Do you have a relationship with an estate agent, asks Harpal Singh, managing director of Conveyancing Alliance Ltd

It is impossible to survive and thrive in this industry without strong working relationships which is why all businesses should be continuously looking to develop existing and new relationships. In our view many firms are often content to ‘sit on what they have’ in the hope that strong business volumes will be maintained or, if they have fallen off in recent times, that they will return at some unknown point in the future.

This is not a market in which we can hope for change, as Mahatma Gandhi so eloquently put it, we have to ‘be the change we want to see in the world’ which means getting out into the market and forging those relationships which will help drive the business forward.

To my mind, the relationship between adviser firm and estate agent can be a crucial and equally rewarding one for both parties. It’s a simple fact that where once agents almost always had an in-house adviser sat within their four walls, this is no longer the case. Of course the larger chains will have continued with this type of operation, but not so in the case of smaller to medium-sized agents.

Setting up a relationship with an estate agent has to be a two-way offering both parties are going to need to have a demand satisfied and it is going to need to be mutually beneficial.

Consider this estate agent need and question whether your business can fulfil it? Given the nature of the economy and people’s financial situation it is vitally important that agents vet the offers they receive for properties before putting them to the vendor. We are not in a market where a vendor can expect tens of offers to choose from instead the vendor needs to be sure about the offers they do receive and that those people making it are in a strong position to obtain the necessary finance and follow through on their offer.

Many of the bigger agents will not forward on an offer until it has been fully vetted this is because the reputational damage of an offer being accepted, only for the deal to fall through because those making the offer were unable to gain the finance, would be huge. No vendor wants to think that they are about to sell their property to a reputable buyer only to find out weeks later that the deal was never going to go ahead in the first place because the potential buyer, given their current financial circumstances, was never going to qualify for the mortgage they needed.

Smaller and medium-sized agents also need to quality their offers before putting them to vendors however it is likely that they will not have any in-house adviser or additional resource that is able to carry out this service. Quite frankly, they will also not have the necessary expertise to do it properly themselves which is where mortgage advisers come in.

Now, many advisers might baulk at doing this offer qualification work for ‘free’ indeed they might think it is too time-intensive to fit in with their current work. However, we must think ‘out of the box’ in this regards because there could be considerable benefits to an arrangement where you, as an adviser, agree to speak to the potential buyer to review their offer and their ability to achieve the finance necessary to make it. Essentially, you would be saying yes or no to the offer being forwarded to the vendor based on your assessment of their affordability/income/criteria, etc.

This is a valuable service to the agent but what can the adviser get out of it? Well, firstly, the adviser is getting themselves in front of potential buyers who are likely to need mortgage/protection/insurance advice. Yes, they may already have sourced it themselves, but this will not be the case for all. Essentially, these are potential clients and, as mentioned above, it is not just the mortgage we are talking about here.

Alongside this, advisers will be wanting to get in front of buyers before they put an offer in. Most agencies have lists of ‘hot buyers’ because when they talk to vendors about their property they want to be able to prove they can potentially secure them a quick-sale essentially they want to produce lists of ‘pre-qualified buyers’ who may be able to achieve this. The pre-qualification of these buyers could be done by you, the adviser, gaining a significant opportunity with individuals who may not have sourced any advice to day. Again, it is all a question of leads and then turning these into clients.

This need not be a service that is provided to just one agent’s office either. Having a stable of three or four local, independent agents who can come to you for this service should illicit a significant number of leads and, if you are any good at your job, you can convert these into regular clients.

Managing the time spent on this will be the key, however, those that can do this effectively are likely to benefit. Also, while you might not want to spend considerable time in an agent’s office doing this work, many advisers may see this as an advantage. I know of many professional advisers who no longer have office space but work from home some in this bracket may like to take up the opportunity of free office space offered by an agent.

Your first move in this direction will be to discuss with agents what you can offer and to provide a commitment to qualify the offers and to agree a general turnaround time for each one. Once you are happy with this arrangement it is up to advisers to make the most of the time you will have with these buyers introducing your own advisory services to them, which should hopefully benefit all parties.

Working in our industry at present is all about pulling your sleeves up and making things happen. Business will not simply walk in through the door as it used to pre-Credit Crunch we should not forget this and this type of relationship with an agent(s) could greatly increase your client base over the coming months and years.