How long from accepting offer to moving in? Plus tiny delima

Last month DH and I put in two offers on two different homes. Both of which were rejected. We decided to just forget about it, and go on vacation and see if anything new came on the market. But when we got back, we had a message from both estate agents asking us to call them back.

We called the estate agent of the house I love the most and(it was on the market for £250-280,000) we had only offered £220,000 so we figured they just wanted to tell us a new house had come on. They told DH that the owners would be willing to sell for £230,000. DH just told them sorry, our last offer was our final offer and we don't feel comfortable paying any more than that at this point. So I expected them to just call back and say no. But no...they called us right back and said the owners have now put an offer in on the house they want, for a price they can afford to pay if we pay the £220,000. So it is all relying on whether or not the house they want, gets accepted or not.

Anyway, the very same day...we called the other estate agent, to be told that house has also come back to us, wanting to accept our offer from the month earlier.

DH prefered the second house, I prefered the first house. So we went to look at the first house again with his father, and luckily for me, his father convinced him the house I want is by far the best investment, and better house. So we told the owners, who showed us around again, that we had another offer accepted on another house, but we do prefer this house and it was our first choice. The owner said they're still waiting to hear from the estate agent because the house they put an offer in on was owned by an old lady who is now moved into a nursing home, and the estate agent is dealing with a solicitor on her behalf. They put the offer in with them on Saturday..and as of now they have not heard back.

Meanwhile, the second house(which we dont want to lose in case this falls through) keeps calling us wanting us to give all our information and come in and measure for furniture ect etc...I feel really dirty for not answering their calls, but we've just called the other estate agent to tell owners of our first choice house that we have to know by Friday, or else we will have to pull out of the offer.

If the first house comes through, they said they can get it moving fast because there would be no chain involved(and we have no chain either)...but the second homes owners are going straight into rental, and they want it done ASAP as well. So I guess my question is how long does it typically take when no chains are involved to be moved into a house?

that's a tough situation. hope it resolves quickly!

We are a few days away from completion (getting the keys and being able to move), neither party has any chain, and we put the offer in in late November, so it was about 10 weeks. According to the estate agent, the average time is 12 weeks, I have friends who did it in 9. Frankly, our process would have gone faster if Christmas hadn't shut all the offices down for a week or more!

Good luck!

I'm also trying not to lose the plot on when we might complete.  Basically hubby and i put our house on the market just to see if we might get offers.  We did, and surprisingly quick, so suddenly we were out looking for a house to buy.  We've found one and our offer was accepted.

My biggest concern is that i'm 34 weeks pregnant and ideally we want to be in the new house before the baby comes (so that gives us 6-8 weeks max).  It's all so stressful and despite telling the solicitors and lenders our situation things are still moving a bit slow. 

I'm trying my best to not stress over it, and in the meantime slowly sort through my stuff to go to the new house (to be fair there is so little of my usual wardrobe i can still wear) but not knowing when we'll be in is driving me mad!

Ashy - it depends on how the owners of the 1st house are buying it.  If they're buying it cash, then it speeds up the process considerably.  Same goes for you - cash sales go much quicker than ones with a mortgage, as there's no waiting to get a mortgage offer.

Depending on solicitors & how often they are chased by the agents, then it should ROUGHLY take 8-10 weeks at the most, allowing space for delays within the process (mortgage offers, difficulties of working with an owner going into a nursing home, etc.) for the situation you describe with the 1st house.

The 2nd house would likely be quicker, since there is no chain at all involved.  Of course pending your own mortgage situation, the average time for a chain-free sale is 4-6 weeks.

The problem with giving you estimates if of course that any minor snag can significantly change your timeframes - it's really almost impossible to predict!

(this is all from my lovely husband with 7 years' selling experience )

Ah, thank you so much!

Apparently the 1st choice house is in a "sealed bid" until Monday..but the estate agent said the solicitor said they're wanting to sell to someone who can move quickly, and since they can move since we've offered on their house, hopefully it'll be good for us. But thats just optomistic estate agent spin, I'm sure...we wont know until tomorrow. But I am not getting my hopes up.

We already have our mortgage agreement sorted out. So hopefully it will be less time for us.

Tell your hubby thanks for taking the time to explain it..and thank you for writing it out.

And Alison, oh no! I hope it gets moving for you quickly so you can get moved in and sorted out before the baby comes! A friend of mine just had to move from New Jersey to Texas(marine husband) and she is 36 weeks pregnant. So I can just imagine your stress mounting from speaking with her!