Home Buying Steps is a free, personalised checklist and timeline for the whole journey. Follow your country’s exact stages, see what’s normal at each one, and send the emails that get a slow solicitor moving. England, Wales, Scotland & Northern Ireland.
Free · No password — just your email · Private & secure
Neutral and buyer-owned — we don’t work for any agent, lender or solicitor. General guidance, not legal or financial advice.
Free, for the whole UK.England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland — each with its own real process, not one checklist with the names changed.
On your side only.No agent, lender or solicitor pays us to be here. Nothing to sell you, nothing to push you toward.
Built by a buyer.Made by someone going through the same wait, the same silences, the same “is this normal?” — see the note below.
Country first — it decides everything. Then a few basics: freehold or leasehold, chain or no chain, where you're up to. Two minutes, no financial details, ever.
Your country's stages in order, with what's done, what's happening now, and what's next — plus how long each stage typically takes, so silence stops feeling like disaster.
Every stage has “is this normal?” guidance, red flags to watch for, and ready-to-send chase emails — gentle or firm — for your solicitor, agent or broker.
Fifteen stages for England & Wales, ten for Scotland, eleven for Northern Ireland — each with a typical duration band, so you know whether six quiet weeks in searches is normal (in some council areas, it genuinely is).
Tick stages off as they happen, keep private notes, and watch the progress bar do what your solicitor’s voicemail won’t: tell you where things stand.
Legal work & searches
Your solicitor orders local authority, water & drainage and environmental searches, then reviews the results.
Scotland · Missives
Missives negotiated
Is this normal?
Points are resolved one by one until both sides agree everything.
Typically 14–56 days.
Red flags
What you can do
A buyer in Glasgow is negotiating missives. A buyer in Manchester is waiting on enquiries. Those are different processes with different pressure points — so Home Buying Steps never shows a Scottish buyer “exchange of contracts”, and never shows a Welsh buyer SDLT when they’ll pay LTT.
Every stage explains what should be happening, how long it usually takes, the red flags worth acting on — and what you, the buyer, can actually do.
The hardest part of a stalled purchase is knowing what to say without souring the relationship. Home Buying Steps gives you ready-to-send emails for your solicitor, agent or broker — matched to your stage, in a gentle or firm tone. Copy it, tweak it, send it.
Ask which enquiries are outstanding and who they’re waiting on. Specific questions get specific answers.
To: your solicitor · Tone: gentle
Subject: Outstanding enquiries — [property address], ref [reference]
Hi [solicitor name], Please could you let me know which pre-contract enquiries are still outstanding on [property address] (ref [reference]), and whether we're waiting on the seller's solicitor or on something else? If there's anything I can do to help move it along, please say. Thank you, [your name]
I’m buying a home at the moment, and the thing nobody warns you about is the silence. Weeks where nothing seems to happen, where you don’t know if that’s fine or a disaster, and where the only advice is “these things take time”.
Home Buying Steps is the tool I wanted on day one: what happens next, whether the wait is normal, and the exact email to send when it isn’t. It’s free, it doesn’t work for anyone but you, and it covers the process you’re actually in — wherever in the UK you’re buying.
— Jordan
Home Buying Steps is new. We could fill this space with glowing quotes and big numbers — but we don’t have them yet, and we’d rather earn them. Real reviews from real buyers will appear here as they arrive, dates and all.
Using Home Buying Steps and want to tell us how it went? We’d genuinely love that.
From offer accepted to keys, a straightforward purchase usually runs about 12–16 weeks in England, Wales and Northern Ireland, and roughly 6–10 weeks in Scotland. Searches, pre-contract enquiries and (for flats) the leasehold management pack are the usual reasons it stretches. Home Buying Steps shows the typical window for every stage, so a quiet fortnight stops feeling like a disaster.
Read the full timeline →Nothing is legally binding yet. The agent issues a memorandum of sale, you instruct a conveyancer and get your mortgage moving, then the legal work begins — searches, enquiries, a survey, and finally exchange (or, in Scotland, conclusion of missives). Home Buying Steps lays those stages out in order for your country and tells you what should be happening at each one.
See how it works →Scotland is a genuinely different process, not English conveyancing with new words. The seller provides a Home Report up front, your solicitor submits the offer, terms are settled through missives, and the binding moment is the conclusion of missives — not exchange of contracts. You move on the date of entry, and you pay LBTT rather than stamp duty.
Read the Scotland guide →Free · No password — just your email · Private & secure
Yes. Every feature is free in V1. Later, some stage guidance may point to carefully chosen partner services — those will always be clearly labelled, and the core product stays free.
No. Home Buying Steps is neutral and buyer-owned. We don't take instructions, referrals or payment from anyone involved in your purchase, so the guidance is only ever on your side.
Yes — properly. Scotland's process (Home Report, offers via solicitor, missives, date of entry, LBTT) is a genuinely different journey, not an England checklist with the words swapped. Northern Ireland has its own searches. Wales gets LTT rather than SDLT. You pick your country first, and you only ever see your country's process.
No. Home Buying Steps gives general guidance and self-help only — what's normal, what to ask, and how to ask it. It is not legal, financial, mortgage or tax advice. Your solicitor and broker advise you; we help you work with them.
No — no one offers that, because solicitor systems don't open up. Instead, you tick off stages yourself and we tell you what should be happening, how long each stage typically takes, and exactly what to send when things stall.
As little as possible. One email address to sign in — no password, no financial details, ever. Your progress and notes are private to your account, and you can delete your account and all your data at any time.