PSG – The Property Search Group
FORMER policewoman and mother of four Julie Hester founded the Property Search Group in 1997 to provide property search services for solicitors handling house sales.
She was joined by husband Gary the following year.
Having proved the viability of the business, the first franchise was granted in 1999 and grew at the peak of the property industry to 104 fully functioning franchise offices across England and is the largest provider of packaged conveyancing products in the country.
Consolidated to the current 73 offices, all the franchisees give work to each other and support each other in a way that is unprecedented in franchising.
PSG Franchising, based at Trinity Street in Huddersfield, has built a quality brand by recruiting quality people into the network.
PSG Franchising became the first private search company to join the Council of Mortgage Lenders in 2001. The reputation for professionalism and quality placed PSG at the forefront of the industry. PSG found itself taking a lead role in lobbying national and European parliaments, fighting with wayward local authorities and guiding government in policy and legislation.
By 2006, the PSG network was providing one in four of all local searches in England and Wales, approximately 340,000 out of 650,000 instructions to search companies, from 1.2 million property sales in total. Nationally, PSG employed nearly 600 highly trained and committed staff at the peak of the property industry, prior to the arrival of HIPs.
PSG Darlington
Paul Milliken had a career in geology in the coal mining, oil exploration and government sectors, working in the wilds of western Canada from the open prairies, the arctic, the Rocky Mountains and British Columbia.
Mary had a thriving career in a busy multinational insurance firm, as a specialist trouble-shooting problem policies, training staff and advancing quickly towards a management position.
When his Canadian government job turned from outdoor field work to policy and administration, Paul took advantage with his wife Mary, Glasgow born and raised, to start a new career in Britain in 1993.
Mary and Paul set up home and business in a post office and corner shop in 1994 in the beautiful market town of Richmond, North Yorkshire. Their strong views on customer service ensured that their experience in the Richmond community was a happy and successful one. Following six years in the hard life of a newsagent and seven-days-a-week slog they left the post office in 2000 seeking a new challenge.
PSG offered a business and career within a legal/legislative framework dealing with land/property, in a language that Paul was very familiar with from his work in geology and government. It was a perfect match.
The PSG franchise positioned Paul and Mary at the centre of a region based in Darlington covering Co. Durham, Teesside and North Yorkshire. With their growing client-base, they grew to become the dominant search provider in the area and the local experts in all aspects of property searches with particular expertise in each of the ten councils in their territory.
Solicitors across the region trusted PSG Darlington with the searches knowing that Mary and Paul, and their well-trained staff, devoted the same degree of care and attention to providing an excellent search service as they devoted to their own conveyancing.
2007 saw Home Information Packs arrive on the scene, and local searches are a key component of the pack. PSG, and the national and local expert, was an obvious choice as a HIP provider.
Various government schemes introduced thousands of entrepreneurs to the opportunities that HIPs created, and the competition among HIP and search providers skyrocketed. In the face of growing criticism about the validity and quality of HIPs, PSG maintains its dominant position as one of the most professional and trusted providers.
More and more house sellers are coming directly to PSG for their HIPs, or approaching their solicitors who steer them directly to PSG, for price, quality, professionalism and service.
