Frequently asked questions
Helping buyers and sellers
Using our Home Buyer Passport, home buyers can for the first time see how their 'buying position' compares to other buyers looking in the same search areas, see a breakdown of what they can afford and get free help from us to better position themselves.
Our Digital Legal Pack helps home sellers speed up their property transaction and reduce the risk of it falling through. We do this by providing a simple workflow to help them pre-complete all the necessary documentation at the time their property is listed. This can speed up the sale process by around 5 weeks on average.
We're supported by HM Land Registry and Mishcon De Reya.
It's your way of showing to estate agents and vendors that you're a serious buyer and is a measure of your ability to immediately progress with a purchase.
You'll need to provide data with regards to the size and source of your deposit, your potential mortgage arrangements and if you're selling a property then the status of that sale.
The more evidence you can provide the better your Home Buyer Passport score.
You only have to enter your details once and you'll then be able to share your Home Buyer Passport with multiple different estate agents, saving you time and helping you better engage with those local agents.
We'll show you how you compare with other buyers looking in the same search areas and we'll we'll also guide you through the steps to help you improve your position. So that by the time you do find your dream home you're better positioned, more likely to have your offer accepted and can transact quicker with less risk.
Yes
We're as FREE as the wind, but a damn site more useful.
Buying or selling a property is costly enough, so we're here to help you, not charge you.
Hold on. If this is free, how do you pay your bills?
Good question. In the future we'll be introducing a market place for professional services and we'll get paid a small fee by those professionals participating. So if you want extra help to arrange a mortgage, instruct a solicitor or even get a quote from a decorator once you've moved in, then we can sort that out for you too.... for Free.
Yes
We believe the property industry can better function with increased transparency, but we are also committed to respecting and protecting your privacy. For the purposes of the Data Protection Regulations 2018 we are notified as a data controller with the Information Commissioner's Office with registration number ZA214405.
You can find our privacy policy here.
We process and share your information as detailed in our privacy policy which can be found here.
Firstly don't worry
You are already ahead of many buyers simply by documenting your position and securing a Home Buyer Passport.
Just follow the easy to action personalised steps that we've given you as part of your Home Buyer Passport, keeping your status updated in Hipla and you will very quickly improve your position to become one of the hottest buyers out there.
As you improve your position we will automatically update any estate agents that you're registered with.
This saves you time and effort individually updating different agents.
It's a well positioned buyer, so one with a good Home Buyer Passport score in Hipla.
Hot buyers are more likely to find out about properties first, beat other buyers and get their offers accepted by sellers.
Hot buyers can also use the strength of their Home Buyer Passport score to negotiate the price on a property purchase.
Hipla awards highlight only top most active agents using Hipla to complement their buyer qualification process.
When requesting a valuation or registering your Home Buyer Passport with an agent, you may see this next to the agents details:
But why is this important?
We believe that by using Hipla to ask their buyers to evidence their buying position, these agents are promoting transaparency and this will bring added benefits to both their buyers and sellers.
And how does an agent qualify?
The algorithm is based on a moving 30 day average of the number of new buyers that have registered with them as a result of either being invited to do so (by that agent) or by using the agents unique registration URL. The algorithm also takes into account a minimum threshold hurdle and the performance of other agents within the local area. An agent could be actively using Hipla, but they may not qualify for a Hipla award if other agents are actively getting more of their buyers onto Hipla.
Good question
We have many partnered Estate Agents around the country who will guide you in signing up.
If your preferred agent does not yet use Hipla, then please ask them to reach out to us.
Home Buyer Passport
Supported by HM Land Registry, our flagship product is the Home Buyer Passport. We provide an evidence based buyer qualification platform that handles proof of deposit, proof of mortgage agreement in principle (AIP) and proof of progress of selling a property.
We automatically collect this information as soon a buyer registers with you, including full visualisation of a chain, giving you better transparency on a buyer's position, complimenting your own qualification and giving you a truer (evidence based) picture.
Earlier qualification also then creates opportunities for you (with our help) to improve your applicants positions. In doing so, we'll even introduce your applicants to your preferred broker and conveyancer (reinforcing your own messaging), because we know you trust them and you know who locally is the best.
We give you the tools to demonstrate to potential vendors that your buyers are better positioned than those of a rival agency, as your applicants will be able to transact quicker with less risk.
So through a more transparent and earlier qualification process, we give you the tools to win more instructions.
LeadSmart
We give you the tool to be able to physically speak to ALL of your web enquiries within 30 seconds of receiving the lead (from Rightmove, Zoopla etc.), instead of the typical 4-5 hours response time or in some cases a day.
