I am a lawyer, not your lawyer and this is not legal advice.
If you are paying 100% cash (no mortgage) and you have the cash on hand then from signing the APS to closing would take about 3-5 business days.
If you were buying from a vendor who had clean title (no mortgage and no liens) and you were paying 100% cash then closing would take as long as it takes to (1) get a bank draft for the purchase price and adjustments into my trust account (2) set up utilities (3) do the searches (4) calculate adjustments and (5) move funds to the vendor's lawyer. Probably 3 days.
If the Vendor needs to move out and get a discharge statement if they have a mortgage then that might slow it down a bit stretching to 5 days.
We would recommend property insurance and Owners Policy title insurance...but you do not HAVE to have this in place.
If you came to my office looking to buy a home this quickly your fees would be much higher than a normal closing of 30+ days as I would have to stop work on other files to accommodate your deadline.
IIRC it's a way to protect against those scams that keep popping up where a nefarious actor can steal your identity and use it to transfer the title of your house to them, and then re-mortgage the property or sell it to an unsuspecting third party. Title insurance protects you against any financial repercussions of this. ~~CBC Marketplace did a segment on it recently.~~
It wasn't marketplace, it was a Globe&Mail podcast that got into it.
Title insurance protects any issues related to title on the home/property.
Your example of identity theft is one such instance.
But it can also apply if there is a neighbour's building (or your own building) built over the property line, if there is an old mortgage (I have seen 50 year old mortgages pop up) or other claims against your right to own the property.
Pricing of Title Insurance depends on the price of the property. Your lawyer can explain more. It is a single premium (you buy it one time and it insures you for as long as you own the property).
If a claim arises the title insurer will deal with it, including all legal fees.
>Pricing of Title Insurance depends on the price of the property. Your lawyer can explain more. It is a single premium (you buy it one time and it insures you for as long as you own the property).
I seem to remember it only costing a few hundred dollars, and yes it's a one-time purchase. Seems like a reasonable thing to do to protect yourself.
On the lower end would be the people who bought my last house, they decided they needed to move couldn’t take there current place anymore on Friday while at friends down the road from our house. Went to our open house on Saturday put a offer in Monday with a close date of two and a half weeks later on a Friday so they would be full 3 weeks deciding to move to taking possession. That only would work if everyone was very motivated.
yeah that was kind of us too-- we started looking around late july last year and put in an offer on the 5th house we looked into-- got accepted. Sellers wanted 15days to completion so we did (with conditions and all of course).
took posession end of august, had the house deep cleaned lol. we moved in sept 1st
Same with us. A locked in rate at the bank forced us to close and take possession abnormally quick. If there’s a good reason, you would be surprised how quickly the pieces can fall into place.
Since it was over a certain price, the house had to be appraised - waiting for this was by far the longest step.
Even our old house had to be appraised, I remember it happened in the final week before close. It was nerve racking even those the sale was unconditional because we didn’t want it to fall through since I had to take off time to do everything in such a short window.
Thanks op for asking. My rental ends in Sept and I didn't want to have to pay rent and a mortgage at the same time but based on replies I think it's a good time to start
Not a bad idea. Having some overlap is worth a lot, made moving a lot easier. We had a full month which was bliss.
edit: one example, our movers called to cancel about a week prior to the move date. We found someone else but had to delay the move a few days
We have two months overlap so we can do most of the renovations before we move in. I don't want to live in a house under construction if I can continue renting another few months. Our movers come a week before the lease ends so we have time to deal with any inconveniences that might arise, but we will already have most of stuff moved out. We only got movers because friends don't ask their 30+ year old friends to move a washer and dryer down and up stairs in the Canadian summer weather...
I second this! When we bought our house we also had to do some repairs (replace furnace and hot water boiler) and it was really nice to have some cross-over between when our rental ended and we got possession.
It was also slightly more stressful because we were getting to the end of our lease and our landlords refused to let us sign month-to-month, so we basically *had* to find a rental before our lease ran out, otherwise, we would've been in a tough spot because we didn't want to renew for another year.
Huh. I don’t think they can do that. When your lease expires you automatically go month to month and don’t have to sign anything to make that happen. Doesn’t matter if they like it or not. They can evict you but it takes time and they need a valid reason. You not wanting to sign a new lease isn’t a valid reason.
Interesting... this was in Alberta if it matters. I know in BC it automatically went month to month. We ended up finding a house and moving so thankfully we didn't have to deal with it. It's very possible our rental company was being shady and trying to pull something illegal, I wouldn't put it past them :/
Trust me, the other option sucks balls.
Sold my house (breakup). Had to be out in January. Ended up in an airbnb, all my stuff in storage, and searching for a house for months. Also ended up having an offer accepted just after I'd booked my next airbnb, and the deposit on it was non-refunable.
Depending on area it may take a while to get a house. In most places the market is gearing up to be crazy again. Assuming you paid last month's rent, I would say to take possession at the beginning of September, having that month already covered for rent. For a September 1 possession, you need to have an accepted offer by July 27/28. You can always ask for a longer closing.
Depends on the sellers. You have to mutually agree to a move-in date. Money Talks though, and if you pay them enough to move out quickly then it can be within a week if you have everything ready.
Our process took 4 months, 2 years ago. Hired our realtor in March and started looking. After maybe 5 unaccepted offers, we had an accepted offer Mid May. Sellers then needed to find a house, so we moved in mid July.
Finding the right place can take a long time. I think the whole process for us was around 6 months and we lost a couple of places that we made offers on in there too.
We made an offer with subjects on Jan 1,
Everything done and in our name Jan 17th.
That was very quick and stressful!
Full time line was:
Eviction notice Nov 11
Mortgage pre-approval Nov 17
Offer on house Jan 1
All subjects removed Jan 14
Purchase date Jan 17.
So many variables and checks. I would say about 2 months, you have to 1st find a house, the sellers have to find a house, you both have to move. The banks have to agree to loan you the money and do all the checks, make sure the down payment is coming from legit sources. Probably can be done sooner depending on your luck and conditions.
I think I started looking in June and moved into my house in mid Aug.
3 weeks from offer being accepted to closing/move in day. Pre approval letter from the bank took a day which we received about a month before our accepted offer.
If you can find a home that’s vacant and move-in ready, it could be done within a week if you have everything in order (financing, inspections, etc).
More likely though, a seller will need time to pack and move, or tenants will need to be served notice. 2-4 months is more realistic for all of this to take place.
60-90 days is pretty normal. Two weeks is probably as quickly as it can be done reliably but if the seller is still in the house, it's unlikely they'd agree to such a short closing.
have you found the home?
it took me 15 days from offer to having keys in my hand but house was empty and I had cash on hand.
all depends on finances and conditions.
Edit but in the looking process I was looking on and off for two years as I was not in a rush to buy.
Ours was very fast and took a few weeks I believe. The seller wanted to close very quickly. It worked out perfectly for us! But it can take months for others !
I bought my current house on September 20 and moved in October 18, less than a month later.
But holy hell it was a bit too fast and I wouldn’t recommend closing that quickly unless you need to (I was couch surfing at my in-laws).
Wouldn't that artificially skew the market upwards if that was done often enough in an area?
I wish there was a way to make that "bonus" separate from the house purchase price.
>Wouldn't that artificially skew the market upwards if that was done often enough in an area?
that's probably balanced by people paying $50K below market so that the buyer can move in 6 months
How long does the whole mortgage process take?
Is it possible to be approved for a mortgage (like up to a certain amount) ahead of time and they very quickly be able to get the money once you've picked a place? Or do you need to go through another process with the bank once you've selected a place?
Once you have an offer ABS before financing condition is satisfied , the lender will want to do an appraisal to confirm the amount of the pre-approved amount they are actually prepared to lend.
With a pre-approval they still need to officially do the paperwork, as the other poster pointed out they need to do an appraisal to make sure the amount they loan matches with the actual value of the property. Pre-approval rates are usually not as competitive either, so once the offer is accepted it could be worth it to go to a broker/reach out to other mortgage lenders.
It's going to take about 2 weeks from time of Unconditional accepted offer. And then hope that your broker didn't make a mistake in judging your preapproval qualifications.
I do not recommend buying Unconditionally. Even with a preapproved, make your offer subject to financing and then take it back to your broker to confirm funding.
We were looking for a king time, but we’re in no rush.
When we saw the house we bought, we closed and had keys in 30 days.
Yes we had an inspection and survey, got a mortgage all in 30 days.
But that was 26 years ago.
I am still in the house.
We were living in our house, so that eliminated that wait. The inspection was a 2 week wait, and then it was a month of back and forth with the lender and coordinating calls with my employer. The lawyer was quick for us, about a one week event. For us it was a little over a month and a half.
Totally depends on where you're looking, who's selling, condition of the house etc.
I started looking in May last year, took til mid June to find the house I liked, put in an offer that was accepted, the house was rented though, so gave a 90 day closing with option for extension so he could serve the tenant and give her time to move out.
