The difference between a mediocre conveyancer and a good one is the difference between a smooth completion and watching your chain implode. On a £1m property where you’re exchanging £100,000 in deposits and juggling moving vans, that £800 vs £2,000 conveyancing fee stops looking like something to optimize.

The unfortunate reality is that average conveyancer is mediocre - a consequence of conveyancing being one of the worst-paid areas of law. The majority of conveyancers will get your transaction over the line without disaster. But “without disaster” is a low bar. Excellence means catching the non-obvious issues: the missing building control certificates that’ll bite you when you sell, the covenant that limits your extension plans, the access rights you didn’t know existed.

Why a good conveyancer matters

The biggest difference is proactivity, a good conveyancer stays on-top of everything with a bias for action that drives the process forward. They’ll chase something before you need to chase them.

They’ll also know what’s normal and what’s not, a lot of the legal paperwork surrounding a property can be scary, you want someone who can walk you through what’s normal and can be easily dealt with via an indemnity vs someone who just marks everything up as a red flag with no differentiation about what you should actually worry about.

That expertise also means spotting risks, errors and omissions early, is there something in the property that didn’t get building regulation approval or are there any clauses in the contract that might trip you up when you come to sell in 10 years time?

If a solicitor misses something you might not realize the problem until it bites you years down the line.

And ultimately a good solicitor will tell you if they think you should walk away from a transaction. Conveyancers make less money if you walk than if you complete, so this requires a high-ethical standard where they’re putting your interests above their own.

How to evaluate a conveyancer

Who’s handling the transaction?

The single most important question: "Who specifically will be handling my file, and what's their current caseload?” - it’s critical to understand who’s going to be doing the actual work on your transaction and who you’ll be speaking with when you have questions.

A partner or senior solicitor handling 15-20 files will catch things a paralegal managing 50+ won't. They've seen enough transactions to know what's normal and what deserves scrutiny. When something unusual appears, they’ll have the judgment and authority to act on it.

The uncomfortable reality is that at many cheaper firms your £500k purchase is being handled by a 22-year-old paralegal earning minimum wage juggling 50 cases with minimal supervision (and already job-hunting for their next role). The qualified solicitor whose name is on the letterhead might spend 30 minutes total on your file.

That might be fine for a simple transaction with no complexities, but if you’re going to be spending a meaningful amount on a house it can be worth splashing out on hiring a conveyancer where you’ll have a partner at the firm leading on your transaction.

Speed vs Thoroughness

Fast conveyancers optimize for completion speed. Thorough conveyancers optimize for catching issues. You can have both, but expect to pay a premium for it.

For straightforward modern properties with clean title, speed might matter more. For period properties, complex ownership structures, or anything with listed status, you’ll want to optimize for thoroughness.

It’s good to ask “What’s your typical timeline from instruction to exchange?” - eight to twelve weeks is a reasonable timeframe. If they can’t give you an answer or tell you it’s going to be done in 4 weeks take it as a red flag.

You should also check on their current capacity and availability, if they’re about to go on holiday or are over capacity on workload and you want to exchange quickly then it might not be a good fit even if the conveyancer is otherwise great.

Local vs Remote

There’s no requirement to have a local conveyancer, if you’re living in an expensive part of the country you might choose a solicitor from a less expensive area.

If the vendor is using a local solicitor then having another local solicitor can be beneficial - there’s a good chance they’ll have worked with the other firm before on other transactions and will know the foibles of the other firm and have relationships there. A friendly call between two solicitors who know each other can often smooth over roadbumps; however avoid using the same solicitor’s firm as the seller, the risk of conflict of interest is too high.

While some more old-fashioned solicitors prefer to meet in person for signatures or document verification, there’s no legal reason why the entire transaction can’t be done remotely.

Conveyancing Firm vs Traditional Solicitors

Conveyancers can either work for specialist conveyancing firms or generalist solicitors that do a wide-range of legal work.

