purple brick

bedmanager

I'm having a problem reconciling what I'm reading here with what I'm seeing on the website? No fees are charged upgront (apparently) so when someone says they have 'lost' £600 - I don't get it?
I'm intrigued to see how this develops as a business model. There are pros and cons, admittedly, but isn't this a development along the lines of the High Street insurance brokers (largely) being driven out of the market by online alternatives?

fretdancer

Although there are no UP FRONT fees.. The fees are payable whether you sell or not... The latest you can pay is after 10 months. The fee is due regardless of sale or interest.if you decide not to sell the fees are payable.

cstevens99

We have just sold a second house using Purple Bricks and have been very happy with the service. We paid the extra for the viewings to be done by Purple Bricks as one of the houses was 45 miles away. You get a regular estate agent so you get the experience and they get all the pictures, plans, descriptions done before uploading to all the property websites. I had contact cards galore from rival estate agents saying Mr XYZ is looking for a property please contact us!


I would use them again and quite happy if anyone wants more feedback.


I'm just waiting for Purple Cars next (-;

maninthestreet

cstevens99 wrote: »

I had contact cards galore from rival estate agents saying Mr XYZ is looking for a property please contact us!

...who were using purple bricks to try to poach business, no doubt!
If you had followed-up on these offers, you would probably be told Mr XYZ has now found a property, but why don't you market your property with us instead..

pinkteapot

They don't look that different from any other online EA... The only difference seems to be that their call centre is available 24/7, but what's the point of that?

If you're having a panic about your chain at 3am, what are they going to do? Wake up other people in the chain by phoning them? Mortgage lenders and solicitors won't be available until 9am anyway.

Website homepage says their fee is £665 plus VAT and I seem to remember some other online agents are cheaper than that...(?)

EDIT: Warning! Zombie thread! Resurrected by a spammer. Apologies for not noticing.

NataliaCD

I have heard rumours/read online (from people who used to be employed by them apparently) that the company is trying to get as many houses on the market as possible in the shortest amount of time possible. People with a lot of money are behind it and spending loads to build it to a level able to float on the stock market, then they plan to cut and run?!

It is also said that they don't are about the self employed agents they hire for each area/post code and have already had an incredibly high staff turnover.

I was considering using them, but I like to do my homework...and have now decided against using them!

It is also interesting/mentioned a lot, that they are deleting any negative reviews so 'trustpilot' isn't showing a true representation of what people are thinking about the service. Only delving deeper on the internet do you hear a more fair summary of the company.

tea-bag

I used hatched.co.uk they where great sold in two days!

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/5177173

ospre

I write this from the point of a purchaser of a property that was being sold via Purple Bricks, so it is written from the "other side".

My experience was dreadful to say the least. I rang the number to make a viewing on a house and was told that I need to register on their website before I can book a viewing, I couldn't just arrange a viewing over the phone. The registration process took about 10-15 minutes. Viewing of the property went ahead without any issues and was with the vendor direct, nobody from Purple Bricks was involved. The follow up by Purple Bricks was non existent, there was no follow up call, just a system generated email. I put in an offer for the property and this was accepted by the seller. Again nothing from Purple Bricks in terms of support with sale progression. I had to do all the chasing and liaising with the seller direct, all of the work that is normally done with an agent around progressing chains and closing them down all had to be done by me. I must have spent hours and hours on the phone to the seller trying to progress the sale. In the end the sale fell apart the day before exchange and it ended up costing me about £1200 in legal and survey fees. If there was a proper agent handing this it wouldn’t have taken as long as it did (16 weeks) and I don’t feel the sale would have fallen through at the last minute. Would I use Purple Bricks as a seller? No way. If you are a buyer buying a property that is being sold through Purple Bricks, expect to be in for a long haul and to do lots of running around and lots of work as the support the seller and I had from Purple Bricks was simply zero.

purplebricksseller

I am currently selling with Purple Bricks and they are crap, dont bother with them, its a con as they get there £798 regardless if they sell your property or not, as there is a stupid 10 month rule, that if you sell/pull out of the sale then you pay them (fair enough) but what they dont tell you is that if your property doesnt sell after 10 months they still want paying the £798, so they have no incentive to sell your property at all and the communication with your expert agent is non existant. All in all wish id of gone to a high street agent as would have sold by now.

socmwils23

well all id say to that is i am in the middle of selling with purple bricks. When we had the initial meeting the agent made clear the pricing structure and that if we took the pay later option we would still have to pay regardless. We paid upfront and our "expert" was very good. Excellent photos, guided us on the best way to conduct viewings and conducted our negotiation for us with a good conclusion.