It’s not uncommon for agents/brokers and carriers to express frustration with one another. For many risks, especially those more complex, agents are prone to gripe about carriers’ submission process, which is often laborious and requires a lot of back and forth with the underwriter. On the other hand, carriers frequently encounter challenges with agents misunderstanding their appetite or slowly adopting new tech capabilities. These challenges – and others – emphasize the importance of carriers investing in digital capabilities to support distributors and improve customer experience, increase efficiencies, and grow business.
SMA recently surveyed agency executives in commercial lines to understand their satisfaction with insurers’ digital sales and servicing offerings and the capabilities they believe insurers should invest in to support their needs. The study’s results were published in two separate research reports focused on the small commercial and mid/large commercial segments.
Immediately, the research shows significant misalignment between commercial lines agents’ most-wanted digital sales capabilities and carriers’ current investment plans across the sixteen options presented. Of course, it is unrealistic to expect 100% alignment across the board as the objectives and needs of agencies and carriers are different. But as co-dependent partners, there should be closer alignment in the many areas where there is mutual advantage.
In the mid/large commercial arena, over two-thirds of agents seek AMS real-time upload integration, whereas only a quarter of carriers is investing in this technology. In this segment, carriers are also hyper-focusing on enhancing their agent sales portal, but only 14% of agents say this area currently needs greater improvement. In contrast, agents and carriers in small commercial lines see eye-to-eye on the needs and investments in both of these capabilities. Instead, they do not align with other technologies, such as risk appetite and proposal tools.
There is greater consensus among commercial lines agents and carriers regarding the seventeen digital servicing capabilities featured in the survey. In both small and mid/large commercial lines, agents’ needs align with carriers’ investments in commission dashboards and pay-a-bill technologies. Agents in mid/large commercial lines also emphasize the importance of self-servicing capabilities, such as policy download and claims filing capabilities, and carriers appear to meet demands in these areas. One area where commercial lines agents and carriers don’t align is in auto certificates. Half of mid/large commercial agents and 36% of small commercial agents say this is a top need for their practices. Still, less than 20% of carriers in both segments are funding projects in the capability.
Despite agents and brokers becoming increasingly satisfied with digital sales and servicing offerings, there continues to be a division between where agents want carriers to invest and carriers’ actual investment plans. Agents want further investment in distribution technologies that will help them increase efficiency and service their policyholders. Carriers that can align strategies and investments with both their internal and distributor needs will differentiate themselves and become partners of choice for commercial lines agents and brokers.
For more information on agencies’ digital strategies and priorities in small commercial and mid/large commercial lines, read our recent research reports: “P&C Agency Distribution: Digital Strategies and Plans for Small Commercial Lines in 2023” and “P&C Agency Distribution: Digital Strategies and Plans for Mid/Large Commercial Lines in 2023.” These reports are part of SMA’s research series designed to provide actionable insights for carriers on distributor plans and expectations. Contact the author for more information on this new research and advisory services offerings for distribution.
This blog entry has been reposted with permission from SMA.
Estate agents were forced to take down an online listing for an ‘astonishing’ £160,000 two-bedroom property after home seekers saw what the inside looked like.
The ‘feral’ property, which is for ‘cash buyers only’ was mocked online for having no first-storey floor, an unfinished roof and plants growing inside it.
The optimistic listing of the terraced house in Shirehampton, Bristol, was being advertised on Rightmove as an ‘extremely exciting’ two-bed home.
Shocking interior photographs show the first floor – where it’s believed the bedrooms would be – is no longer even there.
Others show its bare brick walls rising to the unfinished roof that contains a giant hole covered with what appears to be sheets of corrugated plastic.
A lower section of the ceiling has browned plants dangling towards the dirty ground floor, which is simply one room from the ‘barn-like’ front door to its rear.
Estate agent Haart’s listing description claims planning permission has already been granted to turn the former coach house – which once housed horses – with ‘huge potential’ into a two-bed home.
It says they expect ‘the fantastic opportunity not to be around for long’ – despite the property still being on the market six months after the asking price was lowered to £160,000 in September 2022.
The former ‘fire station coach house’, which is only available to cash buyers, has been mocked online with almost 20,000 people viewing the images and one even joking it could lead to a ‘traumatic Grand Designs episode’.
Another mocked Haart’s optimistic Rightmove description, labelling it as ‘feral’.
After being alerted to the public ridicule on social media, the estate agents removed the listing from Rightmove.
