Tips to speed up buying house ?? Tight timeline !

[Ozster]

We are near the end of selling our house ( all surveys/queries etc done) and are buying a vacant property so no chain.

We had our offer accepted last week and have appointed solicitors and got a AIP.

What now ? How can I speed up the process? Or buyers are getting frustrated so we want to move ASAP.

Thank you

I'd like to know this too! Daily emails to solicitors?! Or is that too much...

CaptainPigeon Sun 11-Apr-21 20:30:15
I'd like to know this too! Daily emails to solicitors?! Or is that too much...

Maybe your own....but one can hardly email someone else's conveyancer (seller's) - if it's they who are being tardy (as is the case in my own ongoing buying situation).

I gone without a survey or searches (and buying cash)....I'm now well into month four !

There are things that take the time it takes. Searches etc, valuations what have you. Bothering your solicitor daily will not help. Just be sure you answer all things promptly. Your solicitor has to practice due diligence - they can't skip part of the process. They have to rely on your seller's solicitors being prompt too.

tanguero Even I'm not that much of a control freak to email someone else's solicitor. But your situation does sound really annoying

From your end get your mortgage application in quickly via a broker who can recommend a provider with fast turnaround. Make sure searches are ordered once you have contract pack, as some local authorities take many weeks to return these.
Ask the estate agent to prompt the sellers solicitor to issue the contracts pack. Chase them to produce required papers early, eg any planning or building regs, property info and fixtures and fittings forms.
That’s about all you can do, I usually email my solicitor every 2 weeks for a progress report and step that up to weekly once most things seem to be in place.

Make sure your solicitors instruct the searches immediately (some prefer to hold off on that until they've received the initial paperwork from the sellers).

And get your actual mortgage application in ASAP (AIP is just to prove you can get the funds when making an offer).

All you can really do is do all of your parts as quick as possible, get searches ordered asap, mortgage application in and survey booked. Unfortunately due to the volume of moves everything is slower than usual, so there might be a limit. Your buyers sound like they have been very patient and very good if they have done everything and shelled out money for survey etc without you having a house to go to. In a worst case scenario can you move out temporarily? With the best of intentions, any house purchase can throw up issues that take time to resolve.

Surveyors, banks and LAs are really busy. So I suggest that firstly you think hard about which bank you use. We went with HSBC although the interest was slightly higher because we found out they were quick (and they were very quick indeed). Book a survey ASAP. Our surveyor couldn't do the survey for 4 weeks! Order searches immediately, depending on the council it can be horrific. Ours took almost 8 weeks! But our council is notoriously slow.

Make the best use of the estate agent. If delays are happening because of the vendors' solicitor speak to the estate agent and get them to earn their fee. Best of luck!

Agree with the above, if you can afford to be less picky about lender then ask the broker who will be fastest. We used Barclays although their rate was slightly worse as they sent the offer the next working day.

Personally it seems to be a real lottery. We're also in a chain of three and are buying a house under vacant possession, looking to complete within 8-10 weeks from offer being accepted. Our solicitor is great, as is the agent for the house we're buying and our mortgage has been quick to set up as we're just porting with our existing provider. We lucked out with our home report as the surveyor was able to do it within a week (others I know have had to wait 3-4 weeks just for that). Local searches by us came less than 2 weeks of being requested, the two neighbouring councils currently have an 8-10 week backlog. So it's partly down to the people you directly employ to be involved in the sale but some of it is definitely out of your control so unfortunately I don't think anyone here will be able to tell you how quickly you'll manage it. You could call your council and ask what their average processing time for searches is etc?

What are the searches that take time?

What else has to be done?

I'm looking for somewhere as a first time buyer. I'd like it to be quick but it's another world and some of this thread seems like another language!

Eek

@moofolk - When buying a house, there are usually local authority searches, to check for things like flood risk, contaminated land, whether there are any public sewers within the boundaries, etc. These searches aren't strictly essential, but if you're getting a mortgage then the mortgage provider will usually insist that the searches are done. The timescales vary depending on where you are in the country.

As for what has to be done... If you haven't already, get a mortgage agreement in principle (AIP) - in other words, find out how much the bank will be willing to lend you. Then once you've had an accepted offer (and ideally the chain is complete - i.e. somewhere along the line is an empty property or somewhere is moving in rented), you speak to the bank again to actually apply for the mortgage. They'll then conduct a cursory valuation of the house (to make sure you've not offered far more than its worth) and will offer you the chance to pay a bit more to have a survey if you want one.

In parallel to getting your mortgage sorted, you instruct a solicitor and so does your seller. Your seller's solicitor will send yours some information about the house you're buying. Your solicitor will then instruct the searches I described above and will also reply with some questions (the official term is enquiries). There might be a few rounds of this!

It sounds like a lot, but really, all you need to do is speak to the bank about the mortgage and instruct a solicitor - the rest all stems from there.