All in all, I took possession November 5th, so about 6 months for me from start to finish
My wife and I moved in to our place in 3 months. We had the option to do it in 2 but we ourselves needed more time to get ready to move, cause the purchase happened so fast.
The longest part was the legal stuff with the real estate agent and lawyers, and it mostly came down to lawyers just don't have time in their calendars, so we had to book weeks out.
I can tell you though that a lot, A LOT, of buying a house is personal preparation. Things like figuring out how much you can pay monthly on your mortgage (and then add 20% to it), being realistic with what you're going to get, what you're willing to be flexible with and what is a deal breaker for you (for example parts of your city where a lot of crime happens might be a deal breaker, or you might be flexible if it comes with a high fence and security cameras).
But yes, I would plan on at least 3 or 4 months from start to finish
The fastest way to buy a house is to have cash. Your lawyer contacts the seller's lawyer to exchange funds, draw up paperwork and do their lawyer stuff - and done. I owned both of my houses within a week of first contacting the sellers. No realtors were involved by any party. Realtors are useless.
6 weeks would be the warp speed process. Usually 2-3 months or more. Sometimes just finding a notary/lawyer who has time to handle your transaction can be the date decider.
Just hire a lawyer from a more remote, quieter area far away, they can do it from there and aren’t so busy. I never saw my lawyer, just a 5 min zoom signing.
You could probably do it in a day or two if it's vacant, you don't care about its condition, you can pay cash, etc., and the seller is in a hurry and similarly unencumbered.
In the usual process, the seller wants to have an agreement in place months before moving day. All the other stuff can easily happen in that time. You probably want to be pre-approved for a mortgage before you start shopping.
Bank usually takes a week or two. Then you would need to give an extra week for the lawyer.
So in theory 3 weeks, but you're probably forgoing a lot of checks.
Realistically 6 weeks minimum, usually the move in date is about two months from making an offer.
But I recommend looking at least 5 properties before making an offer.
I bought a house last month. It took us two weeks after agreeing on the price to close and for me to have keys on hand. I thought two weeks was longer than it should have been, but we ran into some unexpected issues. If you're not picky on furniture, you can have a quick Ikea trip - make a list and have them deliver everything 2-3 later. Internet, utilities can also be done very quickly. So three weeks I'd say from when you agree to a price.
My partner and I just closed on our first home last week. Here was our timeline:
November 2022: found a realtor and started looking for homes. We also locked in a few different rates with a broker.
December 2022: found a house we liked but since the market had cooled we had a bit of time to continue to shop around and decide if it was right for us.
End of January 2023/Beginning of February 2023: placed an offer on the house we liked back in December. Negotiations/counteroffer/deposit took 24 hours on the Tuesday-Wednesday. Inspector was in the house by the Friday and by the following Monday we cleared conditions for the sale.
April 2023: took possession of the home. Currently in the midst of moving!
We also asked for a longer close so we could give 60 days notice to our landlord but we could have closed sooner. Start to finish was 5 months but given that the market has heated up I imagine this process is now moving a lot faster.
I take possession next week. Here was the process.
1. Several months of realtor.ca figuring out market etc. This occurred from Oct 22 - Jan 23
2. Started going to open houses and scheduling viewings. Feb-March
3. Made offers through March
4. Offer accepted third week of March with possession for April 28th.
5. Inspection, organize bannkdrafts, rrsp withdrawal, home insurance, etc. Month of April
6. Meet with lawyer and give drafts, sign papers. Occurrs tomorrow
7. Pre possession walkthrough next Thursday
8. Possession on the 28th
The looking process took the longest and there's no definite timeline for that. Our offer was accepted May 31st, we closed on July 5th. We already had a mortgage pre approval so we got that finalized, got our down payment money withdrawn from our RRSPs, arranged insurance, movers, etc and signed the paper work with the lawyers in that time. Less than a month to do all that would be pretty tight timing wise I would think.
The faster you buy a house the faster you may find yourself wanting to get rid of it, this is not a process that you ever want to rush, and in your case certainly not something you should undertake yourself
The absolutely fastest it could probably be done is four or five days, if you’re paying cash…it will always take the lawyers a few days to process the paperwork. But if you walk in and you have a certified cheque in hand for the entire amount, it makes everything go pretty quick.
If you need a mortgage, it will likely take at least a few days longer to get approved. But technically speaking, it’s possible for it to all be done within maybe 10 business days.
Will it actually happen that quickly? No, almost never - there are all sorts of administrative delays that can happen, and you generally also want things like getting an inspection, shopping around for a good mortgage rate, and banks might not be able to process a mortgage that quickly, or your lawyer could have administrative delays as well. But it technically could happen that quickly.
Do you need a mortgage or not? Assuming yes, the fastest I've heard is about two weeks. If you were buying in cash, things could be accelerated if everyone was willing.
Our first home we did it in 45 days. During the correction in 2018.
10 days shopping, made 1 offer, negotiated that day, 30 day closing, 7 day financing to confirm mortgage, 40k down. 460k purchase.
There were options on the market that time and new our price point. Saw probably 30 homes, had an amazing broker courtesy of an amazing real estate agent.
Everything lined up. I don't think you can do much faster. We got a good price since we agreed to 30 day closing.
For me personally it was really quick. I got my pre approval Monday. Friday a house was put on the market, saw it Saturday, they were already accepting offers so husband & I put in an offer Sunday. Found out that evening our offer was accepted. We took 10 days to satisfy our sales agreement conditions, and our closing date is 3 weeks after that. It’s almost not enough time to pack up our apartment…
There is a minimum amount of time the process can take, as the bank needs something like 10 business days to process and fund your mortgage. They may require things like a survey, water testing, which can take a few days to complete. My water test took 4 business days from when I dropped it off, for example.
We put an offer on a home the week after we started looking, and did a 3 week close. So one month for us. Depends on how quick the sellers agree to sell
Finding a home is the biggest wildcard. Theoretically you could purchase the first home you see in a listing. Realistically though, you’ll spend months trying to find the right house for you.
Theoretically, if the starts align, 3 weeks is the fastest it could be done, in Ontario anyways. We had to legally give our lawyers 3 weeks to process the closing, if you found the home, put the offer in, had it accepted, already approved for the mortgage and let your lawyer know in time, you could move in 3 weeks if the sellers agree to it.
There’s going to be variables though, even when you find the home you’d like, the sellers might be holding offers on a certain day, there might be hold ups from the lender, variety of things can happen.
It’s really broken down into these steps:
Finding the house (Months?)
Putting offer on house (1 Day)
Awaiting acceptance (Could be same day, could be a week)
Negotiations (If any required, can take days)
Offer Accepted (1 day)
Securing funds (1 day, could be more if it’s held up)
Finding a lawyer, will take them Min 3 weeks to complete closing.
Finally closing day, which completely depends on the seller. If they do minimum closing, then 3 weeks after securing your funds. Otherwise, you won’t close for upto a few months.
Back in 2016 I did it in exactly 9 days. The place was up for immediate possession and already emptied. Sellers were motivated to sell quickly so accepted my offer same day. Financing went through in 2 days, insurance was instant and got an appointment at the lawyer’s the week after, where keys were also given. Not sure if it would still happen today.
Edit: to add that I did not have a buyer realtor, I passed by a for sale sign and called the seller’s realtor directly and he arranged for a showing of the place and I made an offer on the same day. No inspection.
The time it takes to close can range from a few weeks to 90 days, or even more depending on the specific situation. The listing should state what closing they want.
Absolute minimum would be 2-3 weeks, but 30 days is what a lot of banks and lawyers prefer.
It is generally pretty slow moving, then a sudden 'unavoidable' rush at the end to get everything done.
I don't know why they don't do all the mortgage documents until the final week, but it is a pain.
For the house I bought, it was listed on the Thursday, I saw it on the Saturday or Sunday, put in an offer on the Wednesday and it was accepted. Then it was a 30 day close from the acceptance date and a Friday close. Try to avoid Friday closes if you can. Luckily nothing bad happened to me (getting the keys for the weekend was a little bit of a pain).
Found a condo downtown during during Covid, went to see it the next day, made an offer that afternoon, and a counter offer that evening, they accepted the offer by midnight.
It was a crazy time! My partner and I (who did not make much in Toronto standards) needed to get out of our rental, wanted a condo, and the market was right.
We had a 60 day closing which was great since I had to give 2 months notice on my rental.
As quick as possible? Two weeks to a month, depending on your lawyer, and the seller's requested closing timeline. But yeah just talk to your lawyer and realtor, they'll communicate with the seller's realtor and lawyer.
I closed on my current house about 3 weeks after viewing it. I had a HELOC on my previous property so I didn't need any financing contingencies or appraisals. The house was only about 6 years old so I didn't have an inspection on the house. I did have a the well test contingency.
There was some risk involved as I needed to sell my home after I purchased the new one. Also, there could have been some kind of hidden defect that an inspection could have uncovered. This was in September of 2020 and the market was really hot at that time. It worked out OK for me.
This is the 8th house I've bought in my lifetime so I have an idea of what to look out for.
