This is the part of the process that determines whether a sale actually completes, and how stressful it feels getting there. At Courtyard Homes, that part is Toni's job.

Toni is our dedicated sales progressor. From the moment an offer is accepted on your property, she becomes your single point of contact through to completion. Her role exists because the period between offer agreed and exchange of contracts is where sales most commonly slow down or fall through, and because most people going through a move have never had to manage a legal transaction of this size and complexity before. Toni has.

Once a sale is agreed, Toni picks up the file and gets to work straight away. She contacts both sets of solicitors to introduce herself and establish the timeline. She chases search results, mortgage valuations, and enquiries that can otherwise sit unanswered in a solicitor's inbox for days. She keeps an eye on every link in the chain, not just your transaction, because a delay three houses along the chain can hold up your move just as easily as a delay in your own paperwork.

She translates. Conveyancing is full of language that means very little to most people: enquiries, searches, TR1 forms, completion statements. Toni explains what each stage actually means, what is happening behind the scenes, and what, if anything, you need to do. You should never be left wondering what a piece of legal correspondence means or why something is taking longer than expected.

She chases without you having to ask. This is the part that makes the biggest difference. Rather than you calling your solicitor, getting no answer, calling again the next day, and feeling like you are the only one pushing the sale forward, Toni does that chasing on your behalf, every week, as a matter of course.

Roughly one in three property sales that reach the offer accepted stage in England fall through before completion. The reasons vary, but a significant proportion are not unavoidable. They happen because nobody was actively managing the transaction, because a delay was not picked up early enough, or because one party in a chain lost patience after weeks of silence.

An actively managed sale, with someone checking in regularly, flagging problems before they become serious, and keeping every party informed, completes faster and falls through less often. That is not a claim. It is the entire reason sales progression exists as a discipline within estate agency, and it is why we built it into how Courtyard Homes operates rather than treating it as an optional extra.

In practice, this means you are not left guessing. You get regular updates on where your sale stands. You have one person to call, who already knows your file and your situation, rather than starting the conversation from scratch every time you ring. When something does come up, a delayed search, a query from the buyer's solicitor, a problem further down the chain, you hear about it from Toni with an explanation and a plan, not as a surprise weeks later.

Selling a home is stressful enough without also feeling like you are the one holding the whole transaction together. That is what Toni is there to prevent.

If you are thinking about selling and want to know what the process looks like from start to finish, including the part that happens after the sale is agreed, call Courtyard Homes on 01925 767000 or visit courtyardhomes.co.uk.