Roughly - how long does selling/buying take?

[MrsB2019x]

We remortgaged last week and we were given an AIP which would be enough to upsize to a 3 bedroom house. This is something we have been desperate to do for ages so we are really keen to get moving.

This is our first house, so we have never sold before and have no idea how long the process takes.

We have an added complication that we’re due our second child in February… so we’re weighing up whether to go for it now or wait.

In your experience how long has the whole process taken?

Thank you!

I feel your pain. I'm expecting mine to complete 13 months after offers accepted. I feel less like a freak knowing I'm not the only one on such a crazy timescale! 😀

@Tupster i think long timelines are becoming more common in this market as chains keep breaking and not so easy to just “move into rented” when there are literally no rentals available. What’s helped keep me sane is that it’s a relatively short chain and everyone has been very transparent so I’ve always had a realistic idea of where we’re at.

I’m on week 11 selling an empty flat. It’s been 5 weeks of enquiries where I have answered the same 2 questions 3 times

IMO you can cut a good 2 weeks off just by having everything all filled in ready to go though. Eg. get quotes from and choose conveyancer, proof of id and ownership, mortgage docs. Property information forms are generic so fill those out.

If it was required to have all of these things sorted before allowed to sell that would cut down a lot of problems!

Yeah, I pulled out of the whole thing when my purchase hit problems precisely because, as you say, the whole "move into rented" thing is actually a hugely expensive and risky option, even if you CAN find something that isn't 12 months minimum. After 5 weeks of the whole thing being off, my buyers (bottom of chain of 3) came back saying they'd be prepared to wait to 2025 (which was the only way I could carry on with my purchase). I think there's so little available on the market, people are finding it's "quicker" to wait a long time if you find a good house than try and find an alternative.

I have bought in 4 weeks before. Exchanged and completed on the same day

The process seems to have changed from 20 year ago. We applied for searches the day the offer was accepted but it seems the advice is now to wait until the mortgage offer is in place and any survey done- that can add many weeks onto the process.

Try and avoid being in a big chain. We're in a chain of two (we're renting so no one below us) and moving to an empty probate house. We viewed it on 15/6, offer in a week later. We're looking at moving at the end of the month....
I appreciate you'd have to have a chain of 3 at least, but it can be done much faster than 11 months!!

We moved at the end of last year, and offer day - moving in day was exactly 4 months.

Go for it. A week of chaos for moving will be worth it!

I've bought 3 times, sold twice - all of those times took about 11-13 weeks, which is fairly typical. The shortest I've heard is about 5 weeks, and the slowest can literally go on for a year or more if you're really unlucky, but I would plan for it taking at least 3 months from accepting offer to moving.

My sale took 3 and a half months. My purchase will (hopefully) have taken 5 months.

We’ve bought twice and it took about 5 months both times. First time we were FTB and sellers were buying end of chain. Second time we sold to someone in rented and our seller bought an empty house.

Edited to add: it helped that we had a good local solicitor.

I've just bought, it took me 13 weeks but I was living with my parents and my onward purchase had no onward chain as she was moving into an inherited property.

All I can say is, respond to any paperwork as quickly as possible and if you can, hand deliver to your conveyancer if feasible . I didn't post anything.

I emailed my conveyancer twice a week too.

Ours took just over 4 months. House went on the market end of November, offer accepted 2 weeks later. We'd already seen our purchase and loved it but as we'd not yet sold we weren't proceedable. Luckily it was still available once we'd accepted an offer on ours so we offered immediately and it was accepted. The chain was pretty short; our buyers had sold to a FTB and we were buying an ex rental that was empty. There were no major hiccups really and we were in on the 28th March. We accepted the offer on our on 14th December.

Yes - use a solicitor and not a conveyancer
Worth their weight in gold

I have bought 2 houses in past 24 months and adn now buying and selling for another

Conveyaners are what slow it down. Man up and pay for a solicitor

As others have said, definitely use a solicitor - so worth the extra fees! Ours took five months in all - we accommodated our buyers who wanted delayed completion until the school summer hols - would have been a bit quicker otherwise. Mind you, this was 2019 and a short chain.

There's also the time from marketing to accepting an offer to add in. Shortest including getting photos done etc if your house needs no decluttering to offer would be 1 or 2 weeks but it can take months or even years to get an offer if you don't price right for your market. Actual legals will take between 2 and 6 months on average.

Ours went on the market in March, due to complete this month.

it took us 2 months to get an offer accepted, and then 5 months to move in, but we weren't selling ourselves. You can push back the exchange and completion dates if necessary, we did this as we wanted another month to save whilst living with family. You'd probably want to take advantage of the fact that the property market gets busier in September / October, but you could easily drag things out and move after your baby has arrived.

We put an offer in on house we are buying 3 days after it went on the market, they already had an offer agreed on an onward purchase. From date of offer to moving in will be just under 6 weeks. We are in rented after selling our house last year and relocating and the house our sellers are moving to is a new build so think that's helped with our timeline being so quick.

Mine took 4.5 months with a delay due to land registry issue. Both chain free. Without thx delay it would have taken 2 months. We both had motivated solicitors.

I've had one that took 18 months. God it just went on and on and on.
Another took 9 weeks and another where the probate wasnt yet granted took 8 months with a lot of pushing.

So choose carefully which house to buy. If it's a probate sale make damn sure they have done everything as far as possible before offering.

I'm not sure how any of this is useful. You may as well randomly cut pieces of string.

I bought a house that was empty (no chain) and had previously had renters. Cash buyer.
4months.

My son bought a London flat, no leasehold issues, 3 months.

Any kind of probate or chain makes it likely to take much longer.

Ours was 6-7 weeks! It was our first home, we were first time buyers, nothing to sell. Sellers had a place lined up and were eager to sell so that they could move. We were under pressure as we were getting married so needed it asap. In the end, we get the keys the week before we got married. We made the estate agents and our solicitor aware of the importance of a quick exchange and kept the pressure on them throughout those 6-7 weeks to make sure it happened. Our offer was given only on the understanding of a quick exchange and that we'd have to pull out if they couldn't exchange by our wedding day! Luckily, I think the sellers were also under pressure by their sellers, so they were pressuring their solicitor too. Even better was that this happened during the Summer holidays when staff are on holiday, but they still managed to get surveys/searches done pretty swiftly.