Dedicated conveyancing firms are cheaper and process-driven. They're set up for volume. Great for straightforward purchases. However they will have limited bandwidth and expertise for anything more complex

At high-volume transactional conveyancers, case handlers review case files on a set schedule such as once a week. So any emails from you or any updates from searches or the sellers solicitor won’t get picked up until your next scheduled review, this is very different from a client-focused firm where items are normally actioned within a matter of hours. These firms design their business model around minimizing the cost of every step of the process, so don’t expect to easily be able to get someone on the phone, they’re just not set up to allow for it.

Going for a firm where case-handlers or paralegals do the majority of the work will be cheaper, but you need to decide if you want to trade-off quality for price and make that a conscious decision.

Expertise for your type of purchase

It’s important to pick a conveyancer who has experience with your type of property, the legal paperwork for a 19th century listed freehold detached property is going to be different from a new build shared ownership leasehold flat.

While the fundamentals of a house transaction are the same in both cases a lot of the complexity that might arise come from the specifics of the property, whether that comes from historic covenants, listed building restrictions or leasehold terms.

In theory, any conveyancer can do the work required, but someone who has handled many similar properties will have far more context in knowing what’s normal and what to dig into which can help avoid mistakes.

Recommendations & Reviews

Most people leave positive reviews just because their house purchase completed, not because their conveyancer was actually good. They have no basis for comparison and often don’t realize if mistakes were made. Negative reviews are more informative, but firms with terrible service can still maintain 4+ star ratings because most clients don’t know enough to evaluate quality.

When reading reviews don’t just look at the stars, but read the reviews to see if clients have talked about how the conveyancer was proactive, dealt with problems or caught key issues.

Recommendations from friends and family can be a good place to start, but remember to make sure the solicitor is a good fit for you. The estate agent you’re buying through can also be a good source of recommendation as long as the referral is genuine and the agent isn’t receiving commission from the solicitor (they’re legally required to disclose if they are) - unlike with brokers and surveyors where you should avoid agent recommendations, it’s in the agents interest that you have a good solicitor as it maximizes the chance of the transaction running smoothly. But note agents are optimizing for speed rather than thoroughness.

While not a recommendation per se you should check any solicitors you’re considering are on your mortgage lenders solicitor panel. This means that the solicitors can act for both yourself and your lender, this is much more cost-effective and efficient than if the lender has to use a separate conveyancer. Most reputable conveyancers will be on the lending panel of most major lenders, but if you’re using a smaller lender this is definitely worth checking (the lender, your mortgage broker or the solicitor should be able to quickly confirm this).

Benchmarking pricing

Once you’ve narrowed your options to 2-4 potential conveyancers that meet your criteria it’s worth getting quotes from them all to get a sense of what’s a reasonable price.

Quotes will typically include their professional fees, disbursements and stamp duty costs. Stamp duty costs are set by the government and you should expect this number to be the same across all the quotes, if you see variance then it likely means at least one of the solicitors has miscalculated, so you should be careful to double check this number. If the conveyancer makes mistakes in the quote it doesn’t bode well for them handling your property purchase.

Disbursements are where the lawyer is paying something on your behalf (like searches) and passing those fees onto you. Broadly these should be similar across firms, but there are some fees such as AML or bank transfer fees which not all solicitors charge for separately. Also check if the fees are the total expected for the transaction or if you need to pay some fees multiple times (for example ID checks might be a per-person fee) - what might seem a cheaper quote initially might be more expensive once you’ve adjusted for how the disbursements are structured.

Legal fees are where the real pricing differences lie, they reflect the solicitor’s time and judgement, not fixed costs. A senior partner at a solicitors firm leading your case will cost more than a junior paralegal at a high-volume conveyancing firm. Note that some conveyancers will quote including VAT while other will not, so make sure you’re comparing like-with-like.

Once you’ve had your offer accepted you can appoint your solicitor and you’re ready to go.

Start with the basics

First, you want a whole-of-market broker, not one tied to a small number of lenders. There’s no advantage to you of using a broker who’s limited in what deals they can offer you.

Second, you want a broker who’s used to dealing with mortgages of your size. Brokers earn commission based on mortgage value, so one whose average mortgage is £400k will typically spend half the time per client as one whose average is £800k. They need the higher volume of mortgages to make the same income. Don’t assume that just because you’re getting a larger mortgage they’ll adjust their process to spend more time on your mortgage.

