How can we speed the house buying and selling process up?

Buying or selling a home should be exciting.

Instead, once an offer is accepted, it can feel as though everything suddenly slows down.

The estate agent says the solicitors are waiting. The solicitors say they are waiting for searches. The buyer is waiting for a mortgage offer. Someone further up the chain is waiting for a survey.

And nobody seems able to tell you when you will actually exchange.

The frustrating thing is that some delays are unavoidable, but many are not.

A faster transaction usually comes down to three things:

prepare earlier, know what is outstanding and respond quickly when something needs attention.

Here are the practical ways buyers and sellers can help speed the process up.

1. Don't wait for an offer before starting

This is one of the biggest opportunities for sellers.

Traditionally, people do this:

1. Put the house on the market.
2. Find a buyer.
3. Accept an offer.
4. Instruct a solicitor.
5. Start looking for paperwork.

By Step 5, the buyer is already waiting.

A better approach is to start preparing the legal and property information while the home is being marketed, or even before.

That can include:

• checking the title
• finding planning permissions
• locating building regulation certificates
• gathering guarantees and warranties
• checking the EPC
• finding leasehold information
• preparing details of extensions and alterations
• completing initial solicitor onboarding

The more that is ready before a buyer appears, the less work has to start from scratch afterwards.

2. Instruct your conveyancer early

Sellers do not need to wait until they have accepted an offer before choosing a conveyancer.

If you know you are going to sell, instructing one early means they can deal with:

• identity checks
• proof of ownership
• mortgage information
• initial property forms
• title documents

Then, as soon as a buyer is found, the contract pack can potentially be issued much more quickly.

Buyers should also instruct their conveyancer as soon as their offer is accepted.

Every day spent deciding which solicitor to use is a day where very little legal work is happening.

3. Complete forms properly the first time

Property transactions generate a lot of forms.

Sellers may need to provide information about:

• boundaries
• disputes
• alterations
• planning
• guarantees
• utilities
• parking
• fixtures and fittings

Buyers may need to provide:

• identity documents
• proof of funds
• deposit information
• source of funds
• mortgage details

Return these quickly, but also make sure they are complete.

A rushed answer that creates three more questions can actually slow the process down.

4. Find your property documents before anyone asks for them

Missing documents are a classic cause of delay.

Common examples include:

• building regulation completion certificates
• planning permissions
• FENSA certificates
• boiler installation records
• electrical certificates
• guarantees
• warranties
• solar panel agreements
• extension drawings
• party wall agreements
• lease documents

If you had a loft conversion completed 12 years ago, do not wait until the buyer's solicitor asks for the paperwork to start searching for it.

Look now.

5. Check the title early

A seller can also benefit from knowing what is recorded against the property before conveyancing starts in earnest.

Potential issues might include:

• restrictions
• old mortgages
• rights of way
• boundary discrepancies
• missing access rights
• unusual covenants

Many of these issues can be resolved.

The problem is discovering them when a buyer is already expecting to exchange.

6. Buyers should get their mortgage moving immediately

An agreement in principle is not a mortgage offer.

Once your offer is accepted, submit the full mortgage application promptly.

Respond quickly if the lender asks for:

• payslips
• bank statements
• proof of deposit
• identification
• additional affordability information

Mortgage delays can hold up the entire chain.

7. Arrange the survey early

If you are buying, arrange your survey promptly.

Waiting until the legal work is nearly complete before commissioning a survey can be risky.

If the survey then identifies a major roof problem, subsidence concern or damp issue, the transaction may suddenly need further investigation or renegotiation.

It is generally better to find these problems earlier.

8. Pay for searches quickly

Your conveyancer may need money from you before ordering searches.

If you take a week to make that payment, the searches start a week later.

Depending on the location and search involved, that delay can then feed directly into the exchange date.

When your solicitor says they need funds to order searches, deal with it promptly.

9. Answer enquiries with evidence

Enquiries are one of the biggest sources of delay in conveyancing.

The buyer's solicitor may ask questions such as:

Was planning permission obtained for the rear extension?

