Agents urged to use lockdown to train on new sales toolkit

The National Association of Estate Agents is urging its members to use the lockdown as an opportunity to train on its new Sales Protocol Toolkit.

Propertymark says the toolkit creates greater transparency and fewer fall-throughs than established sales processes, and believes its Property Information Questionnaire instils greater confidence in vendors and buyers. 

The kit has been road tested with 200 completed transactions in the Buckinghamshire, Bedfordshire and Northamptonshire areas; the average transaction time dropped from as much as 40 weeks to only eight weeks, and the NAEA says its ultimate objective is to reduce that to 14 days.

It works like this:

- a vendor is emailed a 16 page Property Information Questionnaire which they can complete either before the agent pays a home visit to measure and take photographs, or work through it with the agent at the property. This helps get the property ‘market ready’;

- at the same time the vendor is encouraged to instruct a conveyancer who will assist the vendor getting title deeds and other up-front information and identify problems - missing building regs documents and the like;

- once a prospective buyer has expressed interest, he or she then receives this upfront information, allowing them and their conveyancer to identify areas of concern - if any - or to have comfort that the appropriate documentation is in place; 

- a single-page Declaration of Offer subject to contract is then completed by the would-be buyer, giving conveyancer details, status on the sale of their existing property, and details of funding to purchase the vendor’s home;

- a single-page Memorandum of Sale is sent to all parties as soon as a sale is agreed in principle. This would include details of vendor and buyer, chain details, a link to property details and additional information about the property.

You can download the toolkit from the NAEA website here.