Estate agent, 39, seeks conveyancer for long-term relationship, must have GSOH, like dogs and enjoy long walks along the beach.
Sounds great, doesn’t it? A romance made in heaven.
Believe it or not, this is part of a report on how estate agents choose conveyancers.
However, as Eye sees it, there is a bit of a mismatch between what Legal Futures – a firm providing market intelligence to law firms – says and the research underpinning it.
According to Legal Futures, half of estate agents recommend conveyancing firms from within the same town or county as themselves.
And they apparently recommend on the basis of service – ahead of speed, expertise or personal relationship. What, nothing about money? Correct. No mention of referral fees.
However, looking at the actual survey results, it appears that just 4% of agents do have an arrangement in place with a conveyancing firm.
The findings are based on only a very small sample – just 50 agents – by search company TM Group.
The resulting report, “eaharmony, your perfect match” is aimed at conveyancing firms, not agents, and is based on last year, not this.
However, the sample of consumers was large – 5,000 vendors and yes, it says vendors, not buyers – and was conducted in partnership with Peter Knight’s Property Academy.
The survey showed that nearly half (46%) chose the conveyancer recommended by the agent.
TM says [blurb] that its report offers insights for conveyancers looking to make their firms more attractive to estate agents and subsequently win new instructions.
The actual report warns conveyancers: “So if your firm does not already have an arrangement with an estate agent (and wants to) then there is absolutely no time to waste.”
It suggests that conveyancers should make good communications (which we read as picking up the phone and answering emails) a priority.
The actual report is here
The slightly different take on it is here
"…it appears that just 4% of agents do have an arrangement in place with a conveyancing firm." Yeah, right. And EVERY ONE OF 'EM discloses this "arrangement" to the concerned parties…
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Whilst I can't speak about other agents; we have a relationship with a conveyancer, in our home town and we recommend them solely on the fact that they are reflect our "customer service is paramount" model. Unlike many firms they do the small things like always answer the phone, will stay late in order to get things done and fight alongside us in making sure sales get through the ever difficult conveyancing process. This is important to us because we want any recommendation to reflect well on us. However, despite the earlier slur, we do not get a fee from them and we actually point this out when making the referral.
Just for the record we also refer an IFA company that we also rely on giving the same service standards however we do get a referral fee for signed business. In order to comply with CPRs we also tell clients that we have a small referral fee which the company pay us as a loyalty bonus. Nobody complains because they get good service. Like I say, I can't speak about other agents but please do not tar us all with the same brush.
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simonh – if you are referring to my post- then I was IN NO WAY including "arrangements" based purely upon quality of service – neither was the original comment in the article. Those who are being tarred know exactly who they are – as they are the brush-wavers…
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