The Market Trusts the Firm That Moves at the Same Speed Every Day

A fast agency is worth less than a predictable one. One brilliant week tells a conveyancer or a buyer very little, because what they need to plan around is how the office behaves on an ordinary Tuesday.

A sale has a queue of people standing behind it. The conveyancer waits for signed documents and FICA papers before anything can be lodged. The bank waits for its valuer before it approves the bond. The municipality has to issue a rates clearance certificate, and the buyer has a rental to give notice on. Each of them sets dates around someone else's pace, so a link that answers in an hour this week and in a week the next forces everyone downstream to pad every plan with spare time.

Consistency takes the padding out. When the other parties learn that a signed offer comes back the same day it arrives, and that compliance inspections are booked the morning the sale is agreed, they stop phoning to check and start booking things around that pace.