Background
I am a photographer who provides property and architectural photography services in Dorset, Hampshire & Wiltshire, and I’m concerned about the ongoing changes within the property industry.
What does a traditional estate agent actually do?
It is my opinion that most of us can now have a go at something ourselves that used to be the area of a seasoned professional. The technology now exists to give most people the confidence to take on a project, whether it be service your car, project manage building works on your home, or sell it. So why use an estate agent when you have a camera phone and an internet connection? Well because a good agent will do it better, it’s their job after all. I would say that their knowledge of property values, negotiation skills and marketing tools are worth considering before you class them as ‘middle men’. It is also worth remembering that an agent serves as a networking hub and they may already have a client that is waiting for a house just like yours to come on to the market.
My concern however, is that the traditional estate agent service structure may be lagging behind the times. Is a percentage of the sale price of your home really a fair and relevant way to charge for their service? So, in steps the online estate agent, new, improved, and most importantly cheaper. They achieve this, by not occupying branches and thus saving on overheads, a saving which they pass onto you.
Are online estate agents the future?
Online estate agents aren’t actually that new, but there are now lots of them. They do have some good ideas and I think a better way of charging for their services. It is important to remember though that being branch-less, floating around in cyberspace, they may not be able to give much help or support with regards to your local market. Most sell what are essentially marketing packages which seem to be fair in terms of price and what you get for your money. So this could well be the future of selling property for most people, but what will they miss out on?
Some online estate agents offer negotiation as part of their package, but some don’t. If they do offer this, communication is key and online agents need to be especially good in this area. There’s nothing worse than pressing 5 and waiting in a queue or leaving voicemails etc. You should also question your online agent as to whether they have regional account managers that have knowledge of your area, including property values and current or future developments.
What are the effects on associated professionals?
The first and most obvious is that a continued shift will see the closure of many high street agents. People may say that they’ve had their day, but in some cases I think this would be a huge loss. Another problem that starts to arise is a change in structure for the other professionals that are involved in property marketing.
Traditionally associated property professionals provide services to the agent directly. The cost is part of the marketing budget in most cases, rather than a bolt-on or bill item that is forwarded to the client. These services by the specialist can also be supplied to the client directly. This is still a relevant even when using an online agent, but will be hugely affected by their advertising individual costs for each service.
The problem arises when specialists (such as photographers) wish to capitalise on the shift towards online agents. Because online agents provide a national service, they need to form a national presence. They may undertake all services offered in house with staff strategically positioned around the country. But many still rely on specialists for services that they offer. But It would not be efficient for the online agent to be dealing with hundreds of separate professionals across the UK, so there is then a natural demand for a service provider who will form an interface between the professionals and the online agent, and create a network of professionals who can provide all the potential services required by the online agent.
This has added another tier to the structure and is concerning when you see an online agent package priced at £595.00 including photography with all of these mouths to feed.
The Photographer
As stated above, I myself am a photographer, and although I’m trying to respect all viewpoints, I am obviously writing this due to my own concerns and opinions. Business is business, it’s sadly not about being fair, but this new structure might not have so much impact if online agents did not put a cost against services such as photography, without detailing exactly what is included. This, in my mind, is the single most damaging decision to affect other professionals.
In a lot of cases it is likely that the cost shown on an agents site is not directly related to the cost associated to the agent in acquiring the photo’s, but the consumer now has a benchmark, and it’s low. This forces individual photographers prices down to remain competitive.
Let me present this another way. If you visit Sarah Beenys’ Tepilo site it states photography as “Probably the single most important part of your property’s listing…” That’s good right? Infact many property professionals are now reminding people of this which is positive I agree.
However lets look at some statistics.
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The average wedding cost in the UK is around £18,000.00.
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The average cost of wedding photography is about £1,500.00.
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According to the ONS, the average house price in the UK is now £250,000.00
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For ‘professional photography’ online agent ‘Tepilo’ charges… just £99.00+VAT
Ok, so we could nitpick and say wedding photography will normally be a full day (and evening) of shooting, but pro rata this is still a long way from adding up. You can make this comparison to most other industries that employ photographers and you will get a similar result. Many property industry professionals recognize that to hire a professional photographer would normally cost between £300 and £1000 dependent on size & location etc. but it’s still a far cry from the online agent prices.
If you’re still not convinced, please take a moment to consider the costs involved.
Time- It may take 30 mins to drive to a property and 30 mins back and on average you will attend for at least an hour (more if furniture needs to be reconfigured or there are items in the rooms to be removed and then replaced – we are talking about ‘professional’ images after all). When you arrive back at your studio, there’s processing and delivery of images to complete. A professional photographer will often use digital software (in place of a darkroom) to develop the photo’s and ensure high quality before exporting them and emailing them to the client. This process normally takes around an hour, so in total a photographer will assign about 3 hours minimum per property.
Equipment- Digital photography equipment (cameras, lenses, flashes, tripods, computer, software etc.) costs thousands and has to be kept up to date for a photographer to remain competitive.
Everything else- Then there’s equipment insurance, liability insurance, transport and fuel and so on.
It may be that the term ‘professional photographer’ now has a wider meaning, but this will only cause confusion in cases where clients are not fully aware of the level of service or quality that they are receiving.
Could we all be happy?
I believe that it’s not all bad news. Online agents are here to stay and I would like to do business with them. But I do think that they need to be clearer and more detailed on what is included within the services that they offer, if they choose to publicly assign a separate value to it.
As for high street agents, guess what, they have websites & ‘rightmove’ accounts too! There is place for them, I think they can charge more for providing a more personal, face to face service backed by local knowledge and experience. However, in my opinion they do need to be more competitive on price, and should be open to providing a fixed price for their service rather than a percentage based fee.
Adam Theobald
