After a sale has been agreed, there is a long road to travel, sometimes a rocky one. Having established that your buyer is a sound prospect, progress needs to be made for Solicitors or Conveyancers to be instructed and to be provided with all the information they need.

If the buyer appears to be utilising a large cash sum, Anti Money Laundering checks need to be made by your Agent. Are they politically exposed persons? The buyer needs to be helped to apply for a mortgage of suitable size and type and a Surveyor recommended, if they choose to have a private survey.

Whether the survey is to be on behalf of the mortgage lender or privately commissioned, a good Agent will supply a Surveyor’s Pack, including evidence of comparable sales, anything known about the structure or history of the property and access details. Should the survey throw up problems, an Agent needs to have the knowledge to discuss these with the Surveyor and the parties involved, and if necessary, negotiate a compromise.

A dedicated Sales Progressor will, on a daily basis, follow the progress and step in with encouragement or pressure for appropriate actions to be taken. Liaising with Solicitors is part of this process and keeping both Buyer and Seller informed, is also undertaken.

Unless the Purchaser is a ‘first time buyer’ they will be selling another property and that can bring further complexity. Liaison will be necessary with the Agent acting for them, over the position with regard to their mortgage source, surveys etc.

Equally, the Vendor (Client) will most likely be purchasing elsewhere and the aforementioned matters will apply here also. It could be that the Seller of the property that your Client is purchasing, is also buying on, etc. etc.

It should be understood, although not generally realised, that the ‘online only’ agents do little or none of this, to the extent that some dedicated High Street Agents, for pragmatic reasons, may recommend that offers from potential Buyers in a chain involving an ‘online only’ agent, should be approached with caution. We would emphasise that this refers to ‘online only’ agents, as all agents these days, are online.