It’s likely as an adviser, that you have already seen a number of deals fall through this year, and judging by the anecdotal evidence I’m seeing, this is proving to be a much more regular occurrence.
There are of course many reasons for this, the clear demand for property, the pandemic still having an impact, the problems in moving resource around to cope with workloads, filling job vacancies, etc. All have contributed to a market which is busy at the same time that the process appears to be taking longer.
Now, there are certainly things all of us professionals can do to help here, especially when it comes to the very start of the process, i.e, the marketing of properties, the viewing of homes, securing an idea of finance/loan level/cost, etc.
I know that many advisers are often left trying to pick up the pieces here, with clients coming and asking them to secure the mortgage finance they need, when they have already put an offer in on a property, and it’s been accepted.
Much more work is done around qualifying offers by agents and the like, but this is still a major problem, especially when it comes to a very busy market, with low levels of stock, and the purchaser feels under significant pressure to put their offer in as soon as they view, for fear that it may be off the market before they know it.
However, we do really have to get the horse back in front of the cart here. I’m not sure how any potential buyer can confidently look at properties, put in offers as such, without having any idea of whether they can afford it/secure the mortgage, or indeed, without having a true notion of just what they are putting an offer on.
Much like purchasers need to put in some work before they even start visiting homes, sellers really need to be doing the same, providing as much information as possible on the property before going to market, highlighting any potential issues, and effectively giving potential buyers a much more rounded view of the property from the start.
There is also a logical argument to suggest sellers in particular need to be getting a conveyancer involved in their sale early doors, because they can then be ahead of the game in terms of securing the necessary documentation, which otherwise will be left some way into the process and is likely to take some weeks/months to secure everything.
Again, upfront information here can only help. If everyone has sight of the title, deeds, surveys, searches, etc, then they are working from much stronger foundations, and the chances of any nasty surprises skuttling the deal down the line are far less likely.
You might have read recently that National Trading Standards are in the process of a three-phase pilot around the provision of upfront information, with the first phase being that – by the end of May – all property listings will need to contain the Council Tax band or rate, the price and the tenure information.
Reading that back, it seems utterly barking mad that this very basic information isn’t being provided as a matter of course at the point of marketing a property, let alone other information such as restrictive covenants or flood risks, which NTS want to see during further phases.
It all goes to show that, even with all the calls for greater provision of upfront information, many marketeers of property are not even delivering the basics, leading to an obvious lack of detail to go on, which is too often only revealed well into the process when all stakeholders have often spent considerable money and expended considerable resource and energy.
It is no wonder that recent figures from Gazeal suggest there have already been 54,000 property deals collapsed this year – and that was up to the 17th March, barely two and a half months in. What will the rest of the year bring, especially as we move into what is normally a very busy time for the housing market, the Spring.
Upfront has to be where it’s at. Currently, we’re leaving too much too late, and we need to educate consumers about the benefits for them if there is greater clarity at the start of the process, and they are effectively getting their ducks in a row before even embarking on such activity. It might seem something of a faff to them, but I assure you if it means their transaction has a much better chance of completing, they’ll see it as nothing of the kind when it happens.
Mark Snape is chief executive officer of Broker Conveyancing