What actually happens between offer and completion, step by step

Your offer has been accepted. Everyone congratulated you. And then, for weeks, nothing appears to happen at all.

This is the stage almost everybody finds hardest, and it is not because anything has gone wrong. It is because a great deal of work is going on that nobody thinks to tell you about. So here is what is actually happening at each point, and who is doing it during the quiet stretches.

Offer accepted, and what that does not mean

In England, an accepted offer is not binding on anybody. That sounds alarming and it is worth knowing rather than discovering later. Either side can still walk away until contracts are exchanged.

What it does do is start everything else: the estate agent issues a memorandum of sale, solicitors are instructed on both sides, and your mortgage application can move from a general conversation to a specific property.

The mortgage application proper

Up to this point any conversation about borrowing was about you. Now it is about a particular house, and the lender needs to assess that too.

We submit the application with the property details, and the lender begins its own checks. There is usually a quiet period here while that happens, and it is normal.

The valuation

The lender will arrange a valuation. It is worth being clear what this is for: it protects the lender's security, not your interests. It confirms the property is worth roughly what is being paid and that it is suitable to lend against.

It is not a survey. If you want to know about the condition of the roof, that is a separate thing you commission yourself, and on an older property it is usually money well spent.

Conveyancing and searches

This is the longest and quietest stretch, and it is where most people conclude something has gone wrong.

Your solicitor is ordering searches: local authority, water and drainage, environmental, and whatever else the property or the area calls for. These are requested from third parties who have their own timescales, and nothing much can be done to hurry them.

Enquiries between solicitors

Once the searches come back, your solicitor raises enquiries with the seller's solicitor about anything unclear: a boundary, an alteration without paperwork, a shared drive, a lease detail.

This is where the weeks genuinely go. Each question travels solicitor to solicitor to seller and back. A chain multiplies it, because every property in the chain is doing the same thing at its own pace.

The mortgage offer

When the lender is satisfied, it issues a formal mortgage offer to you and to your solicitor. It is valid for a period, so if the purchase runs long it is something to keep an eye on rather than assume.

Exchange of contracts

This is the moment it becomes binding. Contracts are exchanged, a completion date is fixed, and your deposit is committed. From here neither side can simply change their mind without serious consequence.

People often expect exchange and completion to be the same day. They are usually days or weeks apart, and the gap is agreed between the parties.

Completion

Funds move, the seller's solicitor confirms receipt, and the keys are released. That is the day you actually move in.

Your solicitor then registers the purchase, which happens after you have moved and is one reason official house price figures always lag behind the market.

What genuinely speeds it up

Not chasing. Three things make a real difference:

• Reply to your solicitor the same day. Every day a form sits on your kitchen table is a day added to the whole chain.
• Have your documents ready before they are asked for. Identification, proof of address, and evidence of where your deposit came from.
• Be reachable. A question that waits three days for an answer costs three days.

The honest summary

The process is not slow because people are idle. It is slow because it involves searches from third parties, questions that travel through several hands, and often a chain of other households doing the same thing.

Knowing which stage you are at, and who is holding the ball, turns an anxious silence into a manageable wait. That is a large part of what we do: not just arranging the mortgage, but telling you where things actually stand.

If you are somewhere in the middle of this and not sure what is happening, we are in Gravesend and happy to talk it through, free and without obligation.

Your home/property may be repossessed if you do not keep up repayments on a mortgage or other debt secured on it.

There may be a fee for mortgage advice. The precise amount of the fee will depend upon your circumstances.