Purple Bricks (Hull)

kinger101

glennevis wrote: »

There's a Hull estate agent who leafleted my area (West Hull) recently advertising "sell your house for £499" no vat, no sale no fee, no withdrawal fee, no tie in period. I doubt Purple Bricks can beat that deal

They're on Cottingham Road. Don't know if I'm allowed to name them on the forum.

Might be worth PMing OP. At least then they can check out the quality of their ads compared to others. Particularly photographs/floorplans etc, and whether they advertise on the important sites.

steeeb

I've tried to view 2 houses up with Purple Bricks but didn't in the end.

On both occasions I tried to arrange it online, picked a slot and then it got cancelled first time saying it can't be viewed then. The second time with no actual message it was just 'cancelled' - spent 15 minutes speaking on their call centre which just e-mailed the local property rep person but it wasn't until the next day I heard back.

The house was nice but if it takes that much effort to view the thing it wasn't THAT nice.

Don't forget that anyone that isn't technical will possibly have problems trying to book a viewing - think how many buyers are out there - if your property is aimed at FTBs then you might be okay.

I've recently sold my house, local estate agent - 1% + VAT fees. They've been great - done loads of chasing up and other stuff too.

The estate agent I picked when selling were the best I had experience with when originally house hunting 5 years or so ago - I actually bought the house through them in the first place.

A crap agent can annoy a buyer before they even get to view the property (if they even manage to!) meaning they'd likely be put off unless it's amazing - so bare that in mind.

I've no idea what they're like from a sellers perspective.

cyantist

3card wrote: »

Here's my experience of Purplebricks from a buyers point of view.

I have been looking for a property for investment and saw a possible leasehold property that PB were advertising so i rang them for the lease details.
They said i would need to speak to their local rep. Upon ringing him he said the way to find these answers is to go onto their website listing and click on 'ask the seller a question'
I did this but to ask a question i had to register on the website which i did.
After registering and clicking on the option it then proceeded to tell me to ask a question i would need to arrange a viewing.

At this stage i closed it down and i have not shown any interest in any properties marketed with PB since

Pretty much this! It would have to be an amazing property for me to consider buying, or even going to look at it, if it was marketed with purple bricks.

hazyjo

I am considering selling with an online agent - and will use housenetwork or eMoov. Haven't heard the best reviews for PB or others.


Haven't ruled out a local agent - was against it, but am now swinging towards one as I reckon they may have clients they can persuade to look at our house who might not have considered it. For example, we don't have off street parking, but the parking in our little crescent is very good, plus it looks small from the outside, but we have lots of space inside - most rooms and the hallway/landing are miles bigger than the 'bigger' houses we've been looking at to buy!


Jx

kilby_007

I also know of an agent in Hull that charges £495. I've got mixed views. They sold our house within a few days at the asking price (in the middle of the two other valuations). The photos were a bit rough, the listing had spelling mistakes and no floorplan, however I knew the house would sell so I only wanted them to get the property listed on rightmove and for them to pass offers on. I guess it depends what the demand is like in your area and whether you need all the help you can get from those misleading "professional" wide angle photos...


Also, beware of cheap agents - they have less to lose and are likely to be less concerned about your best interests. I'm speaking from experience!

bigjhon

Thank you all for your comments and thoughts.


PB are coming to give me a valuation on Friday and i have a long list of questions to ask them. I am not keep on the payment even if it does not sell, however, my house is in a area that everyone wants (schools) and is an affordable price so i am confident it will sell but I am after a quick sale and not sure if PB will be the best here.



Positives:


Cheap


24h access online





Negatives:


Not everyone has internet access


website maybe tricky to use for some


Have to use their own solicitors (so i am told)


Have called most of the estate agents in hull and the selling fees can vary between £1300-1800.


Have spoken with the £495 agent and asked him why so cheap, he advised he only started his own firm in August having previously worked for a bigger agent and he needs to grow and advertise himself so this is why he is so cheap.

I will get him out and speak to him in person and see how he comes across.

kinger101

kilby_007 wrote: »

I also know of an agent in Hull that charges £495. I've got mixed views. They sold our house within a few days at the asking price (in the middle of the two other valuations). The photos were a bit rough, the listing had spelling mistakes and no floorplan, however I knew the house would sell so I only wanted them to get the property listed on rightmove and for them to pass offers on. I guess it depends what the demand is like in your area and whether you need all the help you can get from those misleading "professional" wide angle photos...


Also, beware of cheap agents - they have less to lose and are likely to be less concerned about your best interests. I'm speaking from experience!

