PEXA Community Blog

Hi Community,

Welcome to the Practitioner Specialist Spotlight! This is a new initiative to help introduce you to our wonderful team in Queensland. Each month we will sit down with a guest to discuss their e-Conveyancing thoughts, tips and tricks.

Our first team member under the spotlight is Daniel Arnfield.

How long have you been with PEXA?

Daniel: I’ll have been at PEXA for three years in April.

In which region of Queensland are you based?

Daniel: Mainly Brisbane’s CBD, but I also work with practitioners on the Sunshine Coast and Gold Coast.

Why are you passionate about e-Conveyancing?

Daniel: My role combines technology and the opportunity to really help people and firms within the industry. This in turn allows me to form strong relationships with the people I work with. We are currently in a very exciting time as the industry is completely transformed and I’m glad to be part of that transition. 

When working with practitioners, what do you love to see?

Daniel: It’s great watching the progress that a practitioner makes with PEXA. Their development, increasing confidence on the platform and the peer to peer engagement are really building the industry. Queensland is beginning to create a supportive network and it’s nice to see other firms encourage those that aren’t yet online.

What tips do you have for practitioners in Queensland?

Daniel: PEXA encourages feedback from its members on the improvements they want to see, and I urge members to share their thoughts – this allows PEXA to continually advance the platform for everyone. I also recommend that practitioners use Community and get involved with the discussions that occur there. The forum has so many educational resources and helpful guides to enhance your transactional experience.  

If you’d like to get in touch with Daniel, you can contact him at @Daniel or Daniel.Arnfield@pexa.com.au.

Keep an eye out for the next Practitioner Specialist Spotlight here on the e-Conveyancing Community.

Hi Community!

We are excited to announce that this week is PEXA Training Week! Take advantage of the quieter period by educating yourself about PEXA and its processes. During the week, we will be posting educational materials on our social pages. Be sure to follow PEXA on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn for updates.

If you would like any specific educational materials to be shared, please comment below.

The man who wrote the book on Conveyancing (literally!); a chat with John Erskine

Daniel Roesler and John Erskine

2018 has been a huge year for the e-Conveyancing Community and with today being the last day of the year for many of us, I thought it would be a good time to look back.

There's a lot of new display pics in Community this year - 2,880 new members joined us so we're nearly double the size now!

There were over one and a half million page views and between monitoring PEXA workspaces for the Total Funds Required, or for a Mortgagee to finally sign off , you've spent 737,031 hours here in Community... I wonder who's getting that bill. .

You've made 5,461 posts - most of those were by @DMc of course  and somehow we've had 83,146 unique visitors, just in the last 6 months.... can't tell if that's because we have such an interesting Community or if there's a bot-net setup to like all of @EmilyBilling's posts  853 Emily! I'll never catch her at this rate! 

It's been great as a Community Manager to sit back and see so many of you answering questions for your peers, helping each other through this digital transformation. I'm really proud that Community has become a space where we can collaborate, come together and work through problems; it's was very cool to see banks working with one-another and competing firms offering each other advice.

We started our first Super User program, recognising the extra effort some of our Community members do to help others and the time they spend here.

Thank you so much for being part of it @DMc, @LG, @BGoodwin, @jgusew, @nicolalambrakis, @TheDoctor, @Clara, @goolwaconveyancing, @Morri and @LawyersConveyancing.

For those of you who made it, we loved having you here in the Melbourne office - clearly I can't paint, my poor frog looked like it was dribbling green goo, but it was a great night and fantastic to put names to everyone's faces.

We'll be running our Super User program again in 2019 and inviting new people. One thing we'd like to do differently is have a Community nominated Super User. More details will follow in the New Year so keep an eye out when you get back from the Summer Holidays.

Our Super Users Program won't be the only new thing in 2019 - there's a lot of new features on the roadmap for the start of next year - new banner images, a new group launching for Queensland, a new Webinar page and a new page for our Super Users are just a couple of thing on the board.

That's it from me, I'll be off Rock Climbing and Kayaking over the holidays, @AnnaHardie is about to set off on her adventure around the world (we're hoping she'll make it back next March) and @EmilyBilling's having a staycation (which I think technically makes her the one on call ).

@Josh_McCutcheon and @IsaacK from our support team will be your Community Managers over the Christmas period and they're really excited to be looking after your Community - so be nice!

Have a wonderful Christmas everyone, looking at the PEXA transaction volumes over the last few weeks I think everyone deserves a good break!

