How long does it take to buy? To sell? What happens, in what order and what can’t be rushed or skipped without the whole thing falling apart? Here’s the timelines you need to know if you’re buying or selling real estate.
Buying
From start to finish, the typical length of time for buying a property is 90 days or around 12 weeks. Here’s what a typical timeline looks for buying real estate.
Week One
- Hire your Realtor
- Discuss budget, attributes, location and other factors that matter to you
- Begin conversation with mortgage broker or bank about financing
- Introduction to lawyer, home inspector, mover, painter and any other relevant vendors.
Week Two
- Review initial search results with your Realtor, providing feedback on what you like and what you don’t so the search can be revised
- Provide your mortgage broker or lender with all required documentation for a pre-approval and obtain a pre-approval for the purchase.
- Choose and retain a lawyer for the purchase.
- See properties with your Realtor and provide feedback on what appeals and what doesn’t so the search can be revised.
Weeks Three to Four
- See (online and in person) properties and find a property that suits your needs, submit offer, negotiate the purchase (conditional or firm) and sign an accepted Agreement of Purchase and Sale.
- Fulfill conditions (financing, home inspection, insurability, etc.)
- Hire other vendors for planned services leading up to your closing date and for after closing.
Weeks Five to Eleven
- Preparing for your closing date, which is typically 30 to 60 days from the day you agree to purchase the property.
- Visit the property with your Realtor for your purchaser visits to take measurements, bring in contractors for detailed quotes and decide on post-purchase steps.
Week Twelve
- Sign closing documents with your lawyer.
- Final purchaser visit with your Realtor.
- Closing of the property and receiving the keys!
While the above is a typical transaction, it can take less time or more time depending on your situation and the market. The biggest variable is of course when you find the home you wish to purchase. The more unusual the combination of price, location and attributes that is required, the longer it takes to find the property.
In a hurry?
The quickest you can buy a home is about three weeks. Lawyers and lenders need some time to do their work and even if you have financing arranged and you buy the first home you see, it’s unusual for the search for a property to take less than one month.
Here’s where things fall apart.
When buying a property, the most common place for problems to occur is financing.
Some buyers make assumptions about the amount they would be able to get for a mortgage or underestimate the cost of the mortgage and waste time and energy looking at properties that they will not be able to purchase or afford based on their income.
Even worse, some buyers buy properties conditionally or even firm without fully understanding their financing options. In cases like that, at best it is a waste of everyone’s time with lots of paperwork to do and then reverse. At worst, sellers seek legal remedies and lawsuits are filed.
Another common place where buyers run into trouble is hiring a part-time, inexperienced or unmotivated Realtor. As a buyer your job is not to find, organize and move a home purchase forward. That’s the job of your Realtor and you need to be confident that who you hire to make that happen is able to do it.
Now, let’s look at the timeline for selling a property.
Selling
From start to finish, the typical length of time for selling a property is 90 days or around 12 weeks. Here’s what a typical timeline looks for selling real estate.
Week One
- Hire your Realtor
- Discuss sale price and necessary work to prepare for listing.
- Begin preparing the property for listing, including repairs and decluttering.
- Begin conversation with your lender about breaking your mortgage or porting it.
- Introduction to lawyer, home inspector, mover, stager, painter and any other relevant vendors.
Week Two
- Continue to prepare for the listing of the property and making sure it is photography ready.
- Choose and retain a lawyer for the sale.
- Hire other vendors for planned services leading up to your listing date.
- Have professional photography taken of the property.
- Your Realtor has marketing material based on this photography prepared and ordered.
Week Three
- The home goes on the market, with marketing material in home and externally, including online.
- Showings begin, on as unlimited availability as is reasonable for the residents of the property.
Week Four to Five
- Showings and open houses take place.
- Within this period, depending on the market, you should receive offers and your Realtor will negotiate the sale of the property.
- Deposit is received from the buyer and held in the listing brokerage trust account.
- Movers and other vendors are hired based on your closing date.
Weeks Six to Eleven
- Preparing for your closing date, which is typically 30 to 60 days from the day you agree to sell the property.
- Purchaser visits to take measurements, bring in contractors for detailed quotes and decide on post-purchase steps.
Week Twelve
- Sign closing documents with your lawyer.
- Final purchaser visit.
- Closing of the property and receiving the sale proceeds!
While the above is a typical transaction, it can take less time or more time depending on your situation and the market.
In a hurry?
The quickest you can sell a home is about three weeks. Lawyers and lenders need some time to do their work and even if a buyer knocks on your door and has a suitcase full of money, it’s unusual for the sale of a property to take less than one month.
Here’s where things fall apart.
When selling a property, the most common place for problems to occur is preparing for the listing date.
Some sellers underestimate the amount of time and skills required to undertake repairs and work to present the property in its best light. Effectively marketing a home is far less helpful if the property doesn’t look good in the photography and the marketing material.
Even worse, some sellers run out of time, motivation or money and decide to not fix problems or make the home look its best. In such cases, the liklihood of low ball offers increases dramatically and buyers who aren’t willing to take on a project decide to not view or offer on the property.
Another common place where sellers run into trouble is hiring a Realtor who doesn’t understand how to properly price the home. As a seller your job is not to analyze comparable properties, review market statistics, assessed property values and identify the price a reasonable buyer would pay for the property. That’s the job of your Realtor and if they don’t know how to do it and explain to you why this is the price to list at, you risk being overpriced and seeing your home sit on the market for much longer than if it was priced properly. Such situations typically result in an eventual sale for a much lower price than what could have been realized with an accurately priced listing. The flip side of that situation is just as bad, where a Realtor under prices your property and you sell quickly but for less than you should have received.
Buying or selling real estate is a complicated process where lots of things happen at the same time. Some things need to be done quickly and all of them need to be done right.
