It’s got to be good news that the consumer press is beginning to jump on the buying/selling bandwagon. Ultimately the only way something changes is if consumers demand it – and, sadly, almost all consumers are ignorant of what remains an esoteric process.
Catherine Baksi’s article in The Times quotes sales [and bear in mind the buying public STILL doesn’t understand the difference between SSTC and exchange, exacerbated by agents still putting SOLD in huge letters on board and subject to contract in tiny letters in a corner] i.e. from agreed to exchange, as taking 65% longer than in 2007, anything from 109-123 days! I’d wager it has more than doubled since I started in agency in the late 70s, ridiculous.
This is untenable for a variety of reasons, not least because tech can now find and make available most documents more or less instantly. Things like Searches and management packs can be ordered in advance.
My rant here is fuelled by the excruciating experience of selling my own home in London last month. I picked a solicitor recommended as I’d been out of the market for a bit, and they performed brilliantly, getting me to answer all enquiry questions and provide Searches up front. I was less than pleased when we sent out a full contract on day one, literally ready to exchange, and the reputable lawyer on the other side was so surprised they assumed we’d had a fallen through sale and, irritatingly, asked the reason why the previous sale had fallen through.
The sale process had the usual chain issues which further highlighted communication difficulties with agents ignoring each other, solicitors stonewalling and a first time buyer at the bottom of the chain who wasn’t using a broker for their mortgage and had a lender who’s excuse for a two week delay in answering one simple question was that they had people on annual leave. Luckily the chain involved only one below our buyer, but it highlighted all that was wrong with our existing processes.
The problem with educating the public is that it costs a fortune in B2C marketing costs, so most suppliers of tech services that might alleviate this are in thrall to agents and conveyancers – many of whom have little incentive to change or educate their clients and applicants.
I recently came across a guy who’s eschewing this approach and is concentrating, successfully I might add, on a B2C strategy of educating and selling Searches to punters interested in taking control of their own process. Enabling punters to buy Searches works on several levels. It’s a start, they need them anyway – they just control when, it shows an agent or conveyancer that they’re committed and have some knowledge of what’s going on and there’s no discernible downside. They even wrap them in a dataroom.
To me, this approach seems to be working and is a good place to start. They’ll probably be along in the comments to talk a bit more, but I applaud the methodology – educating buyers and sellers directly must happen to drive this antiquated process forward.
Ed, we are f a similar vintage and I recall the good old days when buying a home was less stressful, quicker, and often enjoyable.
I’m all for trying to educate the public to what happens, when and why. In fact, I put together a short animation video, used by a number of conveyancing firms (search YouTube for Bolt Burdon Conveyancing Animation) which may assist.
Part of the problem now is that conveyancing is much more involved and complicated than it was 3,4, or 5 decades ago. Some of your suggestions hold water but some maybe a little leaky:
“Things like Searches and management packs can be ordered in advance.” These can go out of date.
“Enabling punters to buy Searches works on several levels.” The area being searched needs to be accurate, and additional search enquiries can often need to be asked.
Having said this, I am all for improving the process (before I hang up my spurs or fall off my perch!) and what you did here is obviously helped:
“I picked a solicitor recommended as I’d been out of the market for a bit, and they performed brilliantly, getting me to answer all enquiry questions and provide Searches up front.” If this was the norm, in my opinion, most transaction times would drop. But not many sellers want to instruct a solicitor or conveyancer until they have accepted an offer.
With a bit of lateral thinking and some real will to overcome the obstacles that exist, as an industry, working together we could improve the process. If you ever fancy a chin wag (about the good old days) over a pint or two, let me know. Who knows what two old boys might come up with.
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I joke with our clients explaining how ridiculous it is that we won the Falklands war in less time that it takes to do the conveyancing to buy a property. Technology has killed the good old fashioned solicitor who used to just get things done quite often within 28 days. Too many conveyancing firms employing inexperienced people, loading then with far too much work and not giving them the support. It’s all about conveyancing firms going after quantity in my humble opinion.
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Not enough conveyancers and getting worse by the day, older ones (not that old in some cases), leaving, retiring etc, and not an attracive job for younger people.
From one of my members this week:
“Dxxxxc Cxxx has now left us – another extremely experienced conveyancer of 30+ years who due to stress and client facing issues causing high blood pressure, she has had to hang up her conveyancing hat.”
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I think we all know the problems as outlined by Ed and Silverfox above. Catherine Baksi asked was the process too costly, slow and complicated. Costly no, compared to the cost of stamp duty then the conveyancing fees are very reasonable. Slow, yes and complicated, certainly little understood by the public and estate agents.
Ultimately the pain mostly lands with the consumer. An agent might loose a fee and a solicitor might have to do an interim
fee, but it is the buyers and sellers life plans that are messed about.
Comsumers, can help by being prepared. Sellers should have their properties ready for sale. Forms complete, title clear and ideally searches ordered. Buyers can make sure they really do have the funds, or mortgage offers, in place to proceed at reasonable levels. Prepare, Prepare, Prepare.
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Everyone can come up with a thousand reasons for why things won’t work. I set up Property Searches Direct on the basis of “Why Not”? I was delighted to have the opportunity to meet with Ed this week and talk about why we do what we do.
Sellers having access to searches, whether they go out of date or not, is providing answers to questions that need to be answered and enabling buyers to make informed decisions as well as the delivery of more comprehensive contract packs, far sooner than has become the status quo.
If the Searches are stale (or about to go out of date), the buyer can push their own button on day 1 of the transaction being agreed, rather than waiting for a conveyancer to order identical or near identical reports, showing their commitment and getting skin in the game; whilst firing the starting gun on the transaction. Who wants a transaction to take longer than 3 months anyway? That’s the lifespan of a search post compilation, so crack on.
We set out at Property Searches Direct to educate and empower home movers, because everyone else in the industry wants to keep them in the dark and away from the process, despite it being their purchase and their decisions that need to be made.
Mindsets need to change, the professions driving the industry need to educate themselves and embrace whatever they can that can help to improve things. “We’ve always done it this way and will not be told by the likes of you” attitudes have to stop.
We put the home movers at the heart of everything we do, it’s our passion, not our strap-line.
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Ed – the ‘data room’ you mention in the article is part of the Digital Property Logbook specification. The difference with a Logbook is that the Buyer gets to own all the data and documentation from the transaction so that, the next time they sell, the whole merry-go-round does have to start again.
Nigel Walley – Chair, Residential Logbook Association.
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I urge you to check out, and learn from the Australian market – from offer to keys in 6 weeks! We’ve been through the process twice as buyers and although it’s speedy, the quality is good and the timescales is very achievable.
The old world needs to humble down and learn from the new.
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In defence of my Conveyancing colleagues, they have been loaded up with bucket loads of additional responsibilities and potential liabilities, primarily from the lenders, over the past 4 decades.. planning, building regulations, certification of ID, anti-money laundering, environmental issues.. the list goes on – and you miss one of these, you’re on the hook.
Lenders should be building in a significant legal fee into the mortgage advance to pay for all of this additional leg work on their behalf… or Conveyancers should have the courage to charge £500 plus just to do the lender’s legal due diligence.
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