So, this is what you’ve been waiting for. You’ve got the keys.
If you’re buying your first home, there’s a good chance you’ve heard people talking about exchange and completion — and probably wondered what those words actually mean, and what the difference is between the two.
Put simply, they’re two of the final milestones on your journey to becoming a homeowner. Think of it like this:
- Exchange is the legal commitment. You’ve signed, you’ve paid your deposit, and the property is legally yours in principle.
- Completion is the exciting bit — the finish line. You’ve paid in full, you’ve got the keys, and you can move in.
As we like to say: exchange is the promise, completion is the celebration.
Let’s walk through the full home buying timeline — from offer accepted all the way through to moving day — so you know exactly what to expect, and what could delay things along the way.
Step 1: The Mortgage Application
Once your offer is accepted, your mortgage advisor will help you submit your full mortgage application to your chosen lender. The lender checks your income, your credit, and the property details, then arranges a valuation to confirm the property is worth what you’re paying.
This stage can take anywhere from a few days to a few weeks, depending on the lender and how quickly documents are provided — so staying organised really helps. When everything checks out, you’ll receive a formal mortgage offer: the green light that the lender is happy to lend.
Step 2: Appointing Your Solicitor
If you haven’t already, you’ll need to instruct a conveyancer or solicitor as part of the application process. They handle the legal side of the purchase — checking the property title, reviewing the contract, and carrying out searches: local authority checks, water and drainage, environmental issues, and any planning restrictions.
Your solicitor will stay in touch with the seller’s solicitor, your advisor, and the lender to keep everyone moving together. Expect plenty of calls and emails during this stage.
Step 3: Surveys and Legal Checks
Depending on your lender and the type of property, you might choose to have a home buyer survey or a full structural survey, especially for older properties. This is your chance to make sure you’re not buying any hidden problems — and if issues do come up, this is the stage to renegotiate the price or request repairs before exchange. It’s an important step, and one worth taking seriously.
Your solicitor will also raise enquiries — essentially questions about the property — until both sides are satisfied.
Step 4: The Contract Pack
Once searches and the mortgage offer are back, your solicitor will receive a contract pack from the seller’s solicitor. It includes the property information, the fixtures and fittings list, and the draft contract of sale. Your solicitor will go through this with you, explaining anything unusual and confirming exactly what’s included in the purchase — from the oven to the garden shed.
Step 5: Exchange of Contracts
Now for the big one. Exchange of contracts is the moment the purchase becomes legally binding — you can breathe a sigh of relief that the property is nearly yours.
Both you and the seller sign identical contracts. Your solicitors exchange them, and from that point, you are both legally committed. At exchange, you’ll also pay your deposit — typically 5%, 10%, or 20% of the purchase price, agreed when you applied for your mortgage.
Once you’ve exchanged, neither side can back out without serious financial penalties. This is the point where you can genuinely relax — your home is almost yours.
Step 6: Setting the Completion Date
During exchange, you’ll also agree your completion date — the day you officially get the keys. Sometimes completion happens just a few days after exchange; sometimes it’s a few weeks later. It depends on what suits both sides, and whether there’s a chain involved.
If you’re a first-time buyer with no property to sell, that often makes you the quickest and most flexible link in the chain — a real advantage.
Step 7: Completion Day — Moving In
Completion is when the funds transfer from your solicitor to the seller’s solicitor. It can be a tense wait for the call confirming the money has landed and you can go and get the keys — and that call can sometimes come later in the day than you’d like.
Once the estate agent gets confirmation, they’ll release the keys, and just like that — the home is officially yours. That’s the moment for the champagne, the front-door selfie, and the first boxes coming in. You did it.
What Can Delay Exchange and Completion?
