Offer to completion in 9 weeks. Possible?

[brokenshoes]

We've had two buyers pull out for two completely unrelated reasons. I don't want to pick over the reasons they dropped out, but suffice to say we have been very, very unlucky and it isn't the case there is one particular problem with our flat that has put both buyers off.

We now find ourselves in a situation where our mortgage offer expires in about 9 weeks time (end of March). We're going to see if our mortgage company will extend the offer, but it seems unlikely without us having to go through the mortgage application process again from scratch.

In addition, the vendor of the house we're buying has waited 5 months for us and although she isn't happy, she will give us until the end of March to complete. After this date she will re-market her house at a higher price than we are paying.

Both times we've had our flat on the market we've had multiple viewings, several offers and have secured buyers in less than a week. Our estate agents are doing an open house this Saturday with best and final offers to be submitted by the end of the day and are confident that we will be able to proceed with a new buyer on Monday.

So, assuming this is the case, what can we do to push things along as quickly as possible? I will obviously be calling the estate agents several times a week to check on progress, but rather than simply asking "how are things going", I want to be able to ask specific questions such as "have the local authority searches been done yet?" (it turned out our most recent ex-buyer's solicitor hadn't undertaken the searches three months into the process...)

What other specific questions should we be asking to make sure we get answers, rather than being fobbed off?

8 weeks is possible. We exchanged on our house within 5 weeks from making our offer.

Instead of going for the highest bidder make sure you select someone who is chain free and either a cash buyer or who can evidence that they have a mortgage agreed in principal with their lender already. The banks are being slow at the moment though so even if everything goes to plan (I have friends whose bank has been very slow organising the valuation) but its worth a shot.

Thanks LondonGirl. Absolutely. Given the situation we're in we're not worried about maximising how much we get (within reason). I think our best bet would be a cash buy-to-let investor or developer who are used to turning things around quickly.

Do you think keeping it on the market until the survey and searches are back would be a good idea?

we did it in six but we were cash buyers and it was an empty property, so no chain either side.

the usual holds are:

• searches: make sure those are requested ASAP. Some councils take a long time for these so find out the turnround time at yours, one call will do it. Same for water searches.
• planning etc: any 'funnies' about the house will slow things down.
• slow solicitors and vendors; if your vendor is in a hurry then she needs to return all documents in a day, and keep kicking her solicitor. You do the same with yours. Nothing should sit on a solicitor's desk for more than a day. Check everyone's holiday plans and that deputies are in place.

We're ready to exchange on the house we're buying, so it's a case of concentrating on getting our sale through. Luckily our conveyancer is a relative so although he is busy he will prioritise us.

Just so nervous. It took about 5 weeks for our previous buyer's survey to be done. The surveyor confirmed that there is a backlog of work due to the upturn in the market. He said that some surveyors have about an 8 week waiting time. We just don't have that long.

Are you in London? If you want to keep the pressure on then yes, be clear that until the survey is booked and the searches are requested, the property will stay on the market. The fair of being gazumped in a rising market will work as a motivating factor for your buyer.

We're in Bromley, and prices are definitely going up around here.

Just spoken to our ea and they have 17 people confirmed for open day.

we did it in 3.5 weeks. already had submitted all mortgage info but found a different house to buy. solicitor worked v hard for us and everything just came together. exchanged on a Tuesday and completed on the Friday. I was 5 weeks off delivery of dd2

if you have a number of good offers choose on the basis of who is ready to move?

We're just about to complete in 8 weeks, with Christmas in the middle (which effectively meant 2 weeks when nothing at all happened).

Very, very stressful and it did involve all parties (chain of 4) having to hand deliver all documents and go in and sign things in person to save delays with posting out letters.

We had been among for 28 days but it got slowed down by searches taking longer than expected and suervys taking longer to arrange than hoped (surveyors rushed off their feet it seems right now).

We did first viewing to moving in in 6 weeks. We were moving from a rental so had nothing to sell, and it involve DH on the phone every day to the mortgage co. to chase things along, as they were the sticking point. We had two good sets of solicitors and neither us or the buyers were playing silly buggers.

Yes it is possible, we accepted an offer on our house on February 7th last year and had completed by March 22nd. He was chain free.

We made it a condition of accepting the offer that the survey had to be completed in 14 days. They also had to be able to provide evidence to our EA that financing was in place. Good luck!

We went from offer to completion in just over 6 weeks, and that included having to reapply for our mortgage as our offer had run out. Fortunately we had a great mortgage broker, and fantastic solicitor who was really on top if things. It was definitely worth paying a bit more for him.

We recently did 8 weeks. That was just before Christmas.
Meant constant bugging of our solicitor, she must really hate us now! Even with the bugging paperwork was sat on her desk for over a week!

It took 76 days to complete on our flat from day of offer to moving out. However, our on going purchase fell apart just before exchange (we'd had problems getting a mortgage on it and something we weren't happy with on the deeds was released at the last minute) and more and more it was telling us this property wasn't right, so we pulled out. We didn't want to loose our purchaser, and ended up with family for 3.5 months.

When we moved it was all done and dusted in 6 weeks, so I think you can make it! As with others we'd used a mortgage broker and our Solicitor was a relative, so that might have helped to speed things up.

Yes! We did it in eight weeks this summer (baby born minutes later ). We went with an online conveyancing firm that our EA worked with, and barely had to do any nagging as our EA did it all for us. We'd have been even quicker if our seller hadn't used a solicitor based several hundred miles away and then insisted on hand delivering important documents
Good luck.

bug solicitors, especially lazy ones where paperwork doesn't shift for a week. They work for YOU!

Tomorrow we have more than 30(!) potential buyers lined up for our open day. Wowzer.

Our EA is saying to people we want to exchange in 4 weeks. It is possible, it seems.

Fingers' crossed.

The for sale board went up at our old house on the 12th October and we moved into the new one on the 18th December. We were part of a chain which included mortgages. It can be done quickly but it was very stressful, part of the stress probably came from the chain wanting to be done by Christmas though. I don't think the pressure would have been so high if it hadn't have been December.

We took exactly 9 weeks for all 3 of our sales/purchases. Could have been quicker with 1 of those. So, I'd say yes.