One social media user wrote: ‘This takes the p**s. I wouldn’t even go so far as saying it’s a house. How the hell is this exciting? It’s a barn. Absolutely feral.’
Another commented: ‘I knew it was bad when I saw the barn door.’
One user saw potential in the ‘barn’ and commented: ‘Is it bad that I like it?’
The poster replied: ‘NO YOU DON’T.’
The user wrote: ‘All I see is potential and a traumatic Grand Designs episode.’
Haart estate agents declined to comment.
The listing on Rightmove wrote: ‘With this property being suited to cash buyers only, we expect this to be a fantastic opportunity and one that will not stick around for long!’
The listing goes on to say it was ‘historically the fire station when horses were kept there’ and proclaim it is for ‘cash buyers only!’.
Friday, 24 March 2023, 19:03
National Police officers on the Costa del Sol have arrested three fake real estate agents in Marbella for alleged crimes of fraud, false documentation and belonging to a criminal group. According to the investigation, the suspects would have pocketed about 20,000 euros with this type of fraud if they had not been apprehended, the force said in a statement.
The detainees, two women and a man, aged between 34 and 43 years, posed as employees of a real estate agency headquartered in the Costa del Sol town. But they had never worked for this legitimate business. Instead, using false documents they deceived individuals who were looking to rent a property in Marbella, to pay sizable sums as a deposit.
The investigation, carried out by officers from Marbella’s National Police HQ, began at the end of February following a complaint from a member of the public who reported having been the victim of the scam.
This person made three transfers to different bank accounts for a total amount of 6,070 euros. The victim had contacted a woman who claimed to be a real estate agent, via an internet portal.
According to the investigations, the suspects posed as clients to the estate agents in the area and obtained relevant information about the flats for rent. Subsequently, using trikcery, they advertised on the internet and contacted people looking for flats, closing the deals and providing false rental contracts, which contained details of third parties who were not involved in the scheme.
In one of the reported cases, the investigated parties convinced one of their clients to call a locksmith who provided access to “one of their properties”, claiming that the previous tenant had left without returning the keys. Subsequently, the victim learned from his new neighbours that the flat was not really rented and that he had unknowingly “occupied” it.
In another incident, a member of the gang threatened one of the victims with the arrival of “two heavies” when she realised the scam and demanded the return of a transfer.
A singing estate agent has gone to extreme lengths to sell a £700,000 home – performing her own version of 1980s hit NeverEnding Story as she shows viewers around – with her wacky music video dividing the internet.
Claire Cossey has been dubbed ‘a modern day hero’ by some after her bid to shift the five-bedroom property in Leighton Buzzard, Bedfordshire, went viral.
The former nightclub singer filmed herself touring the ‘Neverending Property’ to the tune of Limahl’s 1984 hit – featured in the film The NeverEnding Story and, more recently, in Stranger Things on Netflix.
But Claire’s cringeworthy video, tucked away among the photos of the home on Rightmove, was just too much for some – with one person asking ‘what in the GCSE music is happening here?’
‘I cringed so hard, I folded myself into a alternative dimension – one in which this estate agent is an internationally-renowned pop star. It’s bad here. Send help,’ another joked about the unconventional property video.
The clip shows the agent singing her own lyrics to the synth-pop classic as she explores the home – and has proven an unlikely hit on social media, notching up over 400,000 views.
Some viewers were huge fans of Claire’s unique style of property viewing, with one even suggesting she be the UK’s next Eurovision entry.
But others couldn’t help but share their second-hand embarrassment, with one sharing a meme which read ‘dies from cringe’.
It’s not the first time the property pop sensation has struck – Claire’s previous videos have featured her singing about homes, set to tunes such as Abba’s The Winner Takes It All, Tina Turner’s Simply the Best, A Whole New World from Aladdin and Nancy Sinatra’s These Boots Are Made for Walkin’.
In her latest rendition, the Claire adds her own unique spin on the Limahl classic, singing: ‘This old house, there’s so much here to see, living room, all covered with these beams.
‘Air source heat pump fitted and solar panels too, with its own small business, there is so much you can do, the neverending property, ahhhhhh.’
During the bizarre 3min 25sec video, Claire is shown stroking a less-than-comfortable looking dog, twirling around a hallway and singing about how every room in the house is a ‘dreeeeeeam’, with its ‘snug games room and kitchen’.
