As you are finding out it all depends if the seller can "prove" he or she has the right to sell the house! The actual sale, ie signing the papers and paying your money can take place anytime you, the seller and the notary can get together. We bought 2 halves of a house. One half the seller had all the papers and we could have done the deal in 3 weeks. The second half the sellers had to prove their right to sell so 6 months. It seems a lot of people selling property are not prepared as there is a cost involved.