How Long Does It Take To Buy A Home?
It really depends on a lot of factors--the short answer is you would be wise to initiate the process 9-12 months before your intended move-in date, especially if you already own a home that you will be selling. That being said, I have had clients who were able to be moved into a new home around two months after contacting me… and I’ve had buyers who were close to a year or more from start to finish. Because there can be so many moving parts and different considerations, I recommend buyers contact me about a year before their intended move-in date.
Let me explain why that is the case.
The biggest factor that will determine how long you should plan for, is the combination of the supply of inventory of homes for sale and the size of the area or areas that you are seriously considering. Most buyers buy a home after seeing in the range of 5-12 homes (live showings), and most are able to do that within a month or two. In a tighter market such as the one we’ve been in for several years, it’s not unusual for buyers to take 2-3 months to find a home and get an offer accepted. Figure that most closings take between 45-60 days from the time an offer is accepted to the time the closing is done and the keys are handed to the buyer, and it’s probably a good idea to plan to start the process at least 4 and probably closer to 6 months before the date you have targeted for your physical move-in.
Planning ahead even farther can have many advantages. For example, as I discuss in greater detail in the section titled “Seeking Off-Market Properties,” I love to try and find more options for my buyers by sending out personal letters to homeowners in neighborhoods that have been identified by my buyers as being of particular interest. Sometimes I find a seller this way, and most I find weren’t really planning to sell, so they can require a little more patience, which pushes out the move-in date.
And if you are looking to buy in an area that you are not already quite familiar with, you may want to add even more time to get to know the area and the amenities that may be of particular importance to you.
At the end of the day, it’s always better to have more time to complete a very important project. The earlier you start, the more options you will likely have.