The Estate Agent One Stop Shop

dfarry

Hi all...

Three years since our last attempt (the chain crashed!) we have decided to try to sell our home again.

We are expecting to get around £200K for it and an estate agent has given us a fixed price sellers quote of £2250 +VAT.

In addition we can get a HIP from them and completed by a local assessor, that I have been assured will be done within 2-3 days for £260+VAT. Also they can offer conveyancing for a price £600 for the sale and £600 for a purchase, on a no sale no fee, no hidden disbursements etc., apparently this is a local solicitor and we will have direct access to someone managing our contract.

I can get HIPS from say for example MyHipHome for £200 and that takes about 14 days to process I believe, so I don't mind paying the little bit extra to speed things up. MyHipHome also have an artangement with a solicitores in Chester O'Neill Patient Solicitors and they will charge just over £300 all-in for the conveyanciing on the sale (although as yet they haven't given me a price for a purchase).

So I'm a little bit unsure what to do. Our last home buying attempted failed because of problems with the chain and solicitors not doing the checks that were required, when they were needed. I was happy with my own solicitor but with hindsight I'm wondering if they could have done more. They were also an Internet based conveyancer (that have since received a lot of criticism here), I suppose it was inconvenient at times with paperwork etc. but generally not too bad to contact and deal with.

Is it worth gong with the one stop shop and paying about £500+vat I'd estimate for the priviledge. That said if I was going to go down this route I was going to agree to take all the services if the overall fixed price sale price was reduced to £2000+vat (so equivilent to a 1% agency fee).

Evee2000

Any HIP provider will be able to provide you with a 'basic hip' within a matter of days. The 'full hip' to include local authority searches will probably take a bit longer, but will not hold up the marketing of your property (all that is required is a basic hip in order for marketing to commence).

Ask your estate agent about 'commission' payments that they are receiving for putting you in touch with the hip provider and conveyancer! Then ask for a discount.

Doozergirl

There's no benefit to using the recommended providers. As Evee says, they're simply the ones offering the estate agent a commission.

It is not a one stop shop. It's three separate providers, one of whom is being paid by the other two.

googler

Doozergirl wrote: »

There's no benefit to using the recommended providers. As Evee says, they're simply the ones offering the estate agent a commission.

It is not a one stop shop. It's three separate providers, one of whom is being paid by the other two.

Yes, but doesn't it mean the client only has to instruct one person/company, and he/she will do the legwork/liaison/follow-up of instructing and contacting the other two?

Which, at the end of the day, takes some of the load off the seller's shoulders, and is what he/she means by one-stop, I thought....

dfarry

Thanks for the feedback... I realise the EA's will be getting commission, but from what they have said they do seem to have some control over the other companies, I guess in that they have a vested interested in acheiving a sale and are the source or revenue for these companies.

I'm still undecided.... I need to look through the forums and see if I can find a well rated internet/direct conveyancer to compare against... I'm not too bothered doing this over distance but want to go with a company that seems to be offering a good service to people.

itmakessense

You need to understand something here.

Estate agents (nearly all) are driven by one thing and one thing only Greed!

They get money from everyone they pass work onto.

They usually use law firms with panel work depts.

This means that your legal work is done by a non qualified person.

Conveyancers who are good will look into your purchase and ensure that you have good title, building final inspections, etc etc.

Look at how much you pay the agent compares to the solicitor!! Who gets the most???

Who does the most inmportant and most technical job???

If your legal fees are diluted by the agent taking 1/3 rd then how much legal work do you think the laywer will put in. you get what you pay for!!

Use a good recommended conveyancer, they will do your hip for free if you instruct on sale / purchase.

The agent wants your transaction over and done with ASAP just to get the money in the bank, they will harass your legal representative, and lie and cheat their way through blaming everyone they can to get one side harassing the other.

Many solicitors out there are really shoddy!!

I know cos I am married to one of the best conveyancers in the country, you would not believe how many solicitors do not know what they are doing, or how many are corrupt, as your solicitor if they are paying a referral to the agent, they should have told you that up front, that is the rule from the SRA, but they don't because they are corrupt!!

Use a recommended firm and pay the going rate or you may regret it later!!!

Good luck

googler

If you're married to one of the 'best conveyancers in the country' then I would have thought you could get by without indulging in mudslinging on public forums.......

What is your wedded partner driven by? Noble thoughts of providing conveyancing services to the populace on a non-profit basis? Charitable thoughts toward his/her fellow man?

Or does this conveyancer wish to maximise profit to secure a better lifestyle for you and your family, and pay for the components of this lifestyle?

If the last question is true, how does this differ from 'greed' ???

dfarry

Well..... if the Reallymoving.com website is anything to go by then the price for both my likely sale and purchase price is between £500-£700, strangely now that I have had actual breakdowns from the companies quoting the total cost is increased to £700-£900.... remember that the Estate Agent quoted me around £1200.

I take your point that you get what you pay for, but how do I know either way...

Lets say I used your wife.... how much would she charge me?

Doozergirl

dfarry wrote: »

Well..... if the Reallymoving.com website is anything to go by then the price for both my likely sale and purchase price is between £500-£700, strangely now that I have had actual breakdowns from the companies quoting the total cost is increased to £700-£900.... remember that the Estate Agent quoted me around £1200.

I take your point that you get what you pay for, but how do I know either way...

Lets say I used your wife.... how much would she charge me?

We have a very good solicitor who charges £750 + VAT these days as she doesn't do residential anymore but she's fantastic. We don't have to worry about anything as it will get done when we want it done.

I used conveyancing warehouse last year and they needed chasing. They had nearly three months between being instruted and our planned moving date. Our buyers used a local solicitor who would have cost £600 I guess and they were no better though! Neither solicitor did a thing until weeks down the line (we were purchasing another house through our really good solicitor and totally took our eye off the ball) at which point we had to kick them both into overdrive and we ended up having to exchange and complete on the same day. I think through experience I knew what could be driven in what timescales but they were heel dragging about the whole thing and we ended up being dealt with by about 3 different people. They were fine in the fact that they did what they were asked when they were asked but they wouldn't do anything proactively.

They were really cheap though. £264 + VAT for the sale, £254 + VAT for the purchase. For a future purchase I'd stick to a good solicitor. To sell, it doesn't matter so much because you're not risking anything except time. I make it sound as if I were unhappy with conveyancing warehouse - I wasn't at all but I'd be wary if you weren't used to the process of buying and selling.

dfarry

Hi Doozer, I deliberately avoided mentioning Conveyancing Warehouse/Roberts solicitors as they were the company I used back in 2006....and in the original CW thread you will see lots of comments (majority very good) about them.

Looking back, we had so many problems in the chain and we were working to a strict deadline.... things kept falling back it was so frustrating but CW seemed to be doing everything they could but they did get frustrated with some of the other solicitors and I think this breakdown also caused problems, in the end time ran out and I pulled out of the sale/purchase.

I think you have hit the nail on the head when you mention about being proactive, it does seem that many soliticors will only do things when they really have to, rather than get the routine stuff out of the way as soon as possible.

Unless anyone can point me in the directing of what they consider to be a good conveyancer then I think I am most likely to go with one of the direct providers.

John_Pierpoint

As I will be simply selling and know a fair bit about the property I am selling, I think I will risk it with O'Neill Patient Solicitors LLP.

I've only managed to find positive information about them on the web. First I've got to find a buyer

I'll let you know how I get on.