UKBouldering.com
the shizzle => shootin' the shit => Topic started by: blacky on May 26, 2015, 01:09:04 pm
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I'm leaving the Peak and moving to Kendal in the near future. We are selling and buying at the same time and I'm wondering if anyone on here has any advice on whether to go online or local for conveyancing?
I've seen a lot of comments suggesting online conveyancers are basically call centres full of inexperienced folk, but I have also heard of people having bad experiences with locals. The advantage of a local to me would be in being able to go in and see them if necessary and (hopefully) having only one person dealing with our case. I would be prepared to pay more for this.
Any recommendations for people who have done a good job much appreciated. I'm based on the west side of the Peak near Stockport.
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I don't have any experience of online options to make a comparison, but the main advantage in going local is that the solicitor will be aware of peculiar local property issues ranging from flood plains, leaseholds, bylaws, major developments etc. Also they should be more motivated to do a thorough job as their success will hinge largely on word of mouth recommendations.
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My property is leasehold but the one I am buying is not. Does the seller's solicitor need to have an awareness of the things you mention Shark or would I be better off with one based in Kendal?
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I think it makes little difference where the office of your solicitors is (ours is in Exeter) but just make sure you get one based on a personal recommendation, ideally someone who has used them twice, or two separate recommendations for the same firm. Avoid any recommended by estate agents or tied into deals with estate agents - good solicitors don't need these to get trade.
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I can highly recommend Ted Kingsnorth (Kingy on here) at 1st Property Lawyers. All online, easy to use, efficient and good value.
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My property is leasehold but the one I am buying is not. Does the seller's solicitor need to have an awareness of the things you mention Shark or would I be better off with one based in Kendal?
Sorry I didn't register that you were buying and selling at the same time. As you should use the same solicitor for both transactions it is probably better on balance to use a recommended one local to where you live now rather than where you are moving to.
I can't see why the solicitor of the seller of the house in Kendal needs to know anything more about your sale other than where you are up to in the process with respect to planning a completion date.
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I can highly recommend Ted Kingsnorth (Kingy on here) at 1st Property Lawyers. All online, easy to use, efficient and good value.
Ted doesn't work there any more. He started my conveyancing but then moved to another company; he WAS excellent. TBH I was pretty sceptical of his replacement but I feel I misjudged him (I did apologise). He wasn't Ted (i.e. he was <8c), but by the end I had every confidence he was doing everything he could to hit our date.
His name was Steve Milne at 1st Property. They are very transparent to work with financially, in fact I just had a partial refund for searches coming in less than expected. For us the online system worked very well as you get docs issued instantly and you can upload documents quickly too. I think this saved us a lot of grief.
Estate agents are more of an issue; we used William H Brown and they failed at every opportunity.
(I bought and sold at the same time, given I was phoning and emailing them I don't see what benefit being local would have)
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From my experience I would recommend you to do your research on whoever is a really good estate agent to sell with. Your solicitor won't matter so much as it's just administering paperwork - unless there are problems in which case it will matter a very great deal and law society ethics won't allow you to change your solicitor just because you don't rate them, so I'd check this out carefully too. I can give you detail on my experience down the Chapel sometime if you're interested. Can't see why their location would matter hugely but I prefer being able to see someone face to face if I want to.
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From my experience I would recommend you to do your research on whoever is a really good estate agent to sell with.
I disagree with this; as I ended up doing photos, description etc. I'd now pick the cheapest I could as the estate agents seem to do next to nothing for their money.
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Get Sloper to do it for you?
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From my experience I would recommend you to do your research on whoever is a really good estate agent to sell with.
I disagree with this; as I ended up doing photos, description etc. I'd now pick the cheapest I could as the estate agents seem to do next to nothing for their money.
Unless you like in some utter dive or oddball property in a shithole location that will be hard to sell then I'd fuck off any conventional bricks&mortar agent and go online instead. Chances are they'll be better, have better communication, be open weekends etc, and probably save you a couple of grand.
