Going very quickly: should I be suspicious?

Bacon_Sandwich

Jesus christ...

PasturesNew

2-6 weeks to exchange sounds mightily optimistic... I'd guesstimate at closer to 10-12 after the solicitors have finished penning letters they post in the post box and awaiting responses/forms etc.

dgerrard

Update:

After some soul searching, I've reached out to the estate agent and cancelled the viewing for this weekend, and the offer made on the house. If my gut feeling is bad, then there's no point in wasting any more time for the agent, the vendor, or myself.

Feel awful for misunderstanding the process, will be much more certain before making any future offers. In my own defence, the Estate Agent was quite aggressive about us making an offer as soon as possible because the property was so popular, and was calling and writing pretty much constantly since the initial viewing. But I guess that makes sense, they want to make the sale ASAP as well.

Really think this sort of thing should be covered in schools to be honest. Oh well, back to the hunt.

AdrianC

dgerrard wrote: »

Really think this sort of thing should be covered in schools to be honest.

The average first-time buyer is in their early 30s. Would they remember it in detail from (quite literally) half their life earlier?

DoaM

dgerrard wrote: »

Really think this sort of thing should be covered in schools to be honest.

There's a thing called The Internet ... it's amazing what information you can find on it.

somethingcorporate

You could have asked the estate agent, any of your friends that has ever bought a house etc what the process is. Not surprised you are feeling a bit sheepish. You may have burned your bridge with that EA now.

wantonnoodle

To the OP - this is a very comprehensive guide to house buying and explains all the little steps that many guides overlook.

https://www.your-move.co.uk/buy/guides/house-buying-process-england-and-wales#

We weren't in a chain when we bought 2 years ago, but it still took 4 months from the offer being accepted in late Oct to completion late Feb. The first 2 months were spent dealing with the mortgage and surveys and the fallout from the surveys as there were problems. The searches and legals took up Jan and Feb but were relatively painless.

Even the offer acceptance took time as the vendor was holding out for more than we were prepared to offer - we left the offer on the table and it was eventually accepted after 3 or 4 days. However, we were aware that this was unusual as this was the 3rd property we'd offered on.