One Twitter user was quick to make a meme out of the awkward moment, sharing a screenshot of the dog looking at the camera with the caption simply reading ‘help’.
And in a nod to the Netflix show which brought the original NeverEnding Story tune to a new generation of listeners, Claire sings about how ‘Stranger things have happened’ in the home’s ‘spacious’ master bedroom.
At one point, the musical sensation even urges perspectives buyers not to ‘despair’ as she sings about the busy road outside the house.
Thousands of people have viewed the latest video. Among them was Simon Lynch, who shared a meme on Twitter which read: ‘What a lovely day on the internet… Oh my lord.’
Another person added: ‘I just… I can’t… do we all have to do this when we sell our homes now because I’m warning you I can’t sing.’
While another said: ‘I managed the first 5 seconds. Suspect it will now take days for my entire body to unclench.’
Richard Vernalls was delighted by Claire’s efforts though, and tweeted: ‘This is excellent. In a world of dark terrible events, a shining beacon of irreverence.
‘The choice of theme song to children’s daytime movie classic schmaltz The Never Ending Story… the total commitment to custom lyrics, the dog, it’s all there.’
Others felt the music video was worthy of an award, with one person tweeting: ‘And the BAFTA goes to… “Stranger things have happened, in this spacious master room”‘.
Claire turned to singing about the virtues of the homes she’s trying to sell after giving up on her job as professional nightclub singer.
The coronavirus pandemic ‘decimated’ her business. She had worked part-time in property before, and when her partner, Tony Bailey – an easyJet captain – also lost his work because of Covid, the pair launched their own estate agency, Just Knock, in Leighton Buzzard, in May 2021.
‘The singing idea came because I was just trying to get heard in the industry,’ Claire told The Times. ‘Everyone was locked down and I had this crazy idea to try to get people interested. Most virtual tours are functional, a bit boring. This makes it memorable.’
Her first tune saw Claire rewriting the lyrics to Abba’s the Winner Takes It All The regular chorus ‘The winner takes it all, the loser’s standing tall, beside the victory, that’s her destiny’ to ‘And you can have it all, this two-bed says it all, guide price £290k, I wish that I could stay.’
The response to this video was phenomenal, with thousands of people watching it on Facebook – and punters calling her up serenading her on the phone.
‘Recently I was walking the dog and a stranger came up to me and said, ‘Are you that lady that sings about houses?’ It was really nice,’ Claire added.
The estate agent insists her novel approach to advertising homes does help them to sell – although her latest £700,000 property has been on the market since November and still has not sold yet.
‘It’s better marketing. It doubles the amount of exposure. The more exposure, the more likely it is to sell,’ she told The Times in 2021.
Deepak Chandrababu is no stranger to problem-solving. He’s been doing it for 25 years.
As Chief Operating Officer of Technology Blueprint Ltd. (TBL), he has helped the PropTech company achieve its current position as market leader in the lettings sector and watched it grow and grow.
He says: “Two and a half decades is quite a long time – especially in a turbulent lettings sector. It’s a generation, isn’t it?
“We started way back in 1994 with a DOS product. Not everyone remembers this. We used to install the software on to the computers. So, in 25 years we have seen our products develop at the same time as own organisation has developed.
“This puts us in a good position when it comes to PropTech – especially in the space of Residential Lettings. We have seen the ups and downs of the industry and have contributed significantly to a lot of changes. Whenever there has been new legislation, that means there is a new compliance.
“Or if a customer is facing a new problem, we have always been at the forefront of trying to find a technical solution through the software that’s going to make the customer’s journey easier.
“I think that’s one of the main reasons we still are market leaders. We’re still able to give the good, high-quality service that our customers require.”
Genuine need
TBL offers a comprehensive range of consultancy services on the development, functionality, and integration of PropTech as well as delivering application, web development, infrastructure, and business processes.
“We look at it more like this. Are we helping our customers solve their problems?” says Deepak Chandrababu.
“If a customer has a genuine need and if we can make their life better for their end customers, we are servicing landlords, tenants, and contractors through our agents. We ask ourselves how we make the journey comfortable and easy for every single person at every single touch point.
“And when we talk about the product suite, we have a product, our letting software which has been there for 25 years; we have a back office account outsourcing function where we complement the letting agents in providing additional manpower and support if they want to scale up or if they want to save cost and introduce efficiencies.
“We have CheckDocs which is a compliance product taking care of Right to Rent and HMO licensing.
