REVEALED: How badly agents lose ‘money and vendors’ via fall-throughs
Survey of some 950 agents reveals the corrosive effect of fall-throughs on estate agency businesses.
An industry survey has revealed the corrosive effect of sales fall-throughs on estate agency businesses over the past 12 months.
Some 950 property firms were asked by buying agency HBB Solutions about their experiences of transactions falling through.
The biggest issue for them was that it had wasted their time while progressing a property sale once a buyer was found, a problems reported by 41 per cent of those canvassed, with wasted financial resources also a major issue for 34 per cent.
Also, a third said that, following a sale falling through, their vendor then chose to re-list with another agent, even when they were not to blame.
Stock levels
Chris Hodgkinson (pictured), MD of HBB Solutions, said: “The good news is that with insufficient stock levels to meet such heightened buyer demand in recent years, fall throughs haven’t perhaps been as prevalent and when they do occur, sellers tend to find another buyer pretty quickly.”
He added that as it is so often deemed the buyer’s fault, the research “highlights the importance of opting for a buyer in a strong position, rather than the one placing the biggest offer on the table.”
HBB says a quarter of estate agents have seen 10 per cent or more transactions fall through over the last year, with 46 per cent reporting that buyers were most at blame.
A quarter said they had been subject to a greater degree of property sale fall throughs with up to 29 per cent of all transactions collapsing in the last year.
Propertymark recently revealed that each sales fall-through costs agents £4,000 on average.
Better upfront information is key to reducing fall-throughs and it is awesome that all parts of the industry are working towards this. It includes NTSELAT (agents), RPSA (surveyors), CA (conveyancers), RLBA (Property logbooks) and more…led by HBSG (Home Buying Selling Group).
Key to this are:
1) Digitisation of property information to data that can be exchanged and understood by software
2) Digital identification of individuals and properties (UPRN)
3) Trust Framework to ensure data is only shared with appropriate parties safely.
This will revolutionise home buying and selling and move away from caveat emptor (buyer beware) to emptor informetur (let the buyer be informed)…
Reducing fall throughs is one of the core reasons we have developed our PIP Vaults. They allow estate agents to open a data room for each property, where the seller, agent and solictor can collate and display property information.
Sellers being prepared can really assist. when selling my own house I achieved an exchange of contracts in 2 weeks and a day by collating and displaying all the relevant information during the marketing phase.
Then selecting the right purchaser who can proceed is the second part of the equation.
As agents digitally transform their operations, creating better outcomes and more transparency around the property asset, there will be less fall throughs. Statistically, very few buyers get buyer’s remorse, sales fail due to a myriad of micro-problems that delay and deter buyers.
If buyers knew 100% what they were buying, because the property had attached to it every data set that a lender/conveyancer and buyer required, and it was in plain site day one – and if the buyer also was forensically pre-qualified prior to a sales memorandum ever going out, agents would get faster better sales.
Software is coding this future, and with open banking, digital identity, and development in the lending and legaltech space, and the ‘push’ from buyers and sellers wanting a fast reliable journey, much the same as Cazoo style car buying solution. No coincidence that the founder of that enterprise Alex Chesterman also founded Zoopla in 2007.