Every year around this time, I get the same call: "We're thinking of selling this fall - when should we start getting ready?"
And every year my answer is the same: now.
Not because there's any panic in it, but because the sellers who do well in the fall market are the ones who spend late August preparing while everyone else is still at the cottage.
Here's the checklist I walk my own clients through, refined over years of Markham falls.
Take your exterior photos now. This is the one people most often miss. The serious fall buyers show up the week after Labour Day, but if you list in late September or October, your hero shot gets taken under grey skies and bare branches. Photograph the outside of your home in the next two or three weeks, while the gardens are full and the trees are green. A great late-August exterior photo will carry a November listing. If you're in Unionville, Markham Village or an established pocket like Swan Lake where mature trees and gardens are half the charm, this matters double.
Deal with the small stuff. Buyers in a market like this one are choosier than they were a few years ago, and small flaws read as neglect. Sticky doors, chipped trim, the downspout that's leaned since spring, caulking around tubs and sinks - a weekend and a few hundred dollars here protects tens of thousands in perceived value.
Service what buyers will ask about. Have the furnace serviced and keep the receipt. Clean the eavestroughs. If your roof, windows or A/C are newer, gather the paperwork. Fall buyers are walking into their first heating season; proof that the house is ready for it is quiet, powerful reassurance.
Declutter with moving boxes, not garbage bags. You're moving anyway, so start now. Pack away a third of what's in your closets and half of what's on your surfaces. Rooms photograph larger, and buyers can see the house instead of the household.
Price to this fall, not to memory. The GTA average price sat at $1,003,956 in July, about 4.5% below a year ago - but new listings were down almost 18%, which means well-priced homes face less competition than last fall (source: TRREB Market Watch, July 2026). The winning strategy in this market is pricing against the last 90 days of sales on streets like yours, then letting the tight supply do its work. Anchoring to a 2022 number is how good homes go stale.
Know your buyer. In Berczy and Wismer, fall buyers are often families who want to close in time to settle before the next school year decisions. In Cornell, it's a mix of first-time buyers and young families watching rates. Around Main Street Unionville, it's lifestyle buyers - and honestly, the village sells itself in autumn; there's no better season to show it. Y our preparation, staging and timing should match who's actually coming through the door.
If a fall sale is even a maybe for you, late August is when the groundwork happens. I'm happy to walk through your home, tell you honestly what's worth doing (and what isn't), and put real local numbers behind a pricing conversation. No obligation - just years of Markham falls put to work for you.
Brad