Hard Truths for Conveyancers. Why Are We Paid Less for More Expertise?

TRENT Taylor – whose Skilled Conveyancing business has just been named as the winner in the Conveyancing Category at the 2025 Australian Small Business Champion Awards – answers the question.

I’ve been in the industry long enough to see the frustration that runs through the veins of every skilled conveyancer.

We are the specialists, the surgeons of property transactions, yet our fees are often lower than those of lawyers—who, in this analogy, are the general practitioners. It doesn’t add up.

Conveyancing is not a side hustle, nor is it a loss leader to funnel clients into other areas of law.

For us, it’s the entire business. Every day, we navigate complex legal frameworks, manage risk, and hold the clients hand to ensure seamless transactions.

We aren’t dabbling in family law one day and litigation the next; we are wholly dedicated to property law. That makes us the specialists, yet we don’t price ourselves to reflect this!

So, why does this pricing disparity exist? One reason is perception. Many clients assume that because a lawyer can handle conveyancing, they must be the superior choice.

But the reality is that, in many law firms, conveyancing is delegated to junior staff or clerks—people with less experience and, often, less hands-on knowledge than a licensed conveyancer.

The lawyer may sign off on the work, but they’re not necessarily the ones getting their hands dirty with the details.

Meanwhile, conveyancers live and breathe property transactions. We are the ones who get in the trenches of the file, anticipate issues, and solve problems before they become crises.

Another issue is the race to the bottom in pricing. With new entrants flooding the market and some businesses undercutting others to attract clients, fees have been driven lower and lower. It’s a dangerous game, and one that ultimately devalues the profession.

The mindset of competing on price alone is flawed. If we don’t collectively stand firm on our worth, we’ll continue to work harder for less, while others who offer a lesser service—often with less expertise—charge more.

I remember asking my team early on, “What do we do differently?” The list was long—21 points of difference that set us apart from other conveyancers and certainly from firms treating conveyancing as an afterthought.

When I dug deeper, I realised that, at the very least, any competent conveyancer should be ticking 14 or 15 of those boxes. That’s value. That’s expertise. That’s why our fees reflect the level of skill, knowledge, and risk we manage every single day.

If you needed heart surgery, you wouldn’t go to a GP (a lawyer) —you’d go to a cardiac specialist (pure conveyancer).

So, if you’re buying or selling a property, why wouldn’t you go to a conveyancer who specialises in exactly that? The problem is, as conveyancers, we often undersell ourselves. We know our value, but we don’t always VALUE OURSELVES in the way we price our services.

We need to change the narrative. It starts with confidence in our own worth. If we don’t value ourselves, why should anyone else?

It’s time to stop seeing ourselves as the ‘seller dwellers’ in the property transaction chain and start positioning ourselves as what we truly are—specialists who deserve to be paid accordingly.

The work we do is critical, and it’s time the industry, and the clients we serve, recognised that.