Agents, you don't have to close your doors….and nor do you, conveyancers

01 March 2023 4995 Views

The property industry's self-destructive, point-scoring way of working just doesn’t cut it.

When low stock means low cash flow low, agents and lawyers (mostly small businesses) are at real risk of closing. Don't be one of the 25% of small businesses the BBC has reported as planning to shut or scale back due to falling profits.  

Agents and conveyancers will close forever unless they stop having a go at each other.

No more in-fighting, please. We're not kids.

Estate agents and conveyancers know their common cause; to move the client, so get on with each other and get on with the job in hand. 

We all know what to do: talk more, collaborate more, and be more proactive. It's common sense and it should be a no-brainer. But do we all do it? On the whole, sadly, not! The hidden jealousy and resentment between conveyancers and estate agents and between conveyancer and conveyancer has to end now. We have to find the passion, motivation, and engagement to get the client moved faster. Then we can be paid faster. 

Speed, focus, and collaboration will make the job easier and reduce delays. It's a fact that the longer a case goes on, the more chance of it going abortive -  one third fall through. Thats one third of clients that don’t get to move and one third of the estate agents potential profit they lose out on. 

Keep it simple. 

Estate agents must stop trying to have a dig at the conveyancer - that's not to say to let up on slower lawyers who don’t communicate, but recognise they are under pressure. 

And conveyancers, don't be so negative, so condescending to the estate agent. You both want the same thing, Don't keep them in the dark. They can often broker a deadlock between the clients. 

Believe you can

Believe you can be the difference. We already know we can do more in an emergency. We did it during the stamp duty deadline frenzy. So can it be done again in this 2023 recession year? 

Ask yourselves a few why’s 

You’ll then see that collaboration, communication, and speed has to be key to unlocking profit but also to meet your client’s overriding goal of moving. 

Take the challenge. Pop quiz! Ask yourselves: 

Why should the client have to wait five months (almost half a year!) for the conveyancing (and upwards of a year if you consider the months of finding the right buyer for the right property at the right price)? It's unacceptable. And why do a third end up being aborted, with less profits and more risk of closure?

Why don't you talk more to agents? 

Why not issue the contract pack on day one, not week two? 

Why not sort out AML early on, not before exchange? 

Why let additional enquires drag on for weeks, sometimes months? 

Why don't more lawyers pick up the phone to sort out issues in minutes when emails can take weeks? 

Why not allow clients to use virtual signatures to speed things up? 

Why not report on your portal? 

Why not order your office copies on a purchase? Its pennies against the weeks of delay lost in waiting for office copies to arrive from the seller's lawyers. Will your buyer client really thank you when they have hundreds of thousands riding in the deal or losing their ideal move? 

Why not take payment for searches on day one and order on the same day rather than waiting days or weeks? Why argue over additional enquiries for weeks, sometimes months, knowing often it comes down to sorting it out legally or with indemnity? 

Why wait weeks to order the management pack? Why not chase them? 

Why not chase green chain? 

Why not embrace technology more? Why not let the mundane stuff be done by systems leaving you to get on the phone more and sort out solutions more? 

Why not spend more time and money in supporting your team? Why not give them lower file numbers to give them more time to get involved more, push more, complete on more cases, make profit and give you more chance of coming out of this recession in one piece? 

Want to discuss more? 

Contact Angelo Piccirillo - aap@avrillo.co.uk, Co-founder, Solicitor, ex-estate agent and joint CEO of AVRillo Conveyancing 

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