I think my husband is a bit clueless because he thinks we can start searching for a house, buy it and move in, in less than 4 months. Is he right or does it usually take longer than 4 months for the whole process of house searching, placing offers, closing and then actually legally owning the house.
How long did it take you to take legal ownership of the house. once you started seriously searching for a house?
GOLD / wonderful pomegranate / 28905 posts
I would say from when we actively started searching to closing it took us a little over 6 months.
hostess / wonderful honeydew / 32460 posts
DH bought a house about 1.5 years before we got married. We'll probably be looking to sell and rent/buy a new place within the next 2-3 years.
clementine / 861 posts
We started looking at the end of July, submitted an offer mid-August, finalized negotiations at the end of August, and closed on the last day of September. We were in a 500sq ft studio, so we definitely settled on the house. I wish we had kept looking.
hostess / wonderful persimmon / 25556 posts
I moved to Raleigh in June, owned my house on Labor Day weekend. 
clementine / 878 posts
We're an anomoly because we were really picky about what we were looking for. But if you think you can find "the house" quickly, you could be closed and moved in in 60 days.
When we found our house, we put in the offer the day we saw it and had an accepted offer within 24 hours. We're renting the house back to the current owners for 60 days after closing (we got to lock in an awesome mortgage rate and they get to stay in the house until their youngest graduates high school).
If there's a lot of good options in your area, 4 months is totally doable.
apricot / 384 posts
We started looking in May or June and closed on August 19th, so it can happen quickly, but you have to get your things together! We got pre-approved for a mortgage and started looking. We'd see 5-7 houses on each trip out.
We got lucky and found our house after about 20-25 houses in but for some people it takes much longer!
persimmon / 1341 posts
I think it depends on what you're looking for. If you know the area you want and know you're priorities in a house you might be able to find something quickly. For us, the house hunting took the longest part because we didn't even know which town or county we wanted to be in. Once we found the house it took us 30 days from the initial offer to the closing date.
GOLD / wonderful apricot / 22646 posts
We started our househunt in April of 2009, we looked at over 70 houses, and put in several offers... until we found our house in July 2009. We closed August 2009 and moved in after Labor day 2009.
squash / 13199 posts
Thanks guys... I think I would want to gives ourselves atleast 6 months to find place... we dont want to feel rushed by our aparment lease running out and then rush and by the wrong house
hostess / eggplant / 11068 posts
It took us two months and four offers before we had our house.
GOLD / wonderful grape / 20289 posts
It took us a while, but we bought a short sale. The actual process of finding a house was easy peasy for us. We looked online, picked out the ones we liked and drove by them to see the outside, and we really only loved one so that's the only one we ever went inside. The bad part was waiting and waiting for them to accept our offer. And then of course the inspection came back pretty bad so we thought we were going to have to give it up, but they offered us some money to fix things.
kiwi / 729 posts
We've been looking for 2 yrs now. Maybe we're too picky but don't want to just buy a good enough house because we're cramped. DH really really wants to move but i'm holding out for "the one" or close to "the one" as possible.
So yeah, it can take a long time depending on how picky or particular you are about the house, how many in the area you are looking are available, and how much demand there is for those homes.
grapefruit / 4703 posts
We started looking in January, looked at about 50 houses, signed a P&S agreement in May, closed in June, and moved in in July. So all in all it took 6 months. Good luck!
blogger / watermelon / 14218 posts
Last time we tried to buy, we looked for about 2 months, made an offer, then made an offer to rent when the seller wanted to take it off the market and rent it out instead. Everything fell apart and we ended up having to find a new place to live in one day (the day after Thanksgiving!). We lucked out with our current place and we're renting now. I keep my eye on the market but we probably won't buy for another couple of years.
blogger / coconut / 8306 posts
It depends on what you're looking for, what you can afford, and what's available in your area.
We started looking in March 2009, put an offer in on a house in August 2009, and closed in September 2009. We didn't move in until October, though.
GOLD / wonderful olive / 19030 posts
It took us about 6 months total, we looked at a LOT of houses before finding "the one." After we bought it the owner needed the max time to move out since they weren't expecting it to sell that fast and hadn't bought another house yet.
honeydew / 7230 posts
It took us about 3 months from the time we began until we found our house. However, we had another 2 months wait until we closed. So 5 months from start to finish. I felt like that was pretty fast though. Some of our friends have taken a lot longer.
GOLD / eggplant / 11517 posts
It took us a little over a month from deciding we wanted to buy, to being in our home. But we aren't the norm, for sure.
kiwi / 545 posts
Its possible with the right Realtors and mortgage people! We started looking in July and moved in at the end of September.
pineapple / 12793 posts
Man, you girls are so lucky. We've been looking for about a year, have bid on three and lost all three and are still looking.
wonderful pomelo / 30692 posts
We started looking in January and closed on the house at the end of April (moved in in May). So 4 months from looking to closing, but 5 months including moving. It all will depend on what's available in your price range and if you're expectations are in-line with that price range.
clementine / 916 posts
We started looking in early March and closed mid-July. I think its really dependent on your market... we had to weed through a lot of rejects before we found one that worked for us. In some other markets I feel we could have found one more quickly, and likewise I'm sure there are markets out there that would have taken a lot more patience.
coconut / 8299 posts
It took us 2 years. We put in several offers but we kept getting outbid. We were putting in lowball offers hoping one of them would stick. We weren't in a hurry to buy a home so we wanted to take advantage of the dip in housing prices. But once our offer got accepted, it took us 2 months for the loan paperwork, remodel and move in!
coconut / 8498 posts
Like others have said, it depends on your situation. We bought a foreclosure and it took about 6 months from first visit to closing. We have some friends that recently saw a house and had closed on it within a week. You never know!
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