How long until exchange - what do you think?

[Daydreaming]

I am (hopefully) buying a house and keen to exchange quickly - vendor is chain free and I am too (have already exchanged on the place I am selling).

Survey and bank's valuation were done on Thursday (but don't have results yet). Searches were sent out on Friday and I already have a mortgage offer (subject to valuation).

Do you think I could be ready to exchange in less than 2 weeks??

[undertheduvet]

when we moved earlier in the year it took nearly 4 months and that was seemingly an easy chain(1st time buyer, us, our sellers, empty house).
Searches in my area usually take at least 2 weeks to come back, however if you stay on top of your solicitor and tell them when you want to exchange and keep on at them, they might be able to do it for you.
Don't forget that exchange isn't the end of the process, that just means that no one can pull out of the sale without financial loss. Only on completion is the house yours, solicitors usally like at least a week between exchange and completion, however it can be done in a much shorter time scale, we exchanged on a thursday and completed the next day!
If i were you I wouldm.t pin your hopes on 2 weeks more realistically you are probably looking at 4 weeks.

Hope your move goes well and is stress free

[Daydreaming]

Thanks undertheduvet.
I know it can take ages - just hoping someone will say "yes, it can be done!"

My solicitor is very good and responsive so I am hoping we can exchange and complete two days later...

[narmada]

The only person who has a hope of answering this question, OP, is your solicitor. He or she will have an inkling of whether it's a straightforward purchase or not, but do bear in mind things can turn up at any point in the process up to exchange (and after) which can slow things down. Can you tell I have had a recent, unexpectedly protracted house purchase??!! Don't want to rain on your parade!

If you have a new mortgage on the new property, this may necessitate a longer period between exchange and completion - 2 weeks was what we ended up needing. The reason for this was twofold - first, we had to get buildings insurance on the new place and it's not simply a matter of ringing up insurer of choice and bob's your uncle. It's likely the solicitor acting for the mortgage lender (who might also be your solicitor) will want proof that the buildings insurance you've taken out meets lending criteria (e.g., it has to be index-linked usually, and other things). It took a few days to extract the relevant certificates and documents from the underwriters...

Our lenders (and I don't think this is uncommon) stipulated that they needed a minimum of 7 working days between the request for drawdown of funds and actually making the funds available to complete the purchase. If we hadn't allowed 7 clear working days there was a risk that the funds would not have been available for completion on the agreed date. That's not a situation you want to find yourself in because you can be liable for fines if you don't complete as agreed.

Sorry, that's very long-winded but have been renovating said new house today and am completely befuzzled.

[Indaba]

We did whole thing in a week, offered, exchanged and completed. Vendor was in dire straights, needed money fast so his solicitor was up for it too.

Our solicitor said it was a challenge and would never do it again and got very drunk once it was all done.

[Daydreaming]

Narmada - that's very helpful thanks!
Inbada - good to get another perspective.

I suspect it will be something like 3 weeks to exchange and then another week to completion... Fingers crossed.

[Indaba]

good luck!