It’s not all smooth sailing every time — here are the most common causes of delay, so you know what to expect:
- Paperwork or ID checks taking longer than expected — staying organised from the start helps minimise this
- Slow responses between solicitors — don’t be shy about chasing for updates; they’re used to it
- Delays in searches, especially if your local authority has a backlog — a waiting game, but worth pushing for progress on
- Chain breaks — a chain is made up of all the properties being bought and sold together. If one link in the chain has delays or falls through, it can mean changes to your own purchase. It’s stressful, but your mortgage advisor will walk you through it and help find a way forward.
It’s also worth knowing that mortgage offers have an expiry date — typically around six months, which is usually enough time to complete. But if delays do happen, staying proactive, chasing updates, and keeping your mortgage advisor in the loop makes a real difference. Your advisor will keep an eye on the expiry date and can request an extension, or resubmit the application if needed — this is a normal part of the process, and they’ll guide you through it.
The Bottom Line
Buying your first home can feel like a maze of steps and legal terms, but once you understand what’s happening and when, it all starts to make sense. Your mortgage advisor and solicitor are your team — they’re there to guide you through every part of the process.
Don’t panic if things feel like they’re taking their time. Every day and every step is bringing you one move closer to completion day, and it will be worth it when you put your keys through the door.
Transcript:
So, this is what you’ve been waiting for. You’ve got the keys.
If you’re buying your first home, there’s a good chance you’ve heard people talking about exchange and completion. And you probably wondered, what do those words actually mean? And what’s the difference between the two?
So, put simply, they are two of the final milestones on your journey to becoming a homeowner. So, think of it like this. Exchange is the legal commitment. So, you’ve signed, you’ve paid your deposit, and the property is legally yours in principle. Completion is the exciting bit. So, that’s the finish line. You’ve paid in full, you’ve got the keys, and you can move in. So, as I like to say, exchange is the promise, completion is the celebration.
So, we’re going to talk through both of these in more detail in this video. In fact, I’m going to take you through the full home buying timeline from offer accepted all the way through to moving day, so you know exactly what to expect when things happen and what could delay them.
So, let’s imagine you found the one. Your offer’s been accepted, and the house is officially under offer. It’s a huge moment, but it’s also just the beginning. From here, there are several steps before you can pick up the keys, and me and my resident mortgage advisor, Gemma, are going to go through them with you today, one by one. And as always, you’re going to find the time codes in the description to help you easily navigate the different sections. Should we dive in?
So, step one, the mortgage application. Once your offer is accepted, your mortgage advisor will help you submit your full mortgage application to your chosen lender. The lender are going to check your income, your credit, and the property details, and then they’re going to arrange a valuation to confirm the property is worth what you’re paying. This stage can take anywhere from a few days to a few weeks, and that depends on the lender and how quickly documents are provided. So, if you’re organized, it’s going to help things along. When everything checks out, you’ll receive a formal mortgage offer. Basically, the green light that the lender is happy to lend. Woohoo.
Step two, appointing your solicitor. If you haven’t already, as part of the application process, you’ll need to instruct your conveyancer or solicitor. They handle the legal side of the purchase. They’ll check the property title, review the contract, and carry out what is known as searches — things like local authority checks, water and drainage, environmental issues, and any potential planning restrictions. Your solicitor will keep in touch with the seller’s solicitor, your advisor, and the lender to make sure everyone is moving together. So, prepare to get a lot of calls and emails from them during this time.
Step three, surveys and legal checks. Depending on your lender and the type of property, you might also choose to have a home buyer survey or even a full structural survey, especially for older properties. If you’ve already seen my earlier video on surveys, you’ll know I highly recommend this. Remember, you promised me you’d do it. This is your chance to make sure you’re not buying any hidden problems. And if issues do come up, you’re going to use this stage to renegotiate the price or request repairs before exchange. It is so important that you don’t skip this part. Your solicitor will then raise something called enquiries, and that’s basically questions about the property, until both sides are satisfied.
Step four, the contract pack. Once the searches and mortgage offer are back, your solicitor will receive a contract pack from the seller’s solicitor. It includes the property information, fixtures and fittings list, and the draft contract of sale. They’ll go through this with you, explaining anything unusual, and confirm what’s included in the purchase, from the oven to the garden shed.