A weak answer is:

“Yes, I think so.”

A much better answer is:

“Yes. Here is the planning approval and building regulation completion certificate.”

The objective is to close the enquiry, not merely respond to it.

Wherever possible, provide the document rather than an explanation of why you think one exists.

10. Understand who is actually holding things up

Property transactions often suffer from vague status updates.

You hear:

“We're waiting on solicitors.”

That tells you almost nothing.

Ask instead:

“What specifically needs to happen before we can exchange, and who is responsible for it?”

A useful answer might be:

• local search outstanding
• two seller enquiries unanswered
• buyer mortgage offer not issued
• management pack outstanding
• top of chain not ready

Now you know where the transaction actually stands.

11. Keep a simple outstanding-items list

Every transaction should effectively have a checklist.

For example:

Buyer

• Mortgage offer: complete
• Survey: complete
• Searches: complete
• Deposit: ready

Legal

• Title: reviewed
• Enquiries: 2 outstanding
• Contract: agreed
• Report on title: pending

Chain

• Seller ready: yes
• Onward seller ready: no
• Completion date: not agreed

That is far more useful than a stream of emails saying:

“We have chased the other side.”

The process becomes easier to manage when everyone can see the blockers.

12. Chase the right person

Not every delay is caused by a solicitor.

You could be waiting for:

• a mortgage lender
• council
• freeholder
• managing agent
• surveyor
• estate agent
• buyer
• seller
• another solicitor in the chain

If a management company has not produced a leasehold pack, repeatedly calling your solicitor may achieve very little.

Find out who actually owns the outstanding action.

Then make sure the appropriate person is chasing them.

13. Leasehold sellers should start even earlier

Leasehold transactions often take longer because third-party information is required.

That can include:

• management pack
• service charge accounts
• buildings insurance
• ground rent information
• planned major works
• freeholder information
• management company details

If you are selling a flat, ask your conveyancer what can be requested before you find a buyer.

Waiting weeks for a managing agent later in the process is an avoidable frustration.

14. Don't leave decisions until the last minute

Sometimes everything is legally ready and the transaction still cannot exchange because someone has not made a decision.

Common examples include:

• whether to accept a survey issue
• whether to proceed with indemnity insurance
• whether to renegotiate
• whether to accept a title issue
• choosing a completion date

If your conveyancer sends you something requiring a decision, read it promptly.

Not every email from a solicitor is simply informational.

15. Agree likely completion dates early

A chain can reach the point of being legally ready and then lose several days trying to agree when everyone will move.

Start discussing dates earlier.

Consider:

• removals
• work commitments
• school
• holidays
• rental notice periods
• mortgage drawdown requirements
• onward purchases

You may not be able to confirm the date until exchange, but understanding everyone's constraints in advance can make agreement much easier.

16. Make sure large payments are ready

Buyers may need to transfer significant amounts of money before exchange or completion.

Do not discover at the last moment that your bank has a daily transfer limit.

Speak to your bank in advance if necessary.

And always verify solicitor bank details carefully before sending money.

Property transactions are a major target for payment fraud.

17. Keep the estate agent involved

Estate agents can play an important role after the sale has been agreed.

A good agent can speak to:

• buyer
• seller
• both conveyancers
• mortgage broker
• other agents in the chain

They can often help establish where each linked transaction stands.

That makes them particularly useful for understanding the chain rather than simply your own legal file.

18. Don't chase everyone every day

This sounds counterintuitive.

Effective chasing helps.

Constant chasing does not necessarily make anything faster.

If a local authority search normally takes a particular amount of time, emailing your solicitor every morning will not make the council process it more quickly.

The key is to distinguish between:

something actively being processed

and

something nobody has acted on yet.

Chase the second one.

19. Ask better questions

Instead of:

“Any news?”

Try:

“What is still outstanding before exchange?”

or:

“Is there anything currently waiting on me?”

or:

“Which outstanding item is likely to take the longest?”

or:

“Has the buyer's mortgage offer been issued?”

or:

“Are all enquiries now closed?”