None of your competitors will be able to offer a quicker, more controlled and attentive service and you will win instructions as a result. In fact, you will feel so confident in your own branch's lead handling ability that if you haven't already won a vendor's instruction, then you will actively encourage them to secret shop both yourself and your nearest competitors.... as it will be their buyers that you will ultimately be responding to, ensuring the leads generated from their listing are handled in the most attentive and nurturing manner possible.
And no more leaving messages. Say goodbye to 'telephone tennis'.
In short we convert ALL web enquiries, Rightmove, Zoopla, OnTheMarket and even those coming from your own website into a phone call. Your phone will ring, we read out the lead to you and then if you're free and able to deal with it we'll then connect you through to your client without you having to dial and before your client has even closed down their Rightmove browser.
We get you speaking to your lead whilst they're hot and motivated.
We provide all of your staff with a lightweight, realtime contact handling dashboard which you can use as much of or as little of as you want. It updates in realtime, you're alerted by both the phone as well as screen notifications and you have access to all of your realtime (and historic) lead data in one place... instead of distributed within emails.
Full metrics reporting is built in as standard. Easily see who is dealing with which lead, the outcomes, lead sources, lead type, times of day, how quickly the phone was answered etc.
Call recording is also built in as standard, to facilitate with ongoing staff training.
Out of hours intelligent lead routing is built in as standard, giving you the capability to seamlessly extend your office hours to remote locations or deal with only the most important leads.
Home Buyer Passport
If you're being asked by a vendor to confirm the progress of their sale then it is FREE to sign up and do this.
If you also wish to use Hipla to qualify buyers, then after a 3 month free trial period, we charge £2 for every applicant that we qualify. If you have a sizeable applicant flow then we can agree an upper monthly cap, after which applicants are qualified for free.
LeadSmart
Click here for more information.
It's our way of promoting your branch to give you an advantage over other agents in your area.
When a buyer creates a Home Buyer Passport they may also use it to request a valuation. When doing so only those branches with a display advantage will be shown to the user. It's therefore a way of promoting your branch over other agents in your area and initially preventing that user from interacting with those other branches.
And again, only those branches with a display advantage will be shown to the user when they want to 'share/register' their Home Buyer Passport with a branch.
That's great, but how do I get this 'display advantage'?
There's 2 different ways to get a display advantage with a buyer and you can do either or both. The first method is to enter their email address into the Hipla dashboard. The second method is to encourage your clients to sign up using your branches unique Hipla URL.
Yes, you can give your sellers even better transparency.
You can send a subset of the information that you can see (about the buyer and those in their chain) to a seller for them to review alongside an offer. The seller will only be able to see this information whilst the offer is waiting to be accepted or has already been accepted. The seller will NOT continue to be able to see this information if they reject the offer.
But exactly what information about the buyer (and those in their chain) can the seller then see?
The exact subset of information that can be seen by that seller is explicity stated in our privacy policy (click here to go to the exact section), which all our users have agreed to.
When a user registers their Home Buyer Passport with an agent (using Hipla), they provide that agent with authority to submit offers (including the reduced subset of their information mentioned above) to sellers on their behalf. This is explicity stated in our privacy policy (here) and users are reminded of this at the point they register with an agent.
No
You can send the Home Buyer Passport of any buyer (so long as the buyer is registered with you on Hipla) to any seller regardless of whether the seller is on Hipla or not. When you do this you have to accompany the Home Buyer Passport with details of the offer.
A notification will be sent to the seller to sign up or log in and the buyer's Home Buyer Passport (along with the offer details) will be waiting for them. The buyer will also be notified that an offer has been submitted (from them) to this seller.
Yes
When you send a buyer's details to a seller they are notified that an offer has been submitted to the seller for the seller to review along with their Home Buyer Passport.
Good question
For the purpose of the Data Protection Regulations 2018 we are notified as a data controller with the Information Commissioner's Office with registration number ZA214405. Our privacy policy explains how and for what purposes we use, process and share personal information.
Property sellers can use our platform to provide a single set of information upfront to both their estate agent and conveyancer, satisfying both Trading Standard's regulations and the Law Society's conveyancing protocol.
The process is usually initiated by the estate agent as soon as they have won the instruction to list the property, by generating a bespoke URL link for the property seller to use.
The property seller then completes a single set of information (called their Digital Legal Pack), using a mobile friendly workflow and can upload all relevant documentation as well as digitally signing this.
The property seller can then share this pack with their property lawyer, who in turn can download this in the Law Society's conveyancing protocol form format (i.e. the TA6, TA7 and TA10 forms), helping them to issue a contract legal pack to the otherside much quicker than normal.
In most cases it's completely FREE to download a completed and signed Digital Legal Pack as the estate agent is already using the platform.