Wanting to exchange in 28 days - any advice?

[moomiemoo]

We've sold our house to a chain-free buyer and should be ready to exchange next week. We'll move mid-November and put stuff in storage and stay with the in-laws till we've completed on the new house.

We put an offer in on a house that's chain-free on Saturday and everyone has agreed to try and exchange in 28 days to complete mid-December. I am SO excited about the possibility of being in our new house before Christmas but worried that we won't manage to exchange quickly enough.

Has anyone else had experience of a quick exchange? Any Advice?

We should have completed on our sale by then and have a fab mortgage broker who is ready to proceed with our mortgage application.

We completed in 6 weeks once because there was no chain above or below us but I think that was unusually fast

I have moved house twice and both times it appeared very straightforward to me (very small chains both times) but seemed to take bloody ages to exchange (didn't manage it in 28 days). So my advice would be to be on the phone all the time to your solicitors, the estate agent, the mortgage broker and anyone else to chase chase chase them. No one will care as much about a quick exchange as you and it is 100% up to you to make it happen. Even if you think you are paying professionals to make it happen.

Be absolutely sure every day exactly where everyone is up to, and ask them when x, or y, is going to happen, and ring them as soon as it's meant to have happened.

I would say that you will probably be in by Christmas as the lawyers / estate agents won't want it dragging on over the Christmas break (and they all close down for ages over Christmas), but you might not manage it in 28 days. We moved in on 21 December last year and it was tight...

Good luck! I think you will be sitting round a lovely Christmas tree in your new house by 25 December!

Our chains were:

1st house: we were first-time buyers, house we bought was chain-free

2nd house (current one): our buyers were first-time buyers, and we were moving into an empty, chain-free house.

Echo what Wigeon said. Keep on the phone to your solicitor, the estate agent, the mortgage broker, etc all of the time. Remember, yours is only one of many transactions for them.

If you hear nothing for days/weeks, don't assume everything is going ahead. Assume nothing has happened!

Good luck.

Thanks.

I think 28 days is pushing it - but if everyone is working to that hopefully it won't drag on too long beyond that.

Great advice wigeon - I'm good at nagging so will get straight onto everyone tomorrow morning.

I know everyone else is keen to move too...fingers crossed!

Flex those nagging muscles!

Remember remember: you are the only one truely working towards the 28 days - the others really don't care (even if they say they do and even if you are paying them ££££s - they will still get their £££s even if it's 6 weeks).

Oh - final bit of advice - even on the day of completion, be on the phone all day - I was amazed that on our completion day the vendors' solicitor suddenly couldn't be contacted for hours and hours, and the bank transfers take a certain amount of hours and can only happen within the working day. To their credit, the vendors' estate agents were on the point of actually walking round to the solicitors' offices when he finally picked up the phone. I was almost having kittens!

We completed as first time buyers in 28 days. Our sellers had a chain onwards.

You have to be naggy and bossy and on the ball.

Seriously. You would imagine that telling everyone that you wanted to complete in that time would mean that they would get on with it, but they don't. The solicitors will just assume that it will be ok to delay by a few days. You have to nag nag nag all the time. We HAD to move by 28 days because of school dates so I had that motivation.

Wigeon is right - you are the only one working on it. Don't think that anyone else has any sense of urgency, because they don't.

Get a decent solicitor is the key IMO. No amount of nagging works with a slow and unmotivated solicitor - if they are cheap get another one. A brilliant solicitor makes a huge difference.

I think it is just about possible but you would be taking some risks such as exchange and completion on the same day (so no pre-completion searches). It also depends on whether the standard searches throw up any further search requirements or oddities that require mortgagee consent - even the best solicitor in the world can't predict those.

If it is really important to you, speak frankly with your solicitor up front about their workload too (and get the seller to do the same) - you need someone on both sides committed to making it happen.

I bought a house exchanged and completed in 14 days. We had 5 days between exchange and completion. It can be done if you have all a mortgage etc already lined up.

I exchanged on the house I'm buying within 3 weeks. The vendors had got to the point of exchange with a previous buyer when the buyer pulled out so they had all the paperwork in place - your vendor basically needs to be completely on the ball and supply everything they are asked for when they are asked for it.

Thanks everyone for the advice. Good to know it can be done quickly if everyone is motivated.

Found out last night that my friend's baby is seriously ill in hospital. We're waiting to hear if she made it through the night. Puts my worries into perspective.

Sorry. Shouldn't have put that last bit - needed to let it out but this wasn't the right place.