‘They don’t know what they don’t know’.
Earlier this month, I took part in a ‘Money Box Live’ programme on Radio 4 entitled How to buy a home, and the phrase above struck me a number of times while listening to some of the featured would-be first-time buyers in response to a number of the questions posed.
And, when it comes to those going through the process of buying a first home, you might well offer the point of view: “Well, why would they know all this?”
Why would they know how long the process might take? What can impact it? What can go wrong? Which conveyancer to choose? What it is going to cost them beyond the price of the house, in terms of other requirements, such as conveyancing or even removal costs to physically move home?
A learning curve for homebuyers
All these topics were raised, and I’m probably not telling advisers anything new here because you deal with first-time buyers on a day-to-day basis. It was clear we have a huge knowledge gap when it comes to the home buying and moving process, particularly among those new to it.
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Although, I suspect gaps persist even for those consumers who might have gone through the process multiple times; at the end of the day, every property is different.
Clearly, as a conveyancing sector, we have an ongoing job to do here, because there’s an obvious disconnect between the public and what they should be looking for in a conveyancer, let alone how they source one from the many firms that carry out conveyancing, what they are likely to be paying for those services, how they will be communicated with, and again, just how long the process is going to take.
Setting realistic expectations
We keep coming back to the length of time the ‘average’ sale takes to progress through to completion because, again as the programme highlighted, most ‘newbies’ have no idea that they could be looking at many months.
What struck me is that, understandably, there is an initial fixation on securing a deposit, who might help them to do that, and how best to save. This is then followed by a level of knowledge that they should be securing a mortgage agreement in principle, and – good news for this sector – that they can best do this via a mortgage adviser, but that’s where things begin to get tricky.
Clearly, they go to an estate agent to then source a property, but the missing ingredient around about this time is the legal awareness, the understanding of what they will require in terms of a conveyancer, and where to go, what to do, what they might have to pay, what will be required of them, the representation they will get; the list goes on.
Advisers as a key information source
And here perhaps is where advisers might sense an opportunity to fill that gap.
On the programme itself, it was mentioned that estate agents might traditionally have provided the conveyancing referral, might have relationships already in place that a knowledge-shy first-time buyer would be more than willing to take, but really there is nothing stopping advisers from fulfilling this same role.
Indeed, given the client has trusted you to provide finance for the biggest purchase of their lives so far, then why shouldn’t you be the source of the advice on who you know to be a great conveyancer or one that does leasehold flats impacted by the Building Safety Act, particularly if you too have those strong relationships in place, can deal with the conveyancer on the client’s behalf, and can help smooth the path for what is always likely to be a stressful period, regardless of the circumstances?
It’s clear consumers want to hear from trusted professionals in this space.
One couple on the programme talked about getting information from friends or family, but those same friends and family members might have been through the experience many years ago and/or don’t know of any conveyancing specialists anyway.
Filling that knowledge gap should be an industry-wide commitment, but we have to recognise that the professionals in the process, particularly advisers, are often best placed to hold the client’s hand, to spell out what the process is, and to point them in the right conveyancing direction.
Eventually, we hope the combined work of the industry via the Digital Property Market Steering Group (DPMSG) in creating the Digital Property Information Protocol will mean all sectors will know how best to collaborate to give the best possible outcome to the buyer and the stakeholders in the process.
