The spreadsheet with the red cells
Somewhere in the office there is a spreadsheet of vendors and buyers with columns for ID, address proof and source of funds. Some cells are green, many are red, and a few say chased. The negotiator who agreed the sale thought the office manager was doing it. The office manager thought the negotiator had asked. The memorandum of sale is ready but cannot go until the checks are done.
Meanwhile the buyer has sent a photo of their passport to a negotiator's work phone, a bank statement to the general inbox and a mortgage document to the progressor. Someone has to find all three.
Why the checks drag
Estate agents fall under anti-money laundering supervision, and your own policy sets what you check, when, and who signs off. This article does not tell you what that policy should say. The practical problem is that however good the policy is, the collection process underneath it is often email and memory.
Documents arrive through different channels. Nobody has one view of which person in which transaction is missing what. There are also more people involved than it first seems: joint vendors, joint buyers, company buyers and anyone contributing funds.
| Where it breaks | What happens |
|---|---|
| Requests sent by different people | Duplicated, inconsistent or forgotten |
| Documents arrive by email and WhatsApp | Scattered, some never filed |
| Joint parties | One person checked, the other missed |
| Source of funds | Follow-up questions go back and forth |
| Sign-off | Unclear who reviewed what, and when |
What slow checks cost the sale
Checks that drag hold up the memorandum of sale and everything after it. Buyers lose patience early in the process, which is exactly when a sale is most fragile. There is also a supervision and record-keeping angle: if you are ever asked to show what was checked and when, a spreadsheet and a scattered inbox is a weak answer.
And it costs your staff time. Chasing documents is repetitive work that someone has to remember to do.
How we build the collection and tracking flow
- One record per person per transaction: every vendor, buyer and funds contributor gets an entry the moment a sale is agreed, so joint parties are never missed.
- Collection link: each person receives a secure link to complete identity verification through the provider you already use or choose, and to upload anything else your policy asks for.
- Automatic reminders: people who have not completed are reminded on a schedule you set, and the negotiator is told when a reminder has gone unanswered.
- Status board: one view for the office showing each transaction, each person and what is complete, outstanding or awaiting review.
- Review and sign-off: your compliance lead reviews each completed file and records a decision. The system records who reviewed it and when; it does not make the decision.
- Hand-off: when checks are signed off, the sale is marked ready for the memorandum of sale in your CRM.
We integrate with established ID verification services through their APIs rather than building identity checking ourselves.
What the office gets
No more red spreadsheet. The office manager can see at a glance which sales are waiting on checks and who is holding them up, and reminders go out without anyone remembering to send them. Your compliance lead reviews complete files in one place, with a timestamped record of the decision.
Is this your situation?
- AML status is tracked in a spreadsheet or in people's heads.
- ID documents arrive by email, text and WhatsApp.
- Memorandums of sale wait because checks are incomplete.
- Joint buyers or funds contributors have been missed before.
- You would struggle to show quickly who checked a file and when.