The times you need more than a mouse to buy a house

Debbie Mccathie on round the clock sales

It is not so long ago that buying a house involved a trip to the local SPC office or a sweep of the property supplement, to be sure you could be armed with a list of properties to visit, either on a Thursday night or Sunday afternoon.

At the same time, dealing with a lawyer was strictly confined to the hours of 9-to5, Monday to Friday, and even then it was often a condescending experience.

Today the situation is very much changed.

The way we live our lives in the digital age, combined with everemerging trend for solicitors and estate agents to up their game as competition in the sector has intensified – fueled by the surge of internetbased agencies – has transformed the process of buying a house.

The mantra of ‘using your mouse to buy your house’ is the norm today – and it is not just among buyers of a younger generation.

But while it has become increasingly easier for house-hunters to sofasurf – or indeed browse at a time convenient to them – to view prospective properties on their tablets, phones and laptops; solicitors and estate agents are understanding that good customer service needs to go beyond this.

Clients want and – rightly – expect a better, personal service; gone are the days when buying a property should be seen as different from any other consumer transaction.

As a society, we have become used to products or services being accessible and easy to source at the time we want – so why should property transactions be any different?

It’s the reason why we have moved to a seven-days-a-week conveyancing service. We think this service could make the difference between securing a dream home, or losing out.

Traditionally, people look at properties over the weekend but have to wait until Monday to contact their solicitor – and by the time they have tracked them down, discussed the house’s merits, agreed a price and submitted a formal offer to the sellers, it could be late in the day or even into Tuesday.

With Gilson Gray, you can talk to a conveyancing expert over the weekend to be given guidance on the market and the property and then agree a formal offer.

That way, the offer reaches the seller’s solicitors first thing on Monday.

With a fixed price property that could seal the deal. But an offer received at 9am on the Monday that beats all the other competition could be all that is needed to convince a seller to accept – avoiding the need to go to a closing date.

A weekend conveyancing service is also meeting the needs of many people who use Saturdays and Sundays to meet with mortgage brokers and view property showhomes and who like the idea of all their property-buying needs being met at a time that’s convenient to them.

While it is right that the traditional way of doing things is on its way out, buying a house is still a hugely emotional and important decision.

So there will always be a need to provide depth of expertise – and sometimes even a voice of reason or a calming influence - on the end of a phone or in a face-to-face meeting. The digital age will never replace that.