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Most buyers think the hard part is finding the property and agreeing on a price. It isn't. The six weeks between token and registration are where transactions either go smoothly or fall apart — and where the quality of your broker becomes visible.
Author
Ashutosh Bhogra
Category
Transaction
Read time
5 min read
Published
14 June 2025
Most buyers think the hard work ends the moment the token amount is paid and hands are shaken. In reality, that moment is where the work begins. The six weeks — sometimes more — between a deal being agreed and a Sale Deed being registered involve a significant amount of coordination that the buyer and seller rarely see. I want to walk through what that process actually looks like, because understanding it helps you evaluate whether the broker you are working with is actually earning their fee.
The first thing that happens after a deal is agreed is documentation. Both parties' identity documents need to be collected, verified, and organised. This sounds administrative — and it is — but it matters because a single mismatch between a name on an ID and a name on the Sale Deed can cause problems at the Sub-Registrar office. If either party is an NRI, the buyer must deduct TDS on the NRI's sale proceeds under Section 195 and file Form 27Q. Buyers can now use their PAN for this — a separate TAN is no longer required. NRI transactions are where procedural gaps show up most clearly.
If anyone is signing through a Power of Attorney, the PoA needs to be validated before the process moves forward. Not every PoA is valid for property transactions. Some are notarised when they needed to be registered. Some are registered but not stamped by the appropriate authority. Some are valid in principle but do not specifically authorise the relevant actions. This has to be checked — and checked early — not on the morning of registration.
In parallel, the utilities need to be cleared. House tax receipts from the last mutation date. Electricity, water, and gas bills that are paid and current. A No Dues Certificate from the MCD. If there are arrears on any of these, they become the buyer's liability the moment registration is complete. A good broker catches this during the transaction, not after possession.
Stamp duty coordination takes more time than most buyers expect. The calculation goes to the buyer well in advance with payment instructions. The RTGS is coordinated. An e-stamp authority letter needs to be signed by the buyer, along with self-attested identity documents and a bank statement confirming the transaction. All of this goes to the lawyer. A draft of the e-stamp details is reviewed before the e-stamp is generated — because errors in an e-stamp create problems that are disproportionate to fix. The buyer approves the details. The e-stamp is obtained only when everything is confirmed.
The Sale Deed itself goes through multiple rounds before it is ready to print. The draft comes from the lawyer and is reviewed in detail — every ID number, every name, every date, every family member mentioned, the property dimensions, the parking demarcation, any annexures. If there is a parking plan or sanction plan attached, it gets checked. If a bank loan is involved, the DD details are incorporated and verified. I also run the final draft past an AI review at this stage, specifically to catch anything that tired human eyes might miss after several read-throughs. After all of that, both the buyer and the seller approve the final document. Only then does it go to print — with a few extra sheets of the same paper colour kept on hand, because Sub-Registrar offices occasionally ask for them.
Pre-registration coordination is where things are most likely to go wrong if they are going to go wrong. Both parties need precise instructions about what to bring. The seller needs to be reminded, specifically, that if a Power of Attorney is involved, the original must be physically present at the Sub-Registrar office — not a copy, not a scanned printout — the original. This gets forgotten. It is one of the most common reasons registrations get derailed on the day. Two witnesses with valid IDs need to be confirmed and briefed. An online appointment needs to be taken through the lawyer. If a bank is involved, their lawyer has a separate list of requirements — original title documents, specific copies, an Agreement to Sell — and that list needs to be obtained and coordinated independently. And all of this needs to converge so that the buyer, the seller, the witnesses, the lawyer, and the bank representative if applicable, are all at the same place at the same time.
On registration day, both parties are called in the morning to confirm they are on their way with everything they need. Then the registration happens.
What comes after registration is where I think the difference between a transactional broker and a genuine advisor is most visible. The registered Sale Deed is collected and inspected: all pages present, all photographs and official stamps in place, the document locked correctly. A scan is made and saved. Both parties receive the scan. The buyer gets a link to the complete digital folder for the property, which they can copy to their own drive and keep permanently.
Then the physical handover. The buyer receives everything — the original Sale Deed, the full title chain going back to the original owner, AMC documents, warranty papers, invoices for fittings and fixtures, any other documents held in the property folder — organised properly in a leather binder, tied with a ribbon. The seller receives a copy in an envelope, along with a gift.
I mention the leather binder not as a flourish but as a point of principle. A property worth several crores comes with documents that represent the legal foundation of that asset. They deserve to be treated accordingly. The way a transaction closes is the last impression a client has of the entire process. It should reflect the same care that went into every step before it.
For NRI clients, all of the above happens with the added layer of remote coordination — document couriers, digital signatures, time zone adjustments, bank repatriation compliance, and a CA involved at multiple points. The process is the same, but the logistics are more demanding. When it works, and the client receives confirmation of registration from ten thousand kilometres away, it is one of the more satisfying things this work produces.
The reason I am writing this is not to impress you with a list of steps. It is to make a simpler point: the period between token and registration is not administrative background noise. It is the transaction. If your broker is managing it properly, you will not notice most of it — which is exactly how it should be. If they are not, you will notice at the worst possible moment.
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