Recently, we polled our readers. In June, we asked how much people (and teams) charge for private investigations. In July, we asked how much people (and teams) should charge for private investigations.
The following are the results:
The results show that most readers believe that people should do this work for free, or just charge travel expenses… and that’s what most do charge, if anything.
The other results were not consistent (opinions v. actual charges) but also raise interesting questions.
Here’s my opinion.
Generally, clients are wonderful to work with. At least 90% of the time, everyone is pleased with the investigation. However, there are exceptions, even if they’re rare.
I don’t charge anything for investigations, except travel expenses if I’ll be driving more than four hours, or flying to the location. But, providing free investigations has led to a few problems.
FREE INVESTIGATIONS
Some people don’t value my time (or my team’s) unless there’s a dollar value linked to it.
For example: On a recent investigation, a child didn’t want to turn off the TV while we worked in the living room, and the father seemed reluctant to insist on it.
I don’t generally turn off the lights where I’m investigating (a baseline EMF check is usually enough) but I draw the line at distractions such as loud music and TV shows.
A sadder side of this involves lonely people. They don’t really think their homes are haunted, they just want someone to visit for awhile. So, they ask us to investigate their homes… and the homeowners follow us around, steadily chatting.
But, to be fair, lonely people have paid for investigations and signed up for my courses, too. Within minutes, it’s clear that they’re only vaguely interested in ghosts, and simply want someone to talk to.
So, charging a fee for an investigation doesn’t eliminate that problem.
My biggest concern regarding fees is simple: Many teams aren’t experienced enough to charge for their work. They’re still learning, and I don’t think it’s fair to ask a client to pay for your education; they’re already providing a good practice location.
My other major concern is something I see far too often: By the time many people are desperate enough to contact a ghost expert, they’ve been troubled for so long, their lives have gone into a decline and they’ve lost their jobs. So, they can’t really afford to pay anything.
There’s no easy answer to that problem.
FEES
The question of fees — and how much to charge – is difficult. Of course, none of us want to go broke paying for gas or meals and lodging when we’re investigating a site.
The associated problems can be different from what we encounter when we offer free services.
Usually, the client has a firm idea of what he or she should receive for the money. Some take that to an extreme, and it becomes an entitlement issue. If we don’t conduct the research to mimic something they’ve seen on TV, or provide the expected answers in the format the client wants, difficulties can follow.
It’s vital to have everything clearly spelled out, and in a signed contract.
With paid investigations, more than the free ones, there can be liability issues. There are always physical risks with this work, whether a poltergeist pushes you or you trip over a broken stair that the owner didn’t mention.
Or, someone on your team could accidentally break something of value. When it’s a paid investigation, financial liabilities become a bigger issue.
So, it may be wise to have insurance for these risks.
YOU GET WHAT YOU PAY FOR?
Some clients think that how much you charge indicates how good your work is. I wish that wasn’t a factor, but… it can be.
The more you charge, the more some clients are likely to take your work seriously. Sometimes, when I work with a fee-based team, I find out that the client has already paid three previous teams, and they’re simply looking for consensus. When they ask me how such-and-such a team (that charges more) could have given a very different analysis of the haunting, it always seems as if the other team’s main credential is the high fee they charge.
We’re working in a field without real credentials and without any real proof, beyond the videos, sound recordings and written reports we give to the client. I’m concerned that the person who charges the most — and provides the flashiest multi-media report — earns the most respect.
That’s a welcome mat for con artists.
I’m not sure how to resolve these issues, and I’d welcome comments and suggestions.
In general, I no longer participate in private investigations for clients. My current (late 2009+) research is taking me in new directions related to history and predicting hauntings. So, I can’t respond with first-person advice.
If you’ve found a good solution to the money dilemma, please post your comments, below.
I don’t know, Fiona. It seems to me like if groups start charging, then you get into competition and “turf wars” and all that. The best way I’ve seen it done is to put in the client application, ” There are no set fees for the service. Any monetary offerings are voluntary “. I can see travel and things of the like, but if a group starts charging, it can seriously take the science out of the whole thing.
Besides, I don’t see how it is justifiable when one of the big claims to all this, is that there are no real experts in the field. You have some that have degrees in para-psy. but, what is the job rate and economic value of that? Most professors who teach it will tell you employment is very scarce and what you can find doesn’t pay anything.
Those are very good points, Scott. I hadn’t considered the competition factor in terms of money. (I’m not sure what I’d do if I opened the local newspaper and saw a coupon for “order one home ghost investigation and get the second one at half price.”)
Turf wars already exist. I’ve been stunned by the terrible things being said about so-called competitors in the field. In many cases, it’s a power struggle, and I’m not sure what trophy they expect to win. (Generally, networks aren’t interested in new TV shows about ghost hunting, but most aspiring “Ghost Hunter” wannabes don’t realize that yet.)
