Speed Comes From Calm

Because a transfer is a chain of steps that wait on one another, rushing it usually makes it slower. The seller's bank has to provide cancellation figures for the existing bond. The municipality issues a rates clearance certificate only after its figures are paid. The compliance certificates have to be in hand. Only when the pieces are in place do the documents go to the deeds office for lodgement, and a panicked file tends to chase whichever piece is making the most noise that day.

A calm file works in a different order. The rates figures are requested early, because municipalities take their time. The electrician is booked at the start rather than the end. The offer to purchase is read once, properly, so that if the buyer is moving in before transfer, occupational rent is settled now instead of argued about later.

From outside, none of this looks fast. There is no flurry of calls and no string of urgent emails. And yet that file often reaches lodgement first, mostly because nothing has to be done twice. The rushed one is busy every day and late at the end, which is an odd combination for something that looked so energetic.