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HomeIsWithU
Baby #2 on the way!
Member since 9/07 7816 total posts
Name:
Jenn
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How long on average from offer to contract?
I know this belongs on the home board but there's not much traffic on there and I thought I'd ask here.
In general, how long would you say it takes between when a buyer gets an accepted offer and contracts are signed by both parties?
We've had our eye on a house that the agent is aware we would like to make an offer (its a complicated situation and we would need a contingency to sell our house). There was supposedly an accepted offer on May 22nd but the house is still listed and it doesn't seem that the contracts have been signed yet. I feel like it's taking quite a while (we've been through the buying/selling process twice and it never took this long) so I'm wondering if it fell through and we might have a shot, or if this is a normal time frame.
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Posted 6/4/18 9:23 AM  |
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NervousNell
Just another chapter in life..
Member since 11/09 54921 total posts
Name:
..being a mommy and being a wife!
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Re: How long on average from offer to contract?
It depends. We put an offer on our house in late March, which they accepted, but we didn't close until July.
We worked that out with the sellers because they needed to stay until they could move into their new house.
It all depends what the buyers work out with the sellers.
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| Posted 6/4/18 9:27 AM |
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HomeIsWithU
Baby #2 on the way!
Member since 9/07 7816 total posts
Name:
Jenn
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Re: How long on average from offer to contract?
Posted by NervousNell
It depends. We put an offer on our house in late March, which they accepted, but we didn't close until July.
We worked that out with the sellers because they needed to stay until they could move into their new house.
It all depends what the buyers work out with the sellers.
But do you recall how long it was between the accepted offer and when the contracts were signed? I know closing is usually 30 - 60 days later (and possibly even later depending on what you work out), but I thought offer to contract was usually like a week to 10 days.
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| Posted 6/4/18 9:30 AM |
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Katareen
5,000 Posts!
Member since 4/10 7180 total posts
Name:
Katherine
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How long on average from offer to contract?
Closing might take a while but the status of “under contract” is usually quite fast after accepted offer. I’m assuming the potential buyers had a few issues uncovered at their inspection and maybe they’re still negotiating those issues before they sign.
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| Posted 6/4/18 9:31 AM |
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chilltocam
LIF Adult
Member since 11/11 9141 total posts
Name:
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How long on average from offer to contract?
There can be issues holding up one party signing. I went through that last year/earlier this year. The seller accepted my offer and contracts were drawn up. I signed in mid-November and it then came to light that there was a property line/fence issue that was taking forever to resolve (although the seller kept saying it was going to be resolved "soon".) finally in the second week of January, when the seller still hadn't signed, I walked away from the deal.
On the house I just closed on, I had an accepted offer in late January and the contracts were signed in less than 2 weeks
Good luck! Hope it works out for you
Message edited 6/4/2018 9:33:39 AM.
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| Posted 6/4/18 9:32 AM |
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HomeIsWithU
Baby #2 on the way!
Member since 9/07 7816 total posts
Name:
Jenn
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Re: How long on average from offer to contract?
Posted by chilltocam
There can be issues holding up one party signing. I went through that last year/earlier this year. The seller accepted my offer and contracts were drawn up. I signed in mid-November and it then came to light that there was a property line/fence issue that was taking forever to resolve (although the seller kept saying it was going to be resolved "soon".) finally in the second week of January, when the seller still hadn't signed, I walked away from the deal.
On the house I just closed on, I had an accepted offer in late January and the contracts were signed in less than 2 weeks
Good luck! Hope it works out for you
Thank you! I'm not holding my breath, but if it came back around to us we would be thrilled.
We bought our "forever home" 3 years ago and never planned on moving. We've done a lot of work to it and have a lot more to go, but we came across this house the day after it listed and while it also needs a lot of updating, it is literally our DREAM house on our dream piece of property. We both agreed it's the ONLY house we would consider selling our current home for. And if it doesn't work out...then it wasn't meant to be and we're happy where we are.
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| Posted 6/4/18 9:36 AM |
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NervousNell
Just another chapter in life..
Member since 11/09 54921 total posts
Name:
..being a mommy and being a wife!
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Re: How long on average from offer to contract?
Posted by HomeIsWithU
Posted by NervousNell
It depends. We put an offer on our house in late March, which they accepted, but we didn't close until July.
We worked that out with the sellers because they needed to stay until they could move into their new house.
It all depends what the buyers work out with the sellers.
But do you recall how long it was between the accepted offer and when the contracts were signed? I know closing is usually 30 - 60 days later (and possibly even later depending on what you work out), but I thought offer to contract was usually like a week to 10 days.