“So each one of these services caters to the specific needs for a customer. “
Please click on the video below to view Nat Daniels’ full interview with Deepak Chandrababu
It takes around 5 months to sell a home in the UK – a little longer if it’s a flat.
Why is that?
Well, it’s a complicated business and there can be many parties involved. It’s not just the buyer and the seller, there can be local authorities, HM Land Registry, Water companies, surveyors, mortgage lenders, management companies you name it – not to mention a chain!
Then there’s all the other necessary documents required: title deeds, planning consent, building control approvals, boiler certificates, leases, deeds of variation….the list goes on.
Material delays
We know that there were 1.26 million homes sold in the UK in 2021. Just imagine how many hours, days and weeks it took those sellers to find their paperwork. How many lawyers wrote off for information and then sat waiting for a reply.
Without the relevant paperwork, all property sales and purchases will be delayed with all the associated waste of time and money….not to mention the stress to the buyer and seller.
In a recent Law Society survey of solicitors, 76% said the lack of documents caused material delays, 88% said the required documents were not available from their clients and 90% stated the lack of documentation added material cost to the conveyancing process.
And, of course, the longer it takes to progress a sale, the higher the risk of it falling through altogether.
Following a consultation on the issue in 2018, the Government published an action plan to improve the home buying and selling process in England.
It included the following proposals to reduce the time from offer to completion by:
So that was our challenge. How could we harness technology to make the process of buying and selling houses simpler, faster and cheaper.
But how could we do that? We’re lawyers and conveyancers – not technology whiz kids.
So we hired the expertise that we needed, added it to our specialist knowledge, followed the Government guidelines on improving the Home Buying and Selling process and created a database storing essential documents related to a property purchase. It took us two years. But we came up with two things.
First, our ‘Sale Ready Pack. The pack includes the new National Trading Standards obligations on material information, free HM Land Registry office deeds, a legal mini-report on title, a complexity rating score on the deeds and a defective title indemnity insurance to cover breach of any defects that have been highlighted early, so defects can be fixed by the time any offer is accepted.
Second, we created a Logbook portal which enables sellers to store scanned copies of all their own relevant documents: the boiler certificates, the building control approvals, the guarantees and the warranties.
And it acts like an interface between client and lawyer/conveyancer (if the client waives, estate agents, too) – massively reducing the time it takes to track down and deal with all that documentation.
Making our customers feel supported is the most important thing for us at AVRillo and we believe our new products – will speed up the buying and selling of properties, accelerate the re-mortgaging process and save time and money all round.
And when the buyer eventually comes to sell, once their Logbook is up and running, additional documents can be added during the years of ownership. Everything will be to hand when the time is right.
What could be simpler?
More than 3m of shares have been placed in a dedicated facility established by OnTheMarket (OTM) after its initial public offering (IPO) lock-in period ended this month.
At the time of its IPO, agent shareholders were restricted from selling their shares for five years and that lock-in period ends on 9 February 2023.
OTM said in December that it has created a facility for a one-off sale, without which it is claimed that “the market price achievable by selling agent shareholders may be impacted.”
The portal announced this morning that shareholders intend to sell in aggregate 3,130,675 ordinary shares of 0.2p each in the company at 76p ordinary share.
Management shareholder Morgan Ross will be selling the placing shares via Intertrust Employee Benefit Trustee Limited, the trustee of the company’s employee benefit trust.
The placing shares represent approximately 4.1% of the issued share capital of OnTheMarket.
The shares are place in a dematerialised custody service called the OTM Corporate Sponsored Nominee (OTM CSN).
The shares are still owned by the agent, but the agents will be able to opt to have their shares put up for sale in a one-off placing anticipated to be carried out in February 2023.
The idea is that the placing will look to identify buying demand to match aggregate selling demand and achieve the best result for selling shareholders.
If the shares don’t sell they can stay within the CSN and belong to the agent who can ask Link to try and sell them later on their behalf, or they can hold them or they can transfer them out of the CSN if they wish.
It used to be that you couldn’t leave home without two things. Your wallet and your keys.
Time has moved on a little – your mobile phone can do pretty much anything your wallet used to be able to do.
That still leaves your keys as something unique and irreplaceable.
On a day-to-day basis, it’s the thing you need to have if you want to leave your home and go to work. And come back.
But what if they were, in fact, part of your work? If you were an estate agent and one of your jobs was to keep track of all the keys… to all the properties.
