Selling a house 155miles away - should I get a solicitor where I live or where the house is ?

[Fidgety31]

Hi
I am looking for advice on the pros and cons if there are any to the location of the solicitor when selling a house - or doesn’t it matter as everything can be done online ?

thanks

I would choose a solicitor close to you, in case documents need to be dropped off or paperwork signed. It is possible to complete the conveyancing process entirely online, but for some reason the last two houses I sold required at least one or two in person visits. It's probably more useful when buying to choose a solicitor from the area who will have local knowledge of planned developments etc.

When I sold my Grandma's house in the Cotswold, me and my sister live opposite sides of London and we used a solicitor my sister had used previously before based in Nottingham. No issues at all, no need for any visits or paperwork that couldn't be done remotely.

There is never any substitute for local knowledge. I'd get one near to where the house is.

We lost a buyer for MIL's house because they were not satisfied with our answers to their enquiries about HS2, which a local conveyancer would know is not going within ten miles of the property.

I used a completely online conveyancer with my last house purchase. Im in Surrey, they were in Manchester. Absolutely brilliant, and having an online portal, where I could just log in, action any requests and see which stage we were at was refreshing.

I honestly don't think it matters, I've used online conveyancers with my last two house purchases and they've both been brilliant. Documents and paperwork all signed online, ID checks completed online.

Sorry to hijack but @SilentHedges can you share your online conveyancer please?

Yes of course. I used Bannister Preston, and my conveyancer was Natalie Charles.www.bannisterpreston.co.uk/bp_team/natalie-charles/

I'd definitely use the one closest to you, so in the event of comms breakdown or similar you can physically go round there and sort it out.

Close to you definitely. We relocated for work and sold a house we were 200 miles away from. It made it a lot easier just being able to pop out and hand over documents etc in person. We never actually saw the solicitors but would hand-deliver to their door in the evening. It saved a lot of time waiting for stuff to get there in the post and no worries about losing documents.

We are in the process of selling a house that is 2.5 hours drive away. We are using a solicitor in the town where the house is as we thought that the local knowledge would be useful.

We know that they have a good relationship with our estate agents, which is helpful. They also seem to have a good relationship with the buyer's solicitor, who is only a few doors down.

Thanks for all the input .
I used to live in the house so know the area well.

is there anything in particular you would look for when choosing a solicitor ? I have no idea where to start !

Ask around for personal recommendations, then try to contact three for quotes. We've found that gives a lot away just in terms of speed of response (or whether anyone even answers the phone!) and quality of information provided. We went with the ones that gave a clear breakdown of costs and responded promptly.