PR: How did you get into property and what is your current role within the industry?
BM: I started selling houses in 1987, working for high-profile agencies such as Foxtons, Countrywide and Your Move. A few years ago, I left the corporate agency world to become a co-founder at Gazeal.
Our aim is to use our technology to improve the home moving process and help to create a better marketplace for agents and consumers.
One of the strengths of Gazeal is that all members of the team have a connection to the property industry. We're a company essentially built for estate agents by estate agents.
There is certainly a human side of what we're doing. We want to introduce a new way of moving which allows agents to generate more commission and provides consumers with more certainty and a reduced chance of fall-throughs.
PR: It's fair to say that conveyancers are in the thick of it due to the Stamp Duty Holiday deadline approaching. What changes have you had to make to ensure everything remains running smoothly?
BM: The stamp duty holiday has been a great initiative to encourage people to move during a challenging period. The huge increase in transactions has put agents and conveyancers under significant pressure and increased the chances of fall-throughs occurring.
During this time, we have helped agents to provide increased security of sale to sellers and buyers. This is achieved by making sure the seller provides all the relevant upfront information about their property as quickly as possible.
Security of sale is then bolstered by the opportunity for sellers and buyers to enter into a legally binding reservation agreement, which gives increased confidence to both parties and helps to progress the transaction smoothly.
Ultimately, the stamp duty holiday has highlighted something we already knew: the conveyancing process is broken. For things to improve, we need to see agents more involved in conveyancing, a legally faster process, improved consumer education and a simpler structure.
PR: How does Gazeal differ from its competitors?
BM: Here at Gazeal, we don't see ourselves as having any real competitors. Providing upfront information to consumers may not be new, but we believe the opportunity for estate agents to provide reservation agreements has created a completely new category of product for the property industry.
Reservation agreements have never been used in the second-hand property market and our offering aims to remove emotion and provide a fair and balanced way for transactions to proceed.
We want to change the way agents see transactions, with an increased focus on getting someone moved, rather than just putting their property on the market.
For example, some of the agents we work with have changed the messaging on their boards to say 'Reserved' rather than 'Sold Subject to Contract'.
PR: What advice would you give to property investors in the current climate?
BM: Make sure you understand the purchasing process and everything that comes with it. This can help you to be prepared and reduce the chances of fall-throughs or complications further down the line.
It's also important to be proactive. Agents are there to hold the hand of sellers and buyers through the process, but not do everything for them.
Investors who are on top of their documentation and good with communication can benefit from smoother transactions. In the current climate, it's also important to monitor the market carefully.
The biggest upcoming event is the end of the stamp duty holiday in March. Whether there will be a big change in the market remains to be seen. Hopefully, the successful rollout of a Covid-19 vaccine will counteract the end of the stamp duty holiday and sustain the market into the summer months.
PR: Proptech has surely been one of the success stories of 2020, what can we expect to see from Gazeal this year?
BM: Our mission is to provide agents with the means to offer their clients a different way of moving with our technology.
We automate HM Land Registry title checks and automatically notify sellers to fill out Legal Protocol Forms.
These forms are then converted into Buyer's Information Packs. This gives buyers a transparent view of the property before they make an offer.
The technology behind this service, which is free, takes the pressure off agents and solicitors and also speeds up the transaction for home movers.
Meanwhile, our reservation agreements use simple, easy-to-use technology to provide buyers and sellers with increased certainty.
Agencies which offer our reservation agreements benefit from free marketing, branded webpages and more, allowing them to level-up their service and win instructions based on the notion that they will be the safest agent to sell with.
PR: What property-related headline would you most like to see in 2021?
BM: 'Buyers and sellers benefit from huge reduction in fall-throughs'. Transactions falling through remains a huge problem for consumers, agents and all stakeholders in the moving process. Consumers deserve more certainty and security when it comes to moving home - hopefully, progress can be made on that front this year.
At the moment, there are too many surprises and not enough knowledge of how the buying and selling process works. People move less frequently, so when it comes around their understanding of the process is patchy which can lead to fall-throughs.
The situation isn't helped by a clunky process which relies on complicated rafts of documents using legal/sector-specific language which consumers find scary and confusing.
Our mission to make the process more transparent through increased upfront information and reservation agreements can hopefully contribute towards reducing fall-throughs this year.
