advice on putting in an offer

Mrs_SCW

Hello
I have found a house I like and would like to proceed with putting in an offer. I have nothing ot sell and am keen to move quickly as I am living with my parents and things here are a bit cramped.
The house is a freehold semi detached.
I have very little experience and ws thinking of saying something like "offer x,000 pounds on the condition that exchange is within 12 weeks"

Does this sound appropriate? How long can it take to exchange on a property. The other reason I want to give an exchange timeframe is that I know the vnedors need to find somewhere to buy and I don't want to be hanging around for them

Thanks:j

Mrs_SCW

Yes I understand that. That is why I want to factor in a time limit, so I am not exposed to chain problems. Surely, if we can exchange withing 12 weeks, they can move out and rent or something until they find somewhere to buy?

Ivana_Tinkle

You can mention that you'd like to move ASAP but there's little point putting a time limit on it. Apart from anything else, you don't know what issues may arise on your side - you may end up wanting extra surveys, or some vital piece of paper might get lost in the post, or your mortgage offer might take forever (or all three!). There's no guarantee you'll be ready in 12 weeks.

It would be reasonable, though, to say that you're not going to commit any money to the purchase (ie arrange surveys, instruct solicitor) until the vendor has found a place to buy or made a definite commitment to rent. But even then they may tell you they're going to rent, then a new property comes on the market and they fall in love with it so decide to buy after all. You can only really control your little bit of the chain - you can make sure you and your conveyancers don't hold things up, but unfortunately you can't really force the rest of the chain to work to your timescale.