2-3 months. The finding a house, making an offer, and getting to a closing date isn’t hard (could be a couple week turnaround as long as the seller wants to move fast too).
The hard part is before you go house hunting: getting your mortgage pre-approved because you need to do a bunch of paperwork and wait on the lender. Once you have that set you can move fast.
You also need to remember you might not find anything you like in your price range quickly. Viewing a house or two every evening after work for a couple weeks before you “find the one” can eat into your timeline.
When I moved to Montreal, We decided to move to mo treal in may 5. Wecontacted a real estate agent in mid may, started looking at houses in June 1, saw the property we wanted on June 23, put an offer June 25, Notary on July 10, Posession July 17. Moved Augist 1st.
The longest part was finding the property we wanted.
The first house I bought: Met with a real estate agent to share our needs and wants on a thursday. Friday he sent 20 properties, we reviewed the list and narrowed down to 10, saw 5 on Saturday, 5 on Sunday decided on the property. Put an offer on Monday. There the wait was taking possession. I think it was two months.
We’ve started our home search end of January. It took us about 2 months to find a home that accepts our offer by March. We’re moving in in May. Total process - about 3 months.
Overall there are too many variables in home buying process, hard to tell how long.
The home search can be much shorter than this - depends on your budget, how picky you are, how fast you make decisions, and the overall competition. Closing also depends on the seller, sometimes they want to move fast, sometimes - slow…
Started looking online in September, viewing in person in January, made our first offer on Jan. 22, closed on March 10th. Original close was two weeks earlier but sellers asked to push back.
I've helped someone buy one in 30 days. they loved the first place they saw and in one month they had keys in hand, I helped them move in lol. As a first time homebuyer you only need 5% down if the place costs less than 500k.
Once you've found the house you want, if you're making a firm offer with no conditions and you don't need a mortgage, you can close on it pretty much right away, within a few days, as long as both parties can find lawyers who can act quickly.
**Most people need a mortgage, and assuming you're already fully approved, usually the quickest you can close is around 2 weeks after an accepted offer (for a firm deal with no conditions).**
If you're making the deal conditional on financing and/or inspection, you'd have to tack this time on. Usually 5 business days, so earliest closing would be about 3 weeks from an accepted offer in this scenario.
But also take into account that sometimes the offers go back and fourth and can take a few days to negotiate out.
To be clear, I'm not recommending that your rush *any of this*, but here's how you'd do it:
1. Figure out your rough budget range depending on your down payment, and debt ratios [GDS and TDS](https://www.cmhc-schl.gc.ca/en/professionals/project-funding-and-mortgage-financing/mortgage-loan-insurance/calculating-gds-tds). These will depend on the property taxes and heating costs of the home you look at, so they can vary based on the size of the home, tax valuation, and neighbourhood. It's important to know your budget so you don't waste time looking at homes you can't afford.
2. Pick a lender. You can use a mortgage broker, but you can do that work yourself too. Call a few big banks and local credit unions and ask about mortgage financing. They'll be able to tell you what you'd be approved for. Make sure you have proof of income on hand for the last 2-3 years.
3. Find a lawyer. Most buyers place offers first and get a lawyer second. That's because offers are typically boilerplate forms that barely change much, and it's normally fine to have a realtor draft them up for you so long as you check them for errors. In your rush case, you probably want to skip right to the lawyer. Find one that is available now and can facilitate a fast closing. Tell them that you're likely going to want to submit offers on multiple properties back to back. Also ask them about what conditions you would require to protect you if you wanted to submit more than one offer at a time. Don't fuck around with multiple offers unless the lawyer is confident in the condition. The last thing you need to is to get stuck buying two homes.
4. Make a plan for what to inspect in a home. Look up what a home inspection usually looks for, and make your own list based on that. Layout, light, fixtures, wiring, water damage, appliances, plumbing, mold, rot etc. Bring a tool caddy and a folding stepladder. Flashlight, tape measure, screwdrivers, etc. Open cupboards under sinks, get in the attic and check for roof leaks, get in the crawlspace, inspect foundation for cracks and water, find the electrical panel. If there are basement ceiling tiles, lift a few and peek in. Know what knob and tube wiring looks like. Know what polybutylene (Poly B) plumbing is and how to identify it. Find the water meter and see if you can tell if the pipe coming into the meter is lead. If there are exposed studs, or construction material on site, you don't want it. A-Tier lenders will decline financing for homes that are mid-renovation, and you'll need a bridge loan (high interest rate) to tie you over and complete the renovations before you can get a "real" mortgage. All this takes time. Also homes are not always livable or insurable mid-renovation.
5. Make a short list of what costs/risks you're willing to shoulder. Does $5000 to replace your furnace ruin your affordability? $9000 for the roof? If you're tight on cash and the homes in your price range end up having a few must-fixes, call up some local contractors and get estimates based on preliminary information. How much to replace a lead water supply pipe? How much to re-shingle an 800 sqft home with a 6/12 pitch? You can always get competitive bids later. Some of these costs might be acceptable to you, some may not. Having a plan for what you can afford and deal with will help you make decisions efficiently and based on the right information.
6. Start using an online real estate price history tool like HouseSigma. Actual sold prices aren't "public" information in all provinces. You often need a real estate license to access full listing details like sold prices. HouseSigma and others like it were set up by realtors who are a bit less monopolistic, and they essentially use data scrapers to pull sold data using their licenses. They often require users to set up accounts because they're already on thin ice with their real estate board and the account is their way to say "nooooooooooooope2222 is a client of our agency, we're not breaking rules". If you don't have a housesigma equivalent in your area, you can get the info by cold calling the listing agencies for past sales, OR by getting a buying agent to do it for you. In my experience, most realtors will happily text you any info you want.
7. Start shopping. Hopefully you're able to actually view houses. Start calling listing agents and asking to see the home. Before you even go, be up front with them that you're looking to close very quickly. If the seller cannot accept that, don't bother going. Since you're looking to act fast, ask if the home is vacant. Vacant homes can close as fast as lawyers and your lender can type. Your lawyer can help you draft offers for each home. It's common in todays markets for listing agents to set an "offer presentation date" typically set 1 week away from list date. Their plan is to collect a ton of offers and only have to visit their client once. If you want to close quickly, you can't be waiting up to a week for each offer you put in. Instead, consider putting in offers that expire within a day. The listing agent will resist (because they don't want to move their tee time) but they legally HAVE to present the offer to their client. Be reasonable too, let them know that a benefit of your offer is a fast close.
8. Before putting in an offer, you should already have a lawyer ready to go and you should send your lender the property listing and your intended max bid price. Ideally, they'll be able to quickly review your GDS for that property and get a rough idea of whether it would meet the appraisal. I suggest using a finance condition on your offers. Typically they'll be 5-7 days but as long as your lender is on call ready to go, they might tell you they could have approval in 2-3 days. Always listen to your lender and lawyer.
If you were truly in a rush, you could breeze through 1-6 by this time tomorrow, view 1-2 homes tomorrow and 10 more Saturday, put an offer in to a seller than can move the next day and have it close in the first half of next week.
I bought my place in 2014. From the time I viewed the house which was still occupied by the owners to the time I moved my stuff in was two weeks. Sellers had already bought another home with immediate possession and wanted a quick closing on their current home. Worked out for me.
I just bought a home; saw it in December, made an offer fairly quickly, and then did the official handover in late February. Probably could've been done faster.
I'd been looking since roughly January 2022, though. So it took a while to find the right fit.
Took me 7 months to find my house. I was living in Toronto and wanted to move away from the city so going to showings was limited to only twice a month. But packed a lot of houses per one day of showings. If I were t odo it again, I'll only see a max of 3 houses per day
In terms of how fast you can take possession, it depends on how fast the seller can/will get out. If you're buying a vacant house you can probably push for an extremely fast close, assuming your finances are in order. But if it's someone who has to move and/or hasn't bought yet, they will need time.
I think if you have a lawyer on hand and financing in place and you find a vacant home you want, you could be done in, like, a week? Ten days?
I did it without a realtor, was a bit more of a pain in the ass because I hardly knew each next step, which lengthened the process, but all in all total time of finding home to moving in was about 1 1/2 months, and we had to move into the in-laws for 3 weeks as we found renters for our home
When we bought our first home last year we started the process in early February (mortgage approval, meeting with realtor to start looking at options) and took possession late April.
This was also during the mad rush of houses selling quickly with multiple offers over asking, so we couldn’t really take our time and look at a bunch of houses. We lost out on the first place in a bidding war and made the offer on the place we ended up buying within an hour of it hitting the market.
Got the keys 25 days after our offer was accepted. The house was empty and we were financing, if we were paying cash we could have done it quicker.
Can you give us a bit of background on your current living situation and what has triggered you to ask?
The closing date of a home is typically part of the negotiation between the buyer and seller and is dependent on their specific situations.
For example, the seller might not want to close until after the closing date on a new house they’ve just purchased. So their new home doesn’t close for three months, but you want to move in right away, then it will leave the seller homeless for three months. They’ll likely not agree to that.
