There is an understandable nervousness developing around the growing number of platforms trying to insert themselves into the home-moving transaction.
Who owns the customer? Who controls the data? Who decides which professional gets the work? Is a solicitor still exercising independent judgement, or simply completing somebody else's workflow? These are legitimate questions. But there is another danger too.
If every attempt to improve home moving is treated as an attempt to control it, we will simply preserve the fragmented system that is already failing consumers and professionals.
WiggyWam takes a different position. We have very strong views about how a better home move should work. That does not mean we want to control the professionals delivering it.
Standards are not the same as control
We believe sellers should prepare their property before a buyer is found. We believe estate agents and solicitors should become involved earlier. We believe important information should be gathered before everybody is under pressure. We believe professionals should be able to communicate around the same transaction rather than working through disconnected inboxes and systems. We believe referral fees distort professional relationships and that good professionals should be able to build their businesses on expertise, reputation and results instead. And we believe technology should remove friction around professionals, not replace their judgement. Those are standards.
They are not instructions telling a solicitor how to practise law, a broker how to advise a borrower or an estate agent how to run their agency. We are uncompromising about improving the process. We are not interested in controlling the professional.
The Seller's Pack is a good example
Our Seller's Pack is not simply a bundle of digital forms. It has been designed as an early property-preparation process. Our forms are integrated into all the moving parts of WiggyWam. The seller can begin gathering information and documents before a buyer is waiting. Our Smart Forms include an intelligent AI assistant that can explain complicated questions through voice or text and in the seller's preferred language. But importantly, the technology does not pretend to know everything. If the seller remains uncertain, they can select Not sure.
That uncertainty can then be surfaced to the estate agent and solicitor so the right professional can deal with it. That reflects our philosophy perfectly. Technology gets the information organised. Professionals provide the judgement.
Why we integrated a specialist search provider
The same thinking sits behind our decision to integrate a specialist search provider into the Seller's Pack. There is an important point we want to make absolutely clear: WiggyWam receives no referral fee, commission or other payment from that search provider. We use them because we believe in the service. They bring specialist knowledge, experienced people, local-authority relationships, human support and the turnaround we want around a WiggyWam transaction. Their service makes the Moving Hub better. That is the reason they are there.
There is a considerable difference between integrating a specialist because they improve the service and directing work towards somebody because the platform gets paid for doing so. We believe partnerships should be based on capability, not commission.
And if we are going to put the WiggyWam name behind a complete Seller's Pack, we also need to have confidence in the components that make that process work. We cannot be everything to everybody, nor should we try to be.
The Maverick Movement works on the same principle
The Maverick Movement is not intended to become an enormous directory where anybody can buy a badge. We want exceptional independent professionals. Property Mavericks. Magic Circle Mavericks. Finance Mavericks. People who believe in earlier preparation, better communication, professional independence and actually getting the client moved.
But they do not work for WiggyWam. They retain their own firms, brands, clients, systems, fees and professional judgement.
WiggyWam provides the infrastructure that allows those professionals to work more effectively around the same transaction. That distinction matters enormously. The Mavericks do not work for the platform. The platform works for the Mavericks and their clients.
Shared infrastructure does not mean shared ownership
A connected transaction needs somewhere for the appropriate information, documents, tasks, milestones and communication to come together. Otherwise we simply recreate what we already have: multiple organisations working on the same move while each sees only a fragment of what is happening. That is why WiggyWam exists. But the solicitor's legal file remains the solicitor's. The broker's confidential financial information remains in the broker's systems. The estate agent retains their relationship with their client. WiggyWam does not need to own any of those relationships to help the transaction work better.
What it needs to do is make sure the appropriate people know what has happened, what still needs attention and who needs to act next. One connected transaction does not require one organisation to own everybody involved in it.
Independence does not mean isolation
This may be one of the biggest misunderstandings in the debate around independent professionals. Independence should mean retaining your judgement, client relationship and professional integrity. It should not mean working alone. Large corporate organisations understand the power of connected ecosystems extremely well. Their businesses can share infrastructure, marketing, information and customer journeys because they sit inside the same wider organisation. Independent professionals have rarely had that advantage. The Maverick Movement and WiggyWam are intended to offer another way. Independent businesses can remain independent while benefiting from shared infrastructure and working alongside other professionals who believe in delivering a better service. The power of being connected without having to be owned.
Trust has to be earned
We understand that. The answer is not to tell professionals that they should simply trust another technology company. The answer is to demonstrate what happens when they use it. Can the solicitor retain their judgement? Yes. Can the broker keep confidential financial information in their own systems? Yes. Does the estate agent retain their client? Yes. Are we taking referral fees from the search provider built into our Seller's Pack? No. Are we trying to turn lawyers, agents and brokers into employees of an algorithm? Absolutely not. What we are trying to do is give excellent professionals a better environment in which to do excellent work. And then listen to the people actually using it.
Our governing council and the Mavericks themselves will be an important part of that. The people working inside real transactions should help us identify what works, what does not and what needs improving. We would rather build with good practitioners than spend years trying to anticipate every theoretical objection before anybody gets through the door.
We know what side we are on
WiggyWam was not created to build another gatekeeper between consumers and professionals. Quite the opposite. We want good independent estate agents, conveyancers and mortgage brokers to be easier to find, more profitable, better connected and less dependent on business models that monetise access to their own customers. The Maverick Movement brings those people together. WiggyWam gives them the infrastructure to work together. Specialist partners bring expertise where they make the transaction better. And the professional remains the professional. That is the model.
Set high standards. Remove unnecessary friction. Connect the right people. Protect professional judgement.
Because independence should never have meant isolation.
The Maverick Movement. Connected by WiggyWam. Independent by design.