A recent survey has revealed that nearly three quarters (78%) of respondents would be willing to pay up to and above £2,000 to a conveyancer for the sale of a property.
Users of LinkedIn were asked the following question by solicitor Shaun Jardine of Big Yellow Penguin (BYP): “What are you prepared to pay for the sale of a house priced at £650,000? Your requirements are a great service from the lawyer. Cost excludes VAT.”
The results from 158 respondents were as follows:
- 22% would pay up to £1,000
- 49% up to £2,000
- 18% up to £3,000
- 11% up to and above £4,000
This LinkedIn survey followed a similar question posed to viewers of a recent Law Society webinar ran by Scott Simmons and Shaun Jardine. The viewers – made up entirely of lawyers – were asked what they would be prepared to pay to receive a good service for a conveyancing transaction, when selling a property valued at £650,000. Though slightly different in exact figures, a similar pattern emerged to that of the LinkedIn poll:
- 8% of would pay up to £1,000
- 8% up to £2,000
- 4% up to £3,000
- 7% up to £4,000
- 2% more than £4,000
BYP analysed the profiles of respondents in each respective category. Most respondents were UK-based, said Shaun Jardine. In the up to £1,000 category, Jardine said that “some of the votes were cast by heads of conveyancing departments, law firm founders, law firm partners, conveyancing managers, and others working in the conveyancing space”.
“The same was true in the category of up to £2,000”, said Jardine. He continued:
“In the up to £3,000, again Managing Directors of law firms featured, as did partners and trainee solicitors.
In the up to and above £4,000 sector, they were once again experienced conveyancers, marketers, project management experts, property management director, law firm owners, conveyancers PAs, and HR professionals. There was one head of conveyancing at a large regional law firm.”
This then prompted Jardine to investigate the conveyancing pricing of medium-sized law firms predominantly 150-350 employees in size, again based on the sale of a £650,000 property. Some websites gave an immediate quote, some of which were “revealing [and] depressing”, said Jardine:
1. Large Southeast firm with national reach – £995
2. Large regional Midlands firm – £1,350
3. Large East of England regional law firm – £1,695
4. Mid-size Buckinghamshire based law firm – £1,150
5. Large East Midlands law firm – £1,250
6. Mid-size Merseyside firm – £1,195
7. Mid-size East Anglia firm – £,1,100
Jardine went on to give an account of what he found on some of the websites:
“One firm which offered one of the lowest prices invited me to put in my “discount code” as part of the quote process. I therefore was left with the impression I was overpaying as I hadn’t got a code… I also assume their price was even lower.
One of the responders to the poll (who had indicated that they were the head of a conveyancing department) felt the right price was £4,000 or above, but actually had a figure displayed on their firm’s website of £1,500.”
On the use of online calculators, Jardine commented:
“When most law firms talk about ‘putting the client at the centre of everything we do’, I don’t quite understand why these calculators even exist? What’s wrong with having a chat with a person, building rapport and then once you’ve done so, increasing your price so that you fall into the up to £3,000 or £4,000 and above bracket.”
Takeaways, Jardine said, are that people will clearly pay different prices for the same service. 100% of law firms contacted using website calculators did not seek to charge more than £2,000. Therefore, value was left on the table in that 78% of those who responded to the survey would pay up to £2,000 and above. He concluded:
“Conveyancers are leaving huge amounts of value on the table by avoiding speaking with clients at the outset. In many cases, it’s a lack of confidence about pricing which leads some firms to think they must be cheaper than their local competition.
The legal press is full of stories about lawyer burnout. Conveyancers have had a torrid time recently and this was partly the reason which led me to look at pricing in this sector.
Management teams need to decide if they want to be price setters or price followers and also accept that all clients and all transactions are not the same and price it accordingly. It can be done”
