Is 4 months too long to expect someone to wait for completion?

[Melbourme]

I'd like to put my property on the market soon but don't want to complete until 4 months time for a few reasons (mainly that I have a bond that is maturing in 4 months time that I will want to use). I'd be happy to exchange before that time but not complete - is that too long to expect a buyer to wait do you think?

I think it may take a little while to find a new property in any case as there is very low supply at the moment with properties snapped up immediately and the market is so buoyant local estate agents are refusing to even let you view properties until the one you're selling is under offer.

I'm not sure what a 'normal' time period is between making an offer and completion - I think when we bought our current property it took two months with some difficulties over the freehold but we were both chain free.

The process takes on average 12 weeks from offer to completion so unless you sell quickly it is unlikely to become an issue.

if the market is that buoyant, yours will sell very quickly and you call the shots - so as long as you let buyers know your plans, it should work.

with searches I think absolute minimum from offer to complete is 6 weeks, and that's buying a chain free house.

good luck!

As long as you are up front about it, then it's up to the buyer whether they are happy to go ahead on that basis.

Making someone wait 4 months under false pretences (e.g. Pretending you had finance sorted when you didn't, which it seems some people do) would be unfair, but if you're open about it I can!'t see a problem. And as the poster above says, only a problem if you sell immediately anyway.

As mentioned already, do be upfront about it. We put an offer in on our present property. As there were only us and them in the chain we suggested completing in approx. eight weeks at that time, although, we'd happily have done it earlier if they preferred. Had no feedback on this, so thought they were happy. It took six weeks before we even heard from their solicitor and everything got dragged out - they hadn't told us they couldn't complete for 4.5 months due to a penalty. In the meantime, we had to move out of our flat and in with my Mum - we were lucky we had somewhere to go.

Yy tell the agent you won't be able to complete to the middle of July (or whatever the date is), and they need to make any prospective buyers aware of this. But start marketing ASAP, it may take that long anyway even if it proceeds normally.

When we bought tHe house we are in now we were doing the move out from London, and wanted the DC to be in their new schools in September, but to finish at their schools in London at the end of term in July. We put it on the market in February, ) let the agent know our timescale I.e. moving date would have to be anytime after middle of July but before beginning of September), got a buyer immediately, exchanged in April with a completion date of 25th July.

The key is being upfront with everyone I think.

As long as you are upfront about it, it shouldn't be an issue. We did exactly that. We agreed to a quick exchange but pushed out completion to October so that we could give ourselves time to find a house without moving into rental. Our buyers also agreed to move completion forward if necessary but they were flexible as they were BTL investors. When we were buying, it meant we were chain free

Thanks for all the replies, this is really useful and reassuring! And good to know the average time is 3 months anyway so hopefully an extra month shouldn't put people off too much.