IT'S never been more important for the assiduous estate agent to give proactive advice to sellers and pay attention to detail, according to Calcutt Maclean Standen.

It is a well known fact that the longer the period between agreeing a sale and exchange, the greater the risk that something can go wrong.

There are three main reasons why a sale might be delayed:

1. Title deeds. The prudent estate agent will always advise their client to instruct their solicitor at the outset to obtain the title deeds and prepare a draft contract, so that anything that needs to be ironed out is known about. It is a false economy for the client to think that he is incurring unnecessary expense by doing this, as it is something that a solicitor will require anyway when a sale is agreed.

Apart from anything else, in some cases it can take a bank or building society anything up to three weeks to send the title deeds to the solicitor, which gets the sale off to a poor start.

2. Chains. Because of the current market conditions, sales that are subject to chains are more prevalent and need very attentive handling. It is no good for an estate agent to expect everything to slot into place in the 28 day period that was previously the norm to reach exchange of contracts. It is now essential that at every stage all the various parties and their solicitors are consulted.

3. Searches. In some areas and particularly in Kent, local authorities have been taking up to seven weeks to return searches and, where a mortgage is required, most banks or building societies will not accept a personal search or one that is carried out by an agency.

There is nothing an estate agent can do about this at the time the sale is agreed. There could still be a six to eight week delay. What he should have done is to ensure that his client, as soon as he makes the decision to place the house on the market, contacts his solicitor to ascertain the likely delay.

If it is anything over three weeks, he should instruct his solicitor to carry out a local authority search then and there, so it can be sent to the prospective purchaser's solicitor with the draft contract.