Timescales for moving house

[Musicalstatues]

If you put an offer in on a house now would you think it unreasonable if the vendor said they were looking to complete after Christmas?

We are selling and have already had an offer 2 days in. We are hopefully moving to a project house so would prefer to spend Christmas in our current house if we can. Would you think that was too long? (The house we are hoping to buy currently is rented and they have not yet given the tenants their 2 month notice as they’re waiting for us to have sold anyway)

If the tenants refuse to leave it could be a year.

We had an offer accepted at the beginning of Oct and didn't move till mid Jan so possible although we would have liked it earlier.

It wouldn't have worried me provided I knew that at the outset. Last time we bought and sold we used Christmas as a deadline to get things done. I think we agreed everything in principle around this time in September and completed 15 December. You might want to say you want contacts exchanged before Christmas and completion however many weeks later.

Are you doing your own packing? If so you want enough time to enjoy Christmas before you start to pack.

Where are you? I’m an estate agent in Scotland and on average the sales I deal with are done in 6 weeks. I could have you moved a few times between now and Christmas! But given that there are tenants involved etc I wouldn’t have said after Xmas is overly excessive as long as all parties involved are aware of timescales from the outset.

Icebar we are in England.

It’s one of those awkward things where we didn’t want to wait too long to put it up for sale in case it took longer than we thought and now it seems it’s going to sell really quickly!

Icebear sorry!

both Times we’ve bought before it’s taken 3-4 months

In England we have thought 3 months is normal, assuming that in the chain there are some mortgages to approve and surveys required. I remember moving last on 30th December - as our legal rep worked in between Christmas and New Year and it was quite a good to to move for us as we were both off of work.

I don't think they are being unreasonable as the time is "about right" and a lot of people don't like Christmas to be messed with - personally we like to use the time to get on with stuff . Like you I would prefer it earlier if possible. I guess the tenant issue has complicated matters from their side. It would have been better for them to have obtained vacant possession first but it is what it is.

When we moved 5 years ago, our house went on the market first week in October and we moved the week before Christmas. At one point it looked as if this wasn’t going to happen (our solicitor held the whole chain up with their incompetence) and everyone was getting really annoyed as we all wanted to complete prior to Christmas.

If we had known from the start, we would still have bought this house, but all the time, knowing I would have preferred to move before Christmas so we could have a week off to sort it all out.

As with everything, if you are open and honest from the start everything will be much easier in the long run.

We did tell the estate agents we did not want to move before Christmas - we are going to double check that they have let the people know this.

It’s hard because our current house is lovely and needs no work so if I was looking to buy it I would very much want to be in before Christmas if I could 😂