This week I am on my soap box with an issue that comes up time and time again and I have already discussed in the past in my column but I feel needs to be shared again! Buying a property is scary enough and I always find it amazing that buyers would prefer to go for the cheapest Solicitor rather than the one that might be a few pounds more but knows your area and comes highly recommended by your agent. Agents are acting for sellers and dealing with buyers all day long and for us to get the job done as professionally and quickly as possible having a lawyer at the other end of the phone that we can speak to at the drop of a hat is a must for us to be able to do our jobs properly. So if we recommend someone it’s with ‘your’ best interests at heart it really is! Conveyancing is your cost of securing a bulletproof investment – so go for the best you can afford. Conveyancing is a competitive business, with a mind-boggling choice of solicitors, licensed conveyancers and online products now filling out the market. Using a local recommended solicitor means you’ll also be able to tap into their expertise on specialist areas such as restrictive covenants, boundary disputes and planning permission, something you won’t get with a ‘fixed-fee’ on-line service manned from a call-centre or that friend of a friend that knows a good solicitor up north somewhere. Of course they will be cheaper than London Lawyers and they will be fabulous – in their own neck of the woods but trust me they will take a lot longer to tackle some of the issues that come up in the wharf such as Land contamination and flood risk. E-conveyancing has its place in the market processing one-stop transactions, but the impersonal ‘conveyor-belt’ working style can be inflexible and grind to a halt if your case is anything but straightforward. Remember you are spending a small fortune on your property, so don’t cut corners when it comes to hiring your solicitor.