Agents should be more picky about their listings during 2024 and focus on sellers that will help speed up sales by providing upfront information, an industry executive claims.
Industry analyst and chair of The Home Buying and Selling Group Kate Faulkner has predicted that 2024 is going to be another tough year from a sales perspective, but said it is an opportunity for the more professional agents.
She said: “This isn't the year just to take on 'any listing', especially with the difficulty in the time it is taking from listing to completion.
“One thing that should help with this is the new material information requirements from Trading Standards. Any seller that isn't keen to help or provide the information required may not be worth taking on in 2024.
“It's also giving the 'good agents' that always comply with new rules and regulations one of the biggest opportunities to set themselves from the poor agents that don't.”
She said agents should be taking the Trading Standards guidance to every instruction to help explain the new rules and encourage information being share upfront.
Faulkner said: “I think it would also be great for agents to pass this information over to legal companies with the memorandum of sales and to surveyors going out on valuations or condition checks so they know you are 'one of the good guys' too.
“Hopefully with this change we can save everyone a lot of wasted time by having this information upfront.”
In addition to taking on instructions that are 'legally ready' to sell from day one of marketing, Faulkner said it would be good to make sure buyers have the funds to purchase a property.
She added: “Of course this mustn't be done just through in house mortgage experts, but accepting from external brokers that they can afford properties 'around' £250,000.
“A shocking third of people according to the OntheMarket Sentiment survey suggests that around a third of people are shopping for property without knowing if they can afford a property or not, we shouldn't be wasting anyone's time taking buyers on viewings that we don't know if they can afford.
“Overall 2024 will be a similar year price and transaction wise to 2023 and the better communication to buyers and sellers that people can still afford to buy and there are some, potentially, great value properties available for them. Add to this spending time testing out ways of reducing fall throughs and the time it takes to buy will really help the 'good guys' to survive and thrive.”
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Great advice from Kate on these matters that improve agency. Agents who collate a draft contract pack for potential buyers to see at the outset will have less fall throughs with informed buyers. Surely it’s better for a buyer to have transparency from the start rather than after four months of conveyancing. Saving money and giving more surety. A full pack should also slash enquiries. This coupled with ready buyers who have a mortgage pre agreed and solicitors instructed before their first viewing could halve the time to get exchanged. We also offer reservation agreements on all sales to stop anyone changing their mind on a whim the day before contracts exchange.
I remain convinced that agents will get a greater return from working at gaining upfront information than sales progressors trying to speed up a transaction post stc.
Re-aligning sales progressors to work alongside listers, assisting sellers on capturing all that will help speed up the eventual transaction must be a better and more effective way forward.
Agents should seriously consider taking an upfront payment from sellers. This will demonstrate a serious commitment to selling. This fee should cover the cost of EPC/floorplans/for sale board etc and act as a contribution towards marketing costs such as Rightmove etc. The only problem with this approach is that all agents would need to charge a similar upfront amount. But this will certainly sort the wheat from the chaff. This fee may deducted from the selling fee upon completion, this will also aid in retaining clients. At the very least, this fee should be charged where a seller is insistent on marketing the property above the agents recommended price.
Hi David, Back in New Zealand we always asked for the marketing fee/investment up front. This was always gladly paid by the seller. The marketing would include the following, sign boards, portal listing, photos, brochures and any other materials related to the sale of the property. Yes, I could also refund all or part of the marketing after the successful sale of the property. Buyers of a property also had to sign a legal document called a "Sale and Purchase Agreement" On signing the document and agreeing to a sale price, the buyer would then place a 5 or 10% deposit that was non refundable if they pulled out. I never had any fall throughs because of this. Also the time from the offer being accepted to keys being handed over was a minimum of 4 weeks (if we did not have any issues) and so I was paid very quickly and could move on to the next listing. I am just getting to grips with the UK process.
The principle is noble and goes in the right direction but supporting comprehensive guidance for the industry is currently lacking bearing in mind this was implemented somewhat over night! The implications are potentially enormous as it seems Agents will now need to verify "material information". It is likely many agents will try to make others responsible for supplying and verifying the information e.g. owner and conveyancers thereby reducing their own risk and liability. There seems to be a large gap - What about "property characteristics" - does this include Condition? Surely this is "material information". More interestingly why was this clearly left off the suggested list?
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