Hi Community,

In this episode of 5 in 5, Marcus speaks with Krystle Kocik, EGM of New Products at PEXA about PEXA Plus Marketplace.

Introducing $11.80 property searches in NSW, watch on to learn more.

Further information

Your guide to ordering property searches

FAQs

NEWS: Disrupting a $300m market: Pexa starts marketplace for property title documents

Kind regards

Aoife

From Conveyancing to CATS; a chat with Nick Xenides

Nick Xenides and Daniel Roesler

Q: When did it all kick off for you in the industry Nick?

A: My conveyancing career started back in 1985, when I joined a firm called Robert Northcott & Associates. Soon after several firms, including Northcotts, amalgamated to form Optima Conveyancing where I remained for the next 17 years. I was then invited to form an association with Bernie Lewis Home Loans assisting with settlements for their HomeStart agency, and that was the beginning of BLHL Conveyancing.

Q: How did you come to be involved in conveyancing software?

A: I had previously been using a software package called Domain, which was OK but not so easy to use. There was a lack of comprehensive or user-friendly software for SA conveyancers and since I had programming experience, I decided I would write my own software package. I created the first version of what came to be called CATS, in 2005. I had no intention of turning CATS into a business venture, but a few conveyancers heard about it through the grapevine and wanted to see it for themselves. With the help of Kel Watson who handled the technical aspects of installing the system, we suddenly had a base of 6 firms using the package. The word spread and before long the AICSA expressed an interest in partnering up to deliver it across the market.

Q: How does CATS look at present and into the near future for people?

A: We catalogued a lot of the feedback from the past couple of years which indicated a desire to move to a cloud-based system, giving customers an improved and updated platform on which to run their business. We think it’s competitive with any other offering and is a tried and trusted system for running files and trust accounting. We’re now able to offer integration with PEXA and are about to launch an update with Microsoft Office integration as well.

Q: What’s the biggest change you’ve witnessed in your time in the industry?

A: In conveyancing, it’s the rapid rate of changes brought about by new legislation such as Capital Gains Withholding, GST Withholding, ATO Clearance Certificates, stamping procedures etc. I feel that so much responsibility has been shifted from government service providers to the individual conveyancer. At the same time conveyancers have had to ensure there was no reduction in quality of service to their clients. The pace of change may prove too much for smaller practices. We are already seeing senior conveyancers retiring early as a result.

In technology, we had already experienced some of the biggest changes with the introduction of SAILIS & the Revenue SA portals. PEXA is just another digital transformation our profession needs to go through, and soon there will be competitors to PEXA as well. Unfortunately, due to the discounting culture that exists in SA, it is difficult for conveyancers to properly compensate themselves for these extra duties and responsibilities.

Q: What are your personal views on the digital transformation of the property industry?

A: I’m happy that the industry has begun to move in this direction, and it’s ultimately the change we’ll need to embrace. To hasten this change, perhaps the settlements room could be abolished or phased out, thereby making paper settlements a deterrent and the online way more appealing. Digitisation is inevitable. It’s the future. It’s coming and there is no use pretending otherwise. The sooner we embrace the digital platform, the easier it will be when, rather than if it is made mandatory.  

Hi Community,

Join Lisa Dowie and Matt Gillet from PEXA as they chat about the new gateway to PEXA, coming soon to all members, PEXA Plus. 

For more information, visit the PEXA website and the Community for FAQs.

Cheers

Aoife

Thank you to those of you who joined us at the Queensland industry roadshows this week.

You can download a copy of the presentations via the PDFs attached to this post.

We hope this chance to join us has helped you further understand what’s happening across the network and the opportunities available moving forward in this period of digital change.

If you have any questions, please reply to this post and we will get back to you.

Hi Community,

This month, Marcus speaks with Marty Karpowicz, PEXA Product Owner, about upcoming enhancements to the PEXA platform. Marty has some exciting upgrades to speak about including a change to settlement roll-over time, the new PEXA help feature, Workspace summary changes and more. 

If you have any questions about the enhancements mentioned in the above video, please don't hesitate to ask us below.

Cheer

Aoife

Thank you to those of you who joined us at the Coffs Harbour and Port Macquarie industry events .

You can download a copy of the presentations attached to this post.
We hope this chance to join industry experts has helped you further understand what the upcoming changes mean for your business, how you can prepare and learn what's next for Your Network, Your Future.
If you have any questions, please reply to this post and we will get back to you.