This is the crux of it really. If you know what a sensible asking price is, and that it will sell once it hits rightmove, go with the cheaper option. I only paid £595 with an online agent (which included good photos and floorplan) and got a good offer in an acceptable amount of time.

My house was suitable for 1st and 2nd time buyers, so I'm not worried about someone who can't use the internet. And I'm certainly don't want people viewing if they're not motivated to click a few mouse buttons. If you fall at that hurdle, you're unlikely to have the determination to get through the conveyancing process anyway.

thebigstillmeister

I've put a few posts on here before about my experience with Purple Bricks, so will keep my post short,

Tried an online EA in 2014 and it was a terrible experience, just a faceless website, never spoke (well received an email) from the same person twice, we had to do all the viewings and in the end due to various reasons took our house off the market,

In 2015 we put our house on the market again, although the last online experience was bad, I still couldn't bring myself to pay large estate agent fee's, plus everyone uses rightmove etc nowadays,

Tried Purple Bricks and they were superb, very professional, we got a main contact who we could speak to anytime up to 10pm ever day, he did all our viewings and open day,.. website was great and we sold,

the downsides;

We actually opted to pay at the end so were locked in with their 3rd party solicitors,.. BIG MISTAKE, so wish we paid upfront and got a local solicitors,.

Also, their after sales team always helped if we contacted them, but they didn't really chase our sellers unless we asked them to,

Overall though;

...I'd certainly use them again,

Lemonsqueezer78

In my experience with PB, I found their "pre sale" set up was fine. Their website is not that hard to use, you can just write your own no-BS advert (I see this as an advantage to be honest), get a floor plan - and the house is on all main property search websites.

For me, the main issue was AFTER you had an offer and the real process of buying/selling a house starts. All of their post-sale support is conducted via a call centre and their [not so great] automated platform. Basically they do ZERO proactive folllow up or chasing of any other EAs/Sols in the chain at all - and if you call them to ask them to do something specifically, you will be connected to a random person who will - if you are lucky - put in a lacklustre call to someone or limply ask the status of something. Definitely not on the level of "chasing" or actively trying to move things along. And it is surprising sometimes how much follow up a good EA does to keep things ticking along. Even on seemingly straightforward transactions

Other EAs genuinely hate working in chains that have PBs somewhere in them as PB do virtually nothing to pick up any of the work needed to keep things moving slowly, leaving all the "real" EAs to do everything.

After one attempt at selling my flat via PB failed after 3 months (which was a situation any decent EA would never have allowed to go on for so long) we ditched them and went with a regular high street EA, who I have to say were fantastic and really proved to me the value of paying more for the benefit of dealing with an actual person once the conveyancing gets underway.

Sausage11

Lemonsqueezer78 wrote: »

In my experience with PB, I found their "pre sale" set up was fine. Their website is not that hard to use, you can just write your own no-BS advert (I see this as an advantage to be honest), get a floor plan - and the house is on all main property search websites.

For me, the main issue was AFTER you had an offer and the real process of buying/selling a house starts. All of their post-sale support is conducted via a call centre and their [not so great] automated platform. Basically they do ZERO proactive folllow up or chasing of any other EAs/Sols in the chain at all - and if you call them to ask them to do something specifically, you will be connected to a random person who will - if you are lucky - put in a lacklustre call to someone or limply ask the status of something. Definitely not on the level of "chasing" or actively trying to move things along. And it is surprising sometimes how much follow up a good EA does to keep things ticking along. Even on seemingly straightforward transactions

Other EAs genuinely hate working in chains that have PBs somewhere in them as PB do virtually nothing to pick up any of the work needed to keep things moving slowly, leaving all the "real" EAs to do everything.

After one attempt at selling my flat via PB failed after 3 months (which was a situation any decent EA would never have allowed to go on for so long) we ditched them and went with a regular high street EA, who I have to say were fantastic and really proved to me the value of paying more for the benefit of dealing with an actual person once the conveyancing gets underway.

I think this is the key concern I would have with an online agent. You may think that your house will "sell" easily and quickly in the form of attracting an acceptable offer. However, the house hasn't actually sold until you've moved through then entire process, and an online estate agent may not be anything like as effective at moving this process along as a local agent would.

With a local agent you tend to get a small office where people deal with a team rather than a faceless call centre. That's not to say I'd never use an online agent, just that I'd be very wary on this point. I'd therefore suggest using online agent fees to negotiate down the local agents to something more acceptable.

Oh yes. And for an online agent, they get paid whether or not your house sells. So the incentive for them to complete the sale is not there in the same way as for a traditional agent. If your house doesn't sell because an online agent doesn't do the work required once the offer has been accepted - tough. They get paid either way.