Agents can do more to speed up transactions by adopting technology

04 December 2020 17318 Views

Recent debate about urgent need for reform and better collaboration within the property industry, has once again come under the spotlight with criticism over mounting backlog and delays in property transactions. Conveyancing is a complex process for buyers and sellers with many moving parts, but during these extraordinarily busy times, caused by huge volumes of house sales from either the by-product of Covid-19 and the move to the country, or people taking advantage of the Government stamp duty incentive, the Conveyancing process is showing signs of cracking under the relentless pressure it is currently experiencing.

Even more evident in the current situation, is the role of Estate Agents, which is pivotal to holding chains together and keeping sales progressing effectively. Nonetheless, could Agents be doing more to support and speed along the Conveyancing process, especially in this time of need?

Suggestions that might sound obvious, such as spending more time facilitating and communicating between all parties involved, to prevent misunderstandings, obstructions and delays. Collating and disclosing more information upfront about the sale property, the seller and the buyer, which could save time, better prepare the conveyancer, and reduce possible complications further down the line.

There just aren’t enough hours in the day!

This sentiment is regarded by most Agents. The solution is to find better ways of working to free up more time, such as adopting technology that can make a real impact on business efficiencies.

One example is to use systems like mio’s sales progression platform. mio is driven by data from multiple partners across the residential property industry, including CoreLogic, and it allows all parties involved in the sale or purchase of a property to benefit from a single view of the chain, improving efficiency, transparency and communication. The mio system aims to empower Estate Agents to speed up property transaction times and reduce fall through rates.

For more about mio click here

What about Virtual Tours?

Marketing a property for sale is time consuming and uses up valuable resource. What’s more, it doesn’t end after the sales collateral has been published online. Estate Agents then have to spend hours coordinating and facilitating physical property viewings.

So what about using virtual tours? They are not just a ‘nice to have’ attractive marketing tool, but a significantly under-tapped time saver. They have been proven not only to pre-qualify buyers with genuine interest and eliminate time wasters, but they also save hours of time spent on arranging physical property viewings and ‘second’ viewings. High quality virtual tours are extremely thorough, capturing all corners of a property inside and out, providing 3D depth of detail that just isn’t possible with still photography. They give potential buyers the chance to inspect a property as many times as needed, without having to recall a faded memory, or request a further physical viewing.

Virtual Tours using the latest camera technology don’t just offer viewing convenience, they also provide a wealth of information about a property that can be used to better inform the Conveyancer upfront, including highly accurate floor plans, photography, dollhouse views, measuring tools and tagging of features or appliances. Estate Agents can supply this information along with the memorandum of sale, EPC, street view, planning/build history and land registry title information.

As the news of vaccines brings hope for next year, buyers and sellers who scramble to take advantage of the stamp duty holiday, will need all the help they can get to complete transactions before the deadline. Moving forward, Estate Agents and Conveyancers will need to look at all possible ways in which they can work better together to process transactions quickly and efficiently. 

Working as a team, rather than playing the blame game, is the first step to unifying what is currently a fragmented process. Adoption of technology will ease the burden and assist with processes, helping to improve speed and efficiency, which is ultimately what everyone wants.

If you would like to know about more about CoreLogic’s HomeVisit 3D Virtual Tours or book a demonstration, please get in touch salesUK@corelogic.com or visit us here.