Thank you to those of you who joined us at the Far North Queensland industry roadshows.

You can download a copy of the presentations attached to this post.

We hope this chance to join us has helped you further understand what’s happening across the network and the opportunities available moving forward in this period of digital change.

If you have any questions, please reply to this post and we will get back to you.

The PRSG provides protection to sellers of residential property in the event of a certain kind of fraud. Where the PRSG applies, the seller has the option to make a claim against PEXA, rather than seeking to recover the loss by an alternative means.

Access to proceeds of sale is much faster with PEXA. If your client hasn’t received their funds within 24 hours this should raise a red flag for you and your client. Speak with your client and ensure they contact you as soon as they suspect something unusual.

How it works

The PRSG applies to settlements of residential property on or after 29 June 2018 and sellers can only avail of this guarantee if their conveyancer settles the sale of their property online using PEXA.

Key points

• The PRSG applies to sellers in respect of the settlement of residential property where the vendor’s funds are misdirected after the seller’s practitioner has entered the correct bank account details into the PEXA platform.
• There is a $2 million cap on PEXA’s liability per settlement.
• Further conditions must be satisfied before a claim can be made under the PRSG. A summary of conditions can be found here.

For further information, you can view these frequently asked questions.

In this edition of 5 in 5, Senior Lawyer, Emma Elsworth, speaks with Marcus Price, PEXA CEO, about the introduction of PEXA’s Residential Seller Guarantee (PRSG).

We're all about transforming the property experiences of our members here at PEXA; so when it came to designing our lift lobby space, we jumped at the opportunity to showcase our member's stories and highlight what using PEXA means to their businesses.

Here's Mike Cameron, Group Executive, Customer & Revenue, taking us on a tour.

I love that the first thing I see in the morning and the last thing I see, sometimes after quite a long day, is the reason why I do it, why I'm here - to improve the experience for our members.

Leading developers Springfield City Group and PEXA last night hosted a property network evening, inviting Queensland’s industry members to engage in an evening of future-thinking and thought leadership.

Attendees included lawyers, real estate agents and property developers, all collaborating to explore the powerful technology available to professionals in our field and how it will help shape the market moving forward.

The collaboration between Springfield City Group and PEXA aims to foster a community-like togetherness among Queensland’s property stakeholders.

Both Springfield City Group and PEXA pride themselves on being at the forefront of innovation, playing a part in accelerating the digitisation of property exchange in the state and Australia as a whole.

Simon LaBlack, Legal Practitioner Director of LaBlack Lawyers, shared his experiences with the PEXA platform and urged his peers to adopt the e-system to drive the industry’s digital transition.

The partnership between Springfield City Group and PEXA signals an ongoing commitment to advancing Queensland’s broader property network.

Many of our QLD members ask about Trust Account compliance when they first start with PEXA. Watch Bill Hourigan, answer the most commonly asked questions in this video below.

Bill Hourigan is the Manager of Trust Account Investigations, Queensland Law Society. 

Bill authored the QLS Guidelines for Trust Account Operations (PEXA transactions)   

In his role at the QLS, Bill is responsible for the investigation of the affairs of law practice in Queensland, and is highly experienced and recognised as a market leader in providing advice in respect to law practice trust accounts.

You can contact the QLS for further information and support on how to transition your trust account processes into the e-Conveyancing space.

Join Lisa Dowie, PEXA’s Chief Customer Officer as she fills in for CEO Marcus Price for our monthly 5 in 5 segment.

Lisa chats with Sam Roberts, Head of Integration at PEXA about the upcoming release of Multi-factor Authentication (MFA).

For further information on MFA, follow these links:

• Multi-factor authentication | FAQs
• Multi-factor authentication | Set-up guides and videos

Today we celebrate the Community's 2^nd birthday, and the amazing members that have contributed to it- that’s you! Did you know there are 4,328 registered members, including over 750 Financial Institution members, and 3,000 conveyancers and property lawyers! There are 414 accepted solutions and over 4919 discussions have taken place.

This year, we're recognising our top 12 community members by sending them a little something - have a look below to see if this is you! Also, as part of our birthday we will be releasing… a new set of badges tomorrow!! Any guesses on what they might be?

