Quickest you’ve ever heard of someone getting to exchange?

[Omgwtafisthat]

We’ve been told that we have been outbid by a buyer who can exchange in four weeks! Is that even possible? I guess it is if the searches are quick, but have you ever known this to happen in reality?

We did it in 4 and a half weeks when we bought our first house. But then there was no chain, we were buying the house and the guy who sold it to us was moving back to his parents, so an easy one step transaction.

However, selling that and buying this one... 8 months to the day (plus 3 weeks where we broke the chain to get our buyers in) 🫠

As a professional, I have got clients to exchange within days. I really doesn't need to take so long.

We exchanged and completed in 30 days. Mortgage was ready, nothing to sell. And we had a lock-out agreement that they couldn't show to anyone else during this time. It can be done.

We were standard buyers with a mortgage, and got to exchange within 7 weeks of our offer being accepted.

Unfortunately the seller then decided she did want to exchange but didn’t want to complete for another six months plus, so we pulled out of the sale, but it can easily be done. The main delay for us was the seller not answering queries or granting the surveyor access… which was obviously a red flag.

We bought privately with no chain and from the date we agree a price, to us owning it took 5 weeks. We had a mortgage, not cash buyers

I used to work as a legal assistant in new build plot sales and purchases. When we were acting for purchasers, once the first one had completed it became a pro-forma admin exercise, especially if they used the recommended lender (NatWest in this case) as everything had been investigated by then (same for sales actually).

Early 90s: My record was the property was reserved on a Tuesday and the client moved in on the Friday.

🏅

@CharlotteStreetW1 that’s interesting ! I wonder if that would be possible today. Maybe with an auction property, where searches etc are in the pack? I’m seeing modern day auctions which seem to give the impression you have 30 days to complete - but if you were a cash buyer maybe you could be done and dusted well within that time frame.

We were cash buyers last time so used private searches they took 3 days and were far more thorough and better presented than local authority searches. The level of information was fascinating with click through links to planning applications etc.

I doubt it. You'd think with all the technology (online ID and AML verification, do using etc), it would be quicker these days but there's so much more arse to cover these days.

Watching my conveyancing colleagues now, I'm very glad I moved into "simple" private client!

@CharlotteStreetW1 oh god don’t get me started with the online verification bollocks!! Whatever happened to the very simple walking into the office with your paperwork and getting it all done in five minutes!!
we know of two cash sales that have fallen at this one hurdle.

This is really interesting. Are they super expensive? Do people not usually get these because they’re not accepted by the lender do you know?