Had an offer accepted, were going to the estate agent tommorow to verify we have a mortgage approved. How long realistically will the process take till we can move in? We have no chain and the house were buying isn’t in a chain.

We would like to be moved by 31st May as that’s when our contract on our rental expires, agent says it’s possible but the amount of bull they’ve told us till now I don’t know if he’s just being optimistic.

I’d say about 6 weeks minimum if everything goes to plan and there are no problems.
we had an offer accepted, no chain, on a place in October and we’re finally moving in today (fingers crossed). we expected to be in by January…
so many people involved who have no interest in rushing, mainly:
– solicitors who aren’t yours or the vendors
– mortgage companies who offer good rates and are therefore busy
– management companies

I’d say 31st May is do-able but you’re going to have to chase it. And you need to find out when the vendor wants to move out.

Thanks brakes, good luck with the move today. Both parties want a quick sale so perhaps 6 weeks might happen, fingers crossed.

we did 4 weeks from offer to keys.

you will have to chase it.

dont just look for the best mortgage rate , get an all of market broker and explain you want it quick but do get a contact direct for the mortgage supplier so you can chase – at one point i was phoning every hour (they lost my documents and i lost the plot with them)

I did the opposite of above because i was nieve and went for best rate – what a stress that caused me – 3 weeks chasing mortgage , came through on the final friday – exchanged monday , completed friday !

With the wind in the right direction and a good conveyancing solicitor it can be done in two weeks.

I did this just before Christmas in 2005 and got it from offer accepted to keys in hand in 15 days.

(my conveyancing solicitor was a good friend and I had mortgage agreed in principal beforehand with a company who said they would fast track it if needed)

The house we are in now was viewed in early December, with offer accepted. We moved in 1st February. A few years ago though.

You have to push everyone (your solicitor is key), and make sure the seller knows (and agrees) to your timescale.

Could be quick or it could be months! Buying ours, a mate was doing my conveyancing and he was doing things as quick as he could, however the other solicitor worked at snails pace and wrote pointless letters to ask simple questions etc etc.

Then theres your mortgage co, which havent actually approved your mortgage yet who could still turn you down, or just faff incesantly.

Its the biggest ball ache ever and never happens as quickly as it should…

Offer accepted on the 29 May, moved in on the 12 August, we were hoping for something much quicker as house was empty and no chain.

Survey done, mortgage approved, searches done in around 10 days. No idea what the solicitors were messing around at the rest of the time…

We had our keys in two weeks, although the house was empty when we bought it.

Forget about the agent now, you need to do everything yourself, even a lot of the sellers work if you want to move fast and they don’t have the same drive as you.

We got my daughters house through quite quickly [no mortgage though] by chasing everything down and even going to the point of taking the seller in to their solicitors to sign things
We also decided to choose a solicitor next door to the one the seller used – not sure if that helped much though

Definitely a case of ‘how long is a piece of string’! I had a property developer buy my last house, well known by the estate agents, cash sale & no survey. I was moving into t’other halfs place, so no onward chain & no mortgage application. Still took 7 weeks!

chase chase chase. basically spent every day on the phone to get mine shifting. our buyers (no chain) just sat on their hands for nearly 4 months in the end.

went back to the house the other day and have now realised why they werent in a rush… they have yet to move in!!

(we moved out 9th dec)

conversly my mate stuck in an offer about the day we moved house, and was in his by mid jan.

were going to the estate agent tommorow to verify we have a mortgage approved.

In a hurry or not, take a day to make sure the EA have found you the best deal there – I suspect not
Don’t use them for anything would be my advice

were going to the estate agent tommorow to verify we have a mortgage approved.
In a hurry or not, take a day to make sure the EA have found you the best deal there – I suspect not
Don’t use them for anything would be my advice

Thanks 🙂 the EA haven’t provided us with the mortgage deal. In all honesty we rent a property off this same EA and they can’t manage a rental Direct Debit, so I have little hope of them sorting it out quickly. It’s who the seller picked though so we’ve just got to accept that.

Thanks for the replies, the seller seems very keen to get the sale completed for their own reasons, which is why they took our silly low offer as we have no chain etc… Will keep pushing to get things done.

12 weeks for us last year with no real issues. The key is not being frightened to push all parties involved at the risk of annoyance. Our solicitor rather unhelpfully went on holiday without informing us or telling her colleagues what paperwork was outstanding on the sale which caused a delay.

