How Long Will It Take To Buy A Home?

Depends. Is that a good answer? Truthfully, there are a lot of factors. The biggest factor is how long it takes you to find a home you like, be able to pull the trigger, and then go under contract. My experience is this: a buyer looks at between 4 and 8 homes before they pull the trigger on a house. Now, that’s if they have a good real estate agent who knows how to properly prepare them to find a home. My team makes sure that all of our buyers familiarize themselves with the neighborhoods they are looking in and drive past the homes they like online before going inside the home if they still like it.

Now, you can take as long as you want to find a home. I’ve had a buyer take literally just one hour and a buyer take a year and a half. Find a real estate agent who will be patient with you.

Once you find a home, write an offer then go under contract. It will take between 30 to 45 days from that date before you close on your home or take official ownership. This delay involves inspections, lots of paperwork for your new home mortgage, lots of work by your real estate attorney to make sure you are properly protected, and lots of negotiation by your real estate agent. Truthfully though, if your real estate agent and their team (mortgage lender, inspector, lawyer) do their job, the process should be pretty easy. 

The “X” factor is the amount of time it takes you to find a home. After that, everything happens relatively quickly.

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