What would a house move timeline be?

[Combusting]

I know - how long is a piece of string, I've seen moves take a year, and be done and dusted with complex chains in 12 weeks - but still..what would a sale and purchase timeline be if -

Say everything (sale and purchase) MUST complete by spring of a certain year
Purchase and sale should IDEALLY complete by the autumn of Year before and also say October ideally, and not much before owing to ERC if house is sold anytime up till September...
Our house should be put up for sale ....when? spring of that year? So if we wish to complete everything for October, put house up in February?

I am thinking, since spring best time to put houses on market, once we are under offer, it makes us more attractive when we explore the market as buyers all across spring, summer, with a hope of sealing deals in the October (ish) region with some leeway for things taking longer?

There is no answer anyone can give. House sales/purchases can fall through for all manner of reasons many of which are not within your control.

If you want to minimise the chances of any delays then sell your house first chain free. Then find somewhere to buy which has no chain. You will need to find somewhere to live for the interim period but by removing chains you have the best chance of minimising delays.

On average providing there are no legal problems 16 weeks from accepting an offer from a proceedable buyer is a good estimate. The question that’s impossible to answer is how long after listing before you get that offer. I think your proposal to list in the Spring makes sense but make sure you price realistically as it will drag on and on if you keep needing to reduce the price to drum up interest.

See my user name.

We're into month 7 of trying to complete, three busted chains, untold incompetence of all involved parties.

You sound like you're moving for school adminissions in which case sell your house chain free and move into rented next to the school. Buy once your kid has a place.

I sold first then rented in the new area before buying. I’d definitely do it again rather than be stuck in the middle of even a very short chain. It really takes the pressure off buying especially if you are moving far away. I guess the main reason not to is if you want to port a mortgage that’s fixed on a good rate.

I had an offer accepted end of may on a chain free house . I am also a chain free buyer .
we still have not competed .
reason - the sellers are painfullly slow at everything

Varies a lot. We moved in mid October after going on sale in April this year. Small chain of three houses, and our stop was the January school application date for 2024.

Depends on the market where you are, pricing, chain, getting the right buyer, noone having a moronic solicitor or being bad at communicating...

So I think the key will be to err on the side of caution and put house on market sooner rather than fine tuning (impossible to predict) calculations later….