When the mud-slinging stops, start innovating!
Mike Stainsby · 17 June 2021
It genuinely both saddens and angers me to read comments on many articles in our Conveyancing and Estate Agency trade press. For an industry that is supposedly too busy to even try and understand or empathise, it's amazing how much time is spent on composing and publishing vitriolic comments.
I am baffled why forums allow subscribers to chose their own 'handle' especially when they are 'best agent' 'professional lawyer' 'ducko759' and the like. I suspect they aren't RONSEAL handles and may be quite the opposite, maybe there's compensation going on here? Maybe they all have a toupe and drive cabriolets? Either way, to me, It is a form of bullying and I hate bullies, it should stop!
Many published articles are written in good faith, to invite comment and investigate new ways of doing things. Some articles are not and are just clickbait, deliberately looking to stir up bad feeling and bring out the worst in the reader. Others are just banal and pointless titled 'conveyancers are really busy' & 'smoking is bad for you'! - YES WE KNOW THAT!
The ONLY way things can improve in the conveyancing arena is by collaboration between warring parties, not working in silos with your fingers in your ears. The current mess exacerbated by the SDLT holiday sees tens of thousands of home movers being herded to the cliff edge that is 30th of June.
With an understanding of the availability of resources, empathy for all parties, realistic expectation coupled with a dose of acceptance that many deals WILL fail, we can get through this.
Property Searches Direct has been banging a drum for 18 months encouraging sellers to Get Legally Prepared and had they all done it a large proportion would be saved from this metaphorical cliff edge. Had they ordered Searches and filled in standard protocol forms as they went to the market it would have been packaged up and ready for a conveyancer to work their magic as soon as a sale was agreed. All pressure placed firmly on a buyer getting a mortgage offer.
Sales can be tricky We have a shop where we sell these things. We make protocol forms available to all. We design, build and host collaborative web spaces where Agent and Conveyancer can work together.
OK, I appreciate that you are all too busy to listen right now, but we are genuinely taking calls from your unhappy home movers every day of the week! This is why we are getting so frustrated at the lack of appetite to make a change with solutions that are already available to adopt.
Do get in touch when you can catch your breath as I believe that it wont be too long before you are scratching around looking for differentiators to retain market share.
