solicitor choice

tiger135

any tips on choosing a solicitor for a freehold cash purchase?
i have quotes from 2 local to the property (half hour from my current location) and one from the solicitor i used for my previous sale (local to me). they are fairly similar in price. I just want a quick transaction mainly. 

MikeJXE

Better the devil you know (if he was any good)

badmemory

I bought my freehold over 20 years ago so things may have changed but I didn't use a solicitor although I did have a letter from the then freeholder who I had been paying (so not a scam) with the offer.

Tiglet2

tiger135 said:

any tips on choosing a solicitor for a freehold cash purchase?
i have quotes from 2 local to the property (half hour from my current location) and one from the solicitor i used for my previous sale (local to me). they are fairly similar in price. I just want a quick transaction mainly. 

The main tip I can give you is if you want a quick transaction, do not instruct a solicitor based on how cheap they are.  Cheap conveyancing is possible only when they take on too much work and being quick is not part of the agreement.

user1977

badmemory said:

I bought my freehold over 20 years ago so things may have changed but I didn't use a solicitor although I did have a letter from the then freeholder who I had been paying (so not a scam) with the offer.

The OP means (I presume) that they're buying a freehold property from scratch, not that they're buying the freehold of their existing leasehold property.

Flugelhorn

Go for the one nearby that you know, it doesn;t matter that they are nowhere near the property. I bought houses  over the last few years andused  a solicitor 200 miles from them, all worked absolutely fine and I knew they would do a good job

YoungBlueEyes

If you've been happy before with the one local to you I'd go with that one again.

As for having a quick transaction - using a solicitor that's nearby will speed things up a little, if you're on top of things. Instead of posting paperwork you can go in and collect it/drop it off. Getting yourself organised so you can answer their questions will help too. If your solic emails to say 'have you got a copy of your last gas certificate' (for eg) you can instantly say yes or no without having to spend ages going through ramshackle piles of paperwork.  

There's a lot of the process you won't be able to speed up though. Searches and surveys can only go as fast as the council or the surveyor who's doing them. Management companies go as fast or as slow as they please. But keep yourself on the ball at your end and it'll make a difference. 

Good luck.