Sounds simple to anyone not in the business. Sadly, the reality is that keeping track of all the keys, all of the time, is a bit like doing sudoku while standing at a bus stop.
Keeping track
Help, though, might finally be on the way. Aaron Cambden has been a letting agent for 12 years and has been in the property business for 15 years, so the subject of keeping track of keys to the many houses and flats he manages was always a puzzle.
In a world where technology now informs so much of what we do, the method that he and his team were using was a bit primitive – an A4 pad, which had names and addresses and then were crossed out when the keys were either taken or returned. The way that most estate agents have gone about their business for years.
What could possibly go wrong?
Human error, as it turns out, with contractors or some staff not sticking to the system. During the lockdowns enforced by COVID19, Aaron found more time on his hands to ponder what he could do to find a system that was just a bit more efficient.
The system that he and his friends in the technology industry devised was adding a fob to every set of keys. And then creating a computer programme that recognises the fobs and creates a history of where the keys are and who has them. Something fast and adaptable.
The hope it that it will put an end to questions like ‘has anyone seen that key” or “who last had the key for xxxx?”. This system works really well when the whole office buys into it, which is what Aaron has found.
This new way of working is called Keyhive – It’s efficient, is now being used by other agents, aside from Aaron’s and is being updated, as more information is being gathered.
The website for the product has details of all the pricing as well as up-to-date figures for how many keys are accounted for using Keyhive.
The Real Estate Agents Disciplinary Tribunal has fined and censored two Auckland licensed real estate professionals for misconduct after they inserted the signatures and initials on a sales agreement without consent.
Two Auckland real estate agents have been found guilty of misconduct but not forgery after inserting the signatures and initials of vendors taken from previous documents onto a new offer without their consent.
The Real Estate Agents Disciplinary Tribunal decision released in November related to a sale and purchase agreement in February 2021, brokered by Barfoot and Thompson’s agents, Xiao Barry He and Dongni Anthony An.
An initial sale and purchase agreement was signed by the purchasers and the vendors of the property, however the deal fell through when the buyers failed to meet the finance condition.
The agreement was subsequently amended by He and An so the purchasers could make a back-up offer on the property as it was already under contract.
However, new signatures and initials from all parties involved were not obtained. Instead, the signatures from the initial agreement remained, and a new date and the initials of both parties were electronically inserted.
The property was sold to other buyers, so the back-up agreement was not successfully accepted.
The vendors, who had not seen the agreement, requested a copy and realised their initials and signatures were added to the amended agreement without their consent.
They laid a complaint with the agency, which then reported it to the Real Estate Authority.
An independent Complaints Assessment Committee (Committee) was appointed and inquired into the allegations, resulting in an investigation of the case.
The committee filed charges in the Tribunal under the Real Estate Agents Act 2008, alleging misconduct.
He accepted he engaged in unsatisfactory conduct by not removing the signatures of the vendors from the agreement prior to sending the backup to An but denied the conduct amounted to seriously negligent or incompetent real estate agency work.
It was ruled An was experienced enough to know what he was doing was wrong when he inserted the initials at the backup clause and his failure to take any steps to check with the parties whether he was acting correctly in inserting the initials was to be taken seriously.
Although An’s actions were a serious departure from the standards required of an agent under the act, the tribunal was not satisfied his actions were dishonest.
It ruled his conduct constituted seriously negligent or incompetent real estate agency work pursuant to the act and An guilty of seriously negligent real estate agency work.
He was fined $10,000 and censured while An was fined $4000 and was also censured.
In its decision, the tribunal noted the conduct was “not a deliberate or dishonest act of forgery” but constituted seriously negligent or incompetent real estate work under the Real Estate Agents Act.
Real Estate Authority chief executive Belinda Moffat said the case highlighted the importance of licensees upholding high standards of professional competence and conduct across all real estate agency work.
“The Code of Conduct says a licensee must exercise skill, care, competence, and diligence at all times when carrying out real estate agency work,” Moffat said.
“Proper procedure around signatures and initials on documents throughout the transaction process, including during offer negotiations, is fundamental to that care and competence.”
Moffat said she hoped the decision would serve both as a reminder to real estate licensees and as a reassurance to consumers that if the fundamental standards of conduct were not maintained, the regulatory system enabled those who fell short to be held to account.
They’ve bought and sold multi-million dollar properties for Kiwi rich listers, a sultan, billionaires from the US and China and an All Black coach.
With price tags of $10 million, $20m and sometimes even $30m-plus,
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