why is buying a new house so slow

The process of buying a house - well according to me !

• You get your house valued
• You start internet searches
• You refine your search as you cant afford the areas you want
• You contact estate agents and hand your intimate details over and over again to arrange viewings
• You make many trips and then eventually the agents start to show you houses that match your brief. (Why do they always show you properties just a bit more expensive than you can afford ! )
• You compromise on your ideals ! Garden, Space, Street, Facilities to meet your budget.
• You start using words like 'its got potential!'
• You do your sums, and work out if you can actually afford it!
• Get a mortagage extension, or a new mortgage - this is worth a rant on its own at some point.
• PUT an offer in - MILESTONE
• You wait nervously to see if it is accepted

At this stage your wallet is preparing to start hemeraging cash !

• You contact the estate agent who valued your property at the highest price
• You put your own house on the market and WAIT !
• At this stage you instruct a solicitor
• You move forward with the mortgage
• You spend time on the phone with your solictor and keep writing cheques
• You get your home buyers survey back and it reads like a horror film
• While someone is doing this to you !
• You plan all the new things to buy and line up about 6 years worth of future work
• You tell all your friends that you are going to be moving while it is still no guaranteed

This is as far as I have got as of today.

I am expecting

• To go through many iterations of paperwork with the solictor, laughing at funny covenaces from 1936 about common ground for the Duke of somewhere can graze their sheep.
• To have a target date set
• To exchange contracts
• To complete
• To move in
• To start to furnish the house

Its now 3-5 months later on. You have just moved in and then the conversation starts about where to move to next !

In summary
So, you are paying a lot of money. Stamp duty - how ridiculous is that?! Yet you cant get yourself too involved in the house otherwise rational thought goes out of the window. You have many people working for you - but you cant tell them to hurry up. Your financial and spirtual well being is in the hands of completely strangers in a call centre. Why do we do it??