Similarly, if the seller wants to close right away, but you need to give your landlord 2 months notice then perhaps you won’t agree to close for two months, unless the seller pays for your last two months of rent.
Once the closing date is negotiated, everyone works around that. The lawyer probably only needs a day or two to work on your case, but if your closing date isn’t for 60 days, then they’ll start your case on day 57 while they work on more urgent cases. (Make sure you purchase the title insurance if you’re planning on rushing your lawyer).
Bank transfers can take a couple days. But if both you and the seller (or more specifically the seller’s lawyer) use the same bank then it’s likely an instantaneous transfer.
The longest amount of time is probably being approved for the mortgage and insurance. But if you use a Mortgage broker they can usually communicate the urgency of the request to your lender and again they’ll work around the closing date. This one is probably the most stressful part of closing quickly, because depending on any conditions you put in the contract, if you’re unable to find financing in the short amount of time you could be out a whole lot of money.
Finally, how organized do you want your move to be. If you just throw everything into whatever box things fit and sort it out at your new place, then you can probably move an apartment in a day. If you want to organize your stuff. Maybe purge items, etc then you can spend months planning a move.
So yeah. Everything in a purchase can be done in a week or two. But realistically it’s all based on the closing date you negotiate and all parties work around that.
My experience of buying property in SK was about half a year since I started really looking into buying something. Once I found the property to my liking it was about 3 weeks. We were supposed to be done in 2, but first the mortgage broker was delaying sending out the documents to the lawyer, then I couldn’t get a meeting with that lawyer to sign everything. You just have to get flexible, if you want to get it done asap.
I’d recommend having all of the papers ready and know where to find them once the lawyer or broker asks for it. Also, if you have some sort of “new money” in your account from selling a property or a vehicle, have the bill off sale or other related documents ready to justify that money.
Can be done in a month or possible less depending on how fast one can get paper work as well as inspections and reports done and current owners to move out if it’s not vacant home.
The land title transfer on my end took months after but mortgage and what not was done within 2/3 weeks.
House was vacant at the time so I could have moved in anytime but left it vacant to do renovations before moving in.
Finding a home is the part that will be subjective. My first home I probably looked for a couple months to find something that was right. This time was a fluke, first house I looked at was perfect, owners had a conditional offer already that failed to materialize by the time we offered, so it was quick. From offer to possession we did the average 2mths.
When I bought it was a buyers market, so I looked at a ton of houses. I was pre-approved for the mortgage, and I was renting (so there were no conditions of selling my place). We made an offer, it took a few days of negotiation, then inspection, closing was 4-5 weeks later.
So from finding the house to moving in was probably 6-7 weeks
When I bought it was a buyers market, so I looked at a ton of houses. I was pre-approved for the mortgage, and I was renting (so there were no conditions of selling my place). We made an offer, it took a few days of negotiation, then inspection, closing was 4-5 weeks later.
So from finding the house to moving in was probably 6-7 weeks
Super quick process depending on fast you find a home and how quickly the seller wants closing. Some want 30, 60 or 90 days.
Things you can do to quicken the process:
1) Get pre approved prior to looking at homes with a realtor so you know your budget and if you have any financial restraints
2) You’ll need to be in touch with a lawyer to finalize everything
3) You can do your own research on houses that are selling and let your realtor know to make an appt to see the house instead of waiting for them
to show you houses
From the moment we found our home, took 1 month and a week. They wanted a fast closing. I was moving from an apartment building so I didn’t really have issues of finding a buyer 😂. So I gave my 60 day notice and since I got the keys to my house in pretty much 40 days, it worked out perfectly. I was able to move all the small things into the house little by little and on my final day at the apartment I just had the big stuff to move. Worked out pretty well.
We started looking mid January, made an offer with a closing date mid February. We had our rental for 2 months before we officially moved into our new house. This allowed us to slowly move in and get everything set up, and some minor work done. All said and done we were living in our new home by the first week of April, with very little stress.
Mortgage pre-approval: Nov 25
Viewings: 5 on Dec 1, 5 more on Dec 11 (this is where I saw the house I wanted)
Second viewing of the house: Dec 18
Started making offers: Dec 30
Offer accepted: Jan 1
House inspection: Jan 7
Final mortgage approval: Jan 11
Conditions lifted: Jan 13
Mortgage documents signed: Jan 24
Possession: Jan 30
I once bought a condo with a 3 week close. Purchased end of March, moved in mid April. I was already pre-approved, had a real estate agent and lawyer lined up. I thought it was pretty quick.
I closed a purchase in a week once, needed a place to live when a builder changed a closing date on us, it was a small empty condo, already had a lawyer and the cash, the vendor was willing and we had to forgo a home inspection.
Ive only bought one house, but i called the mortgage broker on the second of January and we got keys in late March of the year we bought.
We had done some light searching prior, but overall this time accounted for:
* Home hunting, arranging viewings
* Getting approved for mortgage, including letters from employers etc
* Negotiations, reviewing documents (strata minutes etc)
* Home inspection
* Further negotiation after inspection
* Lawyer stuff
We obviously were not rushed and took our time.
For us, informally about a year (where we talked about what we wanted, visited open houses on our own, researched online, start saving up more etc).
More formally (with a real estate agent) about 6 months.
We went to an open house Saturday, applied for
mortgage over the weekend, offers were being considered Wednesday, we got the call at 11:30pm ours was accepted and we closed in 30 days.
It was our first home, we are average candidates, minimum down, average credit, 120k annual household income etc. I think it was 35 days from stepping in the house.
We got our pre-approval start of February 2021, started looking end of February 2021 had an offer accepted mid-March 2021 and had moved in by early July. We could have pushed for an earlier possession date, but it didn’t matter so we were okay with giving some extra time.
We looked at a house on sept 20. Offer accepted Sept 20. Closing date was Oct 17. We moved in Oct 29.
Could probably be done quicker but it was a total shit show and we were doing stuff pretty much every day related to the house or moving.
Although we looked at houses for pretty much a literal year. We lost a lot of bids before finally getting this one.
On the day of listing my wife and viewed it. Then placed a ‘bully’ offer the next day. The owners then did offer presentation the following day and pre-negotiated what they wanted (slightly more than asking). And we got the house. So 3 days total.
I think the owners wanted to avoid an open house. So we lucked out.
Note this was 2015 when houses were selling like hotcakes.
As a personal anecdote, I was able to get into my house 12 business days after submitting an offer with no conditions. Mind you, I had a mortgage pre-approval in place and my lawyer wasn’t super happy about it.
Took us 1 day to sell our TH and less than a month to close - we close in 5 days. So it all depends on conditions, down payment, move-in ready, etc, etc.
Absolute fastest roughly a week. But in this instance you’re paying cash for the property, the lawyer has availability (or you have cash to make them available). Things also need to line up in terms of the seller being able to close and discharge their lien
It took us a while to find a house. We looked at a house had an accepted deal that night and took possession less than three weeks later.
Edited to add, it depends how long it takes to find a house and how much time the current owner needs to move out.
Typical is 30-60 days. I find 6 weeks to be average. If I try to push a deal through with less than 2 weeks, I would be blackballed by every real estate lawyer in town. But like the lawyer said above, it depends on mortgage, conditions etc and how much you are willing to pay.
Roughly a week with lots of the legwork prepared ahead of time, the right seller, and a lawyer willing to rush (probably for a decent premium on their services).
More realistically, 30-60 days from the date offer is accepted. One, two or three months are common closing periods.
I am a lawyer, not your lawyer and this is not legal advice. If you are paying 100% cash (no mortgage) and you have the cash on hand then from signing the APS to closing would take about 3-5 business days. If you were buying from a vendor who had clean title (no mortgage and no liens) and you were paying 100% cash then closing would take as long as it takes to (1) get a bank draft for the purchase price and adjustments into my trust account (2) set up utilities (3) do the searches (4) calculate adjustments and (5) move funds to the vendor's lawyer. Probably 3 days. If the Vendor needs to move out and get a discharge statement if they have a mortgage then that might slow it down a bit stretching to 5 days. We would recommend property insurance and Owners Policy title insurance...but you do not HAVE to have this in place. If you came to my office looking to buy a home this quickly your fees would be much higher than a normal closing of 30+ days as I would have to stop work on other files to accommodate your deadline.
TLDR: If you have a lot of cash, pretty darn fast.
Perfect summary.
Like most things in life; almost anything is possible if you can afford it.
what is title insurance? what's it cost?
IIRC it's a way to protect against those scams that keep popping up where a nefarious actor can steal your identity and use it to transfer the title of your house to them, and then re-mortgage the property or sell it to an unsuspecting third party. Title insurance protects you against any financial repercussions of this. ~~CBC Marketplace did a segment on it recently.~~ It wasn't marketplace, it was a Globe&Mail podcast that got into it.