In other cases, it’s about being the big fish in a little pond, and grabbing enough attention to demand higher prices for local paid events and dinner shows. (I understand fundraisers to repair and maintain dilapidated, haunted locations. I understand paying for serious paranormal conferences. I do not understand ghost-hunting-as-dinner-theater, but perhaps that’s my own prejudice.)
From my viewpoint, turf wars and competition are terribly damaging to this field.
Ironically, in May & June I sat down individually with several serious researchers who weren’t talking with each other, and each of them had been the victim of gossip started or embellished by a con artist. Most of the researchers knew what was being said about other people; few knew what was being said about them, personally. Once the truth became clear, the researchers began cooperating with each other again, and everyone’s working in harmony again.
Cooperation is vital for us to understand what’s really going on at haunted locations.
You’re right that there are no certified experts in this field, since we have no real standards of measurement for credentials. You’re also right about the value of a degree in parapsychology. In most serious scientific communities, that’s met with derision, not respect.
However, some people have more experience than others. Generally, I look for people who have in excess of 100 hours research in the field — in addition to time spent in off-site research and data analysis — or who’ve been involved in this field prior to its peak of popularity in 2004. That increases the likelihood that the person has some expertise, though many excellent researchers have entered the field since 2004.
(That said, I recently read an autobiography of a “psychic” who claimed to have been researching ghosts since 2001. Then, I checked his story on Google and found the story confirmed… but it was in 2004, not 2001. So, the startup date isn’t necessarily meaningful, and I’ve learned to double-check claims as much as I can.)
In addition, there are some amateurs who haven’t a clue what they’re doing, and that troubles me. I keep hearing about serious researchers — in haunted locations — encountering teams of ghost enthusiasts… and the latter have been drinking. I’m also seeing increased vandalism at haunted sites. That makes me want to stop mentioning specific locations, though this website was originally created to share research advice and places the public can learn ghost research techniques.
As you can tell, I’m fairly disgusted with what’s happened as people look at ghost hunting with fame and fortune in mind.
Until paranormal research resumes as a serious study, I agree wholeheartedly that we need to charge only travel expenses, at the most. In fact, the people who most need our help are often those who thought the problem would go away on its own. Now, they’re frantic, they’ve been so stressed and have had so little sleep, they’ve lost their jobs. They can barely afford groceries, much less some high fee for an investigation.
Frankly, those are the people we most need to help, and they’re often the ones with the most active homes that can further our research and understanding of what causes hauntings.
My question is if ghost hunting should be free then shouldnt the equipment be free?or what about websites shouldnt the web desighn be free as well mow I am looking to get into this so these are questions I neeed to know how does a person live if he works for free
Thank You
Gary Murphy
Gary,
I’m assuming that your question is sarcastic. Of course nobody is going to give a ghost researcher an EMF meter, if that same meter can be sold to an electrician or homeowner. That makes no sense.
Nobody’s going to do web design for free, if they can get paid for it. I design my own websites, write my own HTML, create my own graphics, and so on. From time to time, volunteers help me with this website and other aspects of my paranormal work. Generally, I work by myself and call in (volunteer) team members for investigations.
Likewise, I don’t expect anyone to give me digital thermometers, voice recorders, or even hiking compasses. I do sometimes receive equipment to test for manufacturers, but that’s only a beta test. About 2/3 of the equipment I receive free turns out not to work at all.
I do visit or stay in many haunted sites, at no charge. That’s normal for anyone who writes travel-related articles and books. The sites welcome me because they know I’ll talk about their ghosts, if there are any. (I never accept hospitality if there are strings attached. If there’s no ghost, I won’t claim that there is one.)
In a perfect world, everything would be free. I think that was Karl Marx’s aim, as well.
Unless someone is independently wealthy, nobody can afford to work for free.
We can work for money in related fields, or find passive ways to produce an income; for example, the ads on this website cover my website hosting expenses. Ad income doesn’t cover the time it takes me to write articles, record and post podcasts, or reply to comments… including yours.
My books produce income, allowing me a little more time for research, and to travel to events to speak to groups. Some events pay me a small fee, or cover my travel expenses. That’s great, but it’s not actual income.
The people who contact us for help are generally those least able to afford to pay for it. By the time some people ask for help, they’ve often lost their jobs, their friends, and they’re not very stable. I’m not comfortable asking them for money.
I think it’s important to find another way to earn a living — teaching workshops, writing/selling books, and speaking engagements are typical, in this field — so we can continue to provide valuable services to others, at no charge.
However, many of the most prolific paranormal writers don’t try to maintain websites & produce podcasts or radio shows. Not at first, anyway. Instead, they write & make personal appearances to promote their books.
John Zaffis kept a day job (I think he was an engineer) until recently. He conducted his demonology work in his spare time. That’s typical of many dedicated paranormal professionals.
Everyone has to find their own way to work in this field. I can’t tell you how to do that.
However, sarcasm generally doesn’t convey well in text. If you want people to give you a sincere answer, and not get paid for it, it’s better to approach them with the attitude you’d like them to use when they reply.
Sincerely,
Fiona