okay in this video i want to take a look at a common question how long does it take
to buy a house or indeed how long does it take to sell a house
obviously there's two parties at least on each side of the equation when there's a property being
bought and sold essentially at the same time so how long does it take it really depends
it really depends and that's not being tried let's just say for the sake of argument that
i'm representing the purchaser in a particular transaction and let's say that we go sale agreed
and i'm acting for the purchaser and the purchaser has been in touch with me and they've instructed
me to act on their behalf and i'm ready to rock i'm all dressed up ready to go and nothing happens
what do i mean by nothing happens i mean the contracts and the title documents are not issued
by the vendors solicitor for whatever reason they are not issued for a period of time
that is something that's completely and utterly out of my hands there's absolutely
nothing i can do until i receive contracts and title documents copy title so that's the first
variable me acting as the purchaser solicitor i'm completely dependent on the vendor solicitor
doing his or her he or she may be waiting for title documents from the bank and he or she may
have been instructed by his client very late in the day once i do receive contracts and once i
do receive copy title documents i'm going to do what i'm supposed to do and that is review very
carefully the contracts and the title documents and review the title that's being offered for sale
so that is going to involve me raising certain questions and queries in respect of the contract
and or the title documents and the title that's being offered
again i'm completely dependent on the vendor solicitor responding to my queries giving me
satisfactory replies to queries he or she may be fast in doing so may be very responsive or
may have to take his clients instructions or may have to make further enquiries or may have
to get onto the revenue commissioners to get a certificate in relation to lpt may have to get
onto the local authority and get a certificate in relation to either planning or perhaps npb or
non-principal private residence tax may need to get an architect or engineer out to do a statute
of declaration about a particular uh development that was carried out for a certificate of
exemption or a certificate of compliance so there's any number of reasons or any number
of queries rather that i can make and i need satisfactory answers in order to do
a decent job for my client and not get sued for professional negligence as i say i'm dependent
then on how quickly the other party is able to give me satisfactory replies once we have
satisfactory replies then we can sign the contract return it and proceed to the next step however my
client is probably going to be borrowing money i do have some cash purchasers obviously but
most people will borrow money because it's a significant purchase a significant investment
and we have to deal with the bank so again the bank is not going to release any money
until its conditions are satisfied especially in relation to life assurance and home insurance
and any other conditions that they might have for example they may be checking up on the
employment status of my client the borrower and maybe looking for some up-to-date wages
slips and so on to ensure that nothing has changed since the first application was made and granted
so again you're looking at perhaps another delay there something that is again completely beyond
my control i have no say over it i can't complete the sale until the bank release the money so when
the bank do release the money then the vendor solicitor must prepare the closing documents
and send them to me to be held in trust or we need to make arrangements to complete
assuming that the vendor can clear off out of the house and hand over vacant possession we're off to
races in terms of completing the sale however if the vendors or if the vendor is actually
buying on or trying to get a replacement purchase or even a home or property to rent then that could
delay it further so you can see from beginning to end there is a great deal of variables and
many of the variables are completely beyond control of the purchasing solicitor for example
and obviously the vendor solicitor if i was acting for the vendor
i'm going to have the same problem in so far as i may send out contracts and title documents quickly
i may not hear anything from the purchaser solicitor because the purchaser solicitor
may be prudently waiting for a loan offer to issue from the purchaser's lending institution and so on
so again it's a bit like playing tennis or playing any field sport where one team is required
to belt the ball over the net or kick the ball out it takes two to party it takes two to tango
you can't do it on your own whether you're looking for the purchaser or for the vendor
you can't do it on your own you are dependent on the other side doing their thing and providing you
with satisfactory replies and responses to queries and so on so that's why it's very very difficult
to give a definitive answer as to how long it's going to take it could take anything from four
weeks to four months quite frankly i suppose a decent enough average although it would only be
a very rough average would be something like six to eight weeks you could allow that sort
of time frame but there is exceptions both ways there's exceptionally fast ones
there's exceptionally slow ones so you know you'd probably in all fairness be looking at something
like eight weeks anyway that you'd want to allow and you hope then to beat that if you're going to
be a quick one and if you're going to be a slow one then you need to be prepared for that but
as i say oftentimes there's not a whole pile that any individual can do because you are
dependent on the other links in the chain and the chain is only as strong as its weakest link
hope you find this video useful i hope i've explained how and why it's difficult to be
definitive and be completely prescriptive about how long conveyance will take because
it really will depend on every single individual transaction hope you find the
video useful if you do i'd appreciate if you gave it the thumbs up down below thanks a lot