Third, and most importantly, you want a broker who’ll take time to understand what you’re looking for. If they're running a conveyor belt operation, working through a script to give you a standardised offering, you might as well use a comparison site.

Shortlisting mortgage brokers

A common mistake is only speaking with a single broker. If you have initial conversations with three or four, you'll quickly calibrate what good looks like, and spot the ones who aren't.

Personal recommendations from people in similar circumstances can be a good starting point, but remember the best broker for a friend might not be the best for you. They all have different strengths. A broker who’s great at handling mortgages for someone with credit issues will be very different from one who’s great with contractors using umbrella companies.

However avoid recommendations or in-house brokers from estate agents. Their interests are misaligned with yours - they may be getting kickbacks, and the agent might use information from your broker application against you when negotiating the purchase price. There are strict rules prohibiting agents from requiring you to use their brokers, but nonetheless some estate agents will aggressively push you to do so.

When searching online, check reviews and try to find brokers aligned to your specific needs. If you’ve got any kind of complexity with your income, for instance if you have significant commission or stock based compensation or you want to use income from investments or property, find brokers with experience with your income structure. Similarly if you’re buying a non-standard property (e.g. thatched roof or a listed building) you can similarly benefit from a broker with relevant experience.

One thing you don’t need is a local broker, unless you feel strongly about meeting in person (and have a fairly straight-forward situation). Finding someone who understands your needs should generally take priority. The only exception is if local conditions make mortgages harder to get (e.g. costal erosion, former mining areas, etc) in those cases a local broker who knows which lenders are actively lending in the area becomes genuinely valuable.

At this stage, stay open-minded about fee versus fee-free brokers. While it’s natural to prefer fee-free, a broker who charges but finds you a mortgage you wouldn’t have found otherwise can easily justify their cost. That said, there are plenty of mediocre fee-charging brokers too, so don’t assume they’ll automatically be better than fee-free brokers. Most won’t charge until the mortgage is secured, so there’s no commitment unless they deliver.

Assess the individual, not just the firm

With mortgage brokers, the individual you’re working with matters almost as much as the firm. Firms control processes and fees, but the expertise and diligence of the individual broker makes a significant difference to your experience.

You can contact a specific individual broker directly (common with recommendations) or contact a firm and let them assign someone. In the latter case, check the assigned broker’s biography or LinkedIn before your call. If you’ve got a complex situation, you don’t want someone inexperienced. A broker who’s been around longer will have seen more edge cases and know how to navigate them.

Once you’ve got a short-list of brokers, book initial calls and email a brief description of your needs ahead of time. This lets them get up to speed ahead of the call - and reveals whether they actually spend the time to read it.

How to evaluate a mortgage broker

Once you’re on the call, this is the time you can really figure out if they’re the right broker for you. Online reviews can give you a broad indication of how good the firm is, but the call if where you find out if the individual broker is a good fit for you.

Have they read your email? If not, it’s a sign they’re a high-volume operation that prioritises quantity over quality.

Do they pay attention to details? If you find yourself repeating things or correcting them, that’s a red flag. Mistakes now don’t bode well for your actual mortgage application.

Are they focused on understanding your needs? Or are they just working through a script or talking over you? Some standard questions are often required for compliance, but the majority of the call should be a genuine conversation about your situation.

Do they actually understand your circumstances? Have they arranged mortgages for people in similar situations before? If you want to use RSUs as part of your application and your broker needs you to explain what they are, they’re probably not the right fit.

Do they answer your questions clearly? Can they give you an initial sense of what your options might look like?

You’ll know the right broker when you find them. The good ones make it obvious.

A mediocre broker will get you a mortgage. A good one will get you the right mortgage. That difference compounds for decades.

The common misconception about mortgage brokers is that you should use one because they have access to mortgages and rates not available direct to retail customers. While there are some broker-exclusive deals, in practice they’re a tiny percentage of the market and broadly speaking don’t offer anything you couldn’t find elsewhere.

This gap between public and private lending criteria is the real reason to consider using a mortgage broker. Not because they have access to exclusive rates (they mostly don’t), but because they understand how different lenders actually assess complex applicants.

