You get what you pay for – what we can all learn from #DragonsDen
Whilst watching Dragons Den on Sunday, I was involved in an on line discussion about how much people would pay for a pot of beans. One contributor said he doubted anyone would pay £3.99 for a pot, when you can buy a tin of Heinz for 50p. I argued that if that was true, why didn't we all buy Tescos value beans for 17p. The answer, of course, is that there are beans, and then there are beans.
Take our conveyancing service as an example. We offer a fixed rate on all residential property transactions. There are firms out there that will do it for less, but that doesn't mean it's the same service. There are a number of "conveyor belt" firms out there, that churn out property transactions at a lot less than we do. In order to make money (because we are here to make money) they take on a huge quantity of transactions so that everything takes a lot longer. Fine if you are in no rush but frustrating if it means you risk losing another property. They also use a number of unqualified or lower level staff to provide assistance to the solicitors, meaning that you are getting a very basic service.
I'm currently advising someone who bought a property with his partner, but he was the only one putting any money in and he paid the mortgage. They have now split up, but because her name is on the title deeds, she has a claim over the proceeds of sale. This wasn't something that was ever explained to him at the time of purchase and whilst it is fixable, it's going to cost much more than the difference in price between what a conveyor belt firm charges and what we charge.
So sometimes cheaper isn't necessarily better, especially with a high value product like selling your house.
For a free no obligation quote on our conveyancing packages, contact me at stephanie@kleymansolicitors.com.
Kleyman & Co Solicitors – we also do litigation!