What Is "Sale Progression", Really?
Champagne moment: offer accepted. Then… weeks of quiet. The stretch between a handshake and the keys is where roughly a quarter of UK sales collapse — and it's exactly where agents differ most.
Legally, the conveyancers do the conveyancing. Practically, a sale between offer and exchange is a chain of dependent tasks across five or six parties — searches, surveys, mortgage offers, enquiries, the buyer's own sale — and none of those parties has the whole picture. That's the job: sale progression is owning the whole picture. Knowing this week's blocking item, chasing it, and telling everyone where things stand before they have to ask.
Why sales actually fall through
Rarely because of a genuine deal-breaker. Far more often: a solvable problem discovered late, a buyer who lost confidence in a silence, a chain where nobody communicated until frustration became withdrawal. Time kills deals, and unmanaged waiting is pure dead time.
What to demand from any agent
- A named owner for your sale's progression — not "the branch".
- A written weekly status: what's done, what's blocking, who's chasing it and when.
- Bad news early. A survey issue raised on day 3 is a negotiation; on day 40 it's a collapse.
Ours is included in the fixed fee, and every chase is logged — because we'd rather show you the record than ask you to take our word for it.
Sell the modern way.
Photography, floor plan and every major portal — all-inclusive from £200. Switching from another agent? First 200 switchers: £99 fixed.
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