PHIL SPENCER: The Waiting Game - managing clients' expectations

You won’t need me to tell you, but transactions are taking a l-o-n-g time right now.

Figures from a digital information service quotes an average of 112 days (approaching four months) to progress a sale from an accepted offer to completion.

The situation has become much worse in recent years. Propertymark says that back in 2016, 78% of transactions progressed from offer acceptance to exchange of contracts within 12 weeks: this year it’s only 29%. Also reporting the backlog is growing fastest with ‘extreme delays’ taking 17 weeks or more.

With housing transactions involving so many disciplines, there’s nothing to be gained by pointing the finger at just one cause of these delays.

It seems obvious that solicitors and councils are currently under-resourced, the use of technology is very patchy across the board, lenders have become more cautious about any threat to their loans, and more parts of the process are being handled by centralised ‘call centre’ style operations which make progress-chasing far more difficult.

Everyone in the business appears more risk-averse, and added to that is one hangover from Covid - quite a lot of professionals are still working from home, which can again make communications between parties less straightforward than before.

If this is incredibly frustrating to us in the property business, pity the poor seller and buyer!

It’s therefore up to us to manage expectations - but how can agents do this when so many factors are outside of their control?

If you think buyers are first-timers or haven’t had experience of moving for possibly sever-al decades, I have a few tips.

1.    Talk them through the process: It sounds basic but while property professionals live and breathe this stuff most consumers have little experience. Savills have reported that most people move house on average 3.6 occasions in a lifetime, so it’s worth agents talking through the complexities of a move - even one that goes smoothly. Some agents prepare written packs but if you have time, literally talk through the process if you feel it’s necessary.

2.    Check they really understand: Just because you say something, don’t assume people truly understand. A banking survey recently found that 26% of people didn’t understand interest rates on mortgages, despite the fundamental importance of this if buying a home.

3.    Explain the pinch-points: You’ll have your views on this but in my experience, it’s worth emphasising how complicated and time-consuming some elements can be. Check if a customer’s particular chain is more complex than usual, keep across whether the local council is slower than most at handling searches, let your seller know whether someone in the chain is using a call-centre conveyancer who’s difficult to chase, and so on.

4.    And remember - the seller and buyer need chasing too! We all know the drill - get-ting funding, paperwork and the physical condition of the property in good order as soon as possible gets a transaction ahead of the game, at least slightly. Some buyers and sellers may need gentle reminders of how crucial a role they play in oiling the wheels.

5.    Keep the communications flow going: Agents will know from their minute-to-minute chatter in the office about particularly slow conveyancers, an absence of planners to handle searches, or whether lenders are taking too long to confirm mortgage offers. It’s the stuff of daily life to us ‘in the business’ but it might be worth passing on some of those vibes to sellers and buyers too…waiting for weeks with no email, text or call from anyone in the process can be demoralising and panicky for people waiting to hear.

Many of you, of course, will be doing all of this and more. But it’s easy for some of these nice touches to get left behind, especially if the upcoming autumn is as busy as many
predict, with interest rates dipping further and the economy improving at least a little.

And of course, you’re right to say that much of this handholding could and should be done by other professionals in the transaction chain.

But you know how unlikely that is, so extra time spent on this may well save increasingly concerned or angry calls from vendors later in the process if they fear that no news is bad news. And if they have a great experience with your agency now, it is a recommendation they will make to friends and family, too.

Until next time…

Phil Spencer is founder of Move iQ. Move iQ now create bespoke video content for estate and letting agents sharing local insight and personally introduced by Phil – to secure your exclusive post-code speak to Alex Wilson alex@moveiQ.co.uk