[Help] Purple Bricks

Stinky Pete said:

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.

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Sacked zoom (you get what you pay for) and instructed Mansell McTaggart - sold to their first viewer.

Negotiated 0.75% or 1% if they got >£2k above asking price, after I was told how easy it would be to sell, my response accept this and prove it


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Farehamseagull said:

Speaking as an ex estate agent and brief Purplebricks employee (well self employed) - do not go any where near them.

They have absolutely no incentive to actually sell the property as they’re paid regardless. This is the biggest issue for me.

You have to pay them to carry out viewings and then the ‘local’ ‘expert’ will only do viewings when it suits their diary as sometimes they live a long way away from the property so it can be really hard to book viewings and a lot of buyers are lost. This is the real reason they advertise open days, to make it work for them, not the client. Most buyers dislike open days in this country.

Their after sales is carried out in a call centre in Birmingham and is attrocious.

The online model doesn’t actually work for estate agents. Their market share is still tiny when a lot of people predicted they would have taken over by now. Look how the internet has reduced the amout of shops and travel agents etc on the high street yet in nearly every area the local independent agent is still very much on top.

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This will burst a few peoples bubbles [emoji23]

The biggest challenge that agents have is low fees mean they need loads of clients who in a slowing market are as needy as chicks in a birds nest, two many chicks all chirping away means shit service for everyone! Fewer chicks means more love from mum but mum needs to charge more to justify less chicks, and remember mums don’t get paid till the chick flys the nest unless you charge up front!

Firstly all internet agents are crap. Yes they may be cheap but they are cheap for a reason. Firstly they have no database of people actively looking to buy a similar house to yours within the 415k price range. All they do is put a poorly worded advert with usually crap photos on rightmove and hope someone rings up. Most property in brighton and hove is not sold because someone rings up seeing it on rightmove etc . Mist property around 80% is sold as a result of an estate agent trawling through their database to find some potential matches, calling these potentisl buyers up and getting them round to view.

Also a decent estate agent should be able to negotiate a better price for you than pirple bricks etc as they have experience of this and the more money they get you the morr they earn so they are incentivised in the way an internet agent isnt.

Also decent estate agents have expertise at keeping a deal together , internet agents couldnt care less cos you have already paid them.

My final advice is dont use a big corporate brand like fox and sons, king and chasemore etc, they are more concerned about selling morts than property and employ mainly.very young inexperienced staff.

Use a local independant agent that sells a lot in your area. Look at comps yourself, dont put the house on the market for way over market value , it wont sell, you will just waste your time and the property will go stale. Put it on at a realisric price that is going to attract attention. A good agent who has serious interrst from 2 or more parties will be able to drive the price upwards. You.can negotiate 1 % with most agents .

I do have a lot of experience in property, having worked in the industry for over 30 years.

fabbb said:

Ive been an estate agent & property manager for 35 years.
I always say finding the buyer is the easy part, getting the sale through to a exchange of contracts is most often where the agent come into their own.
Its most peoples biggest assest - dont skimp on the agent..

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That’s my take from personal home chain experience, and from working with agents/developers. Often one awful solicitor (they’re common) in the chain can almost destroy everything. Certainly taking a 6 week exercise to 4 months in they’re not in the mood, or are looking to relentlessly look for new issues that don’t exist.

First of all all agents are desperate for property to sell and should pay no more then 1/2% 3/4 at most. By doing your home work easy to find value of your property. More accurate then inflated price given by agents who are only trying to get you to instruct them. Next step to attract a buyer, property must be on Rightmove as 80/90 % of all agents enquires come from here. Only agents including PB have access to this and to be fair cost them a lot . I agree that vetting potential buyers monitoring sale to exchange is very important and for this you need good solicitor who is available to talk to you . To sum up if you know what you are doing and are willing to do vetting and sales chasing yourself use PB just to get it on Rightmove .To me getting property on Rightmove at right price is vital and it will sell. Any agent can do that and you will find most important person to get it through will be a good solicitor

Their current adverts really piss me off and I don't know how they can get away with it....."I thought they were just online?" That is EXACTLY what they are.

But......You get what you pay for at the end of the day.

Purplebricks sold my flat two years ago. Promised me the world and offered **** all. The "Local" property expert I had basically covered all of Kent Sussex and Surrey from what he told me. The one time I met the guy he basically had a measure up and took some photos on what looked like a £50 digital camera. I said I'd look around at other agents and get back to him. Over the next couple of days I got two phone calls a day each time with another incentive. In the end I signed up for £600ish if I took up their conveyancing as well. Later that night my ad was on Rightmove. The next day I had a viewing who were really keen and made a verbal offer. I told them the offer had to go through the PB portal (as do the viewings) and never heard from them again.

That was it for two months. In that time I viewed plenty of properties with proper estate agents all who were constantly trying to get me to move over to them. Mansell McTaggart offered to sell it for a £2k fee but with £600 cash back on sale to cover the cost of PB if I went exclusive with them.

I kept ringing the property expert but he never returned my call. I ended ringing the head office and ended up getting a message to his boss. The next day he called me back claiming his voicemail was playing up! I told him I wanted to leave because the ad was shit and had now dropped onto the second page of Rightmove, I'd had no viewing and no interaction with him. He gave my all the chat saying he'd come round with a professional photographer and they'd re-do the ad if I didn't leave which I reluctantly agreed to, mainly because I hadn't found anywhere to move to.

Low and behold the very next day before any photos had been taken I got another viewing and the lad ended up buying it. So it did sell but it was painful....but it was cheap!

Their conveyancing company weren't great either, you get given a contact and that is your contact. Mine went on holiday for two weeks at a critical time in the sale and no one picked up her slack. they did get it over the line in the end though. However this thread has just reminded me they owe me £250 still (I moved 2 years ago!).

Chicken Run said:

This will burst a few peoples bubbles [emoji23]

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Turkeys don’t vote for Christmas either.

It depends on the property you're selling. If it's very similar to others, and the price is established, then PB can work (although I do the viewings myself). Otherwise you'll likely need the agent to work harder than PB have in my experience.