OT: How to buy a house - timescales, etc...

[Rob]

Think I am pretty much out of my depth on this one as never bought a house before, was a bit surprised - on Weds a property was listed on Zoopla, and I made an appointment to view this evening as free from work. However as I was going to view it, found a voicemail from agent saying that it was now off the market as the buyer had accepted an offer.

Is it unusual for houses to sell that quickly? I don't even have mortgage agreement in place, which would take more than a couple of days after you've found the place you want...

[Capitol]

The market price was too low. The agent wanted a quick sale and the seller was conned.

[tim...]

very unusual

HTH

tim

[Tim Watts]

I've seen it happen - an agent told me some get sold before the advert official goes live, just by word of mouth.

Of course, there's a big difference between "offer accepted" and "sold and completed". The latter can take a good 2-3 months even with a cash buyer and zero chain, whilst everyone wibbles doing surveys, solicitors ask questions and standard searches are done.

[pamela]

The house has not been sold. The buyer has provisionally accepted an offer and there will now be several months of paperwork (survery, search, mortgage, true ownership, etc) before money is actually transferred and a sale takes place.

The SOLD sign you might see will always say "subject to contract" which basically means it's not actaully sold at all but that it will hopefully get sold later on to the person who made the offer.

Unless the rules changed recently, the agent is under an obligation to pass on any further offers to the vendor. So, theoretically, you could still make an offer yourself. The agent will dislike a second offer because, amongst other reasons, it's simpler for him if the buyer just gets on with selling to once party rather than getting into a bidding war which may end up with both prospective buyers going away. The agent is incorrect to tell you the house is off the market; what he means is that he doesn't want to market it further.

[polygonum]

These days it is usually necessary to have a mortgage agreed in principle prior to even looking seriously. (Of course, it does depend on area - some being less difficult than others.)

I also do not believe a lot of the estate agents. One house near here has been on Zoopla or Rightmove at least almost continuously for all the time we have been looking. Yet when you ring up to get a viewing they say it isn't on the market! Houses go on and off market within days or even hours.

Buyers are forever putting in offers, then walking away saying they'd changed their minds - within minutes at times. Vast numbers of agreed purchases fail to complete.

We have had great difficulty in getting to view properties within the very short times available - I work fairly normal working hours and simply cannot leave and get to a property that quickly.

[DJC]

Some do, most don't. [Said with feeling as its only ten days since I completed the sale of my flat, a marathon that has taken 30 months, 3 abortive sales plus several false starts]

As a seller it is generally unwise to accept an offer before the place has been on the market for a week or two, but there will always be occasions when an acceptable offer is made and the vendor doesn't want to wait. Not infrequently the property will reappear on the market a week or two later when the realities of surveys and mortgage valuation kick in and the buyer discovers why what looked like a bargain isn't..

[charles]

when we bought our first house (1964) the asking price was ?4600. I offered ?4500 which was accepted, I then discovered how much work was needed and lowered my offer to ?4300. This was rejected, so I withdrew. Some 6 months later another agent offered me the same house for ?4500, so I offered ?4200 which was accepted. I later discovered the original asking price was ?5000!

Multiply by a factor of 100 to get something like today's figures.

[John Rumm]

Some of the agents I know will pre-qualify some of the most keen buyers, by getting them interviewed and checked out by their pet IFA to ensure they have mortgage in principle or other funds ready etc. These buyers then get first crack at new properties before they even get as far as rightmove etc. So its not uncommon for places to sell almost "at once"

Indeed.

[Dave Plowman (News)]

Eh? Took 4 weeks when I bought this place in the 70s, from first seeing to moving in. Although my solicitor was also a friend.

[pamela]

Four weeks is good. If you threw caution to the wind and had enough cash then I suppose you might be able to complete within a week.

As for the rest of us, it usually takes longer. Don't blame me.

[Dave Plowman (News)]

Heh heh - I certainly wasn't a cash buyer, but had a mortgage arranged - subject to survey and valuation, etc. And all the searches etc were done as normal. Only thing was the owner had already bought another house, and there was no chain or whatever.

Oh I wasn't. But you'd think in these electronic days it would be faster, not slower.

[tim...]

The implication there is that it is "the process" that makes it take longer.

but, unless the property is currently empty (or the seller is absolutely committed to buying somewhere else) the seller wont want to move out that quickly.

they will have to find somewhere else to live, arrange removals etc etc, and IME you need a clear month for that

[alan_m]

It depends where you live. On my street the time between for sale board going up and the under offer/sold sign going up is around two weeks, however the two in question properties were well maintained and within a minutes walk of a station on a

Nearby "requires some modification" aka something that hasn't been touched in 30+years, property sold in 2 months.

[alan_m]

+1 in the 70s I moved into my property around three weeks after making the offer - no chain and the property at the time was unoccupied. The solicitor wasn't my friend but just got on with it. The move may have been sooner if the solicitor hadn't further asked the council for confirmation that the dropped curb for vehicle accessed was officially approved.

The estate agent had an "attached" financial adviser who arranged a mortgage in principle before I started looking and I had an agreed repayment only mortgage days after making an offer.

[Rob]

This was one of the latter - it said "requires modernisation" in estate agent speak...

[alan_m]

.... popular main line London commuter route.

[Dave Plowman (News)]

Mine was 'in need of some decoration' So I painted over the lead wiring. ;-)

[spuorgelgoog]

Previous owners here plasterboarded over it :-)

Owain

[DJC]

That was then! It took about that when I bought my flat in 1985 after I told the solicitor to shortcut the local search nonsense. From my current experience it tends to take a lot longer now as everyone wants to tick more boxes etc.

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