Industry figure seeks agents for upfront searches trial

EAT article Marc Shoffman

Industry veteran Tim Main has issued a challenge for agents in the latest attempt to speed up sales and reduce fall-throughs.

Main, chair of the Home Buying and Selling Property Logbook Working Group and founder of Property Information Products, has expressed interest in seeing agents trial getting sellers to pay for information upfront.

It comes after a pilot where 200 buyers were asked to pay for searches at the point of sale.

Those that didn’t took more than 120 days to complete with a fall-through rate of 43% while those that did completed within an average of 79 days with no fall-throughs. Main suggests this technique is a “effective solution” to address agent complaints about the “stickiness of buyers and sellers.”

He suggested agents should try this with sellers, adding: “Should a seller pay £150 towards searches at instruction, I would love to trial this, it could be really fantastic.”

Main used a LinkedIn post to urge agents to contact him if they would be interested in taking part in a trial.

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