When listing your property for sale in Epsom, you’ll almost certainly be hoping for a fast sale that allows you to move on with your property plans. Unfortunately, the wheels in property turn rather slowly, and using data from home.co.uk, we see that homes in Epsom are on the market for an average of 136 days. The longest part of the transaction being the move from offer to completion. Nationally, it’s been estimated that to sell a house after an offer is accepted can take 3-4 months. However, this can be even longer if any issues arise late on in the sale.
In this blog, we look at how long it takes to sell a house after an offer is accepted and what may slow the process down.
What should you do after an offer is accepted on your house?
With an offer accepted, you are moving closer to selling your home but there is still a way to go. To ensure things get off on the right foot and you don’t add any further delay to an already slow process, appoint a conveyancer.
The conveyancer plays a vital role as they will work with the conveyancer for the buyers and yourself to ensure all legal aspects are fully covered and that any queries are addressed as quickly as possible.
They will carefully collate all the important information and pass it to the buyer’s conveyancer so searches can begin and the sale can edge closer to completion.
Once appointed, your conveyancer will get to work but don’t expect to be handing over the keys too soon. Conveyancing can take as long as three months to complete. To save more time, you could start researching conveyancers in the local area the moment you list your property. That way you’ll get a good idea of costs and won’t be rushing to find someone once an acceptable offer comes in.
What happens between offer being accepted and completion?
With a conveyancer appointed, things can start moving forward. It may be wise to look into potential mortgages for the property you are going to buy if you need one. Whilst you are doing this, the buyer will likely be doing the same as they wait for their mortgage in principle to become an official mortgage offer. As you both scope out the best mortgage deals, your conveyancers will start their work.
Conveyancing searches
Conveyancing searches are essential and can take longer than you hope if problems arise. The conveyancer appointed on behalf of the buyers will investigate both the property and the surrounding area for points of concern. This could include flooding risk, subsidence potential and whether appropriate planning permission has been sought for any development to the property.
These searches are in-depth and can take over a month to complete. Should they flag up issues at any point, the buyer may look to reduce their offer or worst case, back out altogether. This is another reason why appointing a conveyancer and having searches completed early is essential. That way, work can be done to rectify any issues and keep the sale on track.
Pre-contract enquiries
Once the survey results are in, the pre-contract enquiries can begin. These will give the buyer’s legal team the chance to air any concerns that the buyer has about the results of the survey. Depending on the severity of the issues raised, this could simply see a request made regarding some fixtures and fittings or see a lower offer made. Depending on how many issues are raised, this process could take anything from a couple of weeks to a month.
Contract exchange
Should all issues from the survey now be resolved and both parties be happy with the resolution, contracts can be exchanged. This makes the sale legally binding and backing out now from either party would come with severe cost implications. This is where the pace picks up a little and you can expect a contract exchange to take approximately two weeks.
Completion
We are now at the final hurdle, and it should be just a matter of days before you can hand over the keys to the buyer. Normally, after the exchange of contracts, the whole process concludes around seven days later.
All in all, from an offer being accepted to completion, you can expect a wait of around 3 months for everything to fall into place. Whilst the searches and pre-contract enquiries may only take 4-5 weeks in total, the rest of the conveyancing can soon add to this timeline. Don’t forget, these timescales are only based on averages too. In some cases, it can all take much longer!
What slows down a house sale after an offer is accepted?
All the elements we listed above take time, but they also take cooperation. If you can ensure you provide conveyancers, estate agents, lenders and insurers with everything they need, in advance or as soon as requested, your sale moves much faster.
Common delays that slow the process after an offer is accepted include:
Delays with search results
The conveyancing search results take time, but if certain information is needed that the conveyancer can’t find, you can see the wait for them to be completed almost doubled. Results are normally expected within 2-6 weeks, but this can become much longer. Compile all the information relating to the property in advance so you can provide it as soon as requested.
Delays with survey results
The survey results can come through fairly quickly, but specific properties can see them take much longer. The survey reveals any defects within the property and depending on the survey taking place, you could see the wait for results take a while to come through. Different types of RICS surveys have varying levels of depth, as a result, some take more time than the other. Then, should issues arise, there may be an additional delay while they get rectified.
Delays with mortgage offers
In most cases, your buyer will need a mortgage. These will normally take a month to be offered but should the buyer fail to provide specific information, or be slow to respond to requests, this can take much longer. Mortgage offers typically expire within 3-6 months, in extreme cases, your buyer may need to reapply, further adding to the wait.
Complex chains
Most property transactions are part of a chain and even if your sale is running smoothly and your purchase is on track, a break in the chain elsewhere can slow things down considerably. There isn’t much you can do about this as often it is not your fault. However, if you are likely to cause a break in the chain, it could be down to poor preparation and failing to provide the relevant documentation and information when requested.
Can I accept multiple offers on my home?
If you are concerned that delays may be inevitable, you may consider accepting multiple offers on your property. Nothing becomes legally binding until you have exchanged contracts, you’ll need to be aware that should you accept other offers, you’ll lose any money already spent on the transaction from the original offer. This could mean that even though the later offer has made the best offer, you could see less cash after paying, in effect, twice for the sales process.
If you have a property in Epsom or the surrounding areas and are looking to sell, speak to Cairds. We are award-winning Epsom estate agents with years of experience helping homeowners like you, sell your home fast. Our friendly and knowledgeable team of property experts are on hand to help so why not give them a call?