Reasonable time scale for completion?

[trrk]

We are first time buyers and just had an offer accepted a couple of weeks ago. The vendor has also had an offer accepted but their vendor has not yet found a property to buy. They have said they will move before the school year starts in Sept (they have family they can stay with where they are moving) but won't be under pressure to move before then.

Our ideal time to move is by June as our first baby will be born in July and I'd much rather move before than after but I realise this is quite tight regardless of the upwards chain.

Should we just hang on and wait for everything to go through and be prepared to move in Aug when our baby will only be 1 month old or continue looking at other houses that might not have a chain?

We like the house we have bid on but it's not our dream house. However we won't get our dream house in our budget and preferred area so all houses will be a compromise in some way. Our landlord is quite flexible but the flat does have a mold problem which seems to come back no matter how much we clean it and gets hot in summer so was a bit nervous about still being here when the baby arrives.

I think by June given the chain isn’t complete is incredibly optimistic. It would be a bit tight with a complete chain

Completion times all really depend on whether your seller does actually do a move to live with family. If a school place is dependent on it, they may need to move earlier to be on area (unless there is an older sibling already in school and no catchment criteria, or private). Can take anytime from 8 weeks upwards depending on chains and workloads and if any delays re searches or surveys. I think your main issues of moving with baby would be the packing and actual move - are you planning on doing this yourselves, or get help/pay movers?

Well we are in week 24 in a chain of 4!

I think June is optermistic we offered in November our vendor took forever to find a house and is now dragging their heels wanting time to pack 🤦🏻‍♀️. By the time my deadline is reached it will have took 5 months from offer to completion and we will have had to move in with family

Thanks for sharing your experiences. As I thought there doesn't seem to be much chance of moving by June.

My DH wanted to do most of the move ourselves but I'm also happy to pay for help. It's not too much of an issue as we live in a furnished flat so will be buying all the big items to be delivered to the new house. I'm mostly concerned about the stress of moving in the middle of recovering from birth and trying to establish feeding and sleeping etc. No idea what to expect as a FTM but it sounds like a first few months will be tough and we will both be sleep deprived most of the time.

If we have no chance of moving by June do you think it's worth continuing to look for an even better house in the meantime? We have looked at about 15 places so far and there was only one other we liked better (but lost out on at the offer stage) but I don't know if there is something better out there for our budget when the property market picks up in spring.

June!!! That’s ages away. We are in the same position as you re chains etc. and have made it very clear we want to move by mid April.

Surely if everyone pushes, much earlier is achievable! June is 6 months!!! That’s half a year…that’s bonkers.

I think if you like the property and it feels like the right one, given what's realistic, I would hang tight for now. We had no chain really, we were in rented and our vendors were moving into a second home they already own, and it still took 4.5 months between offer and completion. It would be unlikely that you could find something (and have an offer accepted - that's the really tricky bit) and still move by June.

Keep looking. It will be easier to move before the baby arrives imo.

Unfortunately the whole thing is a gamble. You just don't know that's the tricky bit.

If you really like the property, accepting the compromises, it may be better to stick with it. Finding a chain free property that you like, that your offer is accepted on (when others will want it as well) is all another gamble.