How long should it take?

[absolutmum]

After having my house on the market for a year, dropping the price by £75k we finally accepted an offer!
We are living with my mother at the moment, so the house is vacant. The buyers are first time buyers.
That was 3 months ago. Everything seems to be going so slowly, how long should a house sale with no chain take???

Now off to try to encourage the people whose house we are trying to buy, to find somewhere to move into......

I would have expected it to be very quick in your circumstances. You need to get on the phone and start hassling the solicitor and ring the agent and say you think its too slow!I have bought twice with no chain and it took 3 weeks and 6 weeks. HTH

Thanks Noddy. I have spoken with the agent this week and he thinks it's aperfectly acceptablelength of time! I am not impressed.
Might start hassling the solicitor now.

Our house went from offer being made to moving in about 6 weeks - there was no chain as the buyers were living with a friend and we moved into rented accomodation. It could have been quicker but we needed to still be there for a couple of weeks for me to work.

You need to nag everyone - your solicitor and estate agent. Find out when exchange and completion are scheduled for and keep in touch with them all the time. It may be that more information is needed but you don't know about it. So keep asking them

Have the buyers done their survey?

I have just exchanged on a flat I was selling - FTB, no chain at my end. It took 12 flaming weeks and apparently the buyer was "extremely motivated" . Never underestimate the inability of a FTB to chase up their solicitor, get a survey done, fill in forms, sign contracts and God help you if his or her parents are helping out with the deposit...

I would check that they have actually got full mortgage approval - that could also be a sticking point. Lots of peple get agreement in principle but fall down at the 'real' application stage. They could be shopping around to try and find someone to lend to them - ask for proof that they've sorted their mortgage or at least got their full application in.

I have lived in 5 different houses and have never moved in under 12 weeks from an offer being accepted. I think 6 weeks is very quick, but not the norm. In most cases it was the local authority search that held things up.