Spring is all about new beginnings, which is likely one of the reasons why those first few weeks of fabulous sunshine and longer days trigger more potential buyers to start looking for a new home. Bankrate.com notes that for sellers, putting a home on the market in the spring is the golden opportunity to get the biggest return on their real estate investment. This is especially true for northern areas like Vancouver and Ottawa.

Of course, like most things, the season comes with both pros and cons.

The Pros

Greater chance of a bidding war. With more buyers looking, there’s a greater chance that your home will be caught up in a bidding war, a battle that’s great for the seller. The buyers will try to offer better and better deals, and you’ll be able to evaluate and choose the safest, sweetest and the fastest deal. If there are buyers who urgently want to move in, they may even come with cash down deposit.

Curb appeal. With spring comes lush grass and flowers in bloom, allowing buyers to truly see your property at its best, assuming you’ve taken good care of that yard. If your lawn looks great, your gardens are full of color, and foliage has returned to your trees, buyers are going to get a much better impression than they’d get when everything looks dry and sparse.

It’s easier to get your home ready-to-sell. Just before you put your home on the market, there will probably be lots of things on your to-do list. Many of those things are tough to do in winter, from pruning the trees and cleaning gutters to painting the fence. When the sun is out and it’s getting warmer, it’s much easier to accomplish it all.

You can be choosier about your buyers. If you’re having a hard time with the idea of someone else living in your home, spring is a good time for picky sellers who want to have more control over who will live there. You’ll have a better chance of finding a buyer that you know is going to treat your home like you would, with plenty of love and care.

A better closing date. If you sell your home in the spring, you’ll get to move when the weather is warmer, if not during the season itself, most likely in the summer. That’s a much better time to move, with kids out of school and the weather decent.

The Cons

The competition can be tough. Because this is often the busiest selling season, you may face some tough competition. That means you’ll have to put in the extra effort to make sure your place stands above the rest. Make sure you’ve made any minor repairs and that it’s properly maintained in addition to staging your house in the best possible light. It may be worth hiring a staging expert as you could reap more profit in the long run than what you’ll pay for the service

Buyers can be pickier. If there are more houses on the market in your neighborhood, that means buyers have more options so they may be pickier. Keep in mind that those potential buyers probably aren’t just looking at your home, but multiple options.