How long from offer to exchange contracts?

jumblejulia

Hello,

My partner and I have fallen in love with a beautiful property that happens to be a reposession. We've had our offer accepted, mortgage sorted, we have a solicitor, survey is now being organised. Obviously because a repo we're really wary of gazumpers and therefore we want to complete as soon as humanly possible. Luckily we have no chain. I just wondered what's the shortest time in which we could hope to exchange contracts? I've been trying to find a timeline but haven't found anything very useful.
Hope you guys can help, it's really nail biting stuff
Thanks

CloudCuckooLand

You will probably find, unless you've offered asking price or above, the EA will be advertising your offer - they have an obligation to obtain the best price.

silverlight_2

Hello,

I put an offer in on a house on the 15th,got accepted on 22nd feb. I've been told that we should exchange next week! way sooner then I expected. Tho we haven't exchanged yet, so fingers crossed it all goes well. If we do it'll have been 5 weeks from the offer being accepted to exchange of contracts.

There is no chain, i'm renting at the mo and the house i'm buying is empty. Plus the property is only 10 years old so only needed valuation and basic searches, which I think speeded things up.

Hope all goes well for you :T

clearing_out_my_pockets

Realistically it depends on your mortgage company and your solicitor. Last year we put in an offer on a house where the sellers were buying a repossession, and from offer to completion (including making our full mortgage application) was 5 weeks. We exchanged two days before completion.

G_M

As a rough guide, between 3 days and 3 months, but it could be faster or slower!

goldbyron

Yes its like a price of string. Approx. 8-12 weeks though. Leaseholds always take longer.... Don't think you will be gazumped - prices aren't exactly rising!

Chinkle

Just do all you can to get keep things rolling, answer queries quickly, keep tabs on your solicitor etc. The further it gets down the road, the more likely it will be yours.

jumblejulia

*very exciting*
Thanks guys. It's nice to hear some reassurance as everything I've been reading about buying repos has been quite negative.
So I've learnt that there's no exact science to the timings. We're going to be keeping everything crossed between now and then, and poking our solicitors and the EA as often as we can.

Julia