How long to sell a house

eschaton

I last bought in 2005, freehold. 

I put an offer in via solicitor that was accepted. 

I then put my own house up for sale and arranged a mortgage. 

Total time between making offer, selling my house and moving in was 6 weeks. 

Misteek

BungalowBel said:

We have just sold a leasehold flat with no issues to a first-time-buyer and no chain at either end and it took six months.  Just warning!

What do you mean buy chains ? 

What took 6 months ? The whole thing as in finding a buyer to completion , exchange if keys etc. Or was it after there was an offer etc ?

How much did it cost you if you don't mind me asking ? And tips would be appreciative 

user1977

Misteek said:

BungalowBel said:

We have just sold a leasehold flat with no issues to a first-time-buyer and no chain at either end and it took six months.  Just warning!

What do you mean by chains ? 

The transactions which are linked to each other e.g. if a buyer can only afford to buy by selling their own property, or a seller only wants to sell if they are moving into a property they've bought. Typically all those transactions need to happen simultaneously, so there can be a lot of twiddling your thumbs while you wait for everybody else to buy/sell.

ReadySteadyPop

BungalowBel said:

We have just sold a leasehold flat with no issues to a first-time-buyer and no chain at either end and it took six months.  Just warning!

There are threads on here about people still trying to sell after two or three YEARS, usually that is because they are pitching an asking price that is too high for the market.

ReadySteadyPop

eschaton said:

I last bought in 2005, freehold. 

I put an offer in via solicitor that was accepted. 

I then put my own house up for sale and arranged a mortgage. 

Total time between making offer, selling my house and moving in was 6 weeks. 

2005 was a red hot market, this market is different, this market is part of the fallout from the extreme financial measures that were taken after the 2008 crash, many many houses sit unsold now.

Bigphil1474

OP, an EA will typically charge around 1% + VAT of the sale price. There are variations but it won't be far off. You can do something like Purple Bricks where you don't pay anything but you get what you pay for IMO. 

A chain is simply a series of properties that are being bought and sold at the same time where each sale relies on the previous one. You'd usually have a first time buyer at the bottom, and maybe an empty property at the top. On completion day, the FTB provides the funds for the house they are buying, those people move out and are temporarily homeless until their money is confirmed for the house they are buying, they then move in to their new home, their vendors move out and are temporarily homeless, and so on.

A conveyancer is a solicitor who specialises in property sales. Our solicitors charged us about £2k from memory for sale and purchase.

We put our house up for sale in October 2023, agreed the final sale in March 20204, and we moved into our new house in August 2024. There was a chain of 4 properties.

If you get a good conveyancer they are worth their weight in gold - try 3 local firms if you can. There will be cheaper online companies but check out reviews etc. as they are often over worked and don't have the time to spend on your purchase. At least with a local company you can call into see them if you have a query or need to provide paperwork or sign any documentation. If you have a buyer lined up, then you probably don't need an EA - EA's will look at whether they can afford the property so you need to do that. Your solicitor will check that you aren't money laundering, and communicate with your buyers solicitor (who will check they aren't money laundering), amongst other things.

ReadySteadyPop

Bigphil1474 said:

OP, an EA will typically charge around 1% + VAT of the sale price. There are variations but it won't be far off. You can do something like Purple Bricks where you don't pay anything but you get what you pay for IMO. 

A chain is simply a series of properties that are being bought and sold at the same time where each sale relies on the previous one. You'd usually have a first time buyer at the bottom, and maybe an empty property at the top. On completion day, the FTB provides the funds for the house they are buying, those people move out and are temporarily homeless until their money is confirmed for the house they are buying, they then move in to their new home, their vendors move out and are temporarily homeless, and so on.

A conveyancer is a solicitor who specialises in property sales. Our solicitors charged us about £2k from memory for sale and purchase.

We put our house up for sale in October 2023, agreed the final sale in March 20204, and we moved into our new house in August 2024. There was a chain of 4 properties.

If you get a good conveyancer they are worth their weight in gold - try 3 local firms if you can. There will be cheaper online companies but check out reviews etc. as they are often over worked and don't have the time to spend on your purchase. At least with a local company you can call into see them if you have a query or need to provide paperwork or sign any documentation. If you have a buyer lined up, then you probably don't need an EA - EA's will look at whether they can afford the property so you need to do that. Your solicitor will check that you aren't money laundering, and communicate with your buyers solicitor (who will check they aren't money laundering), amongst other things.

FTB are crucial to the whole pyramid really.

dinosaur66

14 weeks is always the norm for me in england even when using conveyencing only specialists

when i bought my first property in scotland had a phone call from conveyencer nearly every 3 days keeping me informed and 3 weeks after my offer accepted asking can i complete in 2 days time and got the keys in 23 days .

i like the scottish system a lot/ no gazumping / full free survey / valuation by the surveyor not the estate agent / scottish conveyencers at least 50% cheaper than all the essex/london ones i have ever used  and they ring you all the time keeping you updated / now compare that to all of us of have dealt with south east england conveyencers.

annetheman

Anecdotal. The house I am buying is ready to exchange after 4 weeks. Seller is refusing to confirm a completion date but if they weren't so difficult, we could be completing 5 weeks after I made my offer...

This is a probate sale, I am a single more-or-less-vanilla buyer who has broken the chain, living with parents...

Previously, I was in a house purchase that was >8 months in with no exchange date in sight, due to Title issues...

I sold my flat in August in under 4 months, and that was leasehold, shared ownership and Building Safety Act -liable. 

A great solicitor on both sides can do miracles...!

MeteredOut

ReadySteadyPop said:

eschaton said:

I last bought in 2005, freehold. 

I put an offer in via solicitor that was accepted. 

I then put my own house up for sale and arranged a mortgage. 

Total time between making offer, selling my house and moving in was 6 weeks. 

2005 was a red hot market, this market is different, this market is part of the fallout from the extreme financial measures that were taken after the 2008 crash, many many houses sit unsold now.

I believe you are currently homeless (in the sense of not owning, rather than you living in a doorway - but apologies if you are). Thinking of picking up a bargain?