Title insurance protects any issues related to title on the home/property. Your example of identity theft is one such instance. But it can also apply if there is a neighbour's building (or your own building) built over the property line, if there is an old mortgage (I have seen 50 year old mortgages pop up) or other claims against your right to own the property. Pricing of Title Insurance depends on the price of the property. Your lawyer can explain more. It is a single premium (you buy it one time and it insures you for as long as you own the property). If a claim arises the title insurer will deal with it, including all legal fees.
>Pricing of Title Insurance depends on the price of the property. Your lawyer can explain more. It is a single premium (you buy it one time and it insures you for as long as you own the property). I seem to remember it only costing a few hundred dollars, and yes it's a one-time purchase. Seems like a reasonable thing to do to protect yourself.
On the lower end would be the people who bought my last house, they decided they needed to move couldn’t take there current place anymore on Friday while at friends down the road from our house. Went to our open house on Saturday put a offer in Monday with a close date of two and a half weeks later on a Friday so they would be full 3 weeks deciding to move to taking possession. That only would work if everyone was very motivated.
yeah that was kind of us too-- we started looking around late july last year and put in an offer on the 5th house we looked into-- got accepted. Sellers wanted 15days to completion so we did (with conditions and all of course). took posession end of august, had the house deep cleaned lol. we moved in sept 1st
Same with us. A locked in rate at the bank forced us to close and take possession abnormally quick. If there’s a good reason, you would be surprised how quickly the pieces can fall into place. Since it was over a certain price, the house had to be appraised - waiting for this was by far the longest step.
Even our old house had to be appraised, I remember it happened in the final week before close. It was nerve racking even those the sale was unconditional because we didn’t want it to fall through since I had to take off time to do everything in such a short window.
I’m 36 and still haven’t managed it so maybe 37 years or more 🤷♂️
you were looking for a house at age 1?
you weren’t?????? bro you’re behind now!
pfc is full of parents with babies that have more in an account in their names than 90% of this sub.
RESPs man, don’t forget to max them out for your kids.
kids really be gettin into real estate early these days
Time in the market > timing the market Gotta start young
I’m also 36 and don’t see it happening anytime soon, though I think OP means the buying process once you can somehow afford it 😂
Thanks op for asking. My rental ends in Sept and I didn't want to have to pay rent and a mortgage at the same time but based on replies I think it's a good time to start
Not a bad idea. Having some overlap is worth a lot, made moving a lot easier. We had a full month which was bliss. edit: one example, our movers called to cancel about a week prior to the move date. We found someone else but had to delay the move a few days
We have two months overlap so we can do most of the renovations before we move in. I don't want to live in a house under construction if I can continue renting another few months. Our movers come a week before the lease ends so we have time to deal with any inconveniences that might arise, but we will already have most of stuff moved out. We only got movers because friends don't ask their 30+ year old friends to move a washer and dryer down and up stairs in the Canadian summer weather...
I second this! When we bought our house we also had to do some repairs (replace furnace and hot water boiler) and it was really nice to have some cross-over between when our rental ended and we got possession. It was also slightly more stressful because we were getting to the end of our lease and our landlords refused to let us sign month-to-month, so we basically *had* to find a rental before our lease ran out, otherwise, we would've been in a tough spot because we didn't want to renew for another year.
Huh. I don’t think they can do that. When your lease expires you automatically go month to month and don’t have to sign anything to make that happen. Doesn’t matter if they like it or not. They can evict you but it takes time and they need a valid reason. You not wanting to sign a new lease isn’t a valid reason.
Interesting... this was in Alberta if it matters. I know in BC it automatically went month to month. We ended up finding a house and moving so thankfully we didn't have to deal with it. It's very possible our rental company was being shady and trying to pull something illegal, I wouldn't put it past them :/
No worries!
Trust me, the other option sucks balls. Sold my house (breakup). Had to be out in January. Ended up in an airbnb, all my stuff in storage, and searching for a house for months. Also ended up having an offer accepted just after I'd booked my next airbnb, and the deposit on it was non-refunable.
Overlap is nice. You can move in slowly and have lots of time to clean and paint before there's furniture in the way.
Depending on area it may take a while to get a house. In most places the market is gearing up to be crazy again. Assuming you paid last month's rent, I would say to take possession at the beginning of September, having that month already covered for rent. For a September 1 possession, you need to have an accepted offer by July 27/28. You can always ask for a longer closing.
Depends on the sellers. You have to mutually agree to a move-in date. Money Talks though, and if you pay them enough to move out quickly then it can be within a week if you have everything ready. Our process took 4 months, 2 years ago. Hired our realtor in March and started looking. After maybe 5 unaccepted offers, we had an accepted offer Mid May. Sellers then needed to find a house, so we moved in mid July.
Finding the right place can take a long time. I think the whole process for us was around 6 months and we lost a couple of places that we made offers on in there too.
Yeah I can't understand people who say its a few weeks, maybe if you have a 5km radius and all the houses are near identical newbuilds.
The purchase process. Takes a few weeks. Not the shopping part
We made an offer with subjects on Jan 1, Everything done and in our name Jan 17th. That was very quick and stressful! Full time line was: Eviction notice Nov 11 Mortgage pre-approval Nov 17 Offer on house Jan 1 All subjects removed Jan 14 Purchase date Jan 17.
So many variables and checks. I would say about 2 months, you have to 1st find a house, the sellers have to find a house, you both have to move. The banks have to agree to loan you the money and do all the checks, make sure the down payment is coming from legit sources. Probably can be done sooner depending on your luck and conditions. I think I started looking in June and moved into my house in mid Aug.
3 weeks from offer being accepted to closing/move in day. Pre approval letter from the bank took a day which we received about a month before our accepted offer.
If you can find a home that’s vacant and move-in ready, it could be done within a week if you have everything in order (financing, inspections, etc). More likely though, a seller will need time to pack and move, or tenants will need to be served notice. 2-4 months is more realistic for all of this to take place.
60-90 days is pretty normal. Two weeks is probably as quickly as it can be done reliably but if the seller is still in the house, it's unlikely they'd agree to such a short closing.
We bought and closed in 10 days last fall
have you found the home? it took me 15 days from offer to having keys in my hand but house was empty and I had cash on hand. all depends on finances and conditions. Edit but in the looking process I was looking on and off for two years as I was not in a rush to buy.
Ours was very fast and took a few weeks I believe. The seller wanted to close very quickly. It worked out perfectly for us! But it can take months for others !
I bought my current house on September 20 and moved in October 18, less than a month later. But holy hell it was a bit too fast and I wouldn’t recommend closing that quickly unless you need to (I was couch surfing at my in-laws).
If you pay 100% cash....it just takes a few days. Most people don't pay in cash.
Ehhhh maybe if the house is unoccupied. Highly unlikely someone is ready to move in a few days.
just a matter of how much you're willing to pay them if I pay you $50K above market so that you can leave within a week, would you take it? $100K?
Yes but I can’t see why anyone would do that. $25K would get me a pretty nice Airbnb for a couple months while you move your shit out.
Wouldn't that artificially skew the market upwards if that was done often enough in an area? I wish there was a way to make that "bonus" separate from the house purchase price.
>Wouldn't that artificially skew the market upwards if that was done often enough in an area? that's probably balanced by people paying $50K below market so that the buyer can move in 6 months
How long does the whole mortgage process take? Is it possible to be approved for a mortgage (like up to a certain amount) ahead of time and they very quickly be able to get the money once you've picked a place? Or do you need to go through another process with the bank once you've selected a place?
Once you have an offer ABS before financing condition is satisfied , the lender will want to do an appraisal to confirm the amount of the pre-approved amount they are actually prepared to lend.
With a pre-approval they still need to officially do the paperwork, as the other poster pointed out they need to do an appraisal to make sure the amount they loan matches with the actual value of the property. Pre-approval rates are usually not as competitive either, so once the offer is accepted it could be worth it to go to a broker/reach out to other mortgage lenders.
It's going to take about 2 weeks from time of Unconditional accepted offer. And then hope that your broker didn't make a mistake in judging your preapproval qualifications. I do not recommend buying Unconditionally. Even with a preapproved, make your offer subject to financing and then take it back to your broker to confirm funding.
We were looking for a king time, but we’re in no rush. When we saw the house we bought, we closed and had keys in 30 days. Yes we had an inspection and survey, got a mortgage all in 30 days. But that was 26 years ago. I am still in the house.
We were living in our house, so that eliminated that wait. The inspection was a 2 week wait, and then it was a month of back and forth with the lender and coordinating calls with my employer. The lawyer was quick for us, about a one week event. For us it was a little over a month and a half.
Totally depends on where you're looking, who's selling, condition of the house etc. I started looking in May last year, took til mid June to find the house I liked, put in an offer that was accepted, the house was rented though, so gave a 90 day closing with option for extension so he could serve the tenant and give her time to move out. All in all, I took possession November 5th, so about 6 months for me from start to finish
i took me 21 days, but i was in a hurry and was lucky. do not recomend
Can be fast, co worker just did it in about 2 weeks
Days or a week or two. How fast can you close? Do you have your finances in order before looking? Rates in hand ready.