Step five — now we get to the big one, take a big breath — exchange of contracts, aka the exchange. This is the moment when the purchase becomes legally binding, and you can breathe a sigh of relief that the property is nearly yours. So, both you and the seller sign identical contracts. Your solicitors exchange them, and from that point you are both legally committed. At exchange, you’ll also pay your deposit — so sometimes, as you know, that can be 5%, 10%, 20% of the purchase price, and that’s all agreed when you’ve applied for your mortgage. If you need a refresh, we do have an earlier deposit episode that I’d recommend you watch. Once you’ve exchanged, neither side can back out without serious financial penalties. So, this is the point where you can all finally breathe a sigh of relief. Your home is almost yours.
Step six, setting the completion date. During exchange, you’ll also agree — and here comes that word that we mentioned earlier — your completion date, and that’s the day you officially get the keys. Sometimes completion happens just a few days after exchange, and sometimes it’s a few weeks later. It depends on what suits both sides and whether there’s a chain. If you’re a first-time buyer with no property to sell, that can often make you the quickest and most flexible link in the chain, and that is a huge advantage.
Step seven, completion day. Moving in. Completion is when the funds are transferred from your solicitor to the seller’s solicitor. And it can be a tense wait for them to ring you to say, “The money is here, you can go and get the keys.” And once you get that call, it can be later in the day than you want it to be. The estate agent gets the call to release the keys, and just like that, you’ll pick them up and the home is officially yours. That’s the moment you can pop the champagne, take that front door selfie, and start unpacking boxes in your very own home. You did it.
So, not to burst the home buying bubble, because it’s all very exciting, but let’s talk about what can delay exchange and completion. There are a few common causes of delay, and it helps to know them early.
Paperwork or ID checks taking longer than expected — so, do your best to have everything organized going into the process to mitigate the chance of this.
Slow responses between solicitors — don’t be shy about chasing them for updates, they are used to it.
Delays in searches, especially if your local authority has a backlog — that is a waiting game, but again, don’t be embarrassed to push for progress.
Worst case scenario, the chain breaks. This can feel very stressful. Unfortunately, it can be part of the purchasing process. So, a chain is made up of all the properties being sold and bought at the same time. Unfortunately, one of the elements of the chain can have some delays, or maybe not even be able to proceed, and that’s what we call a chain break. It can mean that changes need to be made to the property that you’re purchasing. This is a stressful situation, you cannot deny that. But you will be walked through it with your mortgage advisor, and given a bit of time, hopefully things will work out for you. I always say in these circumstances, what’s right for you won’t pass you by. So keep the faith, because before you know it, you will have the keys to your new property.
Another thing to note is that mortgage offers have an expiry date. They tend to last for six months, and that’s usually enough time to allow you to complete. However, delays happen, and that is part of the process. So, stay proactive, chase for updates, and keep your mortgage advisor in the loop, because this makes a huge difference. Your mortgage adviser will be keeping an eye on when that expiry date comes close, and in some scenarios can ask for an extension of your offer from the lender, or maybe they will need to put the application in again, and they’ll walk you through that process. Please don’t worry — this is part of our job, and it’s something we can once again hold your hand through.
Buying your first home can feel like a maze of steps and legal terms, but once you understand what’s happening and when, it all starts to make sense. And remember, your mortgage advisor and your solicitor are your team. They are there to guide you through every part of the process. So, don’t panic if it feels like there’s a lull, or things feel like they’re taking their time. Every day and every step is bringing you one move closer to completion day, and it will be worth it when you put your keys through the door.
I would absolutely love to develop a community here that is going to celebrate with you when you put your keys through the door. So, please comment when you get your keys. Tell us what you did on move-in day and how it all went. And if you had any delays, what was the biggest delay for you? Because you could be helping someone else who might just read your comment today.
