Sell your house at the wrong time and the consequences of that careless decision will haunt you down the road.

Hang on too long when you’re in financial trouble and you could end up with a foreclosure or short sale. Jump the gun out of fear when the market’s down, and you’ll miss the upswing right around the corner. Want to stay for the memories but not the maintenance? Prepare to watch your home’s value chip away every year and net less in the end.

When you set out to buy a home, a mortgage lender helps to make sure you’re ready with a look into your income, credit history, and cash reserves. But when you question “Should I sell my house now or wait?” it’s on you — and only you — to make a smart move.

So start here. Let’s review the signs it’s time to let go of the house even when your heart fights back, how to know when to stick it out a little longer, and the tools and resources you need to make a decision with all the facts in front of you.

Signs you should sell the house: How to listen to the market, analyze your financials, and figure out what’s next

“There are a lot of factors you have to consider when you are making a move you out of your current property,” said Todd Schroth, a top-selling agent in Wekiwa Springs, Florida.

“What’s your long-term plan? Have you identified where you want to move once you sell? Are you moving up or are you moving down? Are you moving out of the area?”

Whether you can’t keep up with your mortgage or your house has skyrocketed in value, these are the sure signs that now’s the time to sell—don’t hesitate another minute to get the ball rolling.

1. You’ve seen strong home price growth in your area for several years and the market generally favors home sellers.

As they say in the world of stocks: buy low, sell high. You bought a house with the intent of building wealth. Sell it at the opportune moment and you could push your potential windfall from this investment to the ceiling.

For this strategy to work, first you need to understand how the value of your house fits into the larger housing market picture. Not confident in your ability to read the real estate tea leaves? Then stick to the basics with a review of your local market inventory and the price trends in your area.

NAR puts out a monthly existing-home sales report that shows the state of inventory across the nation and breaks it down by region. Inventory refers to the number of homes for sale on the market. “Months of supply” of inventory represents how long it would take to sell all those homes up for grabs. If your market drops below 3 months worth of inventory, seller’s have the clear advantage, putting you in the position to command a higher price and make few to no concessions.

Next, you can check the Case-Shiller national index, 10-city index, and 20-city composite index for national and metro-level price trends. Real estate is an appreciating asset meaning it gains value over time, but it does fluctuate and move through up-and-down cycles.

In a steady housing market, homes appreciate at a clip of 2%-3%. If you’ve held onto a house for 5-10 years with that kind of growth, you could be in a good place to make a sizable profit.

But price growth can be even more extreme: Over the period of 2017-2018, white-hot markets such as Seattle and Las Vegas, for example, saw price gains of 15%-20% but tempered in 2018’s latter half, making 2019 an excellent time to sell a house in many markets across the U.S. Now analysts are saying 2020 is the “bonus” year for selling your house that no one saw coming.

The bottom line is you want to ride a home price run-up as long as you can while values are still at their peak, collect your maximum proceeds before prices cool again.

2. Your sale lines up with local seasonal trends and buyer behavior in your market.

Believe it or not you can tweak the timing of your home sale even closer to perfection with clues from real estate transaction data. In fact, HomeLight found that you can boost the profits on your house by 75% and cut weeks off your days on market by selling at just the right moment.

Traditional wisdom has it that the best time to sell your house is in the spring when the weather warms up and buyers come out in force—and this is true in many markets. But seasonal trends differ from city to city, so you could benefit from a fall, summer, or even winter sale depending on the weather, competition from other sellers, and buyer behavior.

We analyze millions of transactions to crunch the data on when homes sell faster and for the most money on a local level. So rather than throw a dart at the calendar, use our Best Time to Sell Calculator to find out the best (and worst) months to sell a house in your city and plan accordingly.