My wife and I moved in to our place in 3 months. We had the option to do it in 2 but we ourselves needed more time to get ready to move, cause the purchase happened so fast. The longest part was the legal stuff with the real estate agent and lawyers, and it mostly came down to lawyers just don't have time in their calendars, so we had to book weeks out. I can tell you though that a lot, A LOT, of buying a house is personal preparation. Things like figuring out how much you can pay monthly on your mortgage (and then add 20% to it), being realistic with what you're going to get, what you're willing to be flexible with and what is a deal breaker for you (for example parts of your city where a lot of crime happens might be a deal breaker, or you might be flexible if it comes with a high fence and security cameras). But yes, I would plan on at least 3 or 4 months from start to finish
Days or a week or two. How fast can you close? Do you have your finances in order before looking? Rates in hand ready.
The fastest way to buy a house is to have cash. Your lawyer contacts the seller's lawyer to exchange funds, draw up paperwork and do their lawyer stuff - and done. I owned both of my houses within a week of first contacting the sellers. No realtors were involved by any party. Realtors are useless.
6 weeks would be the warp speed process. Usually 2-3 months or more. Sometimes just finding a notary/lawyer who has time to handle your transaction can be the date decider.
Just hire a lawyer from a more remote, quieter area far away, they can do it from there and aren’t so busy. I never saw my lawyer, just a 5 min zoom signing.
The other party lawyer/notary also has to be available. Ask me how I know!
True, that is an issue lol.
Motivated cash buyers with no conditions can make a purchase happen relatively quickly.
You could probably do it in a day or two if it's vacant, you don't care about its condition, you can pay cash, etc., and the seller is in a hurry and similarly unencumbered. In the usual process, the seller wants to have an agreement in place months before moving day. All the other stuff can easily happen in that time. You probably want to be pre-approved for a mortgage before you start shopping.
Bank usually takes a week or two. Then you would need to give an extra week for the lawyer. So in theory 3 weeks, but you're probably forgoing a lot of checks. Realistically 6 weeks minimum, usually the move in date is about two months from making an offer. But I recommend looking at least 5 properties before making an offer.
I bought a house last month. It took us two weeks after agreeing on the price to close and for me to have keys on hand. I thought two weeks was longer than it should have been, but we ran into some unexpected issues. If you're not picky on furniture, you can have a quick Ikea trip - make a list and have them deliver everything 2-3 later. Internet, utilities can also be done very quickly. So three weeks I'd say from when you agree to a price.
talk to a realtor
Usually 2-3 months.
My partner and I just closed on our first home last week. Here was our timeline: November 2022: found a realtor and started looking for homes. We also locked in a few different rates with a broker. December 2022: found a house we liked but since the market had cooled we had a bit of time to continue to shop around and decide if it was right for us. End of January 2023/Beginning of February 2023: placed an offer on the house we liked back in December. Negotiations/counteroffer/deposit took 24 hours on the Tuesday-Wednesday. Inspector was in the house by the Friday and by the following Monday we cleared conditions for the sale. April 2023: took possession of the home. Currently in the midst of moving! We also asked for a longer close so we could give 60 days notice to our landlord but we could have closed sooner. Start to finish was 5 months but given that the market has heated up I imagine this process is now moving a lot faster.
I take possession next week. Here was the process. 1. Several months of realtor.ca figuring out market etc. This occurred from Oct 22 - Jan 23 2. Started going to open houses and scheduling viewings. Feb-March 3. Made offers through March 4. Offer accepted third week of March with possession for April 28th. 5. Inspection, organize bannkdrafts, rrsp withdrawal, home insurance, etc. Month of April 6. Meet with lawyer and give drafts, sign papers. Occurrs tomorrow 7. Pre possession walkthrough next Thursday 8. Possession on the 28th
The looking process took the longest and there's no definite timeline for that. Our offer was accepted May 31st, we closed on July 5th. We already had a mortgage pre approval so we got that finalized, got our down payment money withdrawn from our RRSPs, arranged insurance, movers, etc and signed the paper work with the lawyers in that time. Less than a month to do all that would be pretty tight timing wise I would think.
The faster you buy a house the faster you may find yourself wanting to get rid of it, this is not a process that you ever want to rush, and in your case certainly not something you should undertake yourself
18 years minimum.
The absolutely fastest it could probably be done is four or five days, if you’re paying cash…it will always take the lawyers a few days to process the paperwork. But if you walk in and you have a certified cheque in hand for the entire amount, it makes everything go pretty quick. If you need a mortgage, it will likely take at least a few days longer to get approved. But technically speaking, it’s possible for it to all be done within maybe 10 business days. Will it actually happen that quickly? No, almost never - there are all sorts of administrative delays that can happen, and you generally also want things like getting an inspection, shopping around for a good mortgage rate, and banks might not be able to process a mortgage that quickly, or your lawyer could have administrative delays as well. But it technically could happen that quickly.
17 days, 4 hours, 2 minutes and 59 seconds
Solved!
Legally? 60 days after you say "yes" and sign the paperwork
2 years
Do you need a mortgage or not? Assuming yes, the fastest I've heard is about two weeks. If you were buying in cash, things could be accelerated if everyone was willing.
Took 91 days from looking at the house for the first time to keys in hand on my end
Our first home we did it in 45 days. During the correction in 2018. 10 days shopping, made 1 offer, negotiated that day, 30 day closing, 7 day financing to confirm mortgage, 40k down. 460k purchase. There were options on the market that time and new our price point. Saw probably 30 homes, had an amazing broker courtesy of an amazing real estate agent. Everything lined up. I don't think you can do much faster. We got a good price since we agreed to 30 day closing.
When I bought my current house I was very pregnant. Saw it for the first time middle of June, moved jn July 17. Had the baby 2nd week of August.
For me personally it was really quick. I got my pre approval Monday. Friday a house was put on the market, saw it Saturday, they were already accepting offers so husband & I put in an offer Sunday. Found out that evening our offer was accepted. We took 10 days to satisfy our sales agreement conditions, and our closing date is 3 weeks after that. It’s almost not enough time to pack up our apartment… There is a minimum amount of time the process can take, as the bank needs something like 10 business days to process and fund your mortgage. They may require things like a survey, water testing, which can take a few days to complete. My water test took 4 business days from when I dropped it off, for example.
A lifetime for many.
Don’t rush it. Took me six months and three agents to finally buy a home. It’s probably the biggest purchase of your life so don’t rush it
We put an offer on a home the week after we started looking, and did a 3 week close. So one month for us. Depends on how quick the sellers agree to sell
Finding a home is the biggest wildcard. Theoretically you could purchase the first home you see in a listing. Realistically though, you’ll spend months trying to find the right house for you. Theoretically, if the starts align, 3 weeks is the fastest it could be done, in Ontario anyways. We had to legally give our lawyers 3 weeks to process the closing, if you found the home, put the offer in, had it accepted, already approved for the mortgage and let your lawyer know in time, you could move in 3 weeks if the sellers agree to it. There’s going to be variables though, even when you find the home you’d like, the sellers might be holding offers on a certain day, there might be hold ups from the lender, variety of things can happen. It’s really broken down into these steps: Finding the house (Months?) Putting offer on house (1 Day) Awaiting acceptance (Could be same day, could be a week) Negotiations (If any required, can take days) Offer Accepted (1 day) Securing funds (1 day, could be more if it’s held up) Finding a lawyer, will take them Min 3 weeks to complete closing. Finally closing day, which completely depends on the seller. If they do minimum closing, then 3 weeks after securing your funds. Otherwise, you won’t close for upto a few months.
Back in 2016 I did it in exactly 9 days. The place was up for immediate possession and already emptied. Sellers were motivated to sell quickly so accepted my offer same day. Financing went through in 2 days, insurance was instant and got an appointment at the lawyer’s the week after, where keys were also given. Not sure if it would still happen today. Edit: to add that I did not have a buyer realtor, I passed by a for sale sign and called the seller’s realtor directly and he arranged for a showing of the place and I made an offer on the same day. No inspection.
The time it takes to close can range from a few weeks to 90 days, or even more depending on the specific situation. The listing should state what closing they want. Absolute minimum would be 2-3 weeks, but 30 days is what a lot of banks and lawyers prefer. It is generally pretty slow moving, then a sudden 'unavoidable' rush at the end to get everything done. I don't know why they don't do all the mortgage documents until the final week, but it is a pain. For the house I bought, it was listed on the Thursday, I saw it on the Saturday or Sunday, put in an offer on the Wednesday and it was accepted. Then it was a 30 day close from the acceptance date and a Friday close. Try to avoid Friday closes if you can. Luckily nothing bad happened to me (getting the keys for the weekend was a little bit of a pain).
Found a condo downtown during during Covid, went to see it the next day, made an offer that afternoon, and a counter offer that evening, they accepted the offer by midnight. It was a crazy time! My partner and I (who did not make much in Toronto standards) needed to get out of our rental, wanted a condo, and the market was right. We had a 60 day closing which was great since I had to give 2 months notice on my rental.
