How Long Does Closing Take on a House From Start to Finish?
4 min read
You’ve accepted an offer on your house and both you and the buyer have signed the purchase contract. How long does closing take from here?
Next steps include the home inspection, appraisal, and final paperwork. But the time required to process and underwrite the loan will be in large part what dictates the length of your closing.
How long does closing take?
Once the purchase agreement has been signed, closing on a house can take an average of 43 days when a buyer is using a mortgage, as of July 2024, according to the loan software firm ICE Mortgage Technology. For example, if you list your home on Jan. 1 and accept an offer on Jan. 24, you can expect to close on the sale of your home somewhere between the end of February to mid-March.
For all cash purchases, closing can take as little as 1 week.
Broken down by type of loan, you can expect the following:
Average time to close
Loan Type
43 days
Conventional loan
44 days
FHA loan
Source: Ice Mortgage Technologies, Data for July 2024
The buyer will sign the brunt of the paperwork, especially if they are securing a mortgage. The seller’s portion of closing day usually takes one to two hours, according to Sherry Wiggs, a top real estate agent in Westchester County, New York. And in some scenarios, the seller won’t be required to attend in-person if they pre-sign the deed and other documents.
However, a holdup could push out your projected closing date. Let’s take a look at how long each step of closing takes, so you have a better idea of what to expect and what you can do to help prevent delays.
Does cash speed up closing?
You need extra cash now, you’re relocating for a job, or a family member had a change in health — some scenarios such as these require sellers to move more nimbly than a 43-day closing timeline allows. If you are concerned about the process taking too long, consider the alternative of requesting a cash offer for your home.
A cash sale can usually be turned over in a week to two weeks, as it allows you to skip the mortgage process and the appraisal, which are typically the two most time-consuming steps in the process.
HomeLight’s Simple Sale platform provides cash offers for homes in almost any condition across the country. To get started, complete a brief questionnaire about your property and your selling goals, and we’ll provide an all-cash offer for your home within 24 hours with the ability to close in as little as 10 days.
How long each closing step takes
There’s a lot that has to happen in that 43-day window of time between offer and closing. Stephen Donaldson, a real estate attorney and founder of The Donaldson Law Firm in New York, breaks down approximately how long each step takes along the way.
Signing the purchase agreement: 1-3 days
Once the parties reach an accepted offer, Donaldson says that signing a purchase agreement or contract of sale can usually be accomplished within 1-3 days, assuming no one’s on vacation or otherwise unavailable.
However, if the sale involves contingencies for repairs, post-closing possession, or anything the parties negotiated specific to the sale, that can add a day or two if the parties or their attorneys get particular about the language addressing those contingencies.
In addition to price, the purchase and sale agreement details other points of negotiation, such as who gets to keep the fridge, the buyer’s inspection period, how much the buyer will put down in earnest money — and your closing date. Each step from here on out will be scheduled based on that date, the final deadline on your home sale (which can be renegotiated in the event of delays or surprises).
Open escrow: 0 extra days (bundled into contract of sale)
Donaldson says that in New York, it’s customary for the seller’s attorney to hold the earnest money deposit in an escrow account with the attorney escrowee’s obligations and rights spelled out in a lengthy paragraph in the contract of sale. “This usually does not add any time to the closing process, as it’s pretty standard,” he notes.
