- 1,160
properties have sold in the Neath area in the last 12 months.
- It
only takes 40 days to sell a Neath home, so why does it take 109 days from the
sold board going up to the buyer getting the keys?
- With
a shortage of solicitors and a sub-standard conveyancing system, this article
discusses what Neath house sellers (and buyers) can do to speed up the house
buying process.
Nationally, the average length of time it takes from
agreeing the sale of a property to the keys being handed over is 111 days (down
from 117 days last year), yet in Neath, we are just under the national average
at 109 days.
So why does it take just over 15 weeks, when all that is
required is the lawyers to look at some paperwork and get a mortgage? Also, what
can Neath homebuyers and sellers do to speed this up?
The legal process to buy and sell a UK property is called conveyancing.
The conveyancing system itself hasn’t really changed in hundreds of years.
After the housing market was reopened after the first lockdown in the spring of
2020, the property market returned with a bang, helped on with the Land
Transaction Tax holiday.
In 2021, the number of properties selling in Neath in some
months went up massively, e.g., by 96% June 2021 and by 65% in March 2021.
Many conveyancers and solicitors had to sort the legal paperwork out for upwards
of 120 to 150 properties each at any one time.
This glut of sold properties caused by the pandemic that
needed legal work to be sorted exacerbated a problem already present in the
conveyancing industry.
For years conveyancers have complained of overwork and
underpay. Conveyancing is seen as the Cinderella of the legal profession. This
workload was the straw that broke the camel’s back, making many conveyancers
leave the profession and go into better paid legal work like corporate work.
Also, the legal process of conveyancing has built-in inefficiencies,
and the conveyancing profession has been relatively slow to innovate. However,
there are some excellent tech solutions that are being slowly rolled out across
the industry to make the process more efficient and effective.
What can Neath home buyers and sellers do to speed up their
property sale?
If you are buying or selling your Neath property as we speak,
you won’t be able to wait for the conveyancing profession to be revamped, yet
you can be as pre-emptive as possible to get your Neath house sale through
earlier.
In a nutshell, ensure you have all the paperwork sorted on
your Neath home before you put your home on the market. Next, get the ball
rolling on your mortgage. If you receive some paperwork, read it, check it,
sign it and send it back in a day, do not leave it a week; finally, always communicate
frequently with your estate agent and conveyancer.
When you instruct a solicitor, most will request money to
start the ball rolling for searches and disbursements. They won’t lift a finger
until that is paid.
You will have to prove who you are in the conveyancing
process, so your conveyancer will ask you to show them proof of ID and address.
If you are buying, they will need to prove you have the funds/deposit to buy
the home (and if your deposit is coming from family/friends, then they are
required to write a letter to that effect).
How can the house buying and selling process be
improved?
A couple of years ago, the Government set up the Home Buying
and Selling Group to find the answer to this problem. Chaired by the well-known
property guru Kate Faulkner, it is looking at an amalgamated Seller’s Information
Pack (SIPs) and an IT-based single platform to share and communicate that SIP
between buyers, sellers, their conveyancers, the estate agent, mortgage providers
and brokers and finally surveyors.
The advantage of the SIP is that it can be created before
the buyer has been found, meaning property buyers would be more knowledgeable
when making an offer. Also, once the sale has been agreed upon, the SIP could
be sent straightaway electronically to the buyers’ legal team (from the
seller’s legal team) to start the procedure of asking for searches and raising
inquiries.
The bottom line is the conveyancing process is not fit for
purpose in the 21st century and change is on the horizon.
So, before the SIP
becomes mandatory, there are things everyone can do to ensure they get the home
of their dreams quicker.
At my agency, I
recommend the seller, us as the agent and the conveyancer start to liaise with
each other to get the key information on the property being sold as quickly as
possible. Then once a buyer is found, I believe it is vital we, as the agent, regularly
communicate with all the stakeholders in the chain to ensure everyone is
playing their part to expedite the sale.
In the future, utilising technology and every
agent/conveyancer preparing information upfront with the SIP will drastically reduce
the time it takes between agreeing a sale and the keys/monies handed over.
The conveyancing process will have to change to meet the needs
of the 21st century, but how long that will take is the big question.
If you would like to chat with me about how we do things differently to ensure your property not only gets the best price and how we do all we can, as agents, to expedite a smooth sale for your Neath property, do not hesitate to pick up the phone to me or drop me a line at the office.
