by Dakota Murphey
For most of the last few decades, a seller’s job ended once contracts were agreed and a buyer’s surveyor came knocking later in the process. That order is starting to shift. In June this year the government published its roadmap for reforming the home buying and selling process, committing to legislate for a mandatory “sales pack” that includes a property condition report before a home even goes on the market. The idea borrows heavily from Scotland’s Home Report system, where sellers rather than buyers pick up the cost of the initial survey. It won’t be law for a while yet, but the direction of travel is clear enough that agents would do well to start preparing sellers for it now, rather than waiting for the legislation to catch up.
There’s also a more immediate reason to care. Data from national home-buying company Quick Move Now shows survey issues were behind 27% of UK house sales that fell through in the second quarter of 2026, second only to mortgage and lending problems at 33%. The company’s CEO put it plainly: homes priced sensibly and prepared properly are far less likely to run into trouble once a survey happens. Getting ahead of what an inspection will find is quickly becoming standard advice, not an optional extra.
Start with the low-cost wins
The good news for agents is that most of the fixes worth making before a listing goes live aren’t expensive. Small, targeted changes such as fresh paint, tidy flooring and working door and window hardware won’t stop a surveyor doing their job, but they do change how a property reads on the day, and a handful of low-cost upgrades can be the difference between a quick, clean sale and a listing that drags.
Making better use of the space already there
Agents often assume buyers want extensions or knock-throughs, when in reality smarter use of existing rooms can achieve much the same effect for a fraction of the cost and with none of the disruption.
Knowing what a survey actually checks
None of that replaces a proper survey, though, and this is where agents can add real value early. Sellers usually only find out what an inspection actually looks for once a report lands on the desk, by which point there’s little room left to get ahead of anything it flags. A step-by-step breakdown of what happens between an accepted offer and getting the keys sets out clearly what an independent inspection typically covers and why buyers commission one at all. Cosey Homes builds its own guidance around making that process easy to follow, and sharing something similar with a seller before their property is even listed helps set expectations early, rather than leaving them blindsided by unfamiliar terminology weeks into a sale.
The defects sellers should catch early
It’s worth being specific with sellers about what tends to come up. Damp is one of the most common findings, and it doesn’t need to be dramatic to worry a buyer. A slightly musty smell or a small patch on a ceiling can be enough to prompt renegotiation, even where the underlying cause is minor and easily fixed. Old or unsafe-looking wiring, rotten window frames and signs of movement such as cracked render are also regular red flags on a survey report, and each is far cheaper to sort out before a buyer sees it in writing than to negotiate down after the fact.
Guttering and roofline issues fall into the same category. They’re easy to overlook from the ground, but a surveyor will always check them, and a blocked gutter or a slipped tile can read as a bigger problem on paper than it actually is. Agents who can point sellers towards a trusted local tradesperson for a quick damp check, a roof inspection or an electrician’s once-over, well before a survey is booked, tend to see fewer surprises later in the transaction.
Timing it before a buyer is involved
Leaving these checks until a buyer has been found puts sellers on the back foot, since repairs then happen under time pressure and often become a bargaining chip. Raising it during the initial valuation conversation gives sellers room to get quotes and fix the easy things without a live transaction hanging over the work.
Keeping track of who needs access
None of this needs to turn into a major project for the agent either. A lot of it comes down to being organised about who needs access to the property and when, particularly once a seller starts arranging viewings, valuations and the eventual survey alongside their normal life. Keeping track of who’s holding a set of keys at any given moment, something Keyzapp’s clients manage every day, becomes especially useful during this window, when several different people may need to get into the same property within the space of a few weeks.
As the sector edges closer to a world where the condition report comes first and the offer comes second, the agents who get ahead of it, by flagging the small, fixable things early rather than waiting for a report to surface, are the ones likely to see fewer sales stall at exactly this stage.
Want to make sure nobody's chasing a lost key halfway through a listing? Book a Keyzapp demo and see how agents keep track of every set, from the first viewing through to the day the buyer finally gets theirs.