What to expect when you’re selling your home

• Step 1: Instruct a solicitor

  The first step is to instruct a solicitor to act on your behalf when you’re selling your home. This is one of the most important decisions you will make as this person will represent your interests throughout the sale. We recommend having a think about what services are being offered, what the cost looks like and what your budget allows. We would never recommend automatically choosing the cheapest conveyancing service, you want to make sure the service is the best fit for you.

• Step 2: Returning your client care documents

  All of our prospective new clients receive what we like to call ‘client care documents’. Essentially, these documents tell us what we need to know to help support you through the sale process. Once you have returned your signed client care paperwork, identity documents and questionnaire, we can begin acting for you. Initially there might be some small charges to cover payments such as land registry documents and electronic ID checks. We do this at the start to make sure your costs are covered from the get-go, meaning you don’t have to keep making payments to us, and we don’t have any unnecessary hold ups. Don’t worry, your conveyancer will keep you right, and will inform you of any and all charges up front so there are no nasty surprises!

• Step 3: Property Forms

  Another key document included in the client care welcome pack is the property form. We’ll ask you to complete this form so we capture all the information you have about your property which the buyer might need. There are a few ways you can complete and return the form to us – it’s completely up to you. We try to make the process as simple for you as possible so it can be completed online, sent to us by post, in person, or by email. The form is a legal document so if you have any questions or queries, or you’re unsure on any of the content, please feel free to contact your conveyancer, we’ll be more than happy to help advise how you fill this out.

• Step 4: Memorandum of sale

  At this point, if you haven’t done so already, you’ll need to provide your estate agent with our details so they can send us a memorandum of sale. The memorandum of sale is a written confirmation of all the details of the property transaction, the estate agent will provide this – you just need to tell them who your conveyancer is.

• Step 5: Preparing the contract pack

  The next step is for us to prepare a contract pack for the buyer’s solicitor. The pack will include the title to the property, a draft contract, the property forms you have completed and any other relevant documentation. Again – nothing you need to do at this stage, we’ll take care of all of this for you.

• Step 6: Getting your sale ready for exchange

  We pride ourselves on being proactive, so we’ll make sure to do everything we can as early as possible to prepare your sale for the exchange. This includes obtaining an initial redemption figure from your lender (if you have one) and carrying out our own title check to anticipate anything we think the buyer’s solicitor might need. At this point, we can advise you if we need any additional documentation. In some cases, we might need a management pack, a licence to assign, title confirmation, or additional documentation for the buyer’s solicitor. We’ll keep you right and advise you as early as possible to give you all the time you need to get the documents in place.

• Step 7: Dealing with enquiries

  The buyer’s solicitor will usually raise any legal enquiries within 7-14 days from receiving the contract pack. At this point we’ll contact you if there’s anything else we need. Once all the legal matters have been dealt with, we can set the dates.

• Step 8: Signing your contract

  Once the contract is approved by the buyer’s solicitor, we will send it to you for signature. Your conveyancer will advise you on the terms of the contract so you’ll have time to ask any questions. If you’re happy with the terms you just need to sign the document and return this to us. This can be done by post or using a land registry compliant electronic signature. Just let us know if you’d like to sign the contract electronically, we can organise this for you. You are not tied in to the contract at this stage, your conveyancer will speak to you before the final exchanging of the contract with your buyer.

• Step 9: Exchange

  Once a date has been agreed with your buyer (and any other parties if there is a chain) and all legal matters have been settled we’ll exchange contracts. This will mean both you and the buyer will be legally obliged to complete the transaction on the agreed completion date and all other contractual terms will come into force. It sounds a bit daunting, but all the work we’ve done up to this point is in preparation for this, so by the time we get here, you’ll be comfortable with the terms of the sale. Typically, we aim to exchange contracts within 6 to 8 weeks of the contract pack being prepared but we’ll keep you up to date with timings along the way.

• Step 10: Preparing for completion

  To avoid any unnecessary last-minute stress, we’ll obtain a final redemption from your lender (if you need one) and ask you to sign a transfer deed if you haven’t already. We’ll also share a draft completion statement so you can see what funds to expect or if there are any outstanding funds to be sent to us. You can then concentrate on the fun part – booking any removals and packing up your home!

• Step 11: Completion day

  If we can we’ll try to chat to you about the process for completion in advance of the day so it can be as hassle free as possible. Once we have the money from the buyer’s solicitor we will let you know and advise the agent to release the keys. We’ll settle any agent invoices, legal fees, and other outstanding payments on your completion statement and send you the balance of sale proceeds.

• Step 12: Post completion

  The final step – a few days after completion we will arrange to send you your completion letters and ask for any feedback on your experience throughout the process. Hopefully we did everything right, but this is a good chance for you to let us know how you found the process, and anything you think we could improve.