Experiences for how long selling/buying currently takes

arrows123

I'm currently in the 11th week, hoping to complete in a couple of weeks. I'm in rented accomodation buying from a seller who has moved into rented so no chain.

TripleH

The time taken depends on how straightforward the sale is and how competent/busy all parties involved in the sale are.

I might be wrong but think it took 6 weeks from the Brexit vote to us completing on our last place (add 2 weeks on top for work pre vote). I only know because our lender decided because of the vote that they wanted a greater deposit. We got £5k off the price if we agreed to complete ASAP. It helped we had a fantastic conveyancer (sadly now retired).

All you can do is complete and return any 'paperwork' you have to do as quickly as you can. We aim for 24 hours maximum as a target. Also we are straightforward with answers, if we don't know we say.

Gavin83

I’d say October is very optimistic. There’s more chance of you not completing this year. It’s looking like our house purchase will have taken 4 months in total. There’s a bit of a chain and some seriously incompetent solicitors but all the properties are freehold too.

vixst

We completed today and our offer was accepted on 25 May, so start to finish just over 15 weeks. We are in rented and buying a freehold house, the sellers were buying a new build I believe. So fairly straightforward set of circumstances. We had to wait a long time for our surveyor to have an available slot to carry out the survey, then we waited another few weeks for the report. Everything else went quite fast.

MrsBrush

Don't hold your breath. Partly depends on the solicitors and lots of other factors - one set of incompetent or unresponsive solicitors will hold things up for months. Our sale could have completed in July (would have been around 13 weeks) but our ongoing purchase offer was accepted 29th May, vendors solicitors have been v. slow, and are now being downright difficult - so it could be resolved quickly, as they are not answering the legal enquiries as they see them as "unnecessary" - where my solicitor says that my mortgage company cannot release funds without these answers. Unfortunately, this lot aren't listening to their vendor either, so he is complaining yet again for poor customer service! So, could be resolved today, or it could still take months. Bottom line, have no expectations over dates - it is mainly totally outside your control.
 

House_owner

Currently into my 17th week of buying and selling. Hoping for completion by week 20. First time buyers buying my house and I am buying a no chain house - my sale been ready to exchange since last month - hold up on purchase caused by incompetent solictors and estate agent!
All paperwork given to me returned within 24 hours with straightforward answers - so delay not caused by me! 
Both properties freehold as well.

clare19811

We accepted an offer on our freehold house from a cash buyer with no chain either side on 2nd June, we're still waiting to exchange and complete, the end is in sight now but could still be the end of the September.

firstbuyer

Thanks All

This has definitely reassured me. It's given me back a lot of power I know where I stand now, and will make it very clear with my EA.