The complex transaction process and long cycle of second-hand housing, as well as the difficulty in controlling risks, are pain points for many consumers. Recently, at the "New Scene and New Experience" signing service center open day held by Beijing Lianjia, it was officially announced that 10 signing service centers will be fully operational.
This is a new service model launched by the Beijing real estate brokerage industry, which has rewritten the current signing model in the second-hand housing market, transforming the previous decentralized signing into centralized signing. As a one-stop real estate transaction service center, the signing service center can provide transaction services such as contract signing, online signing and filing, bank loans, tax payment and transfer for both buyers and sellers. The emergence of signing service centers is expected to reconstruct the transaction process chain, aggregate multiple roles, to ensure transaction security, improve service efficiency and experience. At the same time, the opening of the contracted service center will also promote the continuous innovation of service models in the entire industry.
Refactoring the transaction process from decentralized signing to centralized signing
At present, there have been significant changes in the supply and demand relationship in the real estate market. While the people hope to live in good houses, they also hope to have a better living service experience. In this industry context, "the real estate brokerage industry needs to continuously introduce new service models to further boost the confidence of homebuyers and continue to meet the needs of the people for a better living environment," said Zhao Qingxiang, Secretary General of the Beijing Real Estate Intermediary Industry Association.
Recently, Beijing Lianjia officially announced the full operation of 10 contracted service centers, which is an important service upgrade based on the real estate transaction process. The transaction of second-hand houses is complex, and to complete one transaction, both the buyer and seller need to travel to at least four offices or locations. At the Beijing Lianjia Contract Signing Service Center, there are bank customer managers, notaries stationed at the center, and self-service credit inquiry machines that can provide services such as loans, notarization, and credit management, carrying multiple functions such as signing contracts, online signing, face-to-face signing, tax payment, and transfer of ownership. Both buyers and sellers only need to be present 1-2 times to complete all the processes from signing to transfer in one stop, enjoying a more efficient and convenient trading experience.
As is well known, under the optimization of the business environment by government departments, one-stop service has become mainstream, and many industries have achieved more convenient service system integration. The signing service center of Beijing Lianjia is also a one-stop service. For example, Ms. Wang, who was in a hurry to sell her house and transfer ownership, completed the signing, online signing, house evaluation, customer loan approval, and tax transfer procedures within 5 days with the help of Wang Yilong, the signing manager of Beijing Lianjia. This surprised her greatly: "I didn't expect everything to be quickly connected, and I didn't have to run back and forth. It's so worry free
There are many customers like Ms. Wang who save time and energy. According to statistics, at the Beijing Lianjia Contract Signing Service Center, the average time for both buyers and sellers to complete the entire process from signing to transfer is 35.7 days. In the traditional decentralized signing model, this process takes an average of 68.2 days.
The "one-stop" trading service from 68.2 days to 35.7 days is a transformation brought by centralized signing for industry trading services. At present, there are 10 contracted service centers in use in Beijing, covering 7 urban areas including Chaoyang, Haidian, Tongzhou, and Daxing, covering multiple directions throughout the city. As of October 15, 2024, the Beijing Lianjia Contract Service Center has served over 10000 orders and provided services to more than 30000 families.
In fact, Beijing Lianjia has been committed to improving customer service experience through quality transformation for many years. From the earliest tripartite signing, no price difference, genuine housing, to the introduction of peace of mind service commitments, we have always been safeguarding consumers' buying and selling of houses. The establishment of this contracted service center is another service upgrade for the industry. The upgrade from decentralized signing to centralized signing once again reflects Beijing Lianjia's original intention of always adhering to the principle of "being good to customers".
Regarding this, Hao Yufeng, Vice President of Beike Group and General Manager of Beijing Lianjia, said, "The signing service center is a new scenario launched by Beijing Lianjia based on consumer quality needs. We hope to improve consumers' sense of security and experience through the reconstruction of the entire real estate transaction process.
Rewrite the signing mode to ensure transaction security
It is worth noting that the signing service center not only greatly improves work efficiency. Moreover, standardized and regulated services can improve the experience, and under the review and control of professional contract managers, transaction security can be ensured.
In addition to the complex process and long cycle of second-hand housing transactions, the difficulty in controlling risks has also become a pain point for many consumers. At present, over 70% of consumers are not aware of the common risks in second-hand housing transactions, and 30% of consumers have encountered transaction disputes such as "property ownership", "tax payment", and "fund security".
