Short circuiting the selling process?

[onekeano]

A friend is thinking about moving. Problem is that agents don''t really want to deal with people in a chain. I spoke with a solicitor earlier and she told me the normal leadtime from start to finish when selling a house is about 8 weeks - I'm not sure at what stage in that 8 weeks does the exchange of contracts happen?

I'm wondering if a solicitor can request documents from a bank and start preparing so that when a buyer is identified and agreed contracts can be exchanged much more quickly. This would allow my friend to bid on properties knowing that the disadvantage of being in a chain is at least minimised.

Any advice would be much appreciated.

Roy

 

[elcato]

Eight weeks would be very quick. My experience is that the contracts should be prepared and at your solicitor after about 2 to 3 weeks. Then the solicitor needs to do checks on title, property, management company, any third party like a bank getting proceeds etc. which could take four weeks assuming there is no problem with title (or even getting it if a bank has it). At that stage he asks the buyer to come in and sign contract and pay 10% deposit. They will agree a closing date when the seller signs and the money is handed over which is usually 4 weeks. If either/both solicitor goes on holidays add that to the equation. In summary I would expect the point of sale agreed to buyer signing contract to take 8 weeks.