How long to complete purchase?

[fruitqueen]

I am a first time purchaser so please forgive my ignorance here but how long would a purchase of a property take after deciding that that property is the one we want? Is 3 months the norm?

I would say an average of 12 weeks, all depends on the number of people in the chain though, but I would say 12 weeks is a safe bet.

I've bought three times and it's taken 3 - 4 months each time and that's with relatively short chains (last time 4 in the chain and it took 4 months).

To some extent, it will depend on how many are in the chain - the more there are, the higher the chance it will be longer as there'll be a few having to sort paperwork out.

When I sold my flat a few years ago, it took 10 weeks and there was just the buyer and myself in chain. We then went onto purchase our home and it took nearly four months as other side delayed sending paperwork out as they didn't want to move before a certain time (and didn't tell us!).

We've done it 3 times and offer to completion has been 6 weeks (no chain), 5 months (no chain but PITA vendor and we should have walked away with the benefit of hindsight), and 8 weeks with Christmas in the middle which effectively meant 6 working weeks ( chain of 4 but everyone eager to move quickly).

So it would be about 3 months chain free?

We are bottom of the chain and so far we're on month 4. Not our solicitors... Theirs!
Blasé is not the word for those showers.

We've exchanged today and we accepted the offer on our flat in early Nov. When we complete it will be 4 months exactly. 6 in the chain so actually pretty good going time wise I think (so stressful though!).