2018 Community Awards:

• Top Community Contributor: @DMc
• Top 5 contributor: @Clara
• Top 5 contributor: @goolwaconveyancing
• Top 5 contributor: @LawyersConveyancing                                     
• Top 5 contributor: @jgusew
• Top 5 contributor: @Chris_ZipID
• Most logins: @TW
• 60+ Kudos received: @Morri
• 740+ hours Spent Online: @nicolalambrakis
• 100+ Kudos Given: @CourtneyFitzgerald
• Award for 40+ posts: @BGoodwin
• Award for most posts read: @JacksonH

Thanks again to every single one of you. You're the reason the Community is so successful and we would like to thank you all for your contributions over the last 12 months! 

Cheers,

Emily, TJ & Anna

The Community team

Join PEXA CEO Marcus Price and the Executive Team for our monthly 5 in 5 segment!

This month we're talking Cyber Security as Lisa Dowie interviews Craig Brown, our Head of IT security.

Filmed monthly, 5 in 5 is a chance to ask PEXA's CEO and the executive team your questions.

To have your question asked, post here and we’ll select five to answer.

You asked, we answered. Questions about banks, ARNECC, reducing Support Desk waiting times and helping infrequent transactors. Watch this months’ 5 in 5 with Marcus Price and guest @GeorginaBenson, Support Desk hero. Do you have a question? Ask below or email community@pexa.com.au to be featured in next months edition.

The PEXA Open Day is underway here at the PEXAPlex. Awesome to see so many of our members and industry participants engaging with our teams and learning more about the world of e-Conveyancing. #PEXAOpen

Are you signing documents in PEXA on behalf of a practitioner firm or have recently set up your Digital Certificate to start signing? If so, then we would love some of your time to participate in our member survey. We have partnered with Qualie - an independent research platform to help us hear from you directly and to help make the survey a bit more interesting than usual. Click here to register now! The survey will commence in mid April. 

Hi Community,

In early March Bankwest's CIO Sean Langton gave a keynote address looking at emerging technology to members of the WA property industry at a development event billed as 'Your Industry - Your Future'

The financial institutions panel which was held at the event provided an opportunity for Bankwest to gain valuable feedback from our stakeholders in attendance, over and above that already discussed at the third industry symposium the previous day. The open communication channels established have been helpful in shaping the way we approach our process and we continue to welcome feedback to further improve the experience for our mutual customers.

We’re evolving and improving our digital offering to customers and stakeholders by embracing emerging technologies that are increasingly influencing how customers want to interact with us.

We firmly believe the move to a digital settlement paradigm will deliver greater certainty to customers and ultimately deliver a faster and more secure method of transacting property. We will however need to all work together to make this a reality. Business leaders need to adapt quickly to changing customer needs, embrace new technologies and adapt to new ways of working in today’s digital economy.

Just like a football team that needs a solid hit out in the pre-season competition to prepare for the real season, we are confident that we have done the hard work to hit the ground running when the ball bounces for the first of May mandates in WA.

David Morrissey 

Executive Manager Digital Operations Strategy WA 

Digital Operations Innovation I Group Operations

Join PEXA CEO Marcus Price on the couch for our new monthly 5 in 5 segment!

Filmed monthly, Marcus will respond directly to your questions in a brief fireside chat with lauded Australian journalist Stephen Feneley. So whatever’s on your mind, Marcus is here to give his views and perspective.

To have your question asked, post here and we’ll select five for Marcus to answer.

Here's the first episode:

On the sixth day of Community,

we announce who has won,

the delicious Christmas Hamper!

Thanks to everyone who participated last week during our Christmas / Holiday week! Without further ado this winner of the Christmas Hamper is @CassandraBird!! I'll be in touch soon

As this year comes to an end, we hope you have a wonderful Christmas and New Year. We'll be around for the rest of this week, but TJ, Anna and myself will be taking a break from Dec 23 to Jan 7. If you are working over the holidays and require urgent assistance, please contact our Support team on support@pexa.com.au or 1300 084 515. They will be available 8.30am to 8pm AEST Monday - Friday (closed Christmas Day, Boxing Day & New Years Day). For more information please see December | Releases, Planned Outages & Public Holidays. 

See you next year!!  Your Community team! 

On the fifth day of Community,

it’s all about you,

those special members who have contributed too.

(sing in your head or outloud)

We wanted to say a huge thankyou to everyone for being so amazing this year! Thanks for popping in to the Community, and sharing you ideas, your questions and your interest. The success of the Community is due to your participation! Today we wanted to take it one step further and thank some special people who have really contributed to this Community in many valuable ways. 

Top Poster of 2017

Drum roll please...the top poster of 2017 goes to @DMc from Western Australia with 104 posts! Congrats DMc, you've received a limited edition badge.