I think it was about a month. We were getting the inspection done, etc
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| Posted 6/4/18 9:36 AM |
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MarathonKnitter
HAPPY
Member since 2/07 17374 total posts
Name:
EMBRACING CHANGE
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Re: How long on average from offer to contract?
from offer to signed contract should not take very long. 99% of the time, you can't/don't move forward with anything until the contracts are signed... even if closing is pushed out for a plethora of reasons.
i worked residential real estate for an attorney in NJ, and this was the fastest part of the process. usually, the only things that would delay this were minor (no one got the contract over the weekend, buyer/seller away on business and will be back in a couple of days) things that would get resolved in a matter of days.
after that, then it's anybody's guess of how long things could take.
as for my own purchase... we saw the house on valentines day. made the offer as we were leaving the yard and getting into our car, by the time we got home (literally around the corner) the offer was accepted, we signed the contract two days later (delayed because of snow). closed on march 31.
Message edited 6/4/2018 9:55:07 AM.
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| Posted 6/4/18 9:40 AM |
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Hofstra26
Love to Bake!
Member since 7/06 27915 total posts
Name:
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Re: How long on average from offer to contract?
When we made an accepted offer on our house, we were in contract within a few days. Closing took about 2 months though.
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| Posted 6/4/18 9:45 AM |
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dianadrw
LIF Adult
Member since 5/06 2092 total posts
Name:
Me
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How long on average from offer to contract?
It varies. On my first house it only took a few days. But when we closed on our second house last year it took almost 3 weeks for the contract to be signed. There was an error on the contract, there was jockeying between attorneys, so it was about 3 weeks.
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| Posted 6/4/18 9:53 AM |
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mommy2be716
LIF Adult
Member since 1/16 2921 total posts
Name:
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Re: How long on average from offer to contract?
Posted by HomeIsWithU
Posted by NervousNell
It depends. We put an offer on our house in late March, which they accepted, but we didn't close until July.
We worked that out with the sellers because they needed to stay until they could move into their new house.
It all depends what the buyers work out with the sellers.
But do you recall how long it was between the accepted offer and when the contracts were signed? I know closing is usually 30 - 60 days later (and possibly even later depending on what you work out), but I thought offer to contract was usually like a week to 10 days.
for us it was like a week in between. We had an inspection scheduled and as soon and that was done we went to contract.
We've heard of situations that took forever to get to contract because the inspections were not good and they were arguing over who was going to fix the problems. Maybe there's a possibility of that holding it up?
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| Posted 6/4/18 9:58 AM |
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Pomegranate5
LIF Adult
Member since 2/11 4798 total posts
Name:
Pomegranate5
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Re: How long on average from offer to contract?
I think about a week for us.
Recently, when I've heard of a delay in signing the contract the deal has ended up falling through, but I don't know if that's the norm.
Personally, in this market I'd want the contract signed ASAP because the seller can still accept other offers until signed.
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| Posted 6/4/18 10:00 AM |
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loveus
LIF Adolescent
Member since 9/13 684 total posts
Name:
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How long on average from offer to contract?
Once we had an accepted offer and then it went to contract I would say it took a little over 2 weeks. We had a slight delay since 2 (brother and sister)had to sign and 1 was on vacation.
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| Posted 6/4/18 10:14 AM |
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Re: How long on average from offer to contract?
Posted by HomeIsWithU
Posted by NervousNell
It depends. We put an offer on our house in late March, which they accepted, but we didn't close until July.
We worked that out with the sellers because they needed to stay until they could move into their new house.
It all depends what the buyers work out with the sellers.
But do you recall how long it was between the accepted offer and when the contracts were signed? I know closing is usually 30 - 60 days later (and possibly even later depending on what you work out), but I thought offer to contract was usually like a week to 10 days.
Like 2-3 weeks, there was a holiday in that time frame so I would think it’s not out of the norm
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| Posted 6/4/18 10:16 AM |
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JandJ1224
Member since 6/06 5911 total posts
Name:
Jannette
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Re: How long on average from offer to contract?
It should be a fairly quick turnaround. However with an accepted offer falling right before a holiday weekend there may have been some delay because they could have lost Friday-Monday.
Hope it works out for you the way it's meant to!
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| Posted 6/4/18 10:33 AM |
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jellybean78
:)
Member since 8/06 13103 total posts
Name:
Mommy
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Re: How long on average from offer to contract?
Posted by Hofstra26
When we made an accepted offer on our house, we were in contract within a few days. Closing took about 2 months though.
Same for us. From offer to contract was a week or so. May 22nd was only a week and a half ago so I would give it a few more.
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| Posted 6/4/18 11:13 AM |
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MyBabyG
LIF Adolescent
Member since 1/15 793 total posts
Name:
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How long on average from offer to contract?
Ours took a few weeks. Sellers lawyer was dragging his feet and then the seller had to take his daughter back to college.
