Chances of completing in 12 weeks?

[Itsahardlifeforus]

I know it's a how long is a piece of string but what do you think my chances are of completing in 12 weeks, which will be the 2nd week of October?

First time buyer, no chain, vacant property.
Mortgage offer, survey and searches done.
We seemed to be on track and I really didn't think it would take any longer than 12 weeks but it has taken the seller nearly 2 months just to send the draft contract over which has delayed things and meant that my solicitor hasn't been able to raise any enquires yet.

I'm still not sure if my solicitor has even received the contract yet as the EA spoke with the sellers solicitor last week who said the seller had been into the office for the forms and would return them on Friday. I'm hoping my solicitor will be in possession of it by tomorrow or Wednesday at the very latest and the EA said she will check on Wednesday to see if she's received it.

I'm not sure how long it takes for the paperwork to be reviewed before enquiries are raised so could be next week now (another week gone by, such a frustrating process!!!)

Seller has profusely apologised for the delay so I am praying that she will review/answer any enquiries quickly to make up for lost time.

What do you guys think?

if everything is ok with the searches and there are no more issues you might. Start trying to get an exchange date.

@Autumn1990 I hope so. I can't see there being many enquiries, if any or complicated matters to deal with as it's not an usual property and quite a few houses on the same street have sold within the last year, but you never know.

I won't know until the draft contract arrives as I think my solicitor was waiting for all the paperwork to be returned before reviewing and raising any enquiries. Hopefully there won't be many.

I offered, negotiated, had surveys done and completed in four weeks.

It can be done.

Sounds incredibly unlikely. As I understand it the draft contract is really the start of the process and if you are only at that stage now there's a pretty long way to go.

@Tupster sorry if I've not explained properly but everything else has been completed whilst waiting for the draft contract to arrive (mortgage offer issued, survey done, searches returned) so we're definitely not at the start of the process. I know the draft contract is normally sent within the first couple of weeks though, luckily the sellers solicitor sent the title plan separately the first week so the searches could be ordered.

My understanding is that once my solicitor receives the contract, hopefully this week, she will then be able raise any enquires.

As long as no issues then 12 weeks is more than feasible to exchange/complete.

Going through the house sale process at the moment - downsizing to FE home, we sold in mid July and had our offer accepted on our onward purchase a few days after too.
Hoping to complete last week in October as that is half term week (I work in education)

I’m a landlord and the longest process of buying a house was almost a year and this was 18 years ago - but there was so many complications as it was a probate property and executors weren’t the best at communicating! most people would have pulled out but because I saw the potential of a real good investment I waited - best decision I made because it’s now worth double the amount I paid for it at the end of 2006!

IIRC it was very slow getting to the "searches complete" stage, but once that was done, we got to completion in about 10 weeks.