We closed in 19 days (counting the 3 days of initial negotiations) on this house, and the house was NOT vacant. No one had even started packing when we put in our offer. They brought in a HUGE dumpster and just started hucking stuff out the windows; the moving van pulled up the day before closing (destroying the lawn, sigh) and picked up what they were taking, the dumpster company showed up at same time to get the semi-trailer-sized dumpster full of their discards. I was stunned at how they fit that much in the house and still had enough stuff left to fill a standard semi-sized moving van - this is not a big house! They picked up their check at closing and off they went. The house was dirty and trash was left around, but at least we had possession of it on time. We were really wondering when we viewed the house and then heard what their deadline for getting to their new jobs cross-country was! I have been told that under less frantic conditions, the typical timeframe in my area is about six weeks. I don't think I'd want to wait too much longer than that unless I could inspect the house regularly - it just seems like there's too much of an opportunity for things to go wrong.

Thanks everyone for their insight. Our house finally closed yesterday. Of course you go through a lot of emotions, at least we did, (Couldn't wait for it to sell, then became sad at the thought of really leaving it...etc) but now that we've settled into a rental, we're happy to be done with the whole selling side of things. We also feel grateful to have had a sucessful sale in this market. Now that we are in the buyer's seat we still doubt WE would be able to make an intellegent decision based on one visit. Our needs/wants are a bit more unique than the average buyer though. If it were just my husband and I, I could see falling in love with something perfect for the two of us when I walked in the front door...in fact I did: We made an offer the other day on a home that I DID fall in love with on the first visit. I loved it when we pulled up and throughout the whole house. Had it not been an evening visit and we couldn't see most of the yard, I'm sure I would have talked my Husband into offering then and there. Come to find out, it was a short sale and in reality it was perfect for US, but not for our son. We convinced ourselves that we could make the modifications needed to make it work for everyone. Our Agent explained it could take months to hear back so we could offer and continue to look and pull the offer at anytime so we decided to go for it. We have since rescinded the offer when we realized no matter how much I wanted it, and modifications included it wasn't the right house for ALL the family members. I would have always felt it was a selfish decision. Since then we've gone back to another house we've been watching for a 3rd visit..... and now plan to offer on because it's a good compromise house for everyone. I guess it took 3 visits to convince me that I was doing the right thing by choosing this one. It's not that I didn't like it, it was just not what I had envisioned we would buy which was a forever dream home. I've realized it might not be possible to mesh what is perfect for me with the needs of my son. So, after that really sank in and I became ok with it, I feel good about this offer. It's a low offer (I think it's overpriced and part of the reason it's been on the market 10 months) so if we get it, we will be able to make the changes I want that would make me happier with it, and it is an AWESOME place for my son's needs. Wish us luck!

Pre-approval means nothing really, only that if the borrowers told the truth to the bank about their income and liabilities that they meet the financial qualifications. The lender still has to do the same credit checks and review and that can take 30 - 60 days depending. So here in southern NY, 45 to 60 days is average from contract signing to closing.

The first thing to do is get the lot under contract. You can do an option period in my state that you pay a fee to the owner that they get to keep if you back out for taking it off the market for a certain time frame for you to do the due diligence assuming all other terms are good with the owner. For example one may pay $100 for 10 days to do the inspection of whatever you may want to do during that time period. This option allows you to back out for any reason, ie you don't have to give one. You will forfeit the $100 if you do so. If you move forward the $100 is applied at closing towards the price so you don't loose it. If offering lower and there is a lot of other interest make sure you put a short time limit on the offer as the agent will likely call others who have shown an interest to let them know there is an offer and if somebody else wants it it is likely they will submit one too. We had this happen recently. However the property we were looking at was not one where to us we wanted to pay a higher price so we choose to not increase our offer.