There’s a headline you never imagined you’d see! It seems, however, according to conveyancing software company InfoTrack, that a lack of communication from estate agents means their clients feel out of the loop when it comes to the moving process.
More than half of the UK’s house buyers and sellers feel that they have no control over the nuts and bolts of their conveyancing journey, especially if they’re first-timers. This can mean that movers feel in the dark and isolated, as well as frustrated.
We need to communicate
A worrying 44% of the survey respondents said they felt their agent didn’t communicate enough during the conveyancing period. The conveyancers themselves deny this, claiming that they keep their customers up to date. There seems to be a gap, then, which could be filled by more contact with the estate agents.
Even the average transaction takes eight to 12 weeks, which can feel like forever, especially for inexperienced buyers; slight hitches can mean a longer process and so movers could probably benefit from communication, even just a text message or email, from their agent.
Most movers (86%) are actually happy with the job that their conveyancers do, so this communication gap may well need the estate agents to fill it. Almost half of those surveyed said they’d like more messages, emails, texts and calls, if only to reassure them that they’re moving along the queue (albeit slowly).
Tracking technology
Just over a third of the survey respondents said they’d like to be able to track the progress of their purchase – the searches and so forth – over an online portal. Any estate agent that wants to get ahead of the game will find a way to make this happen, or at least offer a weekly digest to clients. For first-timers, the periods of time during which nothing seems to happen can leave them wondering if they’ve been forgotten or if something has gone very wrong. One simple email or text message can take seconds to send and it can save lots of time and worry.
