How Long Does It Take To Buy A House

In this episode, Jennifer talks about how long it *really* takes to buy a house. She explains there's no set timeline, depending on your unique situation and local market. Jennifer clarifies how inventory impacts how quickly you find a home, from weeks to many months. She then covers typical closing timelines, from competitive 15-day closes to longer 45-60 day processes in areas like New York. Jennifer shares what to expect and why a proactive lender is crucial.

Transcript

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Today, we're going to be talking about how long does it take to buy a house, and I'm going to be sharing with you what you should be considering as a home buyer when you're going on this journey. The first thing I want to say is there's no exact time. It's not like 15 days to buy a house, 30 days, 60 days. It's going to depend on your unique scenario. I'm going to be talking about some of the considerations you should look at so that you can start putting together in your head a realistic time frame for yourself. And if you're like, Jen, I need help, just call me. Call me and my team. My team's exactly like me. 786-933-2077. We can help you across the United States. We're happy to answer all your questions. I know that buying a house, especially for the first time, can be overwhelming. So we're here. There's no such thing as a dumb question. Okay, the first consideration is how long will it take you to find a house? This is something a lot of buyers are confused on. They assume that, oh, I'm ready to buy a house, I'll go to some open houses, I'll find a house. Then when will I get the keys? It depends on your market. There's certain parts of the market like Dallas, Houston, where if I have a home buyer in those markets with a good agent, I'm shocked if they haven't already found their dream house in a week. And the reason I say that is there's so many houses for sale. There's so many amazing options for them to choose from. So if you're in a market that has a lot of inventory, you go online to your platform of choice, choice. If you watch my videos, remember you need to go on a couple platforms just because they're all doing different stuff. Let's say you go to homes.com, you go to Zillow, and you're like, oh, there's a lot for sale in my area that I can afford that I like, great, you'll probably find a house within a week or two, okay? Now, if you go online and you're like, oh, Jen, there's three houses for sale and they're more expensive than I can afford, that's a longer journey, okay? Those lower inventory markets in the country where there's just not that much for sale, it could take you five months, it could take you six months, it could take you a year to find the right house. So you need to get mentally prepared for that. And instead of looking at it and going, oh, home buying is impossible. No, it's just a longer journey and you might have to get creative. You'll get there. Even in those low inventory markets, we close houses. So that's the first thing you want to do. Go online, look at the market you're in, and see if there's a lot of houses for sale at a price point you're comfortable with. Now, look, I do recommend you get fully underwritten and pre-approved before you do this, because often what you think might be a good amount for you, we'll look at and we'll be like, hey, like, did you realize this is the payment? And someone will go, Oh my gosh, I didn't realize taxes and insurance, right? So we're here for you for that. So you go on, you're gonna verify inventory because that will give you a realistic timeline on potentially how long you have to look. Now, look, the low inventory areas, maybe something magical will happen in the first week. It could happen. The high inventory areas, maybe you just won't find something. That's not what I generally see, but could happen. Now what? Let's say the seller accepted your offer. What should you expect? In most parts of the country, what we'll see is a 30-day contract. So what that means is that from when the seller accepts your offer to when you get keys is 30 days. Now, the exceptions to that would be a hot market. So certain parts of California, when they're popping off, you may have a two-week close. And you're like, what's that? That just means that you'll hear from your real estate agent, oh, well, if we want to win this house, we got to close quick. Because if you're competing with other buyers for a house, a free thing that you can do, as long as you verify with your lender that they can do it, is close quicker. Sometimes the seller will accept someone's offer because they can get to the finish line faster. Look, sometimes the seller will go with the buyer that will wait for the seller if the seller wants extra time. So it depends on the situation, but just realize most parts of the country expect a 30-day close. 15 days is if you're super competitive, or if maybe you need the house fast, the seller needs to leave fast, there's something going on there. Okay. Now, I said most parts of the country because New York comes to mind. I don't think anything ever closes in New York for th in 30 days because generally, once the buyer and seller agree that they want to participate in selling and buying the house, it goes to a lawyer. And generally, from what I've seen, the lawyers reviewing the contract, I would estimate a week, sometimes it's longer. Then at that point, they tell us the lender, certain parts of New York, the title companies take a long time to get the title work. It may not even be ordered up front. So New York is one of those areas where we're like, eh, what are they saying? It could be 45 or 60 days. Okay. Now, as a loan officer, here's the thing. What no matter what state you're at, I'm doing the same thing. So it's not like for me, New York is harder or longer. Like whether you're in New York or California, I need title work. So it's whoever gives me the title work faster, how fast I can go. In California, the title companies are like breathing the title at you the minute it opens because they're used to moving fast. In New York, it's always been a more chill vibe. So, you know, it may take 12, 13 days just to get the title work. And then at the closing, for all the lawyers to arrange it, that could take another two weeks. Okay, that's just New York. So I would say expect 30 days. Um now here's the thing, you're like, well, what if I want to close sooner? Can I? As long as your lender can close sooner and the seller's okay with it, sure, sure. You know, well, what if I don't want to close in 30 days? What if I want to close in 45 or 60? As long as you and the seller agree on that from the lender's perspective, that's fine. I'm still gonna do all my work up front. I'm not gonna wait till the last minute. That's me and my team. We're a little bit type A. We are. Uh it we don't like stress. We don't like stress, we don't like drama, we do our homework, we do it well, you know, and then if you decide you want to close early, we're like, okay, let's go, you know? And that's what we see the most of. So, like, that's what you want in a loan officer as well, is you want a loan officer where even if it's a longer close, they try to get as much done as front, up front, because you don't want anything coming up at the end. So, overall, how long does it take to buy a house will depend on the market you're in for how long it takes to find it, and then what you in the seller determine and what your loan officer can do. Okay. Questions, comments, as always, please reach out. My team and I are here to help you. We want to help you, we want to be your lender, so give us a call. 786 933 2077. Thanks for watching.