Timing is everything when it comes to buying and selling property, carefully choosing when to make an offer can be the difference between getting your dream home, sometimes even at a discounted price, or losing out to someone else who got there first because they were smart enough to make an offer on the dates and times specified below.  Spring is always a good time to buy a house as the property market is flooded in the season of spring, there are lots of people selling their houses.  Unfortunately, this means that there are also a lot of people who are buying houses during this season, this increases your chances of being caught up in a bidding war or narrowly missing out to another couple. With this in mind December and January months are actually a much better time for buying your home. Less people want to house hunt in the colder months meaning that there is less competition when it comes to putting in an offer.  Furthermore, sellers are stressing over Christmas and the costs involved in Christmas, making them all the more eager to sell. In December house prices fall to a 12 month low, therefore, if you can buy a house in December you can  severely reduce the amount to pay for it. Christmas Day is the best time to make an offer on a property for two main reasons.  Firstly, not many people spend Christmas day putting in offers an trying to buy a property, if you are the only person to put in an offer on that particular day (therefore the seller has no other offers on the table) it is more likely to be accepted. Secondly, people are happier around Christmas time, never underestimate the difference catching the seller in a good mood can have, they may even accept an offer that was lower than they previously wanted to go, just because it’s Christmas. Another good day to make an offer on a house is Easter Sunday, for similar reasons to Christmas day, no-one else really looks for or tried to buy a house on Easter Sunday and so your offer may be the only one on the table and might get accepted before the Easter holiday is over. If this is going to be your intention, ensure your estate agents works on these days too.The best day of the month to put in an offer on a property is the first Tuesday of the month.  This is because sellers will have just had to pay their mortgage payment for the month, and on a house they no longer want to live in, this might give them a feeling of just wanting to just “get rid”, which means you may be able to get a better deal out of them. If you are moving from rented accommodation into your own property and are unsure if now is the best time to make this move, try calculating the rent ratio to get a better idea.  To calculate this first locate two properties that are similar in size, location and value.  Divide the listing price of the property for sale, by the cost it would cost you in one year in rental charges, the resulting number is the rent ratio.  When this number is around 20 it means that it is much more costly to buy your own home than it is to rent, and ideal number you are looking for here is around 10.