Purple Bricks warning

Barter

Surrey_EA wrote: »

“It's unwise to pay too much, but it's worse to pay too little. When
you pay too much, you lose a little money - that's all. When you pay
too little, you sometimes lose everything, because the thing you
bought was incapable of doing the thing it was bought to do...”

So if I go into the car saleroom and pay the screen price of a new car, I'll 'lose a little money - that's all' but it'll be faultless, whereas haggling the price down will mean I have bought the same car sometimes 'incapable of doing the thing it was bought to do'?

googler

G_M wrote: »

* how many 'uncharged' clients (who never Completed) does a 'chargeable' client have to subsidise?

Your list misses the most significant element, though. The amount of time and effort that EAs must spend with those who will never be clients, and who will never pay them

Viewers. Enquirers.

Valuations who, for one reason or another, were never even considering employing that agent.

Those who come in off the street and want to know the "state of the market", "how prices are going" or "how does the selling process work" ... or those who simply want directions, and assume the EA will know.

GreenSnake

Doozergirl wrote: »

The online agents like Purple Bricks all charge an upfront fee which is cheaper than high street agents. They are able to do this as everyone pays for their own marketing, it isn't just the successful sales paying for the unsuccessful ones. There's nothing immoral about it.

Only having one agent out in the first place is never a good idea for several reasons. You want to feel confident about the marketing price and about the people you're dealing with and you want to compare fees and service levels.

Your daughter did no due diligence. That does not make Purple Bricks practice wrong.

I agree about the business model used, i.e. every seller paying regardless of whether they do sell. I see the advantage in that, serious sellers are not subsidizing time wasters.

But £1k is not cheap.

I was charged £1k by a high street estate agent and they offered a very good service. They sorted out all the viewings, whether I was at home or not. And that £1k was only payable if they sold the house for above what we had agreed. So once I'd made the agreement with them, that was it. Any offers less than the asking price they just rejected. Worked fine.

What's all this business about loans to Dodgy-Chancer Ltd?
I'd tell them where to go with that one.

GreenSnake

googler wrote: »

Your list misses the most significant element, though. The amount of time and effort that EAs must spend with those who will never be clients, and who will never pay them

Viewers. Enquirers.

Valuations who, for one reason or another, were never even considering employing that agent.

Those who come in off the street and want to know the "state of the market", "how prices are going" or "how does the selling process work" ... or those who simply want directions, and assume the EA will know.

One of my local estate agents charges £100 for a valuation.
You get that deducted from the fees if you end up using them.
Seems reasonable on their part, but I didn't use them. Didn't ask them for a valuation.
But if they were able to charge less to those serious sellers, because they are wasting less time, then I'd consider them next time.

GreenSnake

googler wrote: »

Your list misses the most significant element, though.

Those who come in off the street and want to know the "state of the market", "how prices are going" or "how does the selling process work" ... or those who simply want directions, and assume the EA will know.

You guys bring that upon yourselves, by giving the pretty women agents the desks near your showroom window.

Solicitors don't have showrooms, they have offices. Hidden away. That's why they don't have people "popping in".

Mutton_Geoff

csgohan4 wrote: »

Again it's about selling at the right price, the agent doesn't matter as they all appear in Right move. If the price is not reasonable to a buyer, they won't view or offer, simple, their not buying your house because of the agent.

That may be true for rows of estate houses where there are easy comparables.


I recently sold a high value house in the Cotswolds. I had 4 agents to value and quote. 3 were all in the same ballpark. The 4th valued the house 30% more than the others. I challenged them to the sale for the same fee the others wanted (1%) and they sold it for very close to asking price within a few weeks. They were very proactive in marketing the property and keeping the buyer on side during the negotiating period.


As much as I dislike the common or garden estate agent, the one I chose to sell my house came up trumps and I gladly paid their £20,000 fee since I was several hundred thousand pounds better off than if I'd chosen one of the others who are all household names.


I attach too much value to the "behind the scenes" work that agents do to hold the sale together (to ensure their fees) than to trust an online agent.

googler

GreenSnake wrote: »

Solicitors don't have showrooms, they have offices. Hidden away. That's why they don't have people "popping in".

Exactly. You reinforce my point. So the solicitors benefit from lower business rates and less demands on their time.

And most of their business comes to them, so they don't need to go out to people's homes to pitch for it ... etc etc

Marvel1

freccle wrote: »

Whilst I’m sure this is probably not illegal, it’s certainly immoral and I’d advise anyone thinking of selling their house to give Purple Bricks a wide berth

Chloe86 wrote: »

Now I’ve had an email through saying I owe Close Brothers money! I asked my agent at the start that until the property is bought with pb I don’t have to pay anything, he said no!! I wouldn’t recommend this company to anyone.

Or just read what you are signing up too first.

the_quick

We are in process of selling, we looked at PB but we didn't like penalty fee that applies if you don't use their solicitor. That information is not very well presented by them, neither the credit agreement if you want to pay later. All in T&C - so can't argue about it, just not to keen on people that try to hide things. We were not impressed with local EA and we like Emoov guy - and fees are 40% of local AE fees. It is a gamble, we don't know many people around that sold house recently - so couldn't really get personal reviews.
We have looked at local market for last few months and we believe we know more less about similar properties to ours. We will see..

What really surprised my, why estate agents always show price as £xxx +VAT - why not to give price inclusive of VAT, how many home owners do not pay VAT?

Amanda_Cm

My friend went into something similar with purple bricks. After more than 7 months on the market she paid them everything and called local agent.
They sold the house for less than a month. She found her new house in the same time too.
In the same one of my co-worker got her first house trough them, but it was chain free and was quick and easy.
So Purple bricks are eventually ok for properties without chain, but not for complicated sales.