How Long Does it Take to Buy a House?

Buying yourself a house can take time. It’s all about getting the best possible results, and making sure that you understand just how long the process can take.

There is no shortcut to purchasing a property. It will take as long as it will take, but knowing how long it takes will give you a better idea of how long you can expect to wait until you’re holding the keys to your new property.

So, with that being said, how long does it actually take to purchase a house? What we thought we would do is take a look at the average timeline, take a look at some of the criteria that will influence buying a house, and give you a good idea of what to expect.

Finding the Property

So, we will start under the assumption you have not found the perfect property for you yet. This is fairly common, as people don’t always find the ideal home for them to purchase right away. However, this does affect the timing.

It’s not easy to quantify how long it will take you to find the perfect property, but on average you can expect to spend about a week or two searching, but this will obviously be spread out because you won’t be spending entire days at a time searching for your property, it will be something you do when you have a free moment.

Getting a Mortgage

The first thing that you’ll have to do in the process of buying houses to get a mortgage. Now, if you’re going to pay without needing a mortgage, feel free to skip this particular section, but otherwise, let’s figure it out.

Getting a mortgage in principle is easy, you can do it in just a day. However, getting all the paperwork together, getting verified, having your money sorted out for you, that can take a little while longer. It’s important to take the time to shop around to find the right mortgage provider, so don’t rush this.

The Legal Processes

Unfortunately, one of the big things that can slow down buying a property are all of the legal processes and complications.

For example, you would need a survey to be conducted, you might have to think about getting a proper look around the house, negotiating on the price, agreeing the price, communicating with estate agents, waiting for your offer to be accepted or declined, and generally working your way through the house purchasing process.

These kinds of processes can really take up a lot of time, so you might have to wait a few weeks. Making sure that the property is up to code, that everything is the way it should be, and that the owners are in a position to start making proper negotiations for the right price will be very important. Don’t try and rush this process, because it’s very important to get it all right on the first attempt.

The Waiting Game

If everything does work out the way it supposed to in the sense that you’ve got the right kind of offer put in, it’s been accepted, the owners have said that they are prepared to sell, and sell it to you, and everything has been checked out, you have to make sure that you settle in for a bit of a waiting game.

Here is the deal. There is often some waiting to take place. The paperwork on both sides has to be sorted out, and done correctly, and if it gets wrong, or one side doesn’t cooperate properly, that can hold up the process. The original owners of the property, the people you’re buying the property from, have to be in a position where they can move out – that can take some time.

When all this has been finalised and sorted out, you can get down to the moving process, but that is a bit of a situation all it’s own.

Moving House

Well, the big day has finally arrived. You can start to think about moving into your brand-new property, this is quite exciting for anybody to think about, but you have to make sure that you do it properly.

It can take time to hire the company required to help you move in, make sure that the previous owners are ready to go, do all of the important things that you need to do, so you have to be patient with yourself during this process. It’s all about stopping to take a look at how you can make your experiences better, and you can do this in quite a few different ways.

Final Thoughts

So, how long does it really take to properly move house, and buy a property? Well, this can take time, there is no fixed timeline.

Ultimately, that’s probably the biggest problem, there is no fixed timeline to speak of. It can vary massively depending on the situation that you’re in, which means that you have to think long and hard about the kind of options you want, the way that you do things, and your overall experiences. It’s definitely a challenge to get it all right, but the end result is worth it in the long run.

Generally speaking, it can take anywhere from three months to a year to move, but it’s all down to how well things line up. The property market is notoriously difficult to predict and control, and the moving house process is just a necessary evil that a lot of people have come to put up with.

For best results, you are going to want to make sure that you get your hands on a reliable team of experts to help you buy a property, from the estate agent to a moving company, to a professional who can help you through the process. The more professionals you bring in, the more likely you are to have a smooth and easy purchasing experience, but it really does depend so massively that it’s difficult to predict with any kind of accuracy.