Why don't Spennymoor agents get Tudhoe Village properties?

It's long bugged me, so I decided to try to look a little deeper into it -

Why don't Spennymoor agents get Tudhoe Village properties?

As a rule, the properties in Tudhoe Village are put up with (probably expensive) Durham City estate agents that produce glossy brochures and take endless photographs of the property. This is rather than chose a more local Spennymoor agent that may have less glamorous surroundings and (generally) poorer photography standards, although the high-end properties are much more photogenic.

What drives this? Are the Spennymoor estate agents losing out? If so, where are the Spennymoor agents losing out?

I don't have first hand experience of this, but I believe that two things are happening-

Image counts

When buying or selling one of the large Tudhoe Village properties then the image of the property counts for a great deal. The vendor and buyer don't ideally want to do their business in one of the tatty estate agent offices that Spennymoor provides. Selling or buying from a plush office in the stylish city of Durham appeals more to the clientele of these transactions. So the Spennymoor estate agents could possibly gain a foothold in the market if they spent money in refurbishing their offices.

Conversation counts

I also believe that Durham City estate agents must be playing in the above. Showing potential clients the glossy brochures they produce alongside the one sheet, plain paper efforts of their Spennymoor counterparts must be a great selling point. Add to this their photography and office locations.

The biggest pulling factor into opinion must be the market, and how it can he accessed. The potential buyers are more likely to be from Durham City than from Spennymoor. So it follows that the better agent for your property would be in Durham City.

Spennymoor estate agents can have a conversation with sellers that in the world of the internet that buyers approach estate agents via the internet, rather than via their city centre offices.

From this, Spennymoor estate agents can gain a foothold in the market.

This close to Tudhoe Village will attract owners as well as investors

There's only one new property in Spennymoor listed on Rightmove since Saturday, and since Robinsons have listed it without photos, floor plans or EPC's I don't think it's worthy of further discussion.

This property, however has appeared in the last week- 

1, St Charles Road, Spennymoor

http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-49295402.html

It is a 2 bed cottage listed at £79,950 with Peter Clark of Ferryhill. Since this is a blog in the Spennymoor property market and not a blog on Spennymoor estate agents, I don't mind including a property from an agent out of town!

Despite their use of the over-used, seldom-understood words "rarely available," the agent has given a reasonable description of the property, even if the photos are insufficient and of poor quality. The location near to Tudhoe Village is a selling point and will ensure that the property appeals to owner-occupies as well as investors.

The accuracy of the pricing will be determined by the market, but the lack of photos may stifle the interest a little.

I'd expect this to gain a rental of between £395 to £425 per month. Based on the asking price, this would bring in a gross annual rental return of between 5.9% and 6.3%. This is an average rental yield, but without seeing further into the property, it's difficult to tell whether £79,950 is a reasonable price and whether there is any more work needed.