How to choose a conveyancer

Most people choose a conveyancer the way they choose a plumber at nine o'clock on a Sunday night. Someone recommends one, the price looks about right, and the decision is made in roughly four minutes.

That is understandable. From the outside they can look much the same: a website, a fixed price, a promise to handle everything. The differences are not always obvious until you know what to look for.

Put simply, choosing a conveyancer is less about finding the lowest headline fee and more about understanding who will handle your matter, what they will actually do, how they will communicate with you, and what you will pay in total.

So this guide sets out what to compare and the questions worth asking before you engage anyone. It applies whether you are buying or selling. We have written it so you can use it on any conveyancer, including us.

What you are actually comparing

Legal expertise matters. It is the foundation of the job, and you want someone who genuinely knows property work in the state your property is in.

But expertise on its own is difficult to assess from a website, because every firm claims it. What you can assess is how that expertise reaches you: who actually handles your matter, how clearly things get explained, how quickly you get an answer, and what happens on the day something unexpected lands. Conveyancing is largely uneventful right up until it is not, and the value of a good conveyancer is concentrated in those few moments.

So qualifications are only part of the comparison. It is also worth asking who will apply that expertise to your matter, and how you would know. That turns out to be much easier to test before you commit than most people realise.

What to compare, and what to look for

These are the eight things worth knowing before you engage anyone. The third column is the useful part: it is not enough to ask the question, you need a sense of what a confident answer looks like.

You will not always get perfect answers, and you do not need to. What you are listening for is whether the person on the other end has thought about these things before you asked.

Conveyancer or solicitor?

This is the question people get most stuck on, and for a straightforward purchase or sale it usually matters less than they expect. A conveyancer specialises in property transactions. A solicitor is a lawyer who may also handle property work alongside other areas of law. Which professionals can act depends on the state and the circumstances of the matter. We go through the difference properly in conveyancer vs solicitor.

The warning signs

None of these mean someone is dishonest. They are simply patterns that tend to precede a frustrating few months.

• A headline price with the real total only emerging once you are committed.
• Nobody willing to put a name to your file.
• No clear answer on how quickly a contract gets reviewed.
• Pressure to sign an engagement before you have the quote in writing.
• A first conversation that leaves you more confused than when you started. That one is worth taking seriously. If they cannot explain it now, when they are trying to win your business, it will not improve later.

Comparing quotes without being misled

Conveyancing costs have two parts, and most confusion between quotes comes from comparing one part against two. The professional fee is what you pay for the work. Disbursements are the third-party costs, such as government searches and the settlement fee, which are paid on your behalf and passed on to you.

A quote showing only the professional fee will always look cheaper than one showing both, right up until the second invoice. So ask every firm for the same thing: the fee, plus an estimate of disbursements, in writing.

Then do not compare the headline number alone. A lower professional fee may reflect a different scope of work, different inclusions, or a different service model. Ask what is actually included, and compare like with like.

When to choose one

Earlier than feels necessary. You can start comparing conveyancers before you have a property, a buyer or a date, and that gives you time to understand your options before you are under any pressure to decide. The most valuable work happens before you sign anything, so having someone already lined up when that moment arrives matters more than it sounds.

Using this on us

We wrote this guide to be used on anyone, and that includes Zettle. If you want to see how we answer the eight questions above, ask us the same way you would ask anyone else. A firm that is confident in its answers should have no problem with you checking.

And if you conclude that someone else suits you better, that is a perfectly good outcome. The point of this guide is that you make the choice deliberately rather than in four minutes on a Sunday night.