AIBU (Nosey) to ask how long your house purchases took?

[Manth0914]

First time buyers, just had an offer accepted on an empty, probate property (probate has been granted) mortgage advisor has said she will begin our application now she has all our paperwork. Obviously all the survey/legal bits need doing but what are your experience of time scales from this point to moving in? Also, anyone else a tiny bit terrified about paying so much money back 😣 excited and nervous in equal measures.

[Mamabear88]

We put an offer in in October and exchanged the first week in January. It is a sloooooow process. The Xmas and new year period didn't help matters so at least you won't have that problem!

[Really123456]

@RhubarbBikini. RHUBARB BIKINI!!! 😄💞 Loved that story hahahaha!!!!!!

[Manth0914]

You swapped houses? I've only heard of that in housing association/council properties? Can't believe how long solicitors take. Wish I'd stuck the law course out now 😂

[RhubarbBikini]

I've swapped houses - twice (could only happen in the sticks) the first time was a frigging nightmare, we kept bumping into swappee in the village and had conversations along the lines of " oooh solicitors are so slow" only to find out later she hadn't actually bothered to instruct anyone.

The second time was more straightforward and took 6 weeks.

We paid a proper solicitor each time, rather than a bucket shop conveyancor.

[Bananabixfloof]

Oh I have to tell you about the first house I bought too. I was in the end a absolute wreck. It took just over a year. I think that's when my grey hair started happening.

[Bananabixfloof]

The house I'm in right now was a probate sale. Before you cry at how long it took, we were in no rush and didnt push anything til the last month. 8 months.
We finally decided to push it as it was getting silly. It was just solicitors not doing much because neither party was phoning every week for updates.
I reckon it could have been done in 8 weeks easily.

And with my first, yes I was terrified at the amount to pay back, but not terrified too because I knew I would pay it and one day it would be mine.

[PanamaPattie]

It took 8 months to buy an empty property. The solicitors were arguing over a ransom strip of land.

[meredithgrey1]

Four months.

Two properties in the chain and we were selling a leasehold flat which held things up a bit as we needed the management company to provide various documents and they dragged their feet a bit.

[StCharlotte]

When I did conveyancing on new builds my record was a guy (FTB) reserved a property on Tuesday, picked up the keys on the Friday. It was the builder's year end so I they would move mountains to get them through. Not sure that could happen now thanks to due diligence requirements etc (which is a good thing!).

When we bought this house we had a short chain but the buyer at the bottom was a foot-dragging wanker so it took five months - and that was with two of the four parties in the chain doing their own conveyancing.

[lesleyw1953]

In my experience any solicitors recommended by Purple Bricks take a ridiculous length of time

[Manth0914]

It seems a never ending story for some, fingers crossed for a speedy one!

[moonlight1705]

When I was selling my empty flat to a property developer it took 5 months due to the fact that the building had a crap management company who refused to sign simple things to get everything moving.

It took until I went with my newborn DD directly to their offices and stood over them to sign the forms that things got moving.

[HelloCanYouHearMe]

11 months for the first house
5 months for the second

I refuse to do it again!

[Trahira]

It took us 3 months (both times).

[Bubblysqueak]

6 weeks from first viewing to the day we moved. We part exchanged our house for a new build and everything was ridiculously quick.

[Mintjulia]

I placed an offer in July and moved in on Oct 7th.

But the chain were all stalling and our tenancy was about to end, so I had to threaten to walk away, and then we exchanged and completed in three days.

[Ofalltheginjoints]

4 months but mainly our fault as our mortgage broker was useless, DP is self employed so mortgage was taking extra time and the broker wasn’t passing on the requests for information, after 3 months I approached a different broker and they got me the mortgage on my own which sped the whole process up and from mortgage approval to completion was 4 weeks including Christmas though the solicitor had already done the searches

Good luck OP we moved in the middle of last month and having somewhere which is ours is amazing and much cheaper then the rent we were paying

[Dinosaursdontgrowontrees]

Oh goodness we are currently going through this currently 6 months in and no sign of the end in sight.. it’s frustrating to say the least.

[Espress0Patronum]

9 and half weeks from offer accepted to completion. First time buyer and no chain, and I remember thinking, what is possible taking so long

[Penners99]

Yes 25 months. Over 2 years

[OneInEight]

Too long. We tried to sell our house in 2014. Three buyers First dropped out after 2 months. Second dropped out after 3 months. We told the 3rd buyers where to go after 4 months after we had got totally fed up with the lies and delaying tactics. They were not pleased. Contrary to how it appears there was nothing wrong with the house just time-wasting buyers. The moral of the story is do not assume the deal is done until the completion date.

[PenScribble]

@Penners99 25 months? That's over 2 years. Do you mean days?

Ours took 8 weeks.

[1moreRep]

went on the market in July, sold in 24 hours, completed September

[Persu]

1. 6 weeks
   
2. went to probate as vendor died; 4 months
   
3. waiting for vendor's new build to be, well, built, 3 months.

[zelbazinnamon]

First house we bought, 28 days. It was a repossession and that was a condition of sale.

House buying now, it will have been about 8 weeks by the time we move in. Christmas probably slowed us down a bit & we chose a slightly later date for completion to fit i with work etc (chain of 3, both top & bottom of chain going in rented).