2017 Overall Winner 

Top Poster 2017 by State

We also wanted to acknowledge the top posters from each State! Every one below receives a limited edition badge too Congratulations 

• VIC: @Helen1 and @LawyersConveyancing drew for top place in Vic 
• NSW: @LG
• SA: @nicolalambrakis
• QLD: @BGoodwin
• WA: @DMc

Most Helpful

These members have had the greatest number of accepted solutions from their contributions. Congrats team, a special badge is coming your way! 

• @Morri
• @MLi1
• @cstewart

Most Helpful 

Honorable Mentions 

We also wanted to share some honorable mentions to members who have contributed throughout the year to make this Community successful. You'll also receive a special badge

• @goolwaconveyancing
• @MarcusLiley
• @Brooke
• @kiernanc
• @TW
• @settlements
• @Marianne1

Special Kudos 

And to everyone else, we hope to see you all back in the Community next year! Tune in on Monday to find out who has won the Christmas Hamper!

Your Community Team

@EmilyBilling @TJ @AnnaHardie 

On the fourth day of Community,

we send to you,

a thankyou from the PEXA team.

(Sing in your head or outloud)

Today we're sharing a short video from the PEXA team you've been talking to this year, as well as some key milestones and facts from the year! You may even have met some of these guys in person if you attended one of our Member Open Days. We also want to know What's your favourite thing about Christmas? Comment below and let us know!

Don't forget to check back tomorrow, we have a surprise for some special people who have made this Community what it is 

On the third day of Community,

let’s celebrate what’s helped,

by sharing posts you love!

Do you have a favourite piece of content in the Community? Maybe it's something you refer to often, or a discussion you enjoyed reading or have engaged in? Today we'd love you to comment below with a link to your loved piece of content or two! Hint: maybe you've bookmarked something through the year? 

Don't forget anyone who posts in the Community this week will go into the draw to win a Christmas hamper, so why not share the love! 

On the second day of Community,

let us review,

popular pieces of content,

and what you’ve related to.

(Sing in your head or outloud!)

Today we're taking the opportunity to put together the list of discussions and help article which were the most read, referenced and viewed during 2017! See the full list below, is there anything you found particularly helpful? Comment below. Don't forget, every one who posts in the Community this week goes into the draw to win a Christmas Hamper  

What was important to you?

Top discussions from the year 

• Industry transformation 2017 – Mandate dates
• Paper Title to Electronic title
• PEXA Fee and pricing update 
• Order on the agent 
• Watching settlement status progress in your workspace
• PEXA project launched to the developer market 

Top help articles from the year 

• How to create a caveat
• Workspace overview
• Transfer guidelines
• Industry digital transformation – Q&A
• Release 7 - What's new?
• Client authorisation form
• List of interactive tutorials
• Create a workspace
• Participants and invitations
• Priority notices

Happy second day of Community! Keep your eyes open for tomorrow and what we have in store  

Your Community team, 

@EmilyBilling @TJ @AnnaHardie

On the first day of Community,

we want you,

to win a Christmas hamper!

(Sing outloud ) 

Hello Community and welcome to the 6 Days of Community. It’s not quite a partridge in a pear tree, but to round off a fantastic year we're running a competition with the chance to win a delicious Christmas Hamper! Each day this week we'll be sharing some more Christmas cheer.  

What do you need to do?

You have to be in it to win it! To be eligible to be in the draw to win this Christmas hamper, just share a post in the Community between today Monday 11 Dec and Friday 16 Dec. You can post anywhere in the Community; ask a question, share or vote on an existing idea, let us know what you have planned for the holiday break, or just post below to say hi!

The winner will be announced next Monday 18 Dec. But that's not all, keep an eye out for tomorrow's post to see what we have in store!

Your Community team, 

@EmilyBilling @TJ @AnnaHardie

The easiest way of doing this is to pay for it of course. Advertising on social media can provide a great return on investment as you can choose who sees your content. This mean you can target their age, location and job, right down to whether they own a house or are likely to move houses.

There are other ways though which don’t include any advertising $$s. You can get involved in industry conversations by including popular hashtags or by tagging other businesses in your posts to spark a conversation. This will increase the reach of your content past your own followers.

We use the hashtags #PEXA and #eConveyancing but there are others too, #conveyancing #property #realestate #settlement #onlinesettlement to name a few. When I see posts with #PEXA I always make sure to give it a like or a share from the PEXA page.