How long from sale agreed to completion

[dragonmummy17]

Hi, we've just agreed our house sale. Chain of 4.
When we first sold in early September we said we wanted to be moved in by Christmas. Then we lost our buyer. Luckily our seller waited for us and now we have a new buyer.
We are very keen to move but have 2 young DC and extended family who have now booked hotels to stay near us for Christmas based on memorandum of sale saying exchange in early January. Therefore we are saying on our paperwork that we don't want to complete before Christmas, which is only 11 weeks away.
I'm going on the assumption that even exchanging in 11 weeks would be very fast but I was wondering about other's experience?

My sale took over 5 months. My buyers had issues selling their flat otherwise it would have been 3 as we moved into rented. When we bought there was no chain either end and it took 8 weeks.
11 weeks is well below average and you lose 2 weeks over Christmas really.

We sold earlier this year, chain of 4, no apparent 'issues', but it still took from the start of Feb to move at the start of July.
Close friend sold their house in April, didn't complete until August, and they had a first time buyer and no upwards chain.
I think Christmas would be a massive push, so enjoy your last Christmas in your old house!

It took me 11 weeks and four days from sold to completion. I think that given Xmas you'd be very lucky to move in before then, it normally slows down a little due to people taking holidays etc

I always expect it to take about 3 month between Offer & Completion.

Seems about right unless there are any big complications. Chain of 4 is long though so it could easily take a bit longer.

In any case, just stick to your guns that you don’t want to move until January. Thought you could Exchange mid December and Complete mid January?

I just completed a cash only, chain free sale.
Started 8th April completed 15th September!

No idea why it took so long, chased solicitors constantly just seems like a thing these days.

We accepted an offer in mid-April, and had an offer accepted in late April (sellers had already had an offer accepted on a vacant property). Chain was ftb-us-seller- vacant. All freehold houses. We exchanged a few days ago and complete late this week.

The removals guys I spoke to all said 6-8 months seems to be pretty common ATM.

With less people currently buying you would think things would move a bit more quickly. I think it’s probably a how long is a piece of string sort of question dependent on so many factors.

We offered July 6th, vendor has no onward chain. We sold to ftb 2 weeks later. We exchanged last Monday. Our buyers don't have a good solicitor so they held things up by about 3 weeks. It can be done but with a short chain and no complications. I'd make sure all solicitors know from the start you are hoping to complete before xmas

3-4 months. If I was your buyer I'd be expecting completion in January or February.

Cash buyer here, vendor moving in with family. Offered 1st week of July and only just signing contracts tomorrow. Our solicitor has been very slow. Previous cash purchase took 6 weeks but this is/has dragged on. Solicitor took over 5 weeks to instigate searches even though we paid up front for them.

Just accepted an offer a week ago and estate agents advised it would take 5 months to complete, there is no chain and buyers have mortgage in principal and nothing to sell. Bonkers!!!

If everybody else is almost ready to go, and your new buyer can buy the previous searches / gets on with their mortgage application, it could all be sorted quite quickly. It's not like the whole chain is starting from scratch (potentially).

However, I imagine many people wouldn't want to move in December, so probably won't be too bothered about knowing where they'll be for Christmas already, rather than having a will we / won't we situation.

We put in an offer on a house mid September - our own house is nearly at point of exchange as we’ve been searching for a property for a long time. Our buyers have found an empty house and hopefully we’ll be completing early December if nothing awful crops up - our solicitor says this date is very possible if all the solicitors pull their fingers out. If you’ve only just sold I’d think January is more likely.

3-4 months is very realistic.

My parents are (maybe) buying a house. No chain and cash buyer so assumed it would be quick. However survey was horrific so now having to organise further surveys to see if worth proceeding. If they proceed, think will be minimum 3 months from offer to completion.