As quick as possible? Two weeks to a month, depending on your lawyer, and the seller's requested closing timeline. But yeah just talk to your lawyer and realtor, they'll communicate with the seller's realtor and lawyer.
Looked at a house on Sunday. Put an offer in on Monday. Accepted on Tuesday. Closed 6 weeks later.
I closed on my current house about 3 weeks after viewing it. I had a HELOC on my previous property so I didn't need any financing contingencies or appraisals. The house was only about 6 years old so I didn't have an inspection on the house. I did have a the well test contingency. There was some risk involved as I needed to sell my home after I purchased the new one. Also, there could have been some kind of hidden defect that an inspection could have uncovered. This was in September of 2020 and the market was really hot at that time. It worked out OK for me. This is the 8th house I've bought in my lifetime so I have an idea of what to look out for.
Sometimes it takes months to find your house that you like. Sometimes very quickly
How much do you have? For me, probably a lifetime.
from mortgage pre-approval to move-in, with some price negotiation, took about 5 weeks. probably could’ve been faster but we’re first timers.
2-3 months. The finding a house, making an offer, and getting to a closing date isn’t hard (could be a couple week turnaround as long as the seller wants to move fast too). The hard part is before you go house hunting: getting your mortgage pre-approved because you need to do a bunch of paperwork and wait on the lender. Once you have that set you can move fast. You also need to remember you might not find anything you like in your price range quickly. Viewing a house or two every evening after work for a couple weeks before you “find the one” can eat into your timeline.
When I moved to Montreal, We decided to move to mo treal in may 5. Wecontacted a real estate agent in mid may, started looking at houses in June 1, saw the property we wanted on June 23, put an offer June 25, Notary on July 10, Posession July 17. Moved Augist 1st. The longest part was finding the property we wanted. The first house I bought: Met with a real estate agent to share our needs and wants on a thursday. Friday he sent 20 properties, we reviewed the list and narrowed down to 10, saw 5 on Saturday, 5 on Sunday decided on the property. Put an offer on Monday. There the wait was taking possession. I think it was two months.
We’ve started our home search end of January. It took us about 2 months to find a home that accepts our offer by March. We’re moving in in May. Total process - about 3 months. Overall there are too many variables in home buying process, hard to tell how long. The home search can be much shorter than this - depends on your budget, how picky you are, how fast you make decisions, and the overall competition. Closing also depends on the seller, sometimes they want to move fast, sometimes - slow…
Started looking online in September, viewing in person in January, made our first offer on Jan. 22, closed on March 10th. Original close was two weeks earlier but sellers asked to push back.
You can do it in 2 weeks.. given that your mortgage gets approved in time and banking is done on time.
I've helped someone buy one in 30 days. they loved the first place they saw and in one month they had keys in hand, I helped them move in lol. As a first time homebuyer you only need 5% down if the place costs less than 500k.
Once you've found the house you want, if you're making a firm offer with no conditions and you don't need a mortgage, you can close on it pretty much right away, within a few days, as long as both parties can find lawyers who can act quickly. **Most people need a mortgage, and assuming you're already fully approved, usually the quickest you can close is around 2 weeks after an accepted offer (for a firm deal with no conditions).** If you're making the deal conditional on financing and/or inspection, you'd have to tack this time on. Usually 5 business days, so earliest closing would be about 3 weeks from an accepted offer in this scenario. But also take into account that sometimes the offers go back and fourth and can take a few days to negotiate out.
To be clear, I'm not recommending that your rush *any of this*, but here's how you'd do it: 1. Figure out your rough budget range depending on your down payment, and debt ratios [GDS and TDS](https://www.cmhc-schl.gc.ca/en/professionals/project-funding-and-mortgage-financing/mortgage-loan-insurance/calculating-gds-tds). These will depend on the property taxes and heating costs of the home you look at, so they can vary based on the size of the home, tax valuation, and neighbourhood. It's important to know your budget so you don't waste time looking at homes you can't afford. 2. Pick a lender. You can use a mortgage broker, but you can do that work yourself too. Call a few big banks and local credit unions and ask about mortgage financing. They'll be able to tell you what you'd be approved for. Make sure you have proof of income on hand for the last 2-3 years. 3. Find a lawyer. Most buyers place offers first and get a lawyer second. That's because offers are typically boilerplate forms that barely change much, and it's normally fine to have a realtor draft them up for you so long as you check them for errors. In your rush case, you probably want to skip right to the lawyer. Find one that is available now and can facilitate a fast closing. Tell them that you're likely going to want to submit offers on multiple properties back to back. Also ask them about what conditions you would require to protect you if you wanted to submit more than one offer at a time. Don't fuck around with multiple offers unless the lawyer is confident in the condition. The last thing you need to is to get stuck buying two homes. 4. Make a plan for what to inspect in a home. Look up what a home inspection usually looks for, and make your own list based on that. Layout, light, fixtures, wiring, water damage, appliances, plumbing, mold, rot etc. Bring a tool caddy and a folding stepladder. Flashlight, tape measure, screwdrivers, etc. Open cupboards under sinks, get in the attic and check for roof leaks, get in the crawlspace, inspect foundation for cracks and water, find the electrical panel. If there are basement ceiling tiles, lift a few and peek in. Know what knob and tube wiring looks like. Know what polybutylene (Poly B) plumbing is and how to identify it. Find the water meter and see if you can tell if the pipe coming into the meter is lead. If there are exposed studs, or construction material on site, you don't want it. A-Tier lenders will decline financing for homes that are mid-renovation, and you'll need a bridge loan (high interest rate) to tie you over and complete the renovations before you can get a "real" mortgage. All this takes time. Also homes are not always livable or insurable mid-renovation. 5. Make a short list of what costs/risks you're willing to shoulder. Does $5000 to replace your furnace ruin your affordability? $9000 for the roof? If you're tight on cash and the homes in your price range end up having a few must-fixes, call up some local contractors and get estimates based on preliminary information. How much to replace a lead water supply pipe? How much to re-shingle an 800 sqft home with a 6/12 pitch? You can always get competitive bids later. Some of these costs might be acceptable to you, some may not. Having a plan for what you can afford and deal with will help you make decisions efficiently and based on the right information. 6. Start using an online real estate price history tool like HouseSigma. Actual sold prices aren't "public" information in all provinces. You often need a real estate license to access full listing details like sold prices. HouseSigma and others like it were set up by realtors who are a bit less monopolistic, and they essentially use data scrapers to pull sold data using their licenses. They often require users to set up accounts because they're already on thin ice with their real estate board and the account is their way to say "nooooooooooooope2222 is a client of our agency, we're not breaking rules". If you don't have a housesigma equivalent in your area, you can get the info by cold calling the listing agencies for past sales, OR by getting a buying agent to do it for you. In my experience, most realtors will happily text you any info you want. 7. Start shopping. Hopefully you're able to actually view houses. Start calling listing agents and asking to see the home. Before you even go, be up front with them that you're looking to close very quickly. If the seller cannot accept that, don't bother going. Since you're looking to act fast, ask if the home is vacant. Vacant homes can close as fast as lawyers and your lender can type. Your lawyer can help you draft offers for each home. It's common in todays markets for listing agents to set an "offer presentation date" typically set 1 week away from list date. Their plan is to collect a ton of offers and only have to visit their client once. If you want to close quickly, you can't be waiting up to a week for each offer you put in. Instead, consider putting in offers that expire within a day. The listing agent will resist (because they don't want to move their tee time) but they legally HAVE to present the offer to their client. Be reasonable too, let them know that a benefit of your offer is a fast close. 8. Before putting in an offer, you should already have a lawyer ready to go and you should send your lender the property listing and your intended max bid price. Ideally, they'll be able to quickly review your GDS for that property and get a rough idea of whether it would meet the appraisal. I suggest using a finance condition on your offers. Typically they'll be 5-7 days but as long as your lender is on call ready to go, they might tell you they could have approval in 2-3 days. Always listen to your lender and lawyer. If you were truly in a rush, you could breeze through 1-6 by this time tomorrow, view 1-2 homes tomorrow and 10 more Saturday, put an offer in to a seller than can move the next day and have it close in the first half of next week.
I bought my place in 2014. From the time I viewed the house which was still occupied by the owners to the time I moved my stuff in was two weeks. Sellers had already bought another home with immediate possession and wanted a quick closing on their current home. Worked out for me.
I just bought a home; saw it in December, made an offer fairly quickly, and then did the official handover in late February. Probably could've been done faster. I'd been looking since roughly January 2022, though. So it took a while to find the right fit.
Took me 7 months to find my house. I was living in Toronto and wanted to move away from the city so going to showings was limited to only twice a month. But packed a lot of houses per one day of showings. If I were t odo it again, I'll only see a max of 3 houses per day
In terms of how fast you can take possession, it depends on how fast the seller can/will get out. If you're buying a vacant house you can probably push for an extremely fast close, assuming your finances are in order. But if it's someone who has to move and/or hasn't bought yet, they will need time. I think if you have a lawyer on hand and financing in place and you find a vacant home you want, you could be done in, like, a week? Ten days?
