How many times do you see a picture of an investor holding a key to a house that they have just purchased and want to tell everyone about it?
Well I thought it’s about time after 20 years investing that I did my 1st picture doing just the same !!
Actually I am not doing it to brag I am doing it to show you that it’s possible to buy a house in less than 2 months and that’s including the Christmas break!
Yes with the right team in place you can do just that.
I had the offer accepted in 5th Dec 2023 and today I collected the keys 10th Jan . in fact that’s only just over 5 weeks from offer accepted to ownership !!
If I had a pound for every time I had someone say , “that was quick , how did you manage that?” then I would be ,…… well you know how the saying goes !!
I did not do this on my own . it would not have been possible without the amazing team of professionals I have around me.
Yes of course I knew the process of buying houses inside out and I was the driving force behind it all, only having an amazing mortgage broker, superb Convincing solicitor , great insurance broker and of course the relationship with the selling agents are the main reasons for it being just 5 weeks and 1 day, from offer accepted to completion and collected the keys.
This deal was by no means a straight forward everyday, run of the mill, purchase. It had its fair share of challenges and frustrations along the way, right up to 4:55pm today when I got the keys before the agents closed at 5pm !!
The broker has such a great relationship with the lenders he uses, that no matter what the challenge with the deal, he found a solution. Initially there were lenders who didn’t want to lend as the sellers were not going to have vacated the property on completion of the borrowing. This knocked out most if the traditional, of the shelf, Buy to let lenders.
This is when my broker, Wayne, jumped into action, spending lots of time on multiple phone calls to his contacts at the lenders explaining all the circumstances and having a bespoke solution created just for me and the project I was doing.
Even after the lending was agreed in principle there where multiple hoops for me to jump through before the funds would be released.
That’s where my fabulous convincer (solicitor) Remia came in . Remia was answering all the quires, passing on conditions to me to action and reporting back to the lender that they had been satisfied when appropriate, things such as, making sure the insurance was in place / ready to go, even before the completion and having the lenders interest noted on the insurance so that they are covered for various clauses.
The money was due to be in the conveyers firms client account the day before the completion date ..
..That would have been the perfect solution ready to complete on the next day
…. Oh no that never happened.
So from 9am this morning (the agreed completion date) right up till about 3pm Remia , Wayne and myself were chasing the lender .. where’s the money .. oh we have released the money they said ..
What the hell does released the money mean ?
I tell you what it means… it means we are working on it !!!
Not that it had been sent, oh no that would be too easy !!
So eventually the money hits the solicitors account at 3pm and we are all set to send the money over to the sellers solicitor in plenty of time to complete and collect the keys.
..Oh but hang on, my solicitor found a document that needed to be dated by a professional and he was in a meeting and not available!!
The pressure was turned up and eventually my solicitor had the document and money was all transferred over to the sellers solicitor.
At 4:55pm I had pitched up to the agents office and asked if they had received notice that they can release the keys from the sellers solicitors.. they hadn’t, so I had to convince them to call the sellers solicitors. They did finally do this and then they had confirmation.
And finally the keys were handed over.
I went up to the house to make sure the heating was on as it’s going to be below zero tonight.
That’s when the selfie opportunity presented its self!!
As you can see there where quite a few challenges here , in fact I have only really scrapped the surface of the processes and challenges I had to deal with and over come.
What I wanted to point out here though that this is all possible and you can do it too.
If the deal is right, you have the right knowledge and an amazing team on board with you then whether it’s 5 weeks or 3 months , or 6 months to purchase it can be done and you can do it.