Mortgage Soup fires the questions at Amy Innes, head of operations at conveybuddy.

Mortgage Soup (MS): What does your role involve?

Amy Innes (AI): I am responsible for overseeing and managing the day-to-day operations here at conveybuddy. We’re a conveyancing distributor, available to brokers who offer conveyancing advice to their clients, using our portal to select one of our quality law firms to carry out the conveyancing work. I work on streamlining our processes, improving efficiency, and making sure everything works so we can achieve our business objectives.

MS: What initiatives can we expect to see from conveybuddy in 2025?

AI: Our team are always being proactive as opposed to reactive. That means listening to the feedback we get from both the broker users and the law firms on our panel. We want to deliver a seamless interaction/service between ourselves, brokers and law firms, to ensure everyone is in the loop about how cases are progressing through the system and process.

Our focus in 2025 will be on developing new and existing relationships with both advisory firms and law firms, to give the former the tools they need to expand their conveyancing advice offering, and to provide the latter with plenty of business from our users. That means focusing on the products we offer via our firms, the ease of use of our portal, transparency of price/fees, and excellent, ongoing communication. As you would imagine, there is always room for improvement across all of these.

MS: How does conveybuddy differentiate itself from competitors?

AI: We do so via a number of key attributes that we have built into the proposition, in order to leave brokers in no doubt they will be getting the best service and pricing for their clients, access to the highest quality of conveyancing, and the opportunity to grow a strong income stream.

Firstly, via transparency. It’s so important as it helps build trust, not only with our brokers but their clients. We hear so often of ‘hidden fees’ on the initial quote and clients being left with an unexpected bill that often leads to a broker having to sacrifice his/her referral fee. That’s why here at conveybuddy we ensure our quotes are fully transparent from the outset.

Secondly, service.  From time to time, brokers need our support. We don’t just stop once we have the broker registered, we help nurture them and focus on building strong relationships to really understand their business needs.

Thirdly, price. While price isn’t everything, it certainly places a huge part. Over the years, a number of panel managers have become greedy and increased their margins on their panel fee and their search packs. We offer brokers a competitive quote without punishing the conveyancer.

Finally, our support for charities. When we set up conveybuddy, we were clear we wanted to give something back. We work with three charities and, on registration, allow the broker to choose which charity they want to be affiliated with. For each of their cases that completes, conveybuddy makes a donation to their charity of choice.

MS: Can you share more about your approach to working with brokers?

AI: I have worked with brokers for over ten years. I pride myself on building relationships and solving problems. Adding value is always at the front of my mind, and ensuring they are fully aware of all the opportunities available to them – for example, with conveybuddy there’s not just the conveyancing advice to be provided but we also have options via The Moving Portal for clients who may also want a survey.

MS: What trends are you currently seeing in the market?

AI: In recent weeks, we have seen lenders dropping rates – even if we’re perhaps not anticipating Bank Base Rate to drop as much as we might have anticipated at the start of the year. Lenders are ambitious, particularly in the remortgage space, and there are certainly plenty of existing borrowers who are coming to the end of their special rates during the course of any given month.

As we know, free legals are available, but we find that many brokers are not keen on their clients going down this route, because of issues of quality, and potential delays. With our ‘All Inclusive Remortgage’ we can offer a quality conveyancing firm to be working on their case, plus there are no hidden fees either. It’s a win-win for the broker and client alike.

MS: How is conveybuddy expanding its partnerships?

AI: Our numbers are growing each day. We have a number of new law firms lined up to join our panel this year and we’ll be announcing those as they come on board. But we will never have a panel with hundreds of firms; we want to ensure we have a close-knit panel we can grow with and build a strong relationship between us, them and the broker. Plus it allows us to keep a handle on quality and also the peaks and troughs of business that law firms will also be dealing with. By doing so, we can point brokers in the right direction to ensure they get the right conveyancing firm recommendation for their client.

MS: Finally, how do you unwind when you’re not working?

AI: I’ve recently taken up running- I find this is a great way to unwind. Stick the headphones in and off I go. It’s as simple as that.