Purple Bricks

denwyn

Anyone had any dealings with Purple Bricks estate agents. We have a house to sell from a bereavement and are considering selling it with them, on a fixed price contract. Reviews online are very conflicting.

Seanymph

I made a valuation appointment on line - but needed to call and confirm that it would be a third party meeting the agent.

Who didn't answer their phone. At all, for several days. Nor return my calls.

I called the office number, who checked, no he wasn't on holiday - they would leave an answerphone message.

No one ever got back to me.

I went elsewhere.

Surrey_EA

Have a read here:

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/4973625

I think reviews will be very different, depending on how good the individual covering your particular area is, what type of property is being sold, and whereabouts in the country you are.

It's probably a pretty attractive route to take if you're selling a standard property in a buoyant market, but for something a little unusual, or if the market conditions are difficult, then they may not always be the best option.

ThePants999

On here, you'll find more conflicting reviews.

The essence is this: online estate agents, including but not limited to PB, are fine if you have a house that essentially sells itself and you're happy to drive things yourself from accepting an offer to completion (many online agents, including PB, claim to handle that but tend to suck at it). The extra thousands you'd pay to a high street agent are almost wasted if a listing on Rightmove gets you four offers. But online agents have much less incentive to sell your property. If your property is a bit more niche, or if you'd value having an agent chivvying things along, a traditional EA has value.

Surrey_EA

ThePants999 wrote: »

The extra thousands you'd pay to a high street agent are almost wasted if a listing on Rightmove gets you four offers. But online agents have much less incentive to sell your property. If your property is a bit more niche, or if you'd value having an agent chivvying things along, a traditional EA has value.

I would maintain that finding a buyer is the easy bit.

The journey between accepting an offer and handing over a set of keys can be long and painful, having a decent EA to move things along can be incredibly important. There is no incentive for PB to put much effort in to the sales progression part as they have already been paid.

golly99

I've noticed the odd board going up around my way and thought the houses were undervalued, which meant they were sold quick but potentially the seller had lost out on thousands more despite the cheaper cost to sell.

cloo

Remember you do pay the PB fee whether it sells or not.

A good agent does make a difference, as I've found when selling places.

I agree it probably depends a lot on your local contact for PB how good the service is, so if possible you might want to see if you can find someone locally in the process of selling with them and ask how it is going?

If you are not living near the property to be sold, I would recommend going with a well established local agent instead, as you'll probably need that kind of support for the best possible sale and the least stress for you.

AdrianC

golly99 wrote: »

I've noticed the odd board going up around my way and thought the houses were undervalued, which meant they were sold quick but potentially the seller had lost out on thousands more despite the cheaper cost to sell.

^ This.

If you save several £k in fees, but lose out on £10k in sale price, it seems somewhat self-defeating.

ThePants999

Surrey_EA wrote: »

I would maintain that finding a buyer is the easy bit.

The journey between accepting an offer and handing over a set of keys can be long and painful, having a decent EA to move things along can be incredibly important. There is no incentive for PB to put much effort in to the sales progression part as they have already been paid.

Varies an awful lot by property, by buyer and by seller. Some transactions don't require the estate agent to lift a finger in sales progression. Some clients are perfectly happy to do all the chasing themselves. I'm one of them, for example, and I place more value on an agent's ability to find buyers and negotiate a price than on their ability to poke the buyer and their solicitor to get to exchange. However, I do agree that sales progression can be an issue with online agents, and especially PB - since their "local expert" agents are only used prior to offer acceptance, and they do sales progression as a centralised service, many negative reviews focus particularly on that!

golly99 wrote: »

I've noticed the odd board going up around my way and thought the houses were undervalued, which meant they were sold quick but potentially the seller had lost out on thousands more despite the cheaper cost to sell.

Absolutely. PurpleBricks valued our last house at £365,000. The agent we eventually went with put it up for OIRO £425,000 and got us an offer of £410,000. What a disaster selling with PB would have been - sure, we'd probably have had some competing offers bidding each other up, but they wouldn't have got close to £410K from a starting point of £365K.

Surrey_EA

ThePants999 wrote: »

Varies an awful lot by property, by buyer and by seller. Some transactions don't require the estate agent to lift a finger in sales progression.

I have to agree, the level of involvement will vary depending on each individual transaction. However, sales where the EA doesn't need to lift a finger are best described as incredibly rare.

ThePants999 wrote: »

Some clients are perfectly happy to do all the chasing themselves. I'm one of them, for example,

No matter how keen the seller is to do the chasing personally, they're likely to find the buyer's solicitor and mortgage broker are unlikely to speak to them direct.

ThePants999 wrote: »

and I place more value on an agent's ability to find buyers and negotiate a price than on their ability to poke the buyer and their solicitor to get to exchange. However, I do agree that sales progression can be an issue with online agents, and especially PB - since their "local expert" agents are only used prior to offer acceptance, and they do sales progression as a centralised service, many negative reviews focus particularly on that!

A good agent should be skilled at all elements, from comprehensive marketing, thorough negotiation, and diligent sales progression. Sadly not too many EAs out there that can tick all those boxes!

Pumpkim

golly99 wrote: »

I've noticed the odd board going up around my way and thought the houses were undervalued, which meant they were sold quick but potentially the seller had lost out on thousands more despite the cheaper cost to sell.

Interesting, in my area I always think the PB properties seem over-valued...