When I started my career in Conveyancing in the 1990’s, my work dealing with property contracts and transferring title was a laborious task, involving lots of printed paper and bound contracts, typewritten letters that had to be posted. I had to make many long phone calls and wait hours on hold to banks to book settlements, cheques that had to be written and presented at a physical settlement and original certificate of titles that had to be kept physically in safe keeping. Many tasks could go wrong if you didn’t have someone who was able to oversee that the matter went smoothly, ensuring that documents were signed and witnessed correctly and timely, that original titles and transfers were not lost in the mail and ensuring that cheques were printed correctly without error.
Nowadays in 2022, I can prepare an electronic contract and have it signed in Docusign, attend a virtual settlement in an electronic workspace and distribute settlement funds instantly to pay all parties including any commission owed, outstanding rates and transfer duty and land titles fees.
However what hasn’t changed is the need for clients to speak with a trusted person when they are going through the Conveyancing process.
When you are going through selling or purchasing property, you can’t just let it be ‘processed’ by a faceless and non responding entity who doesn’t understand or assist you.
Many first clients call me with having no idea on how they are going to sell or purchase their property. All they have been told by their Real Estate Agent is to ‘get a Conveyancer’. We all still need to know WHO is looking after our important work and are they contactable, are they knowledgeable? reliable? and will they be on task immediately when you need them to be?
One example is that a contract which has been signed by a buyer, conditional upon satisfactory pest and building reports and now those reports have come in which contains problems shown at the property. A call to your Conveyancer to discuss the options moving forward is imperative and you need someone to implement the next steps immediately.
This month, a client of mine had discovered that the property had various building issues that their building inspector had flagged. I wrote to the seller immediately regarding the issues and was successful in negotiating a reduction allowed at settlement in favour of my buyer client which will now pay to fix these items after settlement for them.
Call me today if you want the modern virtual electronic conveyancing but you want personal service alongside your journey during selling or purchasing property.