The exciting journey of buying a home is unique and different for everyone. Below I'll give You a general outline and timeframe of a "typical" buying process from start to finish.
1. Talk with Your bank or mortgage broker to get pre-approved.
Your bank or mortgage broker will require a general snapshot of Your financial situation which will help them to get You pre-approved for a mortgage and will help us determine which price range we should be looking in.
Depending who You're working with this pre-approval process can take anywhere from 24-72hrs from when You submit all necessary documents to the broker.
2. Finding a home.
Once we are pre-approved we will have a general idea of what price range we should be looking in. Depending on the market, Your availability to view homes, price range and our wants and needs in a home we should be able to find You a home You love in 2-3 weeks. (5-15 showings on average)
If You're looking for something very specific or even an acreage, this can take some time as acreages are so unique and different. Everything from the lay of the land, how much of the land is useable, how private is the land to even the utilities on the property play a role and no two acreages are the same.
3. Submitting an offer.
Once we have found a home that You love and I've educated You on the market and what the most comparable homes have sold for, writing up the actual offer and completing all the necessary paperwork usually take anywhere from 30-60 minutes.
I present all offers on an ASAP basis and once the sellers REALTOR® receives the offer from us, depending on when they can present it to their clients we can expect to hear back from them in 12-24hrs in most cases.
If the negotiations go smoothly and all parties are easily accessible, we can generally expect to come to an agreement within 48-72hrs from us originally submitting the offer.
4. Conditions.
If we all come to terms with the price and conditions of the home, we generally give ourself 5-7 working days to fulfill all of our conditions. (financing, home inspection etc) In some cases we will need more time to fulfill our conditions if we have specific one in there that pertains to documents that we need to acquire from the seller. (condo documents, special reports etc)
Once all of our conditions are removed and the home has officially SOLD, we send all the documents to closing and their respective parties.
5. Lawyer's appointment.
Generally You will hear from Your lawyer two weeks from Your possession date so that You can book a time to sit down and sign all the legal paperwork.
6. Possession day.
Possession days vary but I've seen everything from 15-90 days possession on a property depending on the circumstances. The most common possession day timeframe I see is a 30-45 day possession date which generally works for most buyers and sellers.
7. Key release.
All properties are to be vacant and ready for possession by 12 noon on the agreed upon possession day. If everything goes smoothly I usually receive a call around 11:30am to let me know that all funds have been transferred and we are cleared for the 12 noon possession.
On occasion the possession time becomes delayed but it usually granted by later in the afternoon of the possession day... or on the rarest occasion, the actual possession day becomes delayed from unforeseen circumstances and at that point we consult with our lawyer for direction.
As You can see there is no definite timeline or cookie cutter answer to a "typical" real estate timeline as each and every transaction is different and unique because each buyer and sellers situation is different and unique.
The most amount of time is spent during the "finding a home" stage because there can be a lot of information and options to choose from. This is generally the largest investment You will make so time and care should be put into finding the right home.
So from getting pre-qualified all the way up to You removing conditions on Your new home, You can expect this all to happen just inside of 4 weeks. If it takes longer...it takes longer. There is no one size fits all and I'm more than happy to spend as much time with You as You need to find Your perfect home :)
