When to look to buy a house?

[Flowersandwine47]

We have been given notice on our rented property. We will be here until December. I'm driving myself potty already looking at houses online but if I'm not moving until December (November at the earliest, for saving/deposit reasons) then buying next month won't work.

I guess I'm just unsure of the time scale of things. I've told myself to put it away and not look until August.

Does that look more realistic, start looking in Aug, hopefully find something in aug/Sept for a move in Dec? Please be kind, I know I'm ignorant on this topic

It's not controllable

Online you will find the average completion times for your area but 5 months or more from having an offer accepted is not unusual

But it's the uncertainty- you will need a back up plan

I'd say if you want to be out by December then you need to start looking soon. Conveyancing (the bit where the solicitors do all their searches and contract writing) takes a minimum of eight weeks. Usually longer. Then, the actual search can take a while. Unless you are looking for something very common for your area?

You also need to arrange getting an Agreement in Principal from a Broker, as this (plus evidence of a deposit) shows that you are proceedable. Most estate agents won't take a house off the market unless the offer has come from someone in a position to proceed.

Start looking, absolutely. My recent purchase took 5 months, there is no way to tell how long it might take. If you offer on a house the owner might then need to find a house to buy, which could take months.

If you can afford a small crossover on rent and mortgage then I would start offering on properties now!

For context we put our house up for sale august , offer received mid September, sold that house end of February ( no chain ) and moved in with family for a month or 6 weeks before we could complete our purchase

^you do need a plan B though too, in case you don't get a purchase through by December.

I would start looking now

We had a no chain sale (empty house, bought by cash buyer) take 5 months for conveyancing

Are there plenty of possible properties for you to view?

Are you able to get your mortgage in principle yet though as many agents will need that before they put an offer forward?

Look at properties around 10% below what you can afford as the vast majority are going for offers a fair bit above asking

Start now!!!!

our empty, chain free house took us 7 months to buy

Thank you so much for the replies, it's the conveyancing stuff I'm really clueless about

I've got a MIP and 80% of my deposit in hand, the other 20% is guaranteed but not liquidated until Sept.

Tbh looking yesterday there were 2 within our budget I'd consider viewing and 2 just out of our ideal budget (but within MIP). I've been browsing for a while and hardly anything seems to be coming up

I would start now, not much usually comes onto the market in August, due to summer hols etc. It would be more luck than judgement, whether you could find something and move in to coincide with your rental. Totally depends on the complexity of the chain. We moved last year, all buying cash from sale, so no mortgages to consider, still took 4mths.

Definitely start looking now. Also factor in that houses might well be going for quite a lot more than they are marketed for so you might need to reduce the budget for the houses you are looking at i.e. my friend had a £260 budget and was looking for houses for sale up to around 230 because anything on for more than that would go for more than they could afford. In the end it has taken them ten months so far and their chain has collapsed once because their original vendor couldn't find anywhere to move to.

We have bought twice. First time we offered in late June, moved in November, second we offered at Easter, moved in September. So I would start looking now if I were you.

Also there is traditionally a degree of seasonality with house sales. People tend to wait for spring to list (unless time pressured). Things will come on now but less so later in the summer

I've got a MIP and 80% of my deposit in hand, the other 20% is guaranteed but not liquidated until Sept

You need to consider the fact that a seller may not take their house off the market for you if you cannot show proof of entire deposit. What would be the knock on if you sued the 80% figure as the whole deposit?

Factoring in looking, offering, searches, surveys and purchases falling through we have now been actively trying to buy for TWO YEARS. Currently on month 5 of house number 4, with no sign of completion yet.

I think we've been particularly unlucky, but its brutal out there so I'd say start now and act fast.

Remember OP, whoever you buy from also needs to find a house. It's likely they will want a few months after theirs goes off the market to find somewhere for themselves.

It might be worth you looking at new builds, if there’s any in the location you want? There wouldn’t be any chain to worry about then and they can be a bit more definite about when a house would become available.

it took us 2 months ( October-November) from viewing to completion but the house was empty already so no chain. However it took us about 2 years of house hunting to get to that point: some houses we didn’t like, some houses we liked but lost in best and final.