How long did it take between putting in an offer and actual exchange/completion?

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We're on a bit of a deadline and would like to be exchanged and completed by mid June as that's when I go off on Mat leave. We've got our buyer and us wanting to buy a vacant property. How long do you think the conveyancing process will take? I've heard searches are taking up to 3 weeks to come back in our area so that's panicking me a bit. Our buyers landers valuation is booked in in 3 weeks time and I'm bricking it. How long after the buyers valuation and searches would we expect to exchange (assuming nothing major happens in between)?

Lenders valuation*

Ps. Our broker isn't aware of me pregnancy and upcoming Mat leave. Should I share?

Its a while ago now, but we had offer accepted in September 20 and completed in January 21. That was crazy just after lockdowns market though with solicitors and searches taking forever. We were moving into an empty property.

We have completed in 6.5 weeks at a previous property but that was no chain. Us as FTB and sellers who were moving in with parents.

I think that’s incredibly optimistic. Our no chain purchase last year took 3 months and that was with very motivated vendors and top quality solicitors (I.e local branches with good reputations).

Not sure about the maternity question but I would suspect if you have to declare anything that may effect your income in the future then you’d need to declare it. Although I vaguely remember a thread a while ago that said you don’t have to declare it.

Just to say the optimistic thing is on the basis of the offer just being accepted. If you are a few weeks in I may be okay.

Totally doable if yours and the buyers' solicitors are totally on it and really efficient. Insist they both submit their searches on Monday morning, and both ask that all correspondence is by email, nothing by post as that can add delays. Both keep on at them regularly.

If their valuation is in three weeks it eminently doable.

Three and a half months last year, chain free on both sides.

This was last year:

Offer end January
Survey end February
Exchanged end April
Completed mid May

It was quite protracted as there were 6 in the chain and our seller was a bit dithery

As long as you're all "on it" and working toward the same timelines it's totally doable.

Last year our sale and purchase was agreed on 30th March. Completed 30th June. 4 in the chain.

We got from offer to completion in 30 days at the end of last year - it was very straightforward as we were going into rented and buyer was chain-free cash buyer.

Have everything ready to go, respond to everything by email asap. Where actual paperwork needed to go in we drove it to solicitor in person same day instead of putting it in the post.

It can be hard to speed up some bits though. We've just had to wait 3 weeks until the surveyor had availability to do the survey on the house we're buying, then another week to receive the survey!

8 weeks in 2019. Myself and seller were chain free

We offered 4 weeks ago and our vendors have only just instructed solicitors 🤣🤣🙄🙄 but they havent found a house yet so I guess aren't in a rush

Thank you all- I'm just so stressed. I want to be in before I go on leave but also know that nothing is in my control. The property we'd like to buy is probate (fully sorted) so in essence it's only us and our buyer. I've sent an email to everyone involved today asking for an update. I'll chase up via phone call tomorrow.

I think on average it takes about 3 months if there are no big problems.
And I wouldn’t mention going on maternity leave.

We had our offer accepted in mid October. They had their offer accepted a couple of weeks later. We moved in mid feb. So 4 months. The last 3 weeks was due to our buyers solicitor being overly cautious/ inexperienced and not being very proactive.

Four months, all pretty straightforward. The biggest thing that slowed us down was the vendor deciding they wanted a much later completion that we did. Knowing they could resell it 20 times over if pulled out meant we had no negotiating position so we just had to go with it.

Our buyer's mortage offer also took weeks to come through, it was just how that bank worked. So much is out of your control I'd try and think through Plan B rather than getting hooked on a date you might have no control over.

Is there a practical reason to complete by the time you go on mat leave, or is it that you want to be in and nesting as an ideal?

No real chain - I was a FTB and they were buying what I guessed was a probate property (empty). Offer accepted 11th October and completion 10th February. It could have been the end of January - but I then needed to drag it out a wee bit.

I’m selling my parents house so it’s empty
First time buyers
Accepted Nov 18th
It should be going through this week or next week

It's doable IF everyone is organised, does what they are asked to do straightaway, and keeps the pressure up on their legal team.
So solicitors need to be instructed, their instruction letter signed and and returned, and any money due up front needs to be paid before searches will be commissioned.
Some conveyancers ( not unreasonably ) do nothing until the contract package has been received from the seller, so the sellers in each part of the transaction need to make sure that the contract and supporting documents are sent out quickly, giving the buyers solicitors plenty of time to raise enquiries, obtain responses, consider them, report to their client, and possibly raise more queries after having spoken to their clients.
The buyers need to show commitment by putting their money where their mouth is, eg paying any search fees, organising proof of ID, sorting survey and mortgage.
I think it's helpful if all parties have dates to aim for - eg exchange by last week of May, completing 2 weeks after that.
Actually that's really tight, you'll need to keep pushing right from the off, and have a detailed timeline - ask if solicitors have been instructed, ask if searches applied for, check that survey happens when it is supposed to, check that everyone will have finances ready at the right time, check that no-one is going on holiday in the middle of all this.
If you want to exchange by end of May ( and you do for a mid June completion) everything will need to be ready the week before that, as it takes some days to get final paperwork signed, all deposits in place etc, removal arrangements finalised. That actually gives you about 7 weeks from now. Let all the legal teams know that this is the date the whole chain is working towards, and get the agents onside too.
Good luck, but have a Plan B, because the chances of all this happening in your required timeframe are probably less than 50:50.

(2019) Offer accepted May. Completed November. No chain, we were cash buyers. There was a problem with the boundary. I think it became apparent when the Seller completed the form relating to boundaries etc. so fairly early on. It needed to be resolved by the Land Registry and we just had to wait, and wait ......... Eventually the boundaries were redrawn by the Land Registry. They are still wrong but we will deal with it if we ever sell.

DH sold his flat 4 weeks ago, have just been told to expect 10-12 weeks til completion.

We have 13 weeks until our landlord wants to move back into our house and haven't yet had a successful offer go in. I'm stressed to say the least.

My no chain, buying vacant property took 5 months from beginning of Oct 21 to end of Feb 22.

About 3 months

4-5 months seem to be about the norm at the moment.