At what point in sale are contracts usually signed?

[DB1]

Hi,
I'm selling a house and have gone sale agreed with a refundable booking deposit paid. The buyers of my house have also gone sale agreed subject to survey.

At what point in this process should I (or one normally) expect to have contracts signed by the buyers (of my property)?


a) After the survey on buyers property
b) After survey and booking deposit is paid to buyers for their property
c) When the contracts are signed between the buyers of my house and the buyers of their house.
d) At some other point?

 

[LDFerguson]

Although the two transactions are separate, if your buyers cannot complete the purchase of your house until they sell, the most common scenario is (c).

But there's no obligation on you to wait forever if you don't want to - typically there's a gap of a month to six weeks between booking deposit and contract exchange. If it drags on too long past that, you can always tell your buyers that if they don't exchange contracts in the next fortnight, you'll put the house back on the market.

Liam D. Ferguson
www.ferga.com