ve negotiated, minus the time to sell, minus the time to prepare. Count it back and it points to this fortnight.

Know your numbers. Pick your date. Start the conversation while there’s still room on the calendar.

Know your numbers. Know your market. Feels right.

Please note: this is general information only, not financial, tax or legal advice. Settlement periods, lender cut-off dates, days on market and market figures vary by property and transaction, and an average is not a guarantee of how any individual property will perform. Confirm your own position with your conveyancer, broker and accountant before you commit.