Selling homes on the go? A quarter of estate agents still using smartphones, study reveals

While the nation’s estate agents are demonstrating an appropriate level of time and care to fully showcase the home they are listing for sale, leading estate agent media provider, Giraffe360, has revealed that almost a quarter are still using smartphones to capture media, while almost half are taking days, even week, to visit a home and advertise it on the major property portals.

Giraffe360 chief executive officer, Mikus Opelts, commented: “Visiting a vendor's home to photograph it for sale really is the first opportunity an estate agent has to set the tone with regard to their ability to act promptly and professionally. However, it can be hard to strike the right balance between the two.”

“On the one hand, the ability to compile a seemingly fit for purpose property listing with nothing more than a smartphone allows agents to ensure they have a home listed online in a very short period of time. But in doing so, it can also demonstrate a lack of care and service quality.”

“Although these agents are taking the time and effort to try and fully showcase the homes they are selling, the results are often below par due to their lack of photography skills and the tools being used.”

“Of course, utilising third party help will yield far superior results, but with the market continuing to boom, it can be some time before a professional third party can be booked to visit the property.”

Opelts concluded: “Finding a middle ground can be tricky and it’s this problem that Giraffe360 seeks to fix, by providing industry leading tech to estate agents so that they can produce high quality media, without having to embark on a career in photography. Not only can they produce a far superior quality of property photo, but they can do so as soon as their schedule allows them, with these photos ready for use within days, not weeks.”

Agents, slacking or tech-savvy?

The survey included almost 3,000 UK homeowners commissioned by Giraffe360 and found that just 15% of estate agents visited a property to compile listing photos and floorplans within a day of the seller instructing them to sell their home.

Within two days 43% of sellers did receive a visit, however, for 35% excruciatingly it took between three days and a week, with 6% stating it took over a week.

Fortunately, there’s some good news too: 86% believed that their selling agent took the necessary time and care to fully showcase their home and its best features. However, almost a quarter of agents are still opting to assemble listing photographs using a smartphone camera.

Hardly surprising then that one in 10 homeowners rated their agents’ photography as mediocre, poor, or awful – bearing in mind just how important high-quality images can be for the sale of a property – with 41% also stating that it was merely acceptable and just 48% affirming it was to a professional standard.

The smartphone approach can be greatly beneficial to agents since this can speed up the process of getting the listing live online and in front of thousands of potential buyers.

However, when asked how quickly their property was advertised online once their agent had visited their home, just 21% of seller said it went live the same day.