How long between offer acceptance and exchange?

[bestbdayever]

I'm a first time buyer and I had an offer accepted 14 weeks ago. The seller's estate agent held things up for 8 weeks (long story) and so things have only been with solicitors for 6 weeks. The last update I had from my solicitor was at the beginning of last week that things are progressing but we're waiting on searches coming back. They said they would contact me once everything has been received and reviewed which I translated as 'leave me alone'.

I have a mortgage offer in place and survey has been done. How long does it usually take from when the solicitor gets things underway until exchange (ie when a completion date is arranged)?

12-16 weeks is about average. How long is the chain though? That will have a big impact on things.

My DS is similar to you. His offer early November. The delay at the start was for the vendor to find a onward purchase. Searches back in his case now and enquiries underway. Mortgage and survey done with some agreed repairs from the survey.

They are all hoping to make 31st March.

It will honestly depend on the rest of the chain. We were chain complete late September, ready to exchange on our purchase end-November, ready to exchange on our sale by Christmas and finally exchanged last week. So we waited an extra 2 months for the final person in the chain to be ready. Every case is different as it depends what comes up during mortgage application, enquiries, surveys and searches. Any obstacles could delay things.

16 weeks for me. First time buyer, coming out of rented.

There were weeks and weeks of seemingly nothing happening, then it all galloped to the end very quickly and all of a sudden. It went from literally very minimal "just checking in for any updates" type contact to exchange in about 4 days.

It depends on how on the ball agents and solicitors are, what the searches throw up and any glitches.

We accepted an offer at the beginning of August last year and moved mid November, in a small chain of three.

Are you aiming to complete before the stamp duty deadline at the end of March? If so you'll need to really push.

Made an offer on 15th Jan and exchanged on Tuesday this week

Small chain though