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What’s the Typical Timeline for Buying a Home?
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Jun 26, 2025
Buying a home is an exciting process—but how long does it actually take? From getting pre-approved for a mortgage to finally closing, each step comes with its own timeline. While the exact time can vary depending on your market, financing, and other factors, having a clear understanding can help reduce stress and improve planning. Listen now to hear Anita from the #RealEstateCrunch podcast break down the full timeline, answer 15 common questions, and help you get ready for your next move. You can also click here (https://real-estate-crunch.com/how-long-does-it-take-to-buy-a-home/) to read more about how long it takes to buy a home. #RealEstateCrunch #HomeBuyingTips #BuyingAHome #FirstTimeHomeBuyer #MortgageProcess #RealEstateAdvice #HomeBuyingTimeline #HouseHuntingTips Support the show (https://www.buzzsprout.com/2029617/support)
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[Music]
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this is Anita from Real Estate Crunch
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today we're going to talk a little bit
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about how long does it take to buy a
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home or to buy some property a lot of
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people you know might think well this
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should be instantaneous i should be able
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to see a property buy it and then
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automatically be able to get it but
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actually it is quite a long process it
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can be anywhere you know normally on
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average time between 30 to 90 days or
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even uh for some people might even be a
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bit longer
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let's just talk a bit about a breakdown
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of the average time for different
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aspects of purchasing property or home
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preapproval for mortgage can take
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between one to five days house hunting
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one to three months or longer depending
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on the competitive market i always
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really recommend that people don't buy
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the first house they see you know go
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view at least 10 or 20 houses even if
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you're in a competitive market because
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you just really don't know what's out
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there until you really start exploring
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and looking at things when I say
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go there I mean physically go to the
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house you know of course don't just go
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on Zello and look at the pretty pictures
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or everything else but go there and
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physically look at a house because my
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experience has been that looking at a
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picture and actually standing in a space
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can be very different it can just feel
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different it can just look different and
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so you really need to see the space in
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person making an offer can be 1 to seven
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days offer acceptance and signing the
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contract could be 1 to 3 days home
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inspection appraisal could be one to two
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weeks securing financing could be 3 to
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six weeks and closing the sale could be
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one to two days so you start to add all
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this up you can see that it takes some
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time let's go through each of these and
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explain maybe some of the reasons why
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pre-approval for a mortgage you take one
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to five days part of the reason why is
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because the lenders need to verify your
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income your creditworthiness and your
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debt to income ratio so delays can occur
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you know if you're missing documents or
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your financial situation is very complex
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so actually this could even take longer
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you know depending upon this if they're
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missing documents you got to go get a
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document and might take you a while to
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get a document it could take a longer
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time than this house hunting takes one
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to three months or more you know finding
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a home that meets your needs and your
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budget can be challenging especially in
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a sellers market where properties are
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snapped up quickly so you know depending
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upon what kind of market you're in this
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could actually take a lot more time than
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you expect making an offer can take one
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to seven days sellers might take their
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time to review offers and especially if
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they receive multiple bids negotiations
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can also prolong this step so even this
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1 to seven days it can actually take
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longer if there's negotiations if
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there's several offers on the table and
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maybe the seller themselves is dragging
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their feet they really can't decide
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which offer they want to take offer
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acceptance and signing the contract
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takes 1 to three days both parties must
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review and agree to the contract terms
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which may require minor adjustments and
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if it requires minor adjustments then of
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course maybe it goes back to a legal
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team or lawyers or other people and then
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you know that of course could add to
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this too home inspection can take one to
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two weeks you know inspectors and
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appraisers must visit the property
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prepare detailed reports and communicate
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their findings to the relevant parties
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scheduling conflicts can also make a
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difference here you know if the house is
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empty and they maybe aren't able to get
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into the house or there could be some
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other conflicts here which can also add
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to this timeline
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securing financing 3 to six weeks you
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know lenders follow a detailed
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underwriting process to assess risk any
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discrepancies in your financial
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documents or issues with the appraisal
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can cause delays now of course if this
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is a cash offer this would be different
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if you're not looking for a mortgage
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you're going to pay cash of course all
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of this could go faster then and that's
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some reasons why sometimes some sellers
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might prefer a cash offer just because
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of the time on this if they need money
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quickly they might say "This guy's going
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to give me cash and this will be so much
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quicker than going through all these
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other steps." Closing the sale could
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take one to two days you know
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coordinating with the seller lender and
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the title company can take time any
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errors in the paperwork may cause delays
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so all of these things can actually take
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time in this so here are some of the
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reasons why you know buying a home takes
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so long there's different also other
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reasons that can add to this one is
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market conditions is it a seller or
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buyer's market how motivated is a seller
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to really sell the property or are they
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looking for the best offer there is
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around or are they really in a hurry
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there could be or do they have some cash
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offers on the table and they decide that
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they would rather take the cash offer
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than another type of offer financing
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requirements can take time too
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inspections and appraisals take time and
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coordination between all the parties
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because you know you don't own the
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property so you don't have the right to
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be able to let them in so you have to
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wait for the owner to or the real estate
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agent or whoever dealing with the
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property to be able to coordinate with
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all the inspections and other things to
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be able to let them in to view the
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property so there's a lot of
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coordination that goes on you know is it
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possible to buy a home faster you can
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get your preapproval earlier which would
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help work with an experienced agent who
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can help you through the entire process
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be flexible be open to different
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neighborhood different home types can
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reduce the search time and have your
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documents ready make sure you understand
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exactly which financial documents
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required and make sure that you have
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them all ready and in place we have
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written a blog post on this entitled how
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long does it take to buy a home and we
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will put a link in the description below
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uh for this and also on there we have
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some fre uh 15 frequently asked
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questions that a lot of people ask that
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are looking to buy property and um
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hopefully you can receive an answer
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through those also thank you so much for
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listening we do appreciate you and we
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hope that you will subscribe um join
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with us and become part of our community
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thank you