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Mike Stainsby

National Business Development Manager at Property Searches Direct

525 Profile Views

About Me

Keen motorcyclist, dog lover and dedicated family man with an interest in all things property related.

my expertise in the industry

Property professional specialising in the conveyancing marketplace including software solutions to legal firms championing any solutions that helps speed up the UK property system. Currently working to change the entire face of conveyancing working with Estate Agency groups encouraging them to enable buyers and sellers to take control of legal Search products.

Mike 's Recent Activity

Sellers coming to the market should provide evidence to potential buyers that their property has a clean bill of health by showing them a complete Search pack. Upfront data enables sellers to be aware of and rectify issues if possible and buyers to know very quickly if the house is what they really want. I am surprised to read the recommendation in the article that 'they (buyers) should look to get a specialist surveyor in' A comprehensive Search pack will include a Flood, Ground & Environmental Report. Where this evidence does not exist they can commission their own pack on day 1 before any expensive further surveys are paid for.

From: Mike Stainsby 09 August 2021 09:06 AM

Property 'Log Books' or 'Passports' in conjunction with unique property reference numbers will provide a really useful receptacle for sellers to store all of the pertinent information needed to transfer ownership of the property. If each property that went to the market had these and sellers took responsibility for ordering their own Searches the market would be much simpler and transactions would be quicker with less fall throughs.

From: Mike Stainsby 14 April 2021 09:21 AM

To me this ranks right up there with 'Smoking is bad for you' and 'Having a huge cooked breakfast every morning probably causes heart disease'. Estate Agents and home movers being asked about the speed of transactions will always elicit the same responses and produce similar headlines over and over again. It is great to see a proportionate amount of column inches recently to solutions to the problem too. Home movers and Estate Agents need to seek out ways to speed up transactions upfront data is a good start.

From: Mike Stainsby 14 April 2021 08:53 AM

The perception that the home buying process is getting worse is quite unsurprising considering were just coming out a global pandemic, a furlough scheme that puts law firms under extreme pressure with staffing and massive extra demand driven by the SDLT holiday. There are many positive stories of innovation (that don't make good headlines) Digital logbooks, online AML/ID, Digital Signatures and getting sellers legally prepared are but a few. The UK has a very laissez faire attitude to the current market conditions and a hope that market will sort itself out. Solutions for Home movers, Estate Agents and Conveyancers exist that improve the process massively BUT since they aren't mandated they need to be sought out.

From: Mike Stainsby 31 March 2021 08:14 AM

Baby steps? Property Searches Direct make all legal protocol forms available to sellers with the ability to buy full Search packs based on postcode risk on the day vendors go onto the market (or before!). All Searches will be commissioned immediately and may even be all back before a buyer is found, how is that for getting ahead of the curve? Completed Searches can then be transferred to buyers solicitor (and seller refunded) Lawyers get on with the lawyering. Win win for all parties. Job done.

From: Mike Stainsby 23 March 2021 10:23 AM

Interesting. Completing data upfront is indeed a good thing we encourage sellers to do it as soon as the property goes to market and make editable protocol forms available to download. It is however fascinating to see that a new form - the BASPI - is elsewhere being championed to revolutionise the industry when ostensibly it's the same questions and same data being collected. I worry that we will have an argument over what to complete rather than getting on and doing it. The key is engagement and buy in from agents and those that look for differentiators will be rewarded with more vendors quicker exchanges and fewer fall through's.

From: Mike Stainsby 17 March 2021 09:04 AM

Agents need to find differentiators that will attract both buyers and sellers to their offering we offer free platforms to enable agents to collaborate closer with their chosen conveyancing partners and direct access to protocol forms and Search packs to get legally prepared. There's a good place to start - any takers?

From: Mike Stainsby 02 December 2020 15:44 PM

There is room in Estate Agency for many different models and the customer will ultimately decide which they prefer. It's a bit of a stretch comparing these models but understand the attempt to draw a comparison to show what is 'right' and 'wrong' with UK estate agency. In my opinion it is the infrastructure which is creaking under the strain, this is where innovation will help to ease the burden. The UK market will find ways to improve itself and those adopters will reap the rewards as they circumvent the issues and improve their service delivery.

From: Mike Stainsby 01 December 2020 08:38 AM

Doing the right thing. Bravo - great piece of PR!

From: Mike Stainsby 03 November 2020 14:46 PM

Nobody could have written a business plan that accounted for the COVID pandemic or the artificially high numbers of transactions now resulting from the Governments unexpected actions to prop up the UK housing market. This is, however, quite a predictable industry response to the end of the SDLT holiday but banking on the extension shouldn't be part of an agents business plan moving forward. Please urge your vendors to order Search Packs when they put their properties on the market, transfer them to the buyer (when found) and be weeks if not months ahead of the lengthening queues - completions by 31st of March are still very possible - but not leaving it all to chance and hoping for the best.

From: Mike Stainsby 29 October 2020 09:57 AM

It is quite disappointing to see Estate Agents blaming Conveyancers who in turn blame Local Authorities. We are, after all, working in a global pandemic and seeing a 'perfect storm' of pressures being put onto the market described as 'not fit for purpose'. We should all be looking for solutions not wasting our energy pointing fingers! We are where we are! Sellers should familiarise themselves with boiler service agreements, FENSA certificate, extension building regs etc and put them somewhere safe. They should then order their Searches as soon as they go on the market because the content is property specific. A buyer, when found, can buy the Searches and the Vendor refunded in full. This simple change of focus could shave weeks if not months from an 18 week transaction. Or we could all sit back and let the inevitable happen. I have broad shoulders please tell me why I am wrong?