Specific questions get specific answers.

20. Avoid unnecessary renegotiation late in the process

Sometimes renegotiation is completely justified.

A survey may identify a genuine £20,000 structural problem.

But reopening negotiations over relatively minor items late in the transaction can delay exchange and potentially destabilise the entire chain.

Before renegotiating, consider:

• the actual cost of the issue
• whether it was already reflected in the price
• how much delay further negotiation might introduce
• the risk of losing the transaction

The same applies to sellers refusing reasonable solutions to small legal issues.

Sometimes getting the transaction completed has value in itself.

21. Keep your own purchase and sale aligned

If you are selling one home and buying another, make sure both transactions are progressing together.

You do not want your sale ready to exchange while your purchase is three weeks behind because you delayed:

• mortgage application
• survey
• searches
• solicitor instruction

Treat them as one move, not two unrelated transactions.

22. Choose a buyer based on more than price

Sellers can reduce the risk of delay before conveyancing even starts.

Imagine you receive two offers.

Buyer A: £410,000, chain-free with mortgage agreement in principle.

Buyer B: £415,000, but needs to sell their own property and has not yet put it on the market.

Buyer B is offering more.

Buyer A may be considerably more likely to reach exchange quickly.

There is no automatic right answer, but sellers should consider:

• chain position
• mortgage status
• cash availability
• property already under offer
• desired timescale

The strongest buyer is not always the highest bidder.

23. Reduce the number of surprises

This is really the secret to a faster transaction.

Every unexpected issue creates another loop:

Problem found → question raised → information requested → answer supplied → answer reviewed → solution agreed

If you can identify the issue before the transaction begins, much of that loop can disappear.

Examples include:

• missing extension certificate
• title anomaly
• leasehold information
• undocumented boiler installation
• boundary discrepancy
• missing guarantee

The faster transaction is usually the one with fewer surprises.

What normally causes the biggest delays?

Common blockers include:

• mortgage offers
• local searches
• missing seller documents
• unanswered enquiries
• management companies
• freeholders
• leasehold information
• title issues
• survey problems
• long property chains
• slow decisions
• agreeing completion dates

Some of those are outside your control.

Many are not.

Can we make conveyancing much faster?

Potentially.

The traditional process often waits until an offer has been accepted before collecting much of the information that the buyer will eventually need.

That is inherently inefficient.

Imagine buying a used car.

You agree the price.

Then the seller starts looking for the registration document, service history, MOT records and finance information.

That would seem backwards.

Yet property transactions often work in a very similar way.

The seller finds a buyer first.

Then everyone starts assembling the information.

A better way to sell a home

The process could look more like this:

Before marketing

• identify the property
• check the title
• find the EPC
• locate planning records
• locate building regulation records
• gather guarantees
• identify leasehold information
• prepare seller information

While marketing

• instruct conveyancer
• complete identity checks
• investigate missing documents
• prepare contract information

Offer accepted

• buyer's solicitor receives a substantially complete pack
• searches begin
• mortgage progresses
• enquiries focus on genuine issues rather than missing basic information

Exchange

Fewer unanswered questions.

Fewer surprises.

Less time spent reconstructing the property's history while everyone waits.

Could we eventually exchange in weeks rather than months?

For straightforward transactions, there is no fundamental reason why every sale should require months of inactivity.

Some parts of the process genuinely take time.

But a significant amount of conveyancing delay comes from information being collected sequentially instead of in advance.

The future of faster property transactions is therefore not simply asking solicitors to work faster.

It is giving them better information sooner.

Prepare once. Sell faster.

That is the idea behind Tepilo.

Tepilo helps you start assembling the information about your home before you find a buyer.

We can help you understand what is already known about the property, identify potentially missing information and build a more complete picture of your home before conveyancing becomes urgent.

So when your buyer asks:

“Can we get to exchange quickly?”

you are in a much better position to say yes.

Get your home sale-ready with Tepilo and start removing delays before they happen.