Do you agree we need to bring the property industry into the 21^st Century? In England, it takes 20 weeks on average for property transactions to progress from accepting an offer, to completion.
Yes, that is an average!
On top of this, a quarter of transactions fall through before reaching completion! And that equates to 225,000 aborted sales every year! And the cost to all those involved is an average of £2,700 which equates to £608 million in total!

Do away with inefficiencies
So, what takes all the time? We see property chains are often subject to delays due to property searches. It is often that different types of properties can take different amounts of time for searches to be completed with local authorities. In some cases, we can see searches taking up to 4 weeks to be returned.

Once searches and mortgages are all taken care of, there are the legal enquiries being handled by your conveyancing team. If your conveyancers were to note any concerns when they review the title deeds, there may be extra delays. Especially if these concerns require reporting to your buyer’s mortgage provider. Anything like this can see several days turnaround, which only adds to the timeframe.

It’s clear there are far too many inefficiencies in the industry at present. By allowing them to continue not only wastes time for the buyers and sellers, but for everyone else involved. This includes us estate agents, as well as other professionals such as solicitors, and surveyors.

Start with transparency
The easiest way to overcome this problem is if we provide full information on all properties to buyers from the very beginning. This should include a survey, local authority searches, property information questionnaires, and replies to all standard enquires.

Imagine if vendors were required to prepare and issue all this information at the start of their property sale. We might well see buyers having much less reason to withdraw from the sale later on.
We might also then see the process of purchasing a property reduced to within eight weeks. Isn’t this a far more reasonable amount of time, compared to the current twenty weeks?

It’s time to champion change
We believe something needs to be done to combat how we approach property sales in today’s market. There are many of us estate agents who welcome the return of the Seller’s Packs or Home Information Packs (HiPs). Someone who is a great believer in them, is Silas Lees, who has created a property platform designed to speed up property transactions, called Wiggywam.

At WiggyWam, they have brought back Seller’s Packs to create instant transparency, and increase the speed of transactions. If we do them well and use them correctly, Seller’s Packs can make a big difference. For starters, we can get all the vital information in one place, up-front. This brings valuable insight into any potential issues earlier, reducing the chance of complications further down the line.

But, if we want to bring the property industry into the 21^st century, we will need to petition the government for changes to the law.

Jameson & Partners is an independent estate agent located in the heart of Altrincham town centre. Whether you are looking to buy a new home or rent a property, to sell your home or start letting out your property, we can help. Contact us on 0161 941 4445 or book a FREE PROPERTY VALUATION with us today.