For an estate agent there is no better feeling than when a purchaser arrives to collect the keys for their new home. It signals ‘job done, commission secured.’

But how often have you thought that a deal was in the bag, only to see the transaction collapse at the eleventh hour? From the moment you negotiate an agreed price for a property, it is crucial that the post-agreed sale endeavours are as rigorous as the pre-agreed sale efforts. But as many estate agents will testify, the conveyancing system can be a frustrating business.

Market improvement

Buyers and sellers have their ducks in a row – they are undeterred by market jitters.” Paul Smith CEO, Spicerhaart

Property sales may have slowed in the run-up to the General Election, but many conveyancers remain optimistic that while the level of transactions this year may not match 2014 levels, owed in part to a general lack of housing stock coming onto the market, activity levels do look set to pick up now that we have crossed the election threshold. “Our latest data indicates that prospective buyers and sellers have put their ducks in a row and are entering the market in high levels this spring – undeterred by the whispers of market uncertainty,” said Paul Smith, CEO of Spicerhaart.

While agents would welcome a rise in property transactions, there are concerns that some conveyancing firms are not equipped to cope with a rise in activity levels.

Fewer conveyancing firms

One legacy of the last recession is that there is a shortage of trained conveyancers now that the market is improving.

During the downturn, many industry professionals were made redundant, without any short-term prospect of finding another job in the sector and this led to many experienced conveyancers exiting the profession for good.

Now that the market is busy again, there are skills shortages due to the industry failing to invest in the future by not appointing and training up new members of staff to replace the leavers.

“The fall and rise of conveyancing in recent years has seen many firms fall by the wayside,” said Mark Riddick, Chairman of Search Acumen. “Low volumes of transactions in the recession were fuelled by little more than debt, divorce and death. It meant conveyancing in the lean years quickly became a story of survival of the fittest.”

More transactions

Although conveyancing activity in 2014 fell 23 per cent short of the heights of 2007, the fact that there were fewer conveyancing firms operating in the market meant that the average number of property transactions per company reached a ten-year high, according to a Conveyancing Market Tracker by Search Acumen.

Despite a 28 per cent year-on-year rise to over 1 million transactions in 2014, the Tracker, which draws on Land Registry data since 2005, shows that there were just 5,871 conveyancing firms active in the market last year, down 24 per cent on the 7,733 in 2007.

Consequently, competition among the biggest businesses has intensified, with no fewer than seven conveyancing firms completing over 500 transactions a month last year or 6,000 annually, up from just one in 2005.

With activity becoming more concentrated at the top of the market, and with more than half of conveyancing firms – 56 per cent – polled by Search Acumen citing a need to increase staff recruitment and training in order to cope with increased workloads, property transactions are generally now taking longer to complete, placing more deals in jeopardy.

“Recruitment and training is one part of the equation, but once you have the right people in place, it is vital to equip them with the tools to achieve peak performance,” added Riddick.

Slow sales progression

A large number of mortgage agreements are falling through as they have timed out due to transactions taking longer. Simon King, Director, Move with Us

Research by Move with Us shows that the majority of property sales that collapse in Britain are caused by long conveyancing timescales and mortgage agreements falling through, which incidentally should act as an even greater incentive for estate agents to not just earn money by selling properties, but potentially by also passing mortgage leads on to mortgage brokers, with some highly rewarding referral fees achievable.

“A large number of mortgage agreements in the current market are falling through as they have timed out due to transactions taking longer,” said Simon King, Director of Move with Us. “This is in part due to new regulations introduced by the Mortgage Market Review [MMR] and conveyancers experiencing an increased workload.”

Thankfully, many conveyancing firms are now responding to increased industry demand for qualified conveyancers by increasing recruitment, training and investment in conveyancing lawyers.

Countrywide Conveyancing Services has increased trainee intake by enrolling more applicants as part of its Trainee Lawyer Academy programme. “We are working on this programme with the aim of addressing the issue of increasing demand for qualified conveyancers as the housing market improves,” said Alyn North, Group Professional Services Director at Countrywide.

Poor communication

It is no secret that a large number of property sales agreed fail to reach completion. But despite the overall shortage of qualified conveyancers, research suggests that in many cases this could have been avoided by all parties communicating properly and keeping on top of the sale and the chain.

Some 23 per cent of property deals have collapsed due to poor communication between lawyers, mortgage lenders and estate agents, a recent survey commissioned by the Conveyancing Association (CA) found.