From: Mike Stainsby 28 October 2020 10:57 AM

That is a really interesting article. Visibility and transparency are great to help show what is going on in a chain and will highlight roadblocks that exist BUT if everyone isn't using it cracks start to show. The actual problem is the process followed by agents, buyers and sellers alike drawn from the 1950's and shoe horned into the modern world. We recommend that sellers 'Get Legally Prepared' - familiarise themselves with crucial sales documents, Boiler service agreements, FENSA certificate, Solar Panel agreements etc (that can scupper a sale if not found) and buy their Searches at the point they instruct an Estate Agent. Environmental, Flood, Chancel, Energy & Infrastructure, Radon, Ground reports are PROPERTY specific NOT person specific. So if sellers wait for the property to go on the market, a buyer to be found, sales memo to be sent, signed instructions to be sent and received, contract requested, contract received, ID/AML checks completed satisfactorily, funds taken on account, cleared funds confirmed and then the Searches and reports ordered to find Harrogate LA take 70 days.....your not moving in for Christmas and may even miss the SDLT deadline. Shouting at your conveyancers and contacting them more and more is not a plan. Please get in touch if this resonates with any agent that is starting to wake up in a cold sweat worrying about their 6 or 7 figured pipeline.

From: Mike Stainsby 23 October 2020 08:54 AM

Andrew Stanton you are spot on. There is always a considerable time lag between sale agreed and legals getting under way as there are protocols to observe. We recommend that buyers and sellers get themselves legally prepared and are shocked that Governing bodies in the conveyancing market predict that "50% of people will be disappointed by the SDLT holiday so everyone needs to get their searches done by the seller on listing!" If you live or work as an agent in any of the following areas Harrogate (70) Flintshire (45) Bedford (45) Swindon (40) Thanet (40) South Derbyshire (40) your pipeline is under serious threat (where the bracketed figure is the lengthening Local Authority Search turnaround time). So if you are arranging sales telling buyers and sellers that completion is possible for Christmas think again. Ask your vendor, on instruction, to order their Search Pack and fill in SPIFF FFQ or equivalent to get sale ready and therefore into the lengthening queues as soon as possible. Shouting at and hounding the conveyancer will not make the transaction proceed any quicker it is a perfect storm that may leave many disappointed. It is a real solution to a real problem, hoping for a deadline to the SDLT extension is not.

From: Mike Stainsby 22 October 2020 09:23 AM

Sellers having access to differing Estate Agency models can only be a good thing, the market ultimately decides what is 'right' or 'wrong' particularly with such limited legislation in place (parking ROPA) for a moment. The emergence of new ways of doing things makes more traditional firms up their game to avoid falling by the wayside. In my view much of the issues start when an offer is made and accepted as the Conveyancing process is archaic. Harnessing new technology with more collaboration between stakeholders will make the current system quicker, cheaper and less stressful. The current Government is committed to bring about meaningful change in this area. Although it has declined to legislate positively following recent white papers. Transparency is the key to improving the customer experience and speeding up the transaction reducing the possibility of it failing. Moving home Just takes too long, technological improvements will help considerably. Buyers and sellers need to get more legally prepared and agents should help enable it by being more involved.

From: Mike Stainsby 17 October 2020 10:58 AM

Agents have certainly had to innovate due to COVID with virtual viewings etc but it's post offer where the biggest pressure points exist. We believe vendors should get ahead by readying themselves legally - order a seller's search pack find FENSA certificates, boiler maintenance paperwork. Buyers should check inherent risks in the appropriate postcode area via our free hazard checker, get an offer accepted and then order their buyers search pack which can be presented directly to their chosen conveyancer. Many local authorities are now extending search turn around times so waiting several weeks before ordering the pack seems counterintuitive to us.

From: Mike Stainsby 15 October 2020 08:45 AM

I wouldn't be surprised to see an extension to the current stamp duty holiday to prevent a dip in the market and prevent sales falling through as it becomes clear that they won't meet the deadline. I've never fully appreciated why the tax is for buyers and not sellers which would seem more equitable.

From: Mike Stainsby 08 October 2020 08:30 AM

On the flipside more than 90% of the market is still served by a 'traditional' estate agency model. This shows that buyers and sellers still want it and it continues to flourish despite an expectation that online would become dominant. Either way the conveyancing process needs improvement as neither model can avoid backlogs in the system caused by the current set of quite unique market pressures.

From: Mike Stainsby 07 October 2020 08:41 AM

At Property Searches Direct we encourage both the buyer and seller to start the legal process as soon as possible. Vendors can order their local search and drainage report as they put their property up for sale and start gathering boiler service documents, FENSA certificate etc. Buyers can order a Search pack after visiting our Hazard Checker to explore possible risks associated with the property they are interested in. Local authorities are struggling to cope with the demands being placed on them and are experiencing some large backlogs. These problems will only get worse as the end of the SDLT holiday gets closer. It's definitely better to get into a growing queue as soon as you possibly can rather than blindly hoping the queue will get better, because it won't!

From: Mike Stainsby 05 October 2020 11:37 AM

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