The highs & lows of sales progression!

This job is one of the most challenging yet rewarding. The exciting part; having your offer accepted! Planning where you are going to put your furniture, what colour to paint the walls, what needs updating are just a few things that come to mind when your offer has been accepted.

Next comes choosing a solicitor. Please use local, recommended firms! They are worth every penny and may be a bit more expensive than an online one but I cannot tell you how much stress/pressure this will relieve you throughout the transaction. Trust me we feel it too!

Next comes the whole conveyancing process. Now I am not an expert by any means but I think I have a relatively good understanding of the whole process for leasehold and freehold (I’d like to think so anyway after all these years). To anyone that hasn’t sold in a while or new buyers this can be a minefield. Searches, enquiries, LPE1 to name a few let alone the rest of the technical terms and that’s what we are here for. Any question as silly as they may sound - ask us. The process is a lot longer than this but as it’s not my forte I am not going to go any further with the legal side of things.

Transactions take as long or as quick as both buyer and seller wish. If you have a  good, local solicitor and mortgage advisor, are proactive yourself and drop off any signed documents rather than post the process can be sped up. This all depends on the team around you!

During this process, I get to learn so much about our buyers/sellers and really is a privilege to be there every step of the way, be that sounding board when you need it and help through the stress. However, when bad news comes in, a problem or an issue that is going to delay or detriment a sale I have to sit there for a minute and digest the information. We understand our clients “why” they are moving and this makes this part of the job incredibly hard. I love a challenge and will always brain storm with the team on how we can keep a sale together but sometimes with all our might, it’s just not possible.

Onto more positive news- exchanging contracts. At 9am on the day of exchanging I am in touch with the relevant solicitors and confirming authority to exchange has been given, and then we wait. And wait. I make another cup of tea and wait anxiously for the good news. Sometimes this can happen really quickly, sometimes with a long chain or certain circumstances we can be up against the clock and take the majority of the day. And then we exchange contracts. Celebration all round and discuss what happens next for completion (moving day).

What an emotional rollercoaster this whole process can be and I haven’t even really touched on the mortgage side of things! I truly believe what is meant to be will be and as hard as that can seem in the moment when something is going wrong, generally it’s because something better is about to come along.

When times get tense, we are here. With a good team that understands your needs, we can get you moved even if there are hiccups along the way, majority of the time we have very happy people at the end.

I hope this has given you an small insight into my world.

Emma