How long until I have my own home

LegacyUser

Hi

After getting hit hard by the recession like so many others, I am in permanent employment for the first time and have been approved in principle for a mortgage. I have found a house in like and I intend to make an offer this week.

I have heard that the process from making an offer to actually getting the keys to the house and moving in can take several months, realistically how long can I expect this process to take providing that there are no complications?

My current rental situation is not ideal and its in a very dodgy area, but the rent is cheap, I can hang in for the momoment but only for the short term, so I am interested to know how long it could potentially be by time I get my own house?

Cash_Q

How long is a piece of string?

Honestly, every situation is different.

Nothing is certain until you've got the keys in your hands. Making an offer could be the start of a long bidding process that you could lose out on in the end. Or, your offer could be accepted quickly.

If your offer is accepted, you pay a booking deposit to the agent, but this is totally refundable should you or the seller change their mind. This can happen any time between paying it and signing contracts.

If neither party pulls out, contracts will be signed with a completion date/date to get the keys. The contracts could be issued within weeks, or it could take several months. It depends how efficient the solicitors are, and also depends on if the person selling the house needs to buy a new house themselves, they won't be able to sign until they've had an offer accepted on a new place for themselves...and depending on who is selling that house and their circumstances, there could be further delays.

The date for completion will depend on the availability of the new home for the sellers if they need one, or if there are tenants in the house, it'll depend on when they vacate, which could be a very long drawn out process.

Other things which take time include the bank having the house valued and agreeing to issue funds and then solicitors drawing down these funds, but they're not significant delays in my experience.

Essentially it can all happen within 4-6 weeks if there are no complications, average is 3 months, but the individual circumstances dictate the length of time involved.

babi-hrse

Ah even when things are straightforward. It isn't even so.
My other half is the most organised person I know the sort who could organise flights a holiday connecting flights hotel and transport and have it all boxed off with a phone a calculator, pen and paper and have it all done in under the time the ad breaks end.

So when we went to buy a house we got mortgage approval on 4th of July
Went to look at one house.
Put a bid on a house owned by the bank
No competing offers showed up for the remaining 3 weeks and we were told we had the highest bid and it would be submitted to the bank.

2 months later got told the bid went up
Needless to say we were livid as we thought this was getting wrapped up.
(Oh yeah estate agents are by and large useless you will start to hate them some are good, some are cowboys and then there are some who are plain lazy or chasing a bigger client and won't answer emails.
it's hard to make a life changing transaction when you don't trust the person your dealing with as far as you can throw them)

This resulted in our mortgage application expiring so we had to reapply.

Then we found another house we wanted in they wanted out seemed like the fastest thing you could get
The bank had to check it
The surveyed had to check it
The council had to sign off on it people brought house under a scheme and couldn't sell it to us until the council could establish we were not a vulture fund or something (the council can drag their heels) this was a further 2 months.
Then got a call that it's coming to Christmas so the bank won't be doing draw downs during that time so we have to organise it for Jan. 21st
Knock on wood that's the last step but honestly I'm expecting anything at this stage. Ancient Indian burial ground or gas leak at this stage wouldn't surprise me.
Herself thought this would take 3-4 months as she got everything organised our end.

So like another poster said how long is a piece of string.
Our case isn't unique it's actually one of the better stories I've heard all sorts out there.

wirelessdude01

Not one person can answer this for you as each purchase is different and different things can go wrong.

However my own story is went to view a house at the start of July and was in before the end of August. Now this was 12yrs ago and this has are ALOT different now with all the red tape.

Pac1Man

OP just focus on getting an offer accepted for now. From there, be sure to issue any required documents as soon as you can. That's really all you can control. The odd friendly phonecall can often hurry things up down the line but you shouldn't stress over that at this stage.

woodchuck

Mod note:

Hi OP, I'm going to move your thread to the Accommodation & Property forum as your query is more suited there.

All posters should note that the Accommodation & Property charter now applies.

YakerK

Two years ago we viewed a house in last week of September and were moved in by second week of December. We were mortgage approved in principle before viewing the house. I don’t think the process could have went much quicker or smother (unless we were cash buyers of course) so would have said that 8-10 weks is the minimum. Longest is anyone’s guess!

riclad

If your offer is accepted it takes 8-10 weeks, you need to have a solicitor to handle the legal process of buying the house.
You can claim 15 per cent of the loan interest ,see revenue.ie TRS .
If you are single you can only claim for a max of 2,250 per year .
eg 15 per cent of 2250 euro.
You should give your landlord at least 1 months notice ,eg i intend to leave on date x .So he can advertise the rental property.
https://www.revenue.ie/en/property/mortgage-interest-relief/index.aspx
Until you sign the contract to buy the house, in theory anyone could still bid on the house.

There’s no guarantee that you’ll actually get a mortgage, so hold tough until you do.

Sarn

riclad wrote: »

You can claim 15 per cent of the loan interest ,see revenue.ie TRS.
If you are single you can only claim for a max of 2,250 per year . eg 15 per cent of 2250 euro.

This isn’t applicable anymore to new residential mortgages.

Cash_Q

Sarn wrote:

This isn’t applicable anymore to new residential mortgages.

Thanks for that, I nearly got excited for a minute there!