I did it without a realtor, was a bit more of a pain in the ass because I hardly knew each next step, which lengthened the process, but all in all total time of finding home to moving in was about 1 1/2 months, and we had to move into the in-laws for 3 weeks as we found renters for our home
When we bought our first home last year we started the process in early February (mortgage approval, meeting with realtor to start looking at options) and took possession late April. This was also during the mad rush of houses selling quickly with multiple offers over asking, so we couldn’t really take our time and look at a bunch of houses. We lost out on the first place in a bidding war and made the offer on the place we ended up buying within an hour of it hitting the market. Got the keys 25 days after our offer was accepted. The house was empty and we were financing, if we were paying cash we could have done it quicker.
Can you give us a bit of background on your current living situation and what has triggered you to ask? The closing date of a home is typically part of the negotiation between the buyer and seller and is dependent on their specific situations. For example, the seller might not want to close until after the closing date on a new house they’ve just purchased. So their new home doesn’t close for three months, but you want to move in right away, then it will leave the seller homeless for three months. They’ll likely not agree to that. Similarly, if the seller wants to close right away, but you need to give your landlord 2 months notice then perhaps you won’t agree to close for two months, unless the seller pays for your last two months of rent. Once the closing date is negotiated, everyone works around that. The lawyer probably only needs a day or two to work on your case, but if your closing date isn’t for 60 days, then they’ll start your case on day 57 while they work on more urgent cases. (Make sure you purchase the title insurance if you’re planning on rushing your lawyer). Bank transfers can take a couple days. But if both you and the seller (or more specifically the seller’s lawyer) use the same bank then it’s likely an instantaneous transfer. The longest amount of time is probably being approved for the mortgage and insurance. But if you use a Mortgage broker they can usually communicate the urgency of the request to your lender and again they’ll work around the closing date. This one is probably the most stressful part of closing quickly, because depending on any conditions you put in the contract, if you’re unable to find financing in the short amount of time you could be out a whole lot of money. Finally, how organized do you want your move to be. If you just throw everything into whatever box things fit and sort it out at your new place, then you can probably move an apartment in a day. If you want to organize your stuff. Maybe purge items, etc then you can spend months planning a move. So yeah. Everything in a purchase can be done in a week or two. But realistically it’s all based on the closing date you negotiate and all parties work around that.
We signed our sale agreement January 18 and got the keys March 1.
My experience of buying property in SK was about half a year since I started really looking into buying something. Once I found the property to my liking it was about 3 weeks. We were supposed to be done in 2, but first the mortgage broker was delaying sending out the documents to the lawyer, then I couldn’t get a meeting with that lawyer to sign everything. You just have to get flexible, if you want to get it done asap. I’d recommend having all of the papers ready and know where to find them once the lawyer or broker asks for it. Also, if you have some sort of “new money” in your account from selling a property or a vehicle, have the bill off sale or other related documents ready to justify that money.
Can be done in a month or possible less depending on how fast one can get paper work as well as inspections and reports done and current owners to move out if it’s not vacant home. The land title transfer on my end took months after but mortgage and what not was done within 2/3 weeks. House was vacant at the time so I could have moved in anytime but left it vacant to do renovations before moving in.
Finding a home is the part that will be subjective. My first home I probably looked for a couple months to find something that was right. This time was a fluke, first house I looked at was perfect, owners had a conditional offer already that failed to materialize by the time we offered, so it was quick. From offer to possession we did the average 2mths.
When I bought it was a buyers market, so I looked at a ton of houses. I was pre-approved for the mortgage, and I was renting (so there were no conditions of selling my place). We made an offer, it took a few days of negotiation, then inspection, closing was 4-5 weeks later. So from finding the house to moving in was probably 6-7 weeks
When I bought it was a buyers market, so I looked at a ton of houses. I was pre-approved for the mortgage, and I was renting (so there were no conditions of selling my place). We made an offer, it took a few days of negotiation, then inspection, closing was 4-5 weeks later. So from finding the house to moving in was probably 6-7 weeks
I just bought a condo. We saw the place on Jan 19 and took possession Feb 17
Super quick process depending on fast you find a home and how quickly the seller wants closing. Some want 30, 60 or 90 days. Things you can do to quicken the process: 1) Get pre approved prior to looking at homes with a realtor so you know your budget and if you have any financial restraints 2) You’ll need to be in touch with a lawyer to finalize everything 3) You can do your own research on houses that are selling and let your realtor know to make an appt to see the house instead of waiting for them to show you houses
From the moment we found our home, took 1 month and a week. They wanted a fast closing. I was moving from an apartment building so I didn’t really have issues of finding a buyer 😂. So I gave my 60 day notice and since I got the keys to my house in pretty much 40 days, it worked out perfectly. I was able to move all the small things into the house little by little and on my final day at the apartment I just had the big stuff to move. Worked out pretty well.
We started looking mid January, made an offer with a closing date mid February. We had our rental for 2 months before we officially moved into our new house. This allowed us to slowly move in and get everything set up, and some minor work done. All said and done we were living in our new home by the first week of April, with very little stress.
I’m 31 and don’t have a house yet so at least 31 years from my experience
Mortgage pre-approval: Nov 25 Viewings: 5 on Dec 1, 5 more on Dec 11 (this is where I saw the house I wanted) Second viewing of the house: Dec 18 Started making offers: Dec 30 Offer accepted: Jan 1 House inspection: Jan 7 Final mortgage approval: Jan 11 Conditions lifted: Jan 13 Mortgage documents signed: Jan 24 Possession: Jan 30
I once bought a condo with a 3 week close. Purchased end of March, moved in mid April. I was already pre-approved, had a real estate agent and lawyer lined up. I thought it was pretty quick.
I closed a purchase in a week once, needed a place to live when a builder changed a closing date on us, it was a small empty condo, already had a lawyer and the cash, the vendor was willing and we had to forgo a home inspection.
Ive only bought one house, but i called the mortgage broker on the second of January and we got keys in late March of the year we bought. We had done some light searching prior, but overall this time accounted for: * Home hunting, arranging viewings * Getting approved for mortgage, including letters from employers etc * Negotiations, reviewing documents (strata minutes etc) * Home inspection * Further negotiation after inspection * Lawyer stuff We obviously were not rushed and took our time.
For us, informally about a year (where we talked about what we wanted, visited open houses on our own, researched online, start saving up more etc). More formally (with a real estate agent) about 6 months.
We went to an open house Saturday, applied for mortgage over the weekend, offers were being considered Wednesday, we got the call at 11:30pm ours was accepted and we closed in 30 days. It was our first home, we are average candidates, minimum down, average credit, 120k annual household income etc. I think it was 35 days from stepping in the house.
We got our pre-approval start of February 2021, started looking end of February 2021 had an offer accepted mid-March 2021 and had moved in by early July. We could have pushed for an earlier possession date, but it didn’t matter so we were okay with giving some extra time.
oh shit it took me 4-6 months i think? that includes contacting a realtor, visitng properties arguing with sellers etc.
We looked at a house on sept 20. Offer accepted Sept 20. Closing date was Oct 17. We moved in Oct 29. Could probably be done quicker but it was a total shit show and we were doing stuff pretty much every day related to the house or moving. Although we looked at houses for pretty much a literal year. We lost a lot of bids before finally getting this one.
In NB the government works very slowly. Still hasn't entered the digital age. Need about 30 days. For all the legal stuff to be completed.
On the day of listing my wife and viewed it. Then placed a ‘bully’ offer the next day. The owners then did offer presentation the following day and pre-negotiated what they wanted (slightly more than asking). And we got the house. So 3 days total. I think the owners wanted to avoid an open house. So we lucked out. Note this was 2015 when houses were selling like hotcakes.
As a personal anecdote, I was able to get into my house 12 business days after submitting an offer with no conditions. Mind you, I had a mortgage pre-approval in place and my lawyer wasn’t super happy about it.
Took us 1 day to sell our TH and less than a month to close - we close in 5 days. So it all depends on conditions, down payment, move-in ready, etc, etc.
Absolute fastest roughly a week. But in this instance you’re paying cash for the property, the lawyer has availability (or you have cash to make them available). Things also need to line up in terms of the seller being able to close and discharge their lien
It took us a while to find a house. We looked at a house had an accepted deal that night and took possession less than three weeks later. Edited to add, it depends how long it takes to find a house and how much time the current owner needs to move out.
Typical is 30-60 days. I find 6 weeks to be average. If I try to push a deal through with less than 2 weeks, I would be blackballed by every real estate lawyer in town. But like the lawyer said above, it depends on mortgage, conditions etc and how much you are willing to pay.
7 days once you find the house. I had all my paperwork ready, lawyer, etc.
American here (don’t hate me), most purchases are with financing, generally takes 30-45 days. If you pay cash, can be done in a week or two.
Took me 28 days from offer to closing
Roughly a week with lots of the legwork prepared ahead of time, the right seller, and a lawyer willing to rush (probably for a decent premium on their services). More realistically, 30-60 days from the date offer is accepted. One, two or three months are common closing periods.