Regarding this, Zhao Qingxiang stated that there are over 30 stages in the process of buying and selling a house, from the initial consultation to the completion of the sale, where the buyer receives the house and the seller receives the payment. Each stage is not only a critical node but also a risk point, requiring signatures and authentication. For ordinary people, buying a house is like walking on thin ice.
In order to help both buyers and sellers avoid risks to the greatest extent possible, Beijing Lianjia Contract Signing Service Center has standardized the second-hand housing transaction process, dividing it into five modules: appointment, pre signing, in signing, post signing, and review, covering 33 stages such as risk warning, document verification, contract drafting, and contract explanation. Potential risks in each stage are checked and avoided one by one during the contract signing stage. Among them, the signing service center has summarized and produced six types of high-risk warning videos, which are played for both buyers and sellers before signing to fully warn of transaction risks.
As of October 15th, the signing dispute rate between buyers and sellers at the Beijing Lianjia Contract Signing Service Center was 0.11%, which is 2.98% lower than the traditional non centralized signing mode, effectively reducing the risk of transaction disputes between buyers and sellers.
In addition, disputes arising from verbal agreements between buyers and sellers have occurred from time to time in the past. In the signing service center, each signing room can provide full process audio and video recording services, and permanently store them in the cloud, making the entire signing process visible and transparent, better protecting the legitimate rights and interests of both parties. For the financial security issues that consumers are concerned about, the signing service center has introduced various fund custody services. The data shows that the current fund custody equivalent of the contracted service center has reached 96.32%, effectively ensuring the financial security of both buyers and sellers.
Unlike the past where brokers led the signing process, the Beijing Lianjia Signing Service Center has also established a new role of "signing manager" to ensure transaction security. As a fourth party independent of the buyer, seller, and broker, the signing manager is more objective and fair, which helps to make the signing process more standardized. The signing manager is not only responsible for reviewing qualifications, assessing risks, and explaining contracts, but also can answer transaction questions for both buyers and sellers, and assist brokers in accurately calculating loans and taxes.
Most of our contract managers have professional education backgrounds in law, finance, and other fields, with an average working time in the real estate industry of over 9 years, "said An Shuli, the head of Beijing Lianjia Trading Service Center. Beijing Lianjia has set educational and professional experience thresholds for the position of contract manager, and introduced a service quality inspection system that uses manual sampling and AI quality inspection technology to assess the services of contract managers, ensuring that they provide safe and standardized contract services to consumers in accordance with standard procedures.
Enhance customer rest and promote the upgrading of industry service quality
In addition to considerations of transaction security and speed, further enhancing the transaction experience is another reason for Beijing Lianjia to establish a signing service center. The core philosophy of Beijing Lianjia is to be good to customers. In Beijing, there are still a small number of Lianjia stores that cannot provide customers with a good signing experience. However, at the signing service center, all customers can enjoy Lianjia's high-quality services.
At the Beijing Lianjia Contract Signing Service Center, it can be seen that multiple contract rooms of different sizes are standard. Compared to the limited space in the store meeting room, the signing room in the signing service center is spacious, bright, and equipped with frosted glass and long signing tables, which not only ensures privacy but also makes the signing scene more ceremonial. In addition, each signing service center also has multifunctional areas such as negotiation area, coffee and tea break area, children's entertainment area, public computer and printing area, providing consumers with comfortable signing space.
It is reported that the Beijing Lianjia signing service center will expand to 15-18 to ensure coverage of about 90% of the signing volume. The site selection requirement is that the contracted service center has an area of at least 1000 square meters, and the surrounding transaction volume will also be calculated to ensure the coverage and efficiency of transaction volume, and to ensure that surrounding customers arrive at the contracted service center within 30 minutes. In addition, many service details such as parking will also be considered.
In the future, we will continue to explore and innovate more products and services, providing stronger security guarantees and a better real estate transaction experience for both buyers and sellers. We hope that the existence of Lianjia can bring a little difference to consumers, brokers, industries, and society in Beijing, "said Hao Yufeng.
From the current perspective, the emergence of Beijing Lianjia Contract Signing Service Center is bound to have a profound impact on the industry's transaction services, thereby promoting the industry's attention to the quality of transaction services, strengthening the construction of contract signing services, continuously innovating service models, and improving the consumer safety and experience of the brokerage industry, meeting people's demand for a better living environment.