It's usually one of the first questions buyers and sellers ask once an offer has been accepted: how long is this actually going to take?
Our answer is usually somewhere around 8 to 16 weeks from offer accepted to completion. Some transactions will be quicker and plenty will take longer, particularly where there's a long chain, a leasehold property or something more complicated to resolve along the way.
The problem with giving somebody an average is that no two sales are quite the same. A chain-free purchase of a straightforward freehold property could move relatively quickly, while a leasehold sale in a chain of four might have several additional things to wait for before everyone is ready.
So rather than counting down from an arbitrary number of weeks, it's much more useful to understand what actually needs to happen.
What happens after the offer is accepted?
There are several things happening at once during the first few weeks.
Both sides need to instruct their solicitors and complete the initial paperwork and checks. The seller will normally complete the property forms their solicitor needs to prepare the contract paperwork, while the buyer will deal with things such as proof of funds, ID checks and their mortgage application.
Once the seller's solicitor has everything they need, they'll issue the draft contract pack to the buyer's solicitor. The buyer's solicitor can then review the paperwork, order or progress the searches and start raising enquiries.
If there's a mortgage involved, that's progressing alongside the legal work. The lender will carry out its valuation and, subject to everything being satisfactory, eventually issue the formal mortgage offer.
A lot is happening during this period, even though from a buyer or seller's point of view it can sometimes feel like very little is.
Searches can make a big difference
Searches are one of the more difficult parts of the timeline to predict.
Turnaround times vary depending on the area and the type of searches being carried out. Some come back relatively quickly; others can take several weeks.
There isn't much anybody can do about the turnaround time once they're ordered, which is why getting them underway early can be important.
If you're progressing the sale, it's worth establishing whether the buyer's solicitor has actually ordered them rather than simply assuming they have. If they're waiting for money on account or something else from their client before doing so, that's something the buyer can usually resolve fairly quickly.
The difference between searches taking four weeks and searches being ordered two weeks late and then taking four weeks is an avoidable two-week delay.
Enquiries are where timelines become less predictable
Once the buyer's solicitor has reviewed the contract paperwork and other information available to them, they'll usually raise enquiries with the seller's solicitor.
Some will be straightforward. Others might require the seller to provide documents or information, or their solicitor may need to contact a managing agent, freeholder or another third party before they can answer.
There can also be more than one round. The buyer's solicitor might review the first set of replies and come back with further questions.
This is often the stage where a transaction can appear to go quiet. The solicitors are corresponding with each other, documents are being reviewed and various things are being requested, but there may not be a significant update to give the buyer or seller every few days.
For an agent or progressor, this is where specific chasing becomes particularly useful. Rather than asking whether there are "any updates", establish exactly what's outstanding, who has it and what needs to happen next.
Leasehold sales have another moving part
If the property is leasehold or managed, there's normally additional information for the seller's solicitor to obtain from the freeholder, managing agent or management company.
This is commonly referred to as the management pack, and the buyer's solicitor will need the information in it as part of their legal work.
How quickly it arrives varies considerably. There may also be a fee for the seller to pay before it will be prepared.
For that reason, it's one of the things we'd encourage sellers to deal with as early as possible. If the solicitor asks for payment to order the pack, leaving it sitting for a couple of weeks simply moves the whole process backwards by a couple of weeks.
The mortgage runs alongside everything else
For buyers using a mortgage, the lender has its own process happening at the same time.
There will usually be a valuation of the property and various underwriting checks before the formal mortgage offer is issued. Sometimes this is straightforward. Sometimes the lender asks for further information or the valuation raises something that needs dealing with.
The important thing from a progression point of view is not to wait for the legal work to finish before checking where the mortgage is.
You want all of these parts moving together. There's little benefit in having enquiries completely satisfied if everybody then discovers the mortgage application still has something outstanding.
Then there's the chain
A transaction can only move as quickly as the chain allows.
Your buyer and seller might both be ready, but if the seller is buying another property and that transaction isn't ready, everybody is likely to be waiting.
This is why knowing the chain matters. You don't need to progress every other agent's transaction, but you do need enough information to understand whether the rest of the chain is moving at roughly the same pace as yours.
As things get closer to exchange, that becomes increasingly important. There is little point telling clients they're "nearly there" based entirely on your own transaction if another part of the chain is several weeks behind.
So what actually makes a sale quicker?
There isn't a magic way to turn every transaction into a six-week sale.
What you can do is remove the unnecessary waiting.
Solicitors can be instructed promptly. Initial forms can be returned quickly. Buyers can provide their source of funds information when it's requested. Sellers can pay for management packs without delay. Searches can be ordered as soon as the buyer's solicitor is in a position to do so.
And once everything is underway, somebody can keep track of what's outstanding.
A surprising amount of sales progression isn't about making somebody work faster. It's noticing that something which should have happened hasn't happened yet.
That's where the agent can make a genuine difference.
Setting expectations without guessing
We'd be careful about promising a buyer or seller that their transaction will complete within a particular number of weeks.
There are simply too many things outside any one person's control.
What you can do is become more specific as the transaction progresses.
At the beginning, you might tell a client that most sales take somewhere around 8 to 16 weeks, but that you'll have a much better idea once the chain is established and the legal work is underway.
A few weeks later, you know far more. You know whether searches are back, whether the mortgage offer has been issued, how enquiries are progressing and whether the rest of the chain is keeping pace.
At that point, your expectation can become more useful because it's based on the actual transaction rather than an average.
That's really the answer to the original question. 8 to 16 weeks is a useful starting point, not a countdown. The further the sale progresses, the less an agent should need to rely on the average because by then you should know what's actually left.