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| Posted 6/4/18 11:41 AM |
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LuckyStar
LIF Adult
Member since 7/14 7274 total posts
Name:
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How long on average from offer to contract?
We made the offer on a Saturday, it was accepted on Monday, we signed contracts on Friday.
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| Posted 6/4/18 12:15 PM |
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NYCGirl80
I love my kiddies!
Member since 5/11 10413 total posts
Name:
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Re: How long on average from offer to contract?
Typically 1 week between making an offer to signing a contract. There is an urgency for the buyer to move to contract because the seller can keep showing the house until contracts are signed, and a better/higher offer could always come along.
If it's been a few weeks, you can definitely inquire if the first buyer fell through. Usually, though, if they knew you were interested, they would have let you still make an offer. Maybe the contingency was a drawback. In such a hot market, that's definitely a hurdle to overcome. When we were buying our second house, the first question was always do you currently own or rent? And if you own, are you in contract already on your house? If we weren't, they wouldn't consider our offer really. Too many pitfalls.
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| Posted 6/4/18 1:58 PM |
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bunnyluck
LIF Adult
Member since 1/14 3196 total posts
Name:
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How long on average from offer to contract?
For me it was about 2 weeks. A lot of it is in the lawyers hands and depends on the contract terms. We had some back and forth about the inspection report and repairs buyers we asking for.
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| Posted 6/4/18 2:45 PM |
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kris01
LIF Adult
Member since 10/06 1731 total posts
Name:
Kris
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Re: How long on average from offer to contract?
DH & I are in the process of buying a house. We put an offer in on 4/25, offer was accepted two days later, inspection was done 5/5. The contract was offically signed by both parties until 5/22.
it definelty takes a couple of week. We went back and forth a couple times with the lawyers.
The house we are buying wasnt removed from MLSLI & Zillow as for sale until 2 days ago.
It's up to the seller's agent to have the status changed.
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| Posted 6/4/18 3:09 PM |
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Re: How long on average from offer to contract?
It really depends on how fast the buyers get the inspector in, how quickly repair items (if any) are sorted out, how fast the seller's attorney gets the contract over to the buyer's attorney, how fast the attorneys agree on terms, how quickly the buyer gets in to sign the agreed-upon contract, and then how quickly the buyer's attorney gets it back to the seller's attorney (is it sent overnight? regular mail?), and then how fast the seller meets with his/her attorney to sign.
All of that has to happen before a house goes under contract on MLS and then shows "pending" on sites like Zillow, Trulia, Realtor.com.
In my experience, it often takes 10-14 days to get it into contract from the date that the offer is accepted.
Plus, the time frame you are talking about includes Memorial Day weekend, and many attorneys will take extra time over holiday weekends (and even if they don't take extra days off, they are not working on the 3 day weekend).
But even in a usual scenario, without holidays, figure if a buyer gets an accepted offer on a Sunday, the soonest they can likely get an inspector in is Tuesday. Then they likely don't get their inspection report until Wednesday. Even if everything is worked out quickly, the realtors send the attorneys the deal info on Wed/Thurs. Let's say the seller's attorney is very quick and gets the contract over to the buyer's attorney same day (Thurs). Buyer's attorney needs to review and markup - let's assume they are quick and that happens on Friday. Maybe the seller's attorney doesn't get back to the buyer's attorney on the contract until Monday. Then if all is good, the attorney reaches out to the buyer to sign. Again, if everyone acts quickly, maybe the buyer can sign it that night on Monday. Then the attorney overnights it on Tues morning and the seller's attorney receives it Wed. Then they make an appointment with the seller to sign on Thursday.
Even in that scenario where everyone acts quickly, there are no glitches, no delays, no one is away or out of the office, it still takes like 10-11 days to get into full contract.
If you are wondering, just have your agent call the listing agent (or if you have no agent, you can call) to find out if everything is moving ahead with the accepted offer. If the deal hit a speed bump, then maybe you can get an offer in (if you haven't already). If you already have an offer pending, the listing agent would likely contact back up offers if things went off the rails, but it doesn't hurt to ask and reiterate your interest.
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| Posted 6/4/18 4:04 PM |
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MissJones
I need a nap!
Member since 5/05 22150 total posts
Name:
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How long on average from offer to contract?
This was our timeline in 2015
Found house and made an offer feb. 17
Inspection Feb. 21
Contract March 3 (almost 3 weeks later)
Closed April 30
From soup to nuts, 2 1/2 months.
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| Posted 6/5/18 5:50 AM |
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jamnmore
LIF Adult
Member since 6/16 989 total posts
Name:
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How long on average from offer to contract?
From offer to contract was about 3 weeks, but we put in our offer on a holiday weekend. Then had to get inspections and had some additional negotiations.
From contract to close was 4 months, but that was pre-negotiated.
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| Posted 6/5/18 7:52 AM |
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