if they are a cash buyer, how long should the process take? 12 January 2007 at 3:12PM in House Buying, Renting & Selling 10 replies 110.4K views

Sarahpuggy

Hi all,

The title says it all really. We are selling my aunts house after her death, and the buyer is apparantly a cash buyer. What does this mean exactly, and how will effect the whole process?

Just the fact he wont have to go for a mortgage? how long should the whole thing take compared to normal?

Thanks

stacey21_2

This is only my experience (in Scotland) so don't know how relevant it is, but my dad bought a flat cash (something like 90k) or thereabouts, and it actually took a while longer I think. This is because the money was tied up in places, so to withdraw it took a while, then the solicitors had to do some sort of checks re money laundering etc and where the money actually came from, so had to send away all sorts of forms and photocopies and things like that.

silvercar

a lot of cash buyers tend to turn out not to be.

in theory it could take a week, but it won't.

cash buyers don't need searches and don't need surveys. In practice both would be advised. The only thing you are saving is the time for a mortgage offer to arrive.

BargainJunky

My mom recently bought a bungalow for cash. She asked for a maximum four week completion period but the sellers solicitor delayed things by not sending out a draft contact - it took five weeks. Assuming both you and the buyer push things with your solicitors things should move relatively quickly. My mom had both survey and searches done within three weeks.

Sarahpuggy

Thanks for your replies. I guess we just wanted to know what to expect. I guess time will tell !

Herb

Without a survey and search a cash buyer can complete in one day- as I have done a couple of times. It needs the seller's solicitor to fax the buyers solicitor a contract.
Each party faxes their solicitor giving consent for the solicitor to sign on their behalf. The buyer TT's the money to their solicitor and hey presto....

But this is rare, and if searches and a survey are going to be done then it will take as long as the slowest of the two (plus a couple of days for the buyer to digest survey info).

Any longer than 2 weeks and they are likely to be lying and have applied for a mortgage, with out telling you.

I hate liars and will pull out on principle if the sale takes longer than 3 weeks.

A mortgage can take 4 to 8 weeks despite the buyer's assurance otherwise.

For cash you are safe to stipulate a maximum 3 weeks, without being seen as unreasonable.

Basil_Hume

We started off as 75:25 cash to mortgage, but became 100% cash purchasers as the process went on (inheritance).

It probably knocked off three weeks from the process, which as a whole took 8-9 weeks to completion.

lynzpower

silvercar wrote:

a lot of cash buyers tend to turn out not to be.

in theory it could take a week, but it won't.

cash buyers don't need searches and don't need surveys. In practice both would be advised. The only thing you are saving is the time for a mortgage offer to arrive.

couldnt agree more

my buyer was a "cash buyer" and wanted to exchange & complete within 2 weeks. We said fine, and started looking for somewhere new to live ( moving to rented ) 2 weeks later I get a call from the abbey they need to do a valuation survey - for a mortgage.

Q- When is a cash buyer not a cash buyer?
A - when your estate agent takes thier word for it, and doesnt check and do the money laundering processes. if my ea had done that sooner ( actually, at all :wall:) we woulnt be still waiting exchange now.

chant1l

The other thing with getting finance is that a survey will be required and may downvalue the property. Sadly once this has happened you will struggle to change an incorrect value and keep the buyer.
As herb says it only needs take 2 days (faxed contracts and money transfers) oddly/annoyingly it is usually the vendors solicitor who will slow the process up.

Doozergirl

Many cash buyers will have least the searches carried out and these take on average two weeks but sometimes longer. Also, it depends on your solicitor; if they are slow sending out contracts and replying to queries then it will take longer.

For them to take 2 days, they'd be very, very confident that they were getting a good deal (which means that you aren't, lol!). They'd also be a professional investor, which many cash buyers aren't! So I think the 2 day thing is pretty misleading for the OP as I presume they'd know if the buyer wanted to complete in 2 days!

I think 4 weeks is still realistic for a genuine cash buyer.

ginandtonic1988

Anything from 2 till.........??....weeks! I never give my clients a time limit you can guarantee the minute you say a couple of weeks anything that can go wrong will go wrong! To be honest even if its a cash buyer you still have to check the client for money laundering and if they have cash stashed all over the place that can take time to sort out, you will still have to check title and raise enquiries. If they choose to have searches then they will take a couple of weeks to come back and they might choose to have a survey. Also if you have a slow solicitor on the otherside it can slow things down.

My advise is instruct a property lawyer and sit back and let them do the work! The most chilled out clients seem to have an easier transaction in my experiance.

Goodluck