I’ve done nine days from first spotting advert to keys, but I had money in the bank waiting.

You will need to push it really hard. Don’t forget the following week is the extra jubilee bank holiday and people will start winding down for it a couple of days before.

You may be able to negotiate a shorter exchange period than the standard 1 month if the other parties and your mortgage provider agree.

get a solicitor that you can get to easily. We used one in merseyside that was recommended by mortgage company thinking this would make things easier. Every friday we’d get an email saying “we need A/B/C etc” we’d email it or post it as appropriate and they’d d nothing until at least wednesday.

Pay the premium, get a local soliciter and be able to walk into the office with the things they need, it’ll be well worth it! We had an offer accepted in november and moved in at the end of march last year.

get an all of market broker

There’s no such thing. A lot of high street banks are keeping the best packages/rates for themselves.

I’ve recently got a deal over .5% better than the best broker offer by going direct with the same lender!

Add to this no broker fees and the ability to cut the set up fee if I decide to bank with them.

Piece of string territory – and it’s not always obvious how it will pan out based on situations (i.e. ‘no chain’ doesn’t always mean quick!).

When we bought, I couldn’t believe the stupidity of some people/agents/solicitors!
The ‘next 2 sellers’ above us in the chain (our seller, and their seller) were using some ‘rent-a-solicitor’ based in Wales (We were Bournemouth based!), both with the same company, and yet ‘they’ had no idea what the other was doing! Our solicitor tried contacting them ‘both’ to speed things up, but wasn’t allowed to speak to those higher in the chain for some reason, despite it being the same company!

Oh well!

DrP

Funnily enough I am in a very similar situation to Catflees! I’ve got to the point of trying to decide on the type of survey I want doing on the property (basic valuation, homebuyers report or buildings survey).

Considering the house I’m buying is a turn of the century mid-terrace that had an extension and heavy renovation around 2 years ago, and nothing is noticeably wrong externally, what survey should I go for?

Sorry for the slight hijack, I assume you’ll be in the same boat very soon Catflees!

If you can get hold of the deals available to brokers – you can do your own leg work

similar to this sort of thing
http://www.halifax-intermediaries.co.uk/products/mortgages/default.aspx

IMHO the biggest obstacle in the house buying process is the Solicitors, keep on at them and it can be done in 4 weeks!!!

Beware that an approved mortgage can be rejected by the underwriters. I’ve just done a deal on a place and that took eight weeks even without a mortgage.

We did 8 weeks over Christmas and new year this time including the solicitor going off for 2 weeks. The time before we did 6 weeks. Searches are coming back quickly at the moment because there are fewer moves happening.

I moved into my new house within 2 weeks of the offer being accepted. That was 10 years ago, the seller needed the money yesterday (bridging finance) and mine was a cash offer. And I had a very good solicitor.

That was in Scotland, I should add. It’s all possible…

14:30 – still no keys.
who’s to blame?
solicitors.

finally got by keys at 16:50.
still not completed properly and there are now contests about the size of our garden and access to a piece of land out the back, but threats of breach of contract got us the keys.

you completely missed my point phil but ill let you have your moment…..

house were buying isn’t in a chain.

How do you know this? – estate agent told you – lips moving…

Thanks for the advice, solicitor is a friend of a friend we will push him to get it sorted by 31st May.

teef – Member
house were buying isn’t in a chain.
How do you know this? – estate agent told you – lips moving…
POSTED 46 MINUTES AGO # REPORT-POST

Ha ha, no we are aware of the vendors circumstances having met them at a viewing.

I think your pc is a bit laggy Maryjoe 🙂

If you are prepared to be a complete pita 4 weeks is possible; being more realistic 6 weeks shouldn’t cause a good solicitor any problems.

My advice be upfront tell everyone you want to move quickly.

I did it in three weeks into a new build in order to beat the Stamp Duty hike. First mortgage, cannot recommend Nationwide enough.

You need a proactive solicitor. Go for word of mouth recommendations.

Agree wit hthe Solicitor getting their finger out. We did it in 4 weeks, my house was sold and the house we were buying was vacant. I don’t think it would have happened if it wasn’t.

I did a move recently and things were slowed down by him not having service history on the boiler or electrical safety cert.

Lots of messing about with the solicitors asking where I got my deposit money from as well but I still managed it in 6 weeks. No upward chain.

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