🏡 Buying a Home: What Happens After Your Offer Is Accepted?

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• Posted on 15th September 2026
• Category: Property Blog

Having an offer accepted is an exciting moment, but there are still a number of important stages to work through before the property officially becomes yours.

If you’re buying a property through Leightons, we’ll be involved throughout the process, keeping in touch with you, the seller, solicitors and other estate agents in the chain to help keep everything moving.

Here’s what happens next.

📄 1. The Memorandum of Sale

Once your offer has been accepted, we’ll confirm the details of the sale and make sure we have everything we need from both you and the seller.

This includes the details of the solicitors or conveyancers acting for both parties. If you haven’t already instructed a solicitor or conveyancer, you’ll need to do this before we can issue the Memorandum of Sale.

Once everything is in place, we’ll issue the Memorandum of Sale to the buyer, seller and their respective solicitors or conveyancers. This confirms the agreed purchase price and the main details of the transaction so the legal process can get underway.

It’s important to remember that having an offer accepted does not make the purchase legally binding. In England and Wales, this generally happens when contracts are exchanged.

⚖️ 2. Get the Legal Work Underway

Although your solicitor or conveyancer will already have been instructed, they’ll now need various things from you before they can properly get started.

They will normally ask you to:

• Complete and return their client care paperwork
• Complete identification and anti money laundering checks
• Provide evidence of the source of your funds where required
• Pay money on account for searches and other initial costs

Try to deal with these requests as quickly as possible. Something as simple as an unsigned form, an incomplete ID check or unpaid search fees can cause delays before the conveyancing has really begun.

💷 3. Submit Your Full Mortgage Application

If you’re buying with a mortgage, let your mortgage adviser or lender know as soon as your offer has been accepted so that your full mortgage application can be submitted.

An Agreement in Principle or Decision in Principle isn’t the same as a formal mortgage offer. Your lender will now assess the full application against both your circumstances and the property you’re buying.

As part of this process, the lender will usually arrange a mortgage valuation.

This is primarily for the lender’s benefit. It helps them decide whether the property provides suitable security for the amount they are lending. It shouldn’t be confused with a survey commissioned for your own benefit.

Once the lender is satisfied with your application and the property, they can issue the formal Mortgage Offer.

🔍 4. Consider Having a Survey

A mortgage valuation isn’t a detailed assessment of the condition of the property.

Depending on the age, type and condition of the home you’re buying, you may therefore want to arrange an independent survey.

RICS Home Surveys are generally available at three levels:

• Level 1 provides a basic overview of the property’s condition
• Level 2 provides a more detailed assessment and is suitable for many conventional properties
• Level 3 is the most comprehensive and may be more appropriate for older, unusual, altered or poorly maintained properties

Your surveyor can advise which level is most appropriate.

If your survey identifies something you’re concerned about, speak to your surveyor first so that you understand what the issue actually means. If necessary, speak to us afterwards and we can discuss the findings with you and the seller.

🔎 5. Searches, Contract Papers and Enquiries

The seller’s solicitor will prepare and send the contract pack to your solicitor or conveyancer.

This will usually contain information about the property’s title, the draft contract and forms completed by the seller. Additional information may also be required for leasehold properties or homes with management arrangements.

Your conveyancer will review the paperwork and arrange the appropriate searches. These commonly include:

• Local authority search
• Drainage and water search
• Environmental search
• Any additional searches appropriate to the property and location

Your conveyancer will also raise enquiries with the seller’s solicitor.

These can cover anything from boundaries and rights of way to alterations, planning permissions, guarantees and information revealed by the searches.

It is worth remembering that your solicitor isn’t raising enquiries simply to make the process difficult. Their job is to investigate the property on your behalf and, if you’re buying with a mortgage, satisfy the requirements of your lender too.

This stage can sometimes take a little time, particularly where information needs to be obtained from a third party.

