Sales progression: how to chase a sale from memorandum of sale to exchange

Sales progression is the work an estate agent does to get an agreed sale from the day an offer is accepted to the day contracts are exchanged, and on to completion. To do it, break each sale into its milestones, record who holds each one, and ask that person a specific question at a regular interval until the milestone is done. The legal work belongs to the solicitors or conveyancers; the agent's part is the monitoring, chasing and reporting. A sale usually stalls on a single item, such as a form the seller has not returned or a search not yet ordered, and good sales progression is finding out which item it is before anyone has to ask. This guide covers England and Wales, where nothing is binding until contracts are exchanged.

Why the stretch from offer to exchange matters

GOV.UK's guide to selling a home in England and Wales says that selling a home takes about five months on average. Until exchange, either side can walk away. Rightmove's figure for Great Britain, Scotland included, reported in July 2026, was 154 days between a sale being agreed and its completion. Rightmove's previous research found that nearly a quarter of agreed sales initially fall through, and about 6 per cent fail altogether and do not return to market within a year. Where the agency's fee is due when the sale goes through, not when the offer is accepted, every agreed sale on the board is unpaid work in progress, and the length of that stretch decides when, and whether, it turns into income.

What does the Property Ombudsman's code expect of an agent?

Under The Property Ombudsman's code, between acceptance and exchange an agent has no direct influence on the conveyancing or the mortgage. A member agent's obligations are to monitor progress, to assist where asked, to report helpful information and, where there is a chain, to check the immediate transactions routinely, keeping written or electronic records of that activity. The code also expects the agent to keep monitoring the buyer's progress in achieving their funds, and to report it to the seller, so the agent's work is asking, recording and passing on.

The usual milestones, and who holds each

No law fixes this order. It is the usual sequence in the government's guides for buyers and sellers and in conveyancers' own accounts, and several items run side by side.

1. Memorandum of sale. Yours. It names the parties, the price and both solicitors, and both solicitors work from it. A memorandum with a solicitor missing starts the sale a step behind, so those details are the first thing to chase. The accepted offer also starts your own money laundering checks on the buyer: HMRC's guidance treats the buyer as your customer from that point and wants the checks complete before exchange. A person verifies them.

2. Solicitors instructed. Each client signs their solicitor's terms and passes its ID checks. Held by the buyer and the seller.

3. Contract pack. The seller's solicitor sends the draft contract and title documents with the Law Society's property information form (TA6), fittings and contents form (TA10) and, for a leasehold, leasehold information form (TA7). The forms are held by the seller, who fills them in.

4. Searches. Organised by the buyer's solicitor. The government's guide for buyers says it is sensible to ask for them as soon as possible.

5. Mortgage offer. Held by the buyer, their broker and the lender, by way of an application and a valuation.

6. Survey. Booked by the buyer with their surveyor.

7. Enquiries. Raised by the buyer's solicitor and answered by the seller's, often with the seller's help.

8. Signed contracts, then exchange. Both sides sign and the contracts are exchanged, with a completion date confirmed at exchange. This is the point at which the sale becomes legally binding.

How to speed up sales progression, step by step

1. Give every sale the same list. The eight milestones above, each with a holder, a status and the date it last changed.

2. Ask a question that has an answer. "Any update?" gets "nothing to report". "Have the searches been ordered, and on what date?" gets a date.

3. Ask the person who holds it. If the pack is waiting on the seller's forms, the seller is the one to chase, not the solicitor.

4. Set a rhythm. Choose how many days a milestone may sit without movement before it is asked about again, and keep to it.

5. Log the reply against the sale. That is the written record the code expects, and it lets someone else pick up the sale.

6. Tell your seller what you learned, and the buyer what helps the sale along. A seller who hears every week that searches are back and enquiries are with their solicitor does not ring to ask.

7. Check the chain. Ask the agents immediately above and below the same milestone questions about their sales.

You can do all that tomorrow with a spreadsheet. What it costs is a progressor's time, on every sale, every week. In a small agency without a dedicated progressor it falls to the negotiator who agreed the sale, who is also the person booking next Saturday's viewings.

Which steps can an AI worker take on?

An AI worker can take the written side of all seven steps: the list, the milestone questions in wording you have approved, the reminders, the log, and a draft of the weekly update for each side. It can ask buyer and seller for their solicitors' details so that the memorandum is ready for a negotiator to approve, and give the progressor a morning list of sales that have not moved and who holds each. The written chasing is specified on the page for chasing clients for documents.

What waits for a person, and why

• Every phone call. Some solicitors do not answer email, so the progressor rings, working from the morning list.

• Anything that changes the deal. A request to reduce the price after a survey, a new offer, a buyer wavering or a seller wanting to remarket all belong to a negotiator.

• Bad news. How a seller hears that the chain has broken is a matter of judgement.

• Any question that is really a legal one. It goes to the client's own solicitor. An AI worker gives no legal opinion and does not tell a buyer or a seller what a search result or an enquiry means.

What to have ready before you hand the chasing over

List every sale in progress with its milestones as they stand today. Write the question for each milestone in your words, and set the interval for asking again. Agree your wording for the weekly update to buyer and seller, and name the person each kind of exception goes to.

Portal leads, viewing feedback and ID checks are the other admin on our page for estate agents, with the role that takes on each, and why progression is what forces the next hire is argued in how to scale an estate agency without hiring more staff.

An estate agency's worker would ask about every sale in progress in writing, every week, and your progressor would stay on the phone where it counts. Do your sales go quiet between memorandum and exchange? Talk to our AI agent.