You've found a buyer.

They've made an offer.

You've accepted it.

Excellent.

Then an email arrives asking for the certificate for the windows you replaced seven years ago.

You remember the windows.

You remember paying for them.

You even remember the chap who fitted them.

The certificate? Absolutely no idea.

Welcome to the less glamorous half of selling a house.

A surprising amount of the time between accepting an offer and handing over the keys is spent finding documents, answering questions and waiting for information.

You can't prevent every delay.

You can make sure everybody isn't waiting for you.

Start hunting before somebody asks

If you've improved the property, start gathering the paperwork now.

That could include documents for an extension, loft conversion, garage conversion, replacement windows and doors, electrical work or other significant alterations.

Also look for guarantees and warranties.

Boiler paperwork?

Put it in the pile.

Electrical certificate?

Pile.

Roof guarantee?

Pile.

Damp treatment paperwork from six years ago?

You know where this is going.

Create one physical folder or one digital folder and keep everything together.

If something important is missing, tell the person handling the legal side of your sale early.

Finding out now gives you time to work out what can be done.

Finding out when the buyer is threatening to pull out is less relaxing.

Check exactly what you're selling

Most homeowners obviously know whether they own a house or flat.

The legal paperwork can contain rather more detail.

It records ownership and can include things such as rights of way, restrictions, shared access and boundaries.

If there's something unusual perhaps a shared driveway or access across somebody else's land it's better for the person handling your sale to see it early.

You don't need to become a property lawyer.

That's precisely why you're paying somebody else.

You do need to give them enough time to spot anything that may generate questions.

Leasehold?

Start earlier

If you're selling a leasehold property, there can be another layer of paperwork.

Information may be needed about service charges, ground rent, buildings insurance, planned major work and the management of the building.

Some of that information may need to come from the managing agent or freeholder rather than from you.

And that means you're waiting for another organisation to reply.

So if you're selling a leasehold Peterborough property, ask early what information needs ordering and who has to provide it.

Don't wait until your buyer is asking why nothing has happened for three weeks.

Then come the forms

At some point, you'll be asked a lot of questions about your home.

Boundaries.

Disputes.

Alterations.

Utilities.

Insurance.

Parking.

Things included in the sale.

Possibly things you haven't thought about since moving in.

The temptation is to get through the forms as quickly as possible.

Don't.

An unclear answer can simply produce another question.

And another.

If you're unsure what a question means or what information you should provide, ask the professional handling your sale rather than guessing.

Don't forget the boring things

The paperwork that slows a sale isn't necessarily dramatic.

Sometimes it's something incredibly mundane.

An old guarantee.

A missing approval.

A question about who maintains a shared drive.

A document relating to replacement windows.

A discrepancy over a boundary.

Something in the buyer's legal checks that needs explaining.

None of these automatically kills a sale.

They can, however, create another round of emails between several people who all seem to be waiting for somebody else.

Your buyer has paperwork happening too

Some parts of the process aren't yours to control.

The buyer may be arranging their mortgage.

Their lender may be valuing the property.

Their solicitor will carry out legal checks.

They may have a property of their own to sell.

And if several home sales depend on one another, one delay can travel up and down the whole chain.

That's why preparing your side early matters.

You can't make everybody else faster.

You can avoid being the person everybody is waiting for.

The pre-sale paperwork hunt

Before your property goes on the market or this weekend if it's already listed spend an hour looking for:

Paperwork for extensions or alterations

Documents for replacement windows and doors

Electrical certificates

Boiler and heating documents

Guarantees and warranties

Roofing or damp-treatment paperwork

Leasehold and service-charge information

Anything relating to unusual boundaries or shared access

You may not need every document you find.

That's fine.

Finding too much paperwork is rarely the problem.

Finding the one piece everybody suddenly wants three days before you're hoping to move is.

Property Speak — Translated

Conveyancing — The legal work involved in transferring a property from the seller to the buyer.

Conveyancer — The solicitor or other qualified legal professional handling that property work for you.

Freehold — You own the property and the land it stands on outright, subject to any legal restrictions affecting it.

Leasehold — You own the right to occupy the property for the remaining length of a lease. Flats are commonly sold this way, and there may be service charges and other arrangements with a freeholder or management company.

Property chain — A group of linked home sales. For example, your buyer may need to sell their home before they can buy yours.

Exchange of contracts — The stage when buyer and seller exchange signed contracts and the sale normally becomes legally binding.

If you've sold a home before, what was the one piece of paperwork that caused the biggest headache or disappeared just when somebody asked for it?

Tell us in the comments.