What Happens After an Offer Is Accepted? A Seller's Guide

Fri 19 Jun 2026

So a buyer has made an offer on your home and you have said yes. Congratulations! But what actually happens next?

A lot of people feel lost at this point. The offer has been accepted, but the keys have not changed hands yet. There is still a lot to get through before your sale is complete. The good news is that none of it is as complicated as it sounds. This guide walks you through every stage, in plain language, from the moment you accept an offer right through to completion day.

1. Instruct a Solicitor

The very first thing you need to do after accepting an offer is instruct a solicitor or licensed conveyancer to handle the legal side of your sale. This is called conveyancing, and it covers everything from drawing up the contract to transferring legal ownership of the property to the buyer.

Your solicitor will:

Contact the buyer's solicitor to confirm the sale
Draw up the draft contract
Send you a set of forms to fill in about the property (including what you are leaving behind)
Begin dealing with any legal queries the buyer's side raises

If you have not already chosen a solicitor, your estate agent will often be able to recommend one. It is worth instructing someone as quickly as possible, because delays at this stage can slow the whole process down.

2. The Buyer Arranges a Survey

Once the offer is in place, the buyer will usually arrange for a survey of your property. A survey is an inspection carried out by a qualified person to check the condition of the building.

There are different types of survey, but the most common ones are:

Survey Type	What It Covers
Mortgage Valuation	A basic check carried out for the lender to confirm the property is worth what the buyer is paying
HomeBuyer Report	A more detailed look at the condition of the property, highlighting any concerns
Full Structural Survey	A thorough inspection, often used on older or unusual properties

As the seller, you do not need to do anything to arrange the survey. However, it is a good idea to make sure the property is accessible and tidy on the day. If the surveyor picks up any issues, the buyer may come back to renegotiate the price or ask you to carry out repairs. This is normal and does not necessarily mean the sale will fall through.

3. Conveyancing Searches

While the survey is being carried out, your solicitor and the buyer's solicitor will be working through the legal side of things. The buyer's solicitor will order a set of checks called conveyancing searches.

These searches look into things like:

Whether the land has any planning restrictions
Whether the area is at risk of flooding
Whether there are any local authority plans that might affect the property
Whether there are any issues with the drainage or water supply

The searches are ordered from the local council and other official bodies. They typically take a few weeks to come back. Your solicitor will handle any queries that arise from them.

4. Answering the Buyer's Enquiries

The buyer's solicitor will almost always raise a list of questions about the property. These are called enquiries, and they cover things like:

The boundaries of the property
Any disputes with neighbours
Whether any building work has been done and whether the right permissions were obtained
Details about any guarantees or warranties that come with the property

Your solicitor will send you these questions and help you answer them. Try to be as accurate and honest as possible. If you are unsure about something, say so rather than guessing.

5. Signing the Contract

Once the searches are back and the enquiries have been answered, both sides will be asked to sign contracts. At this point, the contract is ready to exchange, but it is not yet legally binding. You are not committed to anything until the next stage.

Before you sign, read through the contract carefully with your solicitor. Make sure the agreed sale price, the completion date, and any other conditions are correct.

6. Exchange of Contracts

Exchange of contracts is the point at which the sale becomes legally binding. Both solicitors swap signed copies of the contract, the buyer pays a deposit (usually around 10% of the purchase price), and a completion date is set.

After exchange:

Neither side can pull out without serious financial consequences
The completion date is fixed and agreed by both parties
You can start making firm plans for your move

The time between exchange and completion is usually one to four weeks, though it can be longer or shorter depending on what both sides agree.

For more detail on the legal stages involved, the MoneyHelper website has a useful guide to contract exchange and completion when buying a home.

7. Completion Day

Completion is the final step. On completion day, the buyer's solicitor transfers the full purchase price to your solicitor. Once the money is received, your solicitor will confirm that the sale is complete and the keys can be released.

On completion day, you will need to:

Have moved out of the property by the agreed time (usually around 1pm)
Hand over all sets of keys, usually to your estate agent
Leave the property in the condition agreed in the contract

After completion, your solicitor will pay off any outstanding mortgage on the property from the sale proceeds, deduct their fees, and transfer the remaining balance to you.

How Long Does It Take?

The time from accepting an offer to completing the sale varies. A straightforward sale with no chain can take as little as six to eight weeks. More complex sales, or those involving a long chain of buyers and sellers, can take three to four months or sometimes longer.

The most common causes of delay are:

Slow searches or survey results
Queries from the buyer's solicitor that take time to resolve
Issues with the buyer's mortgage offer
Problems elsewhere in the chain

Staying in regular contact with your solicitor and estate agent helps to keep things moving. Our Guide to Selling covers many of these points in more detail and is a useful place to start if you are new to the process.

A Quick Summary

Stage	What Happens
Offer accepted	You instruct a solicitor and the buyer does the same
Survey	The buyer arranges an independent inspection of the property
Searches	The buyer's solicitor checks for legal or planning issues
Enquiries	You answer questions about the property through your solicitor
Sign contracts	Both sides sign, ready for exchange
Exchange	The sale becomes legally binding and a completion date is set
Completion	Money transfers, keys are handed over, sale is done

Selling a home involves a lot of steps, but each one follows from the last in a logical order. The key is to stay organised, respond to your solicitor promptly, and keep in touch with your estate agent throughout. If you have any questions about the process, the team at Williams and Donovan is always happy to help.