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From my experience I would recommend you to do your research on whoever is a really good estate agent to sell with.
I disagree with this; as I ended up doing photos, description etc. I'd now pick the cheapest I could as the estate agents seem to do next to nothing for their money.
No, they market and negotiate.
How much you need this done and how successful you are in finding an agent who is skillful will vary.
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Will vary or will be a lottery? I know what you're saying and if you live in some oddball remote place then maybe I'd agree with you more. However lots of the agents we spoke to had a minimum fee, which our property fell into (due to asking price). Thus, the agent is rewarded with a lump sum regardless of the end sale value. There's absolutely no incentive for them to put any additional effort into marketing / negotiating and generally getting the best deal for their client (you) as it's in their best interest to simply get it sold (reflected in some valuations).
I should add that we had three viewings and were asked three times what the council tax band was as the agent doing the viewing "didn't know".
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I appreciate your frustration at hiring a poor estate agent. It doesn't follow however that you shouldn't get a good one.
Whether there will be a worthwhile return will depend on the property you're selling.
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From my experience I would recommend you to do your research on whoever is a really good estate agent to sell with.
I disagree with this; as I ended up doing photos, description etc. I'd now pick the cheapest I could as the estate agents seem to do next to nothing for their money.
No, they market and negotiate.
For most houses these days the only "marketting" done is sticking it on zoopla and rightmove. As for negotiating, that's beyond their remit as far as I am aware. They pass on offers, as they are legally required to do, and they then pass back info from you to the buyers.
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As for negotiating, that's beyond their remit as far as I am aware. They pass on offers, as they are legally required to do, and they then pass back info from you to the buyers.
They're the intermediary as you correctly point out. You pays your money, you takes your choice. If you think money spent on an estate agent isn't worthwhile that's a perfectly valid point of view.
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I appreciate your frustration at hiring a poor estate agent. It doesn't follow however that you shouldn't get a good one.
No absolutely, but having had around 8 out to quote, 2 of which failed to actually get back to us, 1 of which sold us a "fixed price" and then sent through a quote with a different "fixed price" (none-negotiable) and tried to up-sell us on the basis of our property being "the same as lots of other flats on the market", and then one we finally went for not managing to inform us:
They need an EPC within a certain number of days to market the property
That it was on Rightmove / Zoopla when in fact it wasn't
That our "cash and mortgage" buyer only became cash and mortgage once her inheritance property sold etc.
It's unsurprising that I'm wary of the bunch in general.
Oh - I forgot the one who was unaware of the changes to stamp duty!
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Blacky
I'm sure there's a similar thread to this somewhere...
I've used one in Banbury to buy/sell the Birmingham pad and I used a local one to buy my new house here. All a much of muchness really. It was pretty good sitting down with the local guy and being able to physically see him. I was able to badger him but didn't need to. If you're going to use one that isn't local to you, use my guy and I can badger him on your behalf on my days off?
Glad you're moving somewhere that I like.
Ps estate agents. What is the point in their job? The internet has, in theory, rendered them now completely and utterly useless (rather than utterly useless) ,but they continue to blight our high streets and seem to have a monopoly on the whole 'selling bricks and soil' affair. And before anyone says I'm being estateaphobic...one of my best friends is an estate agent...and I still think it's dumb. Yay.
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we sold our house through House Network - cheap online house seller - ace
for conveyancing, our buyer went with the one connected to House Network - they were fucking useless - didn't ask important questions until a week before the expected exchange date, when they'd had a couple of months to get sorted. it took threats against the company from the people we were buying off to get someone who knew what they were doing to take action. useless
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We sold our house through Fine and Country 8) They appeared to work well for us lots of viewings, they didn't push it when we said no to folk who hadn't sold their property.
We used Quality solicitors as we had a reasonable service from them before.
We previously have had several shit experiences selling in the past, people wanting indemnity insurance, plus someone who strung us along while they were buying another property.