How long did it take you to buy your house?

Going through a house buy now and can give you timelines/updates if that helps? While I mentioned before that it's typically 3 months, we're aiming to exchange on this one by the end of May (so just about 2 months). Will let you know if everything sticks to timescales and if it's possible or if the way solicitors work if it's going to inevitably overrun as we think it probably will. In case documenting the process will help anybody:

So far, our offer was accepted on Friday, we've filled out forms for solicitors over the weekend as well as providing a few additional pieces of evidence for our financial adviser. We are just looking to get the survey booked (and have our buyers book a survey for our place.

We sort of did our sale bass-ackwards though as we have somebody coming to photograph our house on Friday (estate agents need photos for the listing as we are listing AFTER agreeing on a sale) and we had somebody come around to do a floor plan this past Friday.

Things are moving along as expected in the early stages..

So...just had further update from the above ^^^

What I find hilarious is our solicitor can give us text/email updates via a tracking system they use but UKVI can't! haha

Anyways, we've received updates today that they received our initial deposit and I've now just received an update that they've received our seller's draft contract

In the process of getting a survey worked out (we've got a few quotes to review). Not sure how quick we can get in there for a survey, but we'll see I guess!

I'm just crossing my fingers that the survey of our property goes okay LOL

So on WD 2, we're at the point where we have draft contracts from seller which I think is a good thing...

So...just had further update from the above ^^^

What I find hilarious is our solicitor can give us text/email updates via a tracking system they use but UKVI can't! haha

Anyways, we've received updates today that they received our initial deposit and I've now just received an update that they've received our seller's draft contract

In the process of getting a survey worked out (we've got a few quotes to review). Not sure how quick we can get in there for a survey, but we'll see I guess!

I'm just crossing my fingers that the survey of our property goes okay LOL

So on WD 2, we're at the point where we have draft contracts from seller which I think is a good thing...

Just another update WD5 and we are looking at getting surveys booked in soon and we've received the contents paperwork as well as the rest of the contract documents from our seller with ours being passed on to our the buyer.  They've listed a move date as BEGINNING of May instead of end! ...If this goes through that quickly, I'll be shocked...but also need to maybe think about starting to properly pack this weekend a bit....lol

Just another update WD5 and we are looking at getting surveys booked in soon and we've received the contents paperwork as well as the rest of the contract documents from our seller with ours being passed on to our the buyer.  They've listed a move date as BEGINNING of May instead of end! ...If this goes through that quickly, I'll be shocked...but also need to maybe think about starting to properly pack this weekend a bit....lol

Interesting... we've got our surveys all completed and received the contents paperwork, etc. I think we're just waiting on all the searches to be done. But we haven't heard anything about an actual date yet. It seems to be moving but yeah... We're in the same boat as you too regarding packing. Got some free boxes from Home Bargains but haven't even taken them out of the boot of the car yet!! LOL!!

Interesting... we've got our surveys all completed and received the contents paperwork, etc. I think we're just waiting on all the searches to be done. But we haven't heard anything about an actual date yet. It seems to be moving but yeah... We're in the same boat as you too regarding packing. Got some free boxes from Home Bargains but haven't even taken them out of the boot of the car yet!! LOL!!

Sorry I should've made it more clear lol - the sellers have listed the PREFERRED moving date as beginning of May but that doesn't actually mean that'll be the moving date. They list it on that particular solicitor's form as "expected move date" vs. preferred moving date but that is all it is. No confirmation of actual moving date as of yet. That definitely is unlikely to happen before we get surveys and stuff booked it (but also will probably depend on how the others in the chain below us are getting on with their paperwork). Thankfully the people buying our house who came to "take measurements" Wednesday night seem to indicate that everything is flowing well so we'll see!

I'm sure you're bound to get your moving date soon enough!!

Sorry I should've made it more clear lol - the sellers have listed the PREFERRED moving date as beginning of May but that doesn't actually mean that'll be the moving date. They list it on that particular solicitor's form as "expected move date" vs. preferred moving date but that is all it is. No confirmation of actual moving date as of yet. That definitely is unlikely to happen before we get surveys and stuff booked it (but also will probably depend on how the others in the chain below us are getting on with their paperwork). Thankfully the people buying our house who came to "take measurements" Wednesday night seem to indicate that everything is flowing well so we'll see!

I'm sure you're bound to get your moving date soon enough!!

Ah, I got ya. Lucky for us, the sellers can move whenever we're ready. So, it's really down to solicitors getting things done in our case I believe. My best guesstimate is that we'll be moving early May as well. Fingers crossed for us both!!!

Ah, I got ya. Lucky for us, the sellers can move whenever we're ready. So, it's really down to solicitors getting things done in our case I believe. My best guesstimate is that we'll be moving early May as well. Fingers crossed for us both!!!

I’m just hoping the others in the chain have decent solicitors who move quickly! Lol


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Good luck with your move btw! Hope it goes quickly and smoothly!


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Good luck with your move btw! Hope it goes quickly and smoothly!


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Thank you!!! 

Thankfully the people buying our house who came to "take measurements" Wednesday night seem to indicate that everything is flowing well so we'll see!

Sorry if I'm hijacking this thread, but, dying to ask:  What did your buyers think of the new kitchen?  Were they disappointed with any of your choices?  Pleased to have a new big open kitchen?

Sorry if I'm hijacking this thread, but, dying to ask:  What did your buyers think of the new kitchen?  Were they disappointed with any of your choices?  Pleased to have a new big open kitchen?

They seemed to be pleased with everything. They thought it was quite the transformation as they had seen it when only some of the cupboards were up. We had a nose at their current property as it was listed on Rightmove and they already had a nice big open kitchen. Their house is very comparable size-wise to what we have so they haven't really upgraded or downgraded space to be honest but their place currently is lush and they've had a lot of nice work done (they're moving to be in our location as they prefer it but everything else is pretty on par except theirs is probably newer). We were afraid they were going to hate everything and change their minds (LOL) but they are pleased as punch. Apparently they're planning on doing one big wrap around extension and opening things up which will be lovely I think! I think they'll do a lovely job to be honest based on their current house. Happy to see this house reach it's full potential but it was not where we wanted to invest our money.

To answer your original question though, they did seem chuffed with the new kitchen. They thought we did a good job and they liked the space

3.5 months, beginning Feb to mid May, and we were told that was normal.  We had an 18% deposit and were pre-approved for a mortgage right around the time we put in an offer - we'd started the mortgage a couple days earlier and from there it all kinda lined up.

We moved from one flat into another flat.  It being a flat meant it was on the quicker side, or so we were told, because there were less reports and surveys to do.  There was a chain and it had broken down previously.  We replaced that broken link and everyone above us stayed in line so there were no chain issues that we were aware of once we joined in.