The real value: matching you to the right lender

If you’ve got a simple situation: A good credit record, a bog-standard fixed salary, decent LTV, then you can probably use an online comparison service to find who’ll give you the best rates.

But once you add any complexity at all - be it bonuses, commission, RSUs, maternity leave, self-employment, visa status, or wanting a lender to consider your investment portfolio, suddenly the landscape becomes far more complex to navigate especially if you have multiple factors that come into play.

Once you get beyond the basics, how lenders underwrite you varies massively. And crucially, much of that underwriting policy isn’t publicly available to retail customers. And this “secret” (or at least non-public) policy can make a huge difference to both the amount lenders are willing to lend and the rates you can get.

Historically almost all mortgages were provided by a handful of large banks with large networks of bank branches to sell them, the rise of mortgage brokers has broken this stronghold with a quarter of mortgages being offered by smaller lenders. The best lender for you might well be a regional bank you’ve never heard of.

A good broker’s primary value is understanding the complexities of underwriting policies and matching you with the right lender for your specific situation.

What else does a broker do?

They manage the paperwork. The biggest thing that slows mortgage applications down is back-and-forth over missing documents. A good broker will guide you upfront on exactly what you need and do a first pass to identify potential stumbling blocks before the lender even sees your application.

They have relationships at lenders. If something about your application isn’t obviously acceptable, brokers have contacts they can call to get the inside view. For larger mortgages (thresholds vary by lender, but often £500k or £1m), they may be able to speak with an underwriter directly. If you’ve got a complex situation where a conversation can help, this can be the difference between getting a mortgage and not.

Should I trust a mortgage broker?

Broadly speaking, whole-of-market mortgage brokers (the only kind worth considering) are aligned with your interests. They make money by securing you a mortgage, at which point they receive a commission from the lender (and depending on the broker, may also charge you a fee).

Because they’re compensated on completion, they’re genuinely motivated to get your mortgage across the line. Around 75% of broker applications complete, with most drop-outs being buyers who decide not to proceed with a house purchase rather than application failures. Brokers generally want to avoid submitting an application unless they’ve got good confidence it’ll be approved, otherwise they end up doing the work and not making any money from it.

That said, there are a few incentive misalignments worth being aware of:

Loan size. Broker commissions are typically a percentage (often around ~0.35%) of the loan amount, so there’s a structural incentive toward larger mortgages. Brokers won’t aggressively push you to borrow more, but they’re unlikely to nudge you toward borrowing less.

Fixed term length. Brokers get paid per mortgage, including remortgages. They’ll typically earn the same commission whether you take a two-year or five-year fix, but a two-year deal means potentially another remortgage (and another commission) in two years’ time. This doesn’t mean a two-year fix is wrong for you, but it’s worth knowing where the incentive sits.

Add-on products. Many brokers also sell life insurance and income protection. Some of these can be sensible, but make your own judgement rather than relying solely on your broker’s recommendation, this is where their incentives are least aligned with yours.

What’s the advantage of going direct?

Simplicity. Removing an intermediary may make things faster and reduce errors. A bad broker who slows down the process and makes mistakes is definitely worse than going direct.

But there’s a catch: the market is almost entirely shifting to being broker-led. This isn’t to say you should use a broker because everyone else does, but it has had a direct impact on banks’ ability to serve you well when you go direct.

There was a time when you could walk into a high-street bank and have a mortgage appointment with a manager who handled the mortgages for most people locally and had seen everything in their time. Nowadays you’re more likely to speak with someone with far more limited mortgage experience.

My own experience with the “high earner” team at a major high-street bank was dispiriting: staff made basic mistakes explaining their own bank’s lending policies, leaving me with little confidence in their ability. I ended up going elsewhere.

If you do go direct, you’re likely better off skipping the branch, self-educating and using the lender's online application instead. Most branch staff won’t have the expertise to advise on anything beyond the basics.

The bottom line

For most readers with complex situations or larger loans, a good broker will likely save you time and potentially money. The question isn’t whether to use one, but how to find the right one for you, and that’s what we’ll be covering in our next article.