How much control do you have over purchase timescales?

[Anotheradventureforme]

I appreciate a lot of it is in the laps of the Gods (searches, solicitors, surveys etc) but if one party had a specific date in mind, can it be slowed/speeded up in any way or is everyone at the mercy of the process?

It hugely depends on how long the chain is, plus anything like mortgage issues/waiting for probate/serious survey issues cropping up.

I am wondering the same. We’ve just had an offer accepted. Sellers are going to move into rented accommodation. They’ve said “summer holidays” - I want to know who decides if this is 1st July or 31st August!

Oh yes, I understand the things you can't control, but let's pretend (in some fantasy world) everything was going to go without a hitch - would you be able to say, can we leave it a couple of weeks because I'm working abroad until 'x' date, for example.

@GoingOnce That's pretty much what I mean 😁

We were the other way.
SSTC and told our buyer we wanted 5-months between E&C, non- negotiable.
They agreed and the process plodded along at our timescale (this was the mad times of 2021).

We just agreed to go with exchange asap and completion date on certain day in May.
Really depends. We are both no chain and it suits us both. But when I was buying I had pretty non negotiable deadline unfortunately

We delayed by a week and a bit to aid cash flow. We were six weeks from offer to keys but it could have been done in four to five.