Novation is replacing one contract with another. People do this because the obligations of the parties change.

They are either added or deleted, or the parties to the contract change.

Novation is different from assignment, because the assignor is still obligated, and so the other parties do not need to approve the change.

 

How long it takes for a house to go from pending to sold depends on how you define the term.

Many systems treat pending and under contract synonymously, so most deals were the buyer gets a mortgage take between 30 and 60 days.

However, many (even most) treat pending as the final stage of the process after all of the contingencies are met. In this case, the time frame is no more than three of four days.