Content Written By: Kirsty Rowett - Last Updated: 03/07/2025
The process of selling a house is a daunting one to say the least. The market is flooded with horror stories of nightmare estate agents and solicitors and buyer drop-outs, so it’s no wonder people like you are trying to find out how long the whole thing will take before getting in too deep.
No matter where you are in the process, it’s important to do your research and know what your options are, including whether or not you need to wait so long and how you can sell your house faster.
You can use this guide to set yourself up for the best experience when it comes to selling your house, so let’s dive in.
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There’s no exact science to buying or selling a house—indeed, it’ll be a whole different picture from one house to the next, even on the same street. The process is broadly the same, but the ways in which they are approached by different solicitors and conveyancers and estate agents and all the rest can vary wildly.
Property searches are an absolutely necessary part of the process and it’s here that most of the delays can crop up—we’ll get into that in more detail below. Firstly, let’s take a quick look at a typical timeline of what you can expect at every stage of the selling process. Bear in mind that these are rough timings and they may be different to your experience if you’re actively trying to sell now.
Timing | What happens |
---|---|
Weeks 1-2 | Offer gets accepted, solicitors enlisted, searches ordered and contracts shared between solicitors |
Weeks 2-4 | Concerns and enquiries brought to the seller |
Weeks 3-5 | Mortgage offer comes through |
Weeks 4-6 | Contracts are reviewed and confirmed by solicitors |
Weeks 6-8 | Contracts are exchanged and completion date is agreed |
Weeks 8-12 | Time to complete: Money is transferred and keys handed over |
Week 12+ | New ownership confirmed with Land Registry via the buyer’s solicitor |
You can find out more about the average time it takes to sell a house in the UK here. There are so many factors and they’re different for every sale, so let’s take a look at the most common ones.
There are many factors at play here. Property searches can take anything from weeks to months to complete and it doesn’t help that there are so many different searches to carry out. These include:
The buyer’s solicitor will push forward with the local searches to check for issues like planning permissions, building control, road schemes and nearby developments—each council has a different timeline depending on the backlogs at any given time
Typical Timeline: 3-30 Days
Conducted to check that the property is connected to the public water and drainage systems and that there are no issues
Typical timeline: 1-10 days
Checking for risks related to contaminated land, ground instability, flooding and pollution—complicated properties can experience delays, but these searches are normally automated
Typical timeline: 1-10 days
The likes of Land Registry searches, coal and general mining searches and high-speed rail searches can also take place and delay exchange further still
The government stipulates a maximum of 10 working days for returning local searches, but, naturally, every council across the UK is dealing with different backlogs. As reported by the HomeOwners Alliance, people relying on Sheffield City Council are looking at 28 days, while those under the London Borough of Hackney council are facing delays of 103 days.
So, the searches themselves can take a few weeks to complete, but that’s not the extent of the wait involved. The conveyancer will then need a few weeks to compile the reports of the search results, so you won’t get them straight away by any means.
Once the results of the searches get back to the solicitors, they’ll need to spend some time reviewing them and working through any issues before they can develop the paperwork for the contracts.
If, for instance, there are any missing planning permissions pertaining to any part of the property in question, the whole process can get delayed. Moreover, mortgage approvals take time and so do everyday communications between solicitors, so there’s a raft of factors that can push a sale back.
- Lloyd Davies, Managing Director of Convey Law, speaking to The Times
For the paperwork to be drawn up and completed as ready-to-sign contracts, you’ll typically be looking at 4-6 weeks. It’s at this point that the exchange can happen and a completion date can be agreed upon—but that’s assuming that everything goes to plan:
- Beth Rudolph from the Home Buying and Selling Group
After the signing of the contracts, when everything becomes legally binding, the completion date will be set and everyone can set their sights on that. It’s when the property officially changes hands, so the funds are transferred and the keys are given to the buyer.
This can, indeed, happen on the same day as the exchange outlined above, but that takes a lot of planning and relies on everything going smoothly without any chinks in the chain. Normally, there’ll be a delay of a few days to a few weeks for final preparations to take place, such as organising removals and making mortgage arrangements.
The next step for the buyer’s solicitor is to register the new ownership with the Land Registry and then the whole process should be wrapped up. Some sales go smoothly, but most don’t, unfortunately…
It can be a long, drawn-out affair selling your house on the open market—we’ve seen so many customer stories of people being let down by buyers pulling out or estate agents not pulling their weight.
Many people are surprised by how quickly you can complete with a cash buyer like us and they wish they’d tried this route sooner. Here’s how you can sell your house faster than you will selling on the open market:
Stage | Selling on the open market | Selling to a cash buyer |
---|---|---|
Searches, enquiries and contracts | 3-6 weeks | 1-2 weeks (but not always required) |
Exchange to completion | 4-8 weeks | 1-2 weeks |
Total time to sell | Up to 12 weeks or longer | As quickly as 7 days |
The advantages of selling to cash house buyers are plentiful and you can trust us when we say you won’t miss the open market… here are some of the top benefits of selling to The Property Buying Company
If you’re in need of a quick house sale for whatever reason—you might need to relocate or your buyer might have pulled out at the last minute—you can keep the chain together by selling to a cash buyer like The Property Buying Company.
Sell your house fast in days instead of waiting for months to find the right buyer on the open market. All that’s required to get the process started is your postcode—enter it into our quick form below to see if your house is eligible and, if it is, we’ll be in touch with a cash offer within hours.
Don’t just take our word for it—check out our customer stories and our Trustpilot reviews to find out more about how quickly we can help you sell your house.
“I didn't even know a service like this existed, selling a house can be a horrific experience and take soo sooo sooo long, I'm really happy to have found this company who have helped me sell quickly and without the typical hassle.”
Date of experience: July 15, 2024
03/07/2025 - Content written by Kirsty Rowett, contributed to by Raphael Kaye.
03/07/2025 - Content updated in line with Editorial Guidelines (Reviewed by Mathew McCorry)