Sale Agreed - How to make it swift?

Zola.

Hey all

Finally ! We have a sale agreed to buy a house we love. We are first time buyers.

I have arranged to meet the broker tomorrow to go through it all, I have also contacted the solicitor to meet us at the weekend.

Is there anything we should be aware of or anything we can do to make the sale go through as quickly as possible?

I heard 6-8 weeks is the norm? Could it ever be quicker? Its a chain free house.

Any tips are much appreciated.

rosie383

Please, please, please do not spend any money on searches, survey etc until you know if there is a chain for definite, and you know if the chain is complete. You do not want to spend out hundreds of pounds only to find three months down the line that the vendors are nowhere near finding a property. Obviously, if this is your dream home and there is not likely to be anything else on the market any time soon, then you may be content to wait, but please make sure.

Oops! Sorry, just noticed you said it is chain-free which is great news. Just confirm with the EA that it definitely is chain free as there have been many posters on here who have been told a property is chain free but find out that it isn't.

Zola.

Cheers!

We are 100% that its chain free.

Olivia_LS

How efficient both sets of solicitors are can make a real difference to how long it takes. If you chase your solicitors too much this creates extra work for them (ie having to call you back all of the time, spending time replying to emails). At the same time chasing them a little bit can help make sure that your case is prioritised and fresh in their mind.

Zola.

Cheers! We are meeting the broker later this morning
The agent is sending sale advice notes to the solicitor today, who we are then meeting on Saturday morning for a chat.

He said he wont have the contract and title deeds for another week or so.

Waldorf_Statler

In my most recent purchase in 2010 all my paperwork was in place within 3 weeks. It took my buyer another 3 weeks to catch up so our 2-part chain (my buyer and my vendor were chain-free) was complete in 6 weeks.

To be ready to exchange within just a few weeks takes discipline on your part, returning all signed documents immediately. It also requires two good solicitors and no issues arising from surveys or local searches. There are factors outside of your control such as how swamped the mortgage provider is with applications and availability of the surveyor. Though both these things can be nudged along a bit through tenacity.

Basically just keep on it, speak to the estate agent, mortgage provider and solicitor regularly and make sure that you know where in the process you are so that any delays are identifiable and therefore you know who to push to get them resolved. There is nothing more infuriating that being delayed for no apparent reason.

Jeff_Djevdet

Get good solicitors who use email rather than post. If they need ££s up front, sent by bank transfer, not cheque. Put a friendly deadline on it ie survey by xx date, exchange by yy date and completion. That said, expect 6 to 8 weeks, that is pretty standard.

Zola.

Productive few days, I met the solicitor, signed his quote, signed the mortgage application today and paid for the evaluation and setup fee.

We'll be 26k down before we even get the keys!

Any idea how long it takes from final mortgage application via the broker to the mortgage provider doing site evaluations?

CATS

also make sure that the solicitor is in the lender's approved list. We just had this issue and had to change solicitors. Luckily the searches were carried out already but the previous solicitor so it didnt delay too much

Mocha61

Zola. wrote: »

Hey all

Finally ! We have a sale agreed to buy a house we love. We are first time buyers.

I have arranged to meet the broker tomorrow to go through it all, I have also contacted the solicitor to meet us at the weekend.

Is there anything we should be aware of or anything we can do to make the sale go through as quickly as possible?

I heard 6-8 weeks is the norm? Could it ever be quicker? Its a chain free house.

Any tips are much appreciated.

Have you checked to see if the solicitor you want is on your mortgage lenders list or you could end up having to get another solicitor. It seems that lenders like a solicitor to have four partners.

Slayerx

Not true as most lenders are now using the lender exchange and the ones I know that aren't even allow sole practitioners on as long as they have a locum.