Estate agents using My Home Move for conveyancing can now track the progress of transactions online using a new dedicated eWay portal.
The portal, being rolled out more widely following a successful trial which we reported on in March, lets estate agents track the sales progression, providing real-time updates on the transaction. It is accessible from any smart device.
Doug Crawford, chief executive of My Home Move, said: “One of the challenges for the property industry is making sure that all parties in a transaction have the same information, at the same time.
“Confusion and delays can be caused by parties not being informed of changes and time is often taken up by chasing for updates rather than working together to progress a case. This new portal will get the industry working together like never before, making sure that more intuitive conversations are happening between parties to progress cases, rather than simply to update on the progress.
“The new portal gives our partners an unrivalled level of detail on case progression, with every action taken by a party in the transaction being visible at the touch of a button. Not only will our partners have access to this information, but actions needed by any party can be initiated using the portal, as it is fully-integrated with our internal case-management system. In short, this technology is going to be transformative for the relationship between conveyancers and the rest of the industry – which can only lead to a better experience for the client.”
One user, Simon ******* from Goadsby Estate Agents, said: “We’ve been using the new Introducer eWay portal for a short while now and it is not only very easy to use but the innovative dashboard provides information in a clear and easy to read format. The platform has a number of useful tools including the ability to monitor events in the conveyancing process as they happen.
“Whilst client confidentiality is preserved, the ability to monitor events as they happen online ensures we are better informed. This has enabled us to better support our clients through what can be a stressful process.”
Meanwhile, Leeds-based Enact Conveyancing, has announced 160 vacancies after opening a second office, at The Maltings in Hull.
Ben Carroll, managing director at Enact, said: “Hull is buoyant following its year as the UK City of Culture and we wanted to help bring business, investment and new opportunities to Hull, as well as tap into the talent here to establish our new team.”
The company employs more than 530 people at its head office in Leeds and has begun to recruit 160 staff members to its new Hull team, with 29 employees already recruited who started work this week.
Comments (5)
There have been systems like this for years – the agents hate them, the lawyers don’t update the milestones.
Milestones don’t deal with issues and the dramas associated with buying and selling.
Apparently the eWay portal is integrated into My Home Move’s own system, so hopefully milestones are updated automatically.
I would be interested to see this in action, but it looks like it is only available to introducers. Shame, but there’s no chance I am recommending anyone to Premier Property Lawyers, etc.
This feedback highlights a broader and more interesting issue.
How far can systems go to improve service levels – as you point out, aSalesAgent, you don’t want to work with this supplier, and therefore, no amount of technology will convince you otherwise, which is completely understandable.
We believe the only solution is complete transparency – Tim is right in that a checkbox does not solve all ills, but making transaction times and rates available to agents is something that solicitors definitely should do.
We have Land Registry reporting requisition number league tables (why aren’t these truly public) but why don’t agents ask solicitors for evidence of their completion rates – we have always been totally open with ours, because we believe in our service – and publish it through our agent portal.
ASalesAgent,if you are interested in seeing what can be achieved with a portal, please get in touch with me directly.
Peter Ambrose
Managing Director
pambrose@thepartnershiplimited.com
Please let conveyancing news be about improving the quality of the actual conveyancing/conveyancer, as far too many legal defects are arising on resales from previous conveyancing, not to mention grindingly slow deals where conveyancers do not understand proper management of their files, conveyancing procedure, property law itself and therefore how to answer enquiries.
Sales progression? The pace of that, and how estate agents get to know in detail what is happening and even an estimate of timing to exchange, is directly related to the above.
For us, we won’t use online case progression tools as they are not good enough for our Team, as we trade on constant, personal, detailed, communication …. never forcing estate agents to view tick box ‘progress’ online somewhere. Estate agents we work with – whether for our client or not – get to hear from us personally – and in detail what is happening, and are constantly involved with cc’d emails with the other lawyer in key communications. They then have superior detail to relay onwards with their own updates, making us both look good. They will never get a tick box ‘searches in…tick…’enquiries raised’ …tick…as that gives them no insight and keeps them at a distance unable to relay much to their client.
TOP TIP – if your estate agent recommends a badly performing conveyancer (worse yet, not telling you they are receiving a huge cash bung for why they don’t care in doing so)l eave them a Trustpilot and Google Places review to warn others to avoid both the estate agent and the conveyancer. It will help to raise standards.
Real time updates? “Monday 16:14…your conveyancer has left the office for the day”