[Help] Purple Bricks

Official Old Man · Feb 28, 2019

Probably been asked before. Any good?
Mum selling house £415K. Local estate agent wants £6000 (not sure what that includes). Purple Bricks charge £995

Springal · Feb 28, 2019

I remember the good times said:
Probably been asked before. Any good?
Mum selling house £415K. Local estate agent wants £6000 (not sure what that includes). Purple Bricks charge £995

£6000 is mental. Should be able to get 0.5%-1% nowadays if you negotiate. Maybe a bit higher if they do an open house or similar.

I've not used Purplebricks, but did view a house on the market with them. It was OK but the woman that did the viewing knew very little about the house so basically just let us in and followed us around

Gazwag · Feb 28, 2019

Estate agents need to modernise IMO does a £600,000 house take more work to sell than a £300,000 one so why should the estate agents fee double.

Stinky Pete · Feb 28, 2019

Not used Purple Bricks, But used Zoom995 based in Crawley.

Zoom are the same sort of thing as PB but the difference in service between Zoom and The more traditional estate agent I used (Townends) is incredible.

Have recommended them since.

Is it PotG? · Feb 28, 2019

Try the PB route first, see how it rolls.

Whether they be a top, well known agent or PB, they both appear on sites such as RightMove which is where I would be looking if trying to buy.

Simster · Feb 28, 2019

[MENTION=6625]Badger[/MENTION] will tell you how shite Purple Bricks are.

But the issue here is surely, most estate agents are absolute gash aren't they? At least Purple Bricks don't cost the earth.

Moshe Gariani · Feb 28, 2019

Are there any Estate Agents on NSC who can give us the inside track...?

Badger · Feb 28, 2019

PB were f***ing useless when I used them, so I wouldn't recommend them. The agent made a half-arsed effort to market my flat and gave it a ridiculous price which was about 40k over market value. Then he got his wife to do one of the (only) two viewings and seemed to give her no information whatsoever about the property. I tried to rescue the situation by calling up the woman who viewed it and giving her the information she wanted, but it was too late by then. I ended up going with a proper estate agent after negotiating a low commission (you HAVE to pay PB their fee even if they don't sell it).

I have heard people with good experiences of PB (that's why I went with them in the first place) but I'd be very wary.

Whatever you do, DO NOT get drawn into a contract where you have to use one of their solicitors. I didn't pay the fee upfront which meant I agreed to use them even if I didn't sell my flat through PB. The solicitor I got assigned to was worse than useless.

Badger · Feb 28, 2019

Simster said:
[MENTION=6625]Badger[/MENTION] will tell you how shite Purple Bricks are.

But the issue here is surely, most estate agents are absolute gash aren't they? At least Purple Bricks don't cost the earth.

I was already typing out my response :lolol:

Boroseagull · Feb 28, 2019

Three things, you should be negotiating a fee of 0.5% to a max of 1.00% with an agent. 2) you only pay an agent if they sell the house, with PB you pay in advance with no refund if you withdraw the property. 3) as the agent earns on what he sells it for he will always work harder for you, with PB they do not care what price is obtained as their fee is already paid.

Tom Hark Preston Park · Feb 28, 2019

I remember the good times said:
Probably been asked before. Any good?
Mum selling house £415K. Local estate agent wants £6000 (not sure what that includes). Purple Bricks charge £995

Decent houses fly off the shelves round these parts. Purple Bricks is the way forward. Not a big fan of their up-front fee though. There needs to be a stick or carrot or combination thereof to incentivise them to try that wee bit harder.

Thunder Bolt · Feb 28, 2019

I've read a couple of horror stories similar to [MENTION=6625]Badger[/MENTION] via veteran's site on Facebook.

Easy 10 · Feb 28, 2019

I would point blank refuse to use them, purely on the basis of their HORRIFIC adverts on tv.

Rugrat · Feb 28, 2019

Boroseagull said:
Three things, you should be negotiating a fee of 0.5% to a max of 1.00% with an agent. 2) you only pay an agent if they sell the house, with PB you pay in advance with no refund if you withdraw the property. 3) as the agent earns on what he sells it for he will always work harder for you, with PB they do not care what price is obtained as their fee is already paid.

My experience says your point 3 is bollox.

On both of my last two house sales the agent tried (hard) to have me accept offers to make the sale and on both I held out and got £20K and £30K more. The difference in commission is tiny once in the ball park.

I'd also say that for the most part don't have the agent accompanying viewings. They're generally kids who know SFA about the house and make a complete hash of it. I much prefer showing potential buyers around, I can point out all the good stuff and answer questions accurately, not guess

Badger · Feb 28, 2019

Boroseagull said:
Three things, you should be negotiating a fee of 0.5% to a max of 1.00% with an agent. 2) you only pay an agent if they sell the house, with PB you pay in advance with no refund if you withdraw the property. 3) as the agent earns on what he sells it for he will always work harder for you, with PB they do not care what price is obtained as their fee is already paid.

That's the weird thing about my agent, I almost had to fight with him to get the asking price lowered!

I do like the house buying/selling system over here. The buyer and the seller both have their own agent, so there's a lot of negotiating between them to get the best deal for both parties. There's also a contract which is signed as soon as the offer is accepted giving an exact number of days before the sale will be completed (usually 30 or 60 days). However, the standard commission is an eye-watering 3% of the final sale value. Services similar to PB have started popping up here to give a cheaper option but I think they work in a slightly different way.

Juan Albion · Feb 28, 2019

Mustafa said:
As someone who recently bought a property, and was looking for around 9 months of last year.... AVOID Purple Bricks.

As a buyer, I completed ignored properties for sale by them after a few attempts at trying to get information from them, or arrange viewings.

You call them up, speak to someone in Birmingham, ask them a simple question about the property and they don't know a single thing about it.

They have no local offices obviously, and heaven knows why but they had zero flexibility when arranging a viewing.

Having such poor salesmanship is bound to affect the amount you get for a property.

Not only that, the buyer knows you are selling for a lower fee and would expect to at least split the benefit I would think.

bluenitsuj · Feb 28, 2019

I believe you pay up front for PP so what incentive do they have to sell your property?

Official Old Man · Feb 28, 2019

Thanks guys. Noticed that PB may be in trouble financially as well. I did occur to me that most house hunting is done online though. But going with local agent but hassle fee.

Pavilionaire · Feb 28, 2019

Apropos of nothing, does anyone remember Sarah Beeny and her online estate agents Tepilo?

I see the company is in administration pending liquidation having sustained cumulative losses of £7.8 million, including £4.4 million in 2016/17 after which Sarah Beeny resigned as director.

HalfaSeatOn · Feb 28, 2019

Same as someone above. As a buyer I ignore PB. Also, don’t forget Vat on top of the quoted fee. You should be looking at 3.5k max + vat (and that’s pushing it)

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