Selling house with Purplebricks

Mollymoo32

Hi everyone,

Just after a bit of guidance we recently put our house on the market with Purplebricks. We have had one viewing in 3 months and the don't seem very proactive in getting people to view the house. We want to change to a different EA but think this would mean paying PB/their conveyancing agents for not doing anything is has anyone had any experience of this??

Thanks for your help

melstar11

You need to look at the terms of your contract with them. I believe you may have to pay their fees whether they have secured a sale for you or not. If you could demonstrate they haven't kept to their contractual obligations you may be able to exit the contract without paying them or serving notice, but that will probably be difficult to do.

How about approaching some local agents first and getting their opinions on why it hasn't sold and what their fees are. If the fees seem high, you could negotiate on them and save what you'll have to pay Purplebricks.

martinthebandit

If your feeling brave stick a link up to your house and you will get some good advice as to why you have had so few viewings.

Although as a guess 'it's the price'

kinger101

If it's on rightmove, and it's a decent price, it should have got more viewings than that. My guess is it's priced too high.

Most viewings occur because a potential buyer contacts an agent. Not the other way round.

Davesnave

Not doing anything? Your house is on the internet and it will have a nice purple board outside. The majority of properties sell because people see them first on the internet, or check it out from spotting a board.

What the advert says, what the pictures look like and how the price is pitched is all within your control to some extent, especially with an internet agent like PB. As you've now realised, they may have little incentive to market your house pro-actively like a high street agent, but you're not paying for that.

Don't kid yourself for a minute that no one can see your house. I expect you'll know the stats, but if the click-throughs aren't leading to viewings, the message should be clear that folks aren't identifying it with value.

You need to work out why that is, but its almost always the price.

eddddy

Mollymoo32 wrote: »

We want to change to a different EA but think this would mean paying PB/their conveyancing agents for not doing anything is has anyone had any experience of this??

I guess you chose 'Pay Later', so you certainly have to pay PB.

Their T&Cs seem to suggest you could sell through another EA, and still use PB's conveyancing - to avoid the extra £360 admin fee. But I guess you need to check.

(But there have been poor comments on here about their conveyancers. And perhaps other conveyancers are more than £360 cheaper.)


When you look at new EAs, make sure you understand what their fees will be in all cases (and ask if you're not clear). For example:

- If your house sells
- If you withdraw, with no offer accepted
- If you withdraw after accepting an offer (e.g. for personal reasons)
- If the buyer withdraws

tori.k

Just to play devil's advocate from a buyers point of view, we stopped looking at purple bricks property's. Each one we did see was overpriced compared to what was on the local estate agent book's, a nightmare to book viewings for, a few we're mis advertised at best, one totally false with stating in good order when it wasn't even water tight,so technically inhabitable. I was getting property burnout so we made the decision to skip over the PB property's, and now waiting to exchange on a local property. I'm not saying everyone is put off by PB but actually being able to talk to a local estate agent and them knowing there housing stock they could point us to the properties that suited our needs which works well for both vendor and buyer.

comeandgo

I'm another who gives purple bricks a wide berth, not due to prices but due to their ignorance of selling property in Scotland.

kinger101

Many people give certain high street agents a wide berth as well. I've stopped viewing properties marketed by one as their descriptions are inaccurate. They can get away with it on qualitative aspects. Or things which are not legally defined. To some, a bedroom is a double if you can get a double bed in and still open the door a bit.

I've only had problems with viewings when people use PB agents for viewings. They don't have enough of them to make that service work yet.

tori.k

That could have been the issue for us, most we looked at was with a purple bricks rep, only one was with the vendor.

kinger101

tori.k wrote: »

That could have been the issue for us, most we looked at was with a purple bricks rep, only one was with the vendor.

Yeah, I tried three times to view one property with the PB rep, and they cancelled every appointment. If you can't do the viewings yourself, you need a high street agent.

The property did sell in the end, but they might of got a better price if more people could actually view it.