When I agreed the sale in mid-November both parties thought a completion in Jan/Feb was reasonably relaxed. In the end, with the buyer needing completion by 31 March contracts were exchanged with only 10 days to go. (Buyer's solicitor was useless).
then you wouldn't know if they were going to build an interstellar highway through your property.
Completely unrelated to the agent earning more commission from the buyer's mortgage than the sale fee for the property, of course.
Owain
My solicitor said she could do a conveyance in 3 weeks, it actually took 3 weeks and a day. They use email these days.
This is Scotland though.
Owain
In message , "Dave Plowman (News)" writes
Very lucky - but not usual. In my experience, the delay between agreeing to buy and actually moving in is usually around three months.
Regarding the sale, how long to agree a sale is subject to the current housing market, location etc. I'm in my eighth purchased property (since 1975) and slowest sale was about a year. Fastest was a private small ad in the local paper, published Friday morning and sale agreed mid morning that day.
Exchange contracts on 28th complete 29th. March. In advance of the Chancellors tax hike!
Transfer from an estate within the family so usual formalities waived and no borrowing.
... and tries to renegotiate the price after the a bad survey, can't agree a price for fixtures and fittings, argues over the implications of the damp survey, rages at the agent for creating fake pressure, have reservations after discovering the neighbours enjoy reggae parties at the weekend, not so sure about the implications of the florist shop around the corner applying for a late night wine bar licence, and so on.
Knowing about that sort of experience is more useful to the OP than stories of how breathtakingly fast it can be done.
Coming up next: "Last time we flew in to Heathrow, we did the 100 mile trip home in 73 minutes. Best I ever did was.... "
Zzzzz. Wake me up when the boy's talk is done. :-)
In some parts of the country it's only the crap and overpriced properties that take long to sell!
last time I flew into Heathrow it took the baggage handlers 1.5 hours to unload the plane.
Like the one next door which took 15 months. (Overpriced)
Provided there is no borrowing exchange and completion on the same day is easy enough if both parties are willing and able, its getting to the exchange of contracts that is the fraught part.
Last time I flew into Heathrow it took ground services 2.5 hours to send a buggy for my disabled travelling companion.
I once flew from Heathrow to Glasgow on the first flight of a new-in- service plane. Glasgow didn't have the keys to the baggage compartment, so we had to wait best part of two hours for one to arrive. The following shuttle had already left before the problem was noticed.
Been there, got the "T" shirt. I then followed up directly with the owners who were unaware of my interest. Accepted offer had come from a well known associate of the agent!
Mike
You can exchange and complete with borrowing too. I've done it.
We'd already made an offer and had it accepted on our previous house before the advertising came out, so yes, this kind of thing happens a lot.
This can also explain the situation mentioned by 'polygonum' of a property advertised 'for sale' for an extended period but which a phone call reveals to be 'not for sale'. Sometimes it must to be 'for sale' for a decent len gth of time for legal reasons (owner died for example) but they don't reall y want offers at all.
Robert
The agent mentioned to me that it had just come out of probate...
Certainly could explain some cases. Not the one I had in mind! I can walk there from where I live and see it being lived in. And, in the summer, a gardener doing hedges and things. Though there could be "legal reasons" that I can't fathom. :-)
Sometimes I wonder if estate agents are putting up properties that are their own personal property with no intention of selling - just to keep their company names in view on Rightmove, Zoopla, OnTheMarket and, umm, Tepilo. Or those of family and friends! In some parts there have been remarkably few houses in the fairly recent past.
I remember rogue agents used to put up For Sale signs in any spare property so they could get their name out in the hope of more new instructions. I'm not saying it worked but I remember it happening.
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