Appointing a solicitor - how long is too long?

amyr

Interested in opinions on 'how long is too long' to wait for a buyer to appoint a solicitor. Our buyer is yet to confirm their solicitor's details five days after offering - we're a little concerned that time is dragging on when we want to make a quick sale of our own property. When we've bought in the past, we've made the appointment within 48 hours.
Is the time right to float the idea of us putting the property back on the market if we don't receive solicitor's details? Or is our own need for urgency blinding us and we need more patience?
Our last sale fell through at exchange, so we know we are very nervous sellers this time round..

Thrugelmir

Naming a solicitor is no great deal. Presumably the buyer is yet to obtain their mortgage offer. Ask the Estate Agent for an update as to what stage your buyer is at. 

Blue_bell_20

Are your buyers ftb? It took us 8 days in early Jan from when solicitors reopened to instructing one- we emailed 4 solicitors asking for quotes, two responded after ~4 days, we needed to further clarify questions. Ours was just after the Christmas period so there may have been a backlog. We only found one solicitors that actually responded more than once and went with them. They may just have picked solicitors that are not responding. You could enquire how it’s going?

greatcrested

The sensible for a buyer to do is have a solicitor chosen before making an offer. Indeed, why not before or while starting viewings. Then as soon as an offer is accepted they can pass on the details.

But.... FTBs.... so.... if they've not even started looking at quotes it's going to take them a week or three....

Unfortunately this is the first of a number of occassions where you will need patience. Property buying/selling always takes longer than expected, or wanted, and always hits bumps in the road....

amyr

Blue_bell_20 said:

Are your buyers ftb? It took us 8 days in early Jan from when solicitors reopened to instructing one- we emailed 4 solicitors asking for quotes, two responded after ~4 days, we needed to further clarify questions. Ours was just after the Christmas period so there may have been a backlog. We only found one solicitors that actually responded more than once and went with them. They may just have picked solicitors that are not responding. You could enquire how it’s going?

They are indeed, but this is their third attempt at buying after two previous sales fell through after the sellers backed out. So, although first timers, it does feel they should have more up together. 
We'll give our estate agent another nudge (poor things) to chase things up. It's reassuring to hear we might be jumping to conclusions by feeling nervous at this point!

amyr

greatcrested said:

The sensible for a buyer to do is have a solicitor chosen before making an offer. Indeed, why not before or while starting viewings. Then as soon as an offer is accepted they can pass on the details.

But.... FTBs.... so.... if they've not even started looking at quotes it's going to take them a week or three....

Unfortunately this is the first of a number of occassions where you will need patience. Property buying/selling always takes longer than expected, or wanted, and always hits bumps in the road....

Isn't it just. This is our third time, but we've been incredibly lucky in the past with no chain, speedy processes, no stress. Patience is a skill we might need to learn. 

Insomniac101

Our buyers took about 2 weeks to submit their solicitors details as solicitors were not taking on new clients or not starting new files.  We scraped through with our solicitor as we had two offers and she was already working on our file, but she wouldn't take on an new case.

Octothorpe

We are looking to sell soon and I've already contacted our old solicitors and in process of getting quotes before marketing. 

Will remember to think about asking at viewings of ours if any buyers we get have a solicitor already arranged after this post! 😃

eddddy

amyr said:

We'll give our estate agent another nudge (poor things) to chase things up. 

As an aside... I don't think you need to feel sympathy for the EA for having to do sales progression.

A lot of EAs would say that's 50% or more of their job. Maybe think of it in terms of 50% of the fee you'll be paying them is for sales progression (or chasing).