One in three (34%) home buying transactions have fallen through within the last year, wasting almost £2,000 on associated costs in the process, such as surveys, local authority searches and legal fees. The average legal fee has risen by 11% or £140 in the

When it comes to communication it seems that some conveyancers just simply don't get that it's the most important part of what they do in the 21st century. People want to be kept in the loop and even no news is fine if you can communicate when it's expected that you'll have a proper update. On top of that, some of the factory outfits are not employing competent people or if they are, run at such a tight margin that they take on too much work and good conveyancers crumble under the pressure. What are we doing about it, well we employ a team of admins to get things through slickly and are still turning transactions within 3 months on average against a much higher industry norm. On top of that though, it's gotten so bad that we're launching our own conveyancing platform by brokers, for brokers which will connect brokers to firms that understand the need to communicate and value customer service. Not a sausage factory in sight. We're soft launching in August with a view to going out to the wider community later in the year. Time to take the FML out of the conveyancing process!

Fall-throughs are most often due to one of three things; A buyer can't get a mortgage, something detrimental is uncovered during the transactions within the survey or conveyancing and finally, apathy. Unfortunately, there's nothing anyone can do about buyers' and seller's apathy; however, there are things we, as brokers, can do to ensure we give everyone the best chance at succeeding. The first thing is to ensure the buyer is matched to the correct lender and taking time to do the basics correctly; have you got four months' payslips, four months of bank statements, the most recent P60, a passport, driving licence, credit report and six months evidence of deposit? Then, when buyers have an offer accepted, are you sure they're instructing solicitors on that same day? We complete the legal paperwork with our clients more often than not to ensure it's correct the first time, it's going back to the solicitors with the necessary documents, and the buyers are paying for searches straight away. Like riding a bike, you fall off if you stop peddling as you have no forward momentum; buying a home is no different. The forward movement keeps chains together, which is why our own fall-through rate hovers around the 5% mark. Remember the golden rule taught to all new armed forces recruits as the 7 Ps, Prior Proper Planning Prevents P*** Poor Performance.