🔗 6. Keeping the Chain Moving

There’s another important part of the buying process that isn’t always obvious.

Most property transactions involve several different people and organisations. If there’s a chain, several separate sales and purchases may all need to reach the same stage before everyone can move.

This is where sales progression becomes particularly important.

At Leightons, one member of our team is responsible for progressing your sale from start to finish. We’ll keep in regular contact with the buyer, seller, solicitors and other estate agents in the chain to establish where everyone has reached and what is still outstanding.

We’ll also provide regular updates so you’re not left wondering what’s happening.

Good communication can’t prevent every delay, but it can often identify problems early and help keep things moving.

✍️ 7. Getting Ready to Exchange Contracts

As the legal work progresses, your solicitor or conveyancer will report back to you and ask you to sign the necessary documents.

Before exchange can take place, matters such as the following will normally need to be sufficiently progressed:

• Your mortgage offer is in place, if required
• Searches and enquiries are satisfactory
• Any significant survey issues have been resolved
• The necessary legal documents have been signed
• Your deposit is available
• Everyone in the chain is ready
• A completion date has been agreed

The deposit paid on exchange is commonly 10% of the purchase price, although a lower amount can sometimes be agreed. Your conveyancer will advise you about the amount required for your particular purchase.

🤝 8. Exchange of Contracts

Exchange of contracts is the point at which the sale becomes legally binding.

Your solicitor or conveyancer exchanges contracts with the seller’s solicitor and the agreed completion date becomes fixed.

Up until exchange, either the buyer or seller can generally withdraw from the transaction without the contractual penalties that apply after exchange.

Once contracts have been exchanged, both parties are legally committed to the transaction.

At this point, you finally have certainty about when you’ll be moving.

🔑 9. Completion Day

Completion is moving day and the point at which ownership of the property legally transfers from the seller to you.

Your conveyancer will arrange for the purchase funds, including any mortgage money, to be transferred to the seller’s solicitor.

Once the seller’s solicitor confirms that the money has arrived, they’ll let us know that the transaction has completed.

We can then release the keys and the property is officially yours.

📖 A Few Buying Terms Explained

Memorandum of Sale
A document issued by the estate agent confirming the details of the agreed transaction. It usually includes the agreed price and details of the buyer, seller and their respective solicitors or conveyancers.

Mortgage Application
The full application submitted to a mortgage lender once you’ve found a property and agreed a purchase price.

Mortgage Valuation
An assessment carried out for the mortgage lender to help establish whether the property represents suitable security for the loan. It isn’t the same as an independent survey for the buyer.

Mortgage Offer
The formal offer from the mortgage lender confirming the mortgage they’re prepared to provide, subject to its terms and conditions.

Contract Pack
The legal information supplied by the seller’s solicitor to the buyer’s conveyancer. It provides much of the information needed for the legal investigation of the property to begin.

Searches
Checks carried out during the conveyancing process to obtain further information about the property and surrounding area.

Enquiries
Questions raised by the buyer’s conveyancer after reviewing the title, contract papers, searches and other information relating to the property.

TR1 Transfer Deed
The legal document used to transfer ownership of a registered property from the seller to the buyer.

Exchange of Contracts
The stage at which the buyer and seller become legally committed to the transaction and the completion date is fixed.

Completion
The final stage of the purchase. The purchase money is transferred and legal ownership passes from the seller to the buyer. Once completion has been confirmed, the keys can be released.

🏠 Buying Through Leightons

There’s quite a lot happening between having an offer accepted and collecting the keys, and it’s completely normal to have questions along the way.

If you’re buying through Leightons, our involvement doesn’t stop when your offer is accepted. We’ll keep in touch throughout the transaction, provide regular updates and work with everyone involved to help get the sale through to completion.

If you’re still searching for the right home, joining our Sneak Peek mailing list gives you the opportunity to hear about selected properties before they’re launched on Rightmove.

Thanks for reading
Michael