“Patience” isn’t the word you want to hear after you finally ratify a contract on your first house and are waiting anxiously to get the keys to your new castle. But it is necessary because there are many steps that must be completed before you finally stroll through your new front door.

It takes, on average, 30 to 45 days to get from contract ratification to settlement. “A traditional resale is probably the shortest transaction and then secondly comes the foreclosure and then third in line is the short sale,” said Danilo Bogdanovic, a Realtor with Market Advantage Real Estate in Northern Virginia. “It really depends on a number of things.”