The results reveal that for 52 per cent of those who have acquired or sold a house since 2008, the transaction took longer than expected, with 48 per cent saying the process involved unforeseen delays, owed largely to a lack of communication between the various parties involved in their sale or purchase, including the solicitor or conveyancer, the lender and the estate agent.

New protocol

We hope that this protocol will ensure that all parties involved in a house sale are singing from the same hymn sheet. Eddie Goldsmith, The Conveyancing Association

In an effort to shorten the length of time of a residential property transaction, as part of wider efforts to enable licensed conveyancers and solicitors to provide their customers with a better service, the CA – working with Connells, Move with Us, Countrywide and LSL Property Services – recently launched the CA Protocol.

The CA Protocol collates advice from the Law Society, the Council for Licensed Conveyancers, the Legal Ombudsman, the Council of Mortgage Lenders and case law to provide a single ‘best practice’ guide for conveyancers and solicitors.

“As the industry’s first ever single point of reference for solicitors and conveyancers alike, we hope the protocol will ensure that all parties involved in the purchase or sale of a house are singing from the same hymn sheet,” said Eddie Goldsmith, Chairman of the CA.

Room for improvements

The CA also recently invited representatives from across the industry – including conveyancers, estate agents and lenders – to a roundtable event to discuss possible ways of improving the home-buying process even further.

Potential solutions discussed, including the need to ensure the necessary training and standards are in place to guarantee that the transaction chain is set up properly from the outset, minimising the possibility of problems arising further down the line; the need to educate and inform consumers of the transactions process; for all parties involved in a transaction to work co-operatively; to tackle ongoing issues around the Leasehold sale process.

In an initial step towards addressing some of the issues discussed, the association has published its Leasehold Transaction Guide, which aims to provide conveyancers with an overview of the existing laws around leasehold transactions. The association has also urged conveyancers to answer its Lender Engagement Survey as the Association looks to continue to work with industry to iron out the ongoing issues it currently faces.

“What the discussion made crystal clear was that if we are to succeed in our mission, what we absolutely need to do is to keep working together, said Goldsmith.

While better communication is of course ultimately going to come down to particular relationships between the various parties involved in a transaction, there are some steps that you, as the agent, could take to help demonstrate to customers that you are working hard to better interact in their interests, and in turn improve customer service.

Software solutions

From back office operations to sales pipeline tracking, constantly changing estate agents software packages offer various benefits, which are imperative to the smooth running of a business, designed to improve efficiency, produce the results your customers want and help earn you money.

“Our software will track an agent’s every move from applicant or vendor enquiry through the sales pipeline, from the moment an offer is received through to completion and invoicing,” said Gary Whittaker, Director at Rentman.

Among some of the main estate agency sales software suppliers are, Reapit, Rentman, Estates IT, Resource Techniques, Property Software Group, Dezrez, VTUK, Qube and ETSOS.

Ben Robinson of ETSOS commented, “We [the ETSOS sales software] provide agent branded compliance packs which are customisable to the agent and so can contain any of the following; electronic Property Information Questionnaire, Environmental Hazard Report, Register of Title, Title Plan and cop of the Lease. The packs can be ordered in a matter of seconds and you can order instant Anti Money Laundering ID checks from the same screen.”

Call handling support

There will be times, for various reasons, when an office call cannot be answered, no matter how important it may be, whether it’s from potential customers or a solicitor handling a property sale, and that is why a growing number of agents are now switching on to the benefits of overflow call handling support.

More than 300,000 calls were answered on an overflow basis by Moneypenny’s property receptionists – who work with agents of all shapes and sizes – between January 1 and March 31. “Effective call handling and the customer experience are key differentiators, especially when the market is being squeezed, so it’s not only crucial to answer every call, but to maximise the opportunity that call may present, for business conversion and revenue generation,” said Moneypenny’s Joanna Swash.

Customer support

When it comes to maintaining a steady relationship between you, your clients and other parties involved in a transact action, you need to ensure that you have a first class customer support strategy in place, which means training your representatives accordingly.

Exemplary after sales support, providing a direct link between the vendor and the purchaser once a sale has been agreed, is undoubtedly a key component in the sales process, which supported by excellent customer service skills, good organisation and negotiation skills, should ensure that significantly more sales progress to completion.

Contacts:

Countrywide www.countrywide.co.uk
haart www.haart.co.uk
Moneypenny www.moneypenny.com/uk
Move with Us www.movewithus.co.uk
Rentman www.rman.co.uk
Search Acumen www.search-acumen.co.uk
The Conveyancing Association theconveyancingassociation.co.uk
The Society of Licensed Conveyancers www.conveyancers.org.uk