Member Article

In-house services – Help or hassle?

Adore Properties MD, Jeremy O’Connor, takes a look at the arguments for and against ’in-house’ estate agent services.

Welcome to 2018! A few days into January and our industry is already knee-deep in the first hot topic of the year – in-house services.

A recent survey by campaign group, the HomeOwner Alliance, found that almost a quarter of home buyers who have used estate agent’s have felt pressure to use said agent’s in-house services, such as mortgage brokers or EPC reports, in order to secure their dream home.

The research found that using such services can lead to buyers missing out on competitive deals and reveal the amount of credit available to borrowers, potentially giving agents the opportunity to push people to higher priced property or weaker negotiating with sellers.

So, do in-house services offer any upside? Perhaps it’s a case of not throwing the baby out with the bath water.

For many estate agents, ourselves included, word of mouth is vital for securing new clients and customer experience is at the heart of every action; therefore, when recommending any service outside of our own, it is vital that it offers the same high quality of service. There is little, if any, benefit to making pressured recommendations to clients just for the sake of a commission.

Whilst some buyers in the UK have clearly had less than stellar experiences with add-on products, as evidenced by the survey results, we believe they have a role to play. Additional services, whether available in-house or via a recommendation or partner programme, can help guide customers overwhelmed by choice.

Just as a marketing company is well-placed to recommend printing services, as professionals in the property industry, estate agents are ideally placed to assess those who offer related services. They can also tailor the advice to clients based on their circumstances (i.e. customers looking for a first-time mortgage may be given different recommendations to those looking for buy to let).

Such recommendations can help to strengthen the agent/customer relationship, remove stress from the home-buying process and doesn’t stop customers from shopping around should they still wish to.

I believe the question of in-house services and recommendations will be one that pops up throughout the year, it’s going to be an interesting debate.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Adore Properties - Stockton .