Purple Bricks

boatman

Having just sold a property through Purple Bricks thought I'd leave some info for others.
The advert and pictures were good, had a few viewings and offers.
Agent was ok, it was normal to leave a message and he would get back to me, normally the same day.
Sadly from then on there was no communication. The post sales support team I have now been informed by PB are 'reactive'. in other words they do absolutely nothing unless you chase them. Somewhat at odds with their advert of being a 'proper estate agent', no chasing the sale, no contacting buyers, sellers, solicitors etc, absolutely nothing.

In my case it was a very basic chain, 3 people and it took 5 months, if there had been more I believe it just would not have gone through, the need to chase solicitors etc I would say is crucial in many cases, I think we were lucky no one pulled out.

So if you choose PB be prepared to chase the sale.


As far as PB solicitors go, pay PB upfront and use your own, be it online or local, do not use Premier Property lawyers. The buyers used them and I believe it was them who slowed the whole chain, time and again it would take 2 weeks to get a response. Time and again they created problems, missed exchange dates through their incompetence.


Hope that helps.

Margot123

I think a lot of that can go for many high street estate agents, not just Purple Bricks. I've had to chase EAs as both buyer and seller. Having emails and telephone calls ignored time and time again. My last sale cost nearly £3k in commission, so I will be giving online a 'go' next time.

From my experience, I'd rather pay less and get less, than pay a lot more and get even less.

SG27

From a buyers perspective (as posted on the witing to exchange thread)

Yesterday after chasing twice a week for the last month our solicitor finally managed to speak to theirs about the outstanding enquiries. Apparently the vendor didn't respond to the last 3 and their solicitor didnt bother asking again!

We have discovered that our seller, as well as using Purple Bricks is also using their recommended conveyancer Premier Property Lawyers. So we have a double (purple :rotfl:) brick wall to fight our way through!

To be fair to Purple Bricks they now respond to us the same day when we email. This is only since I moaned about them on here and the PB rep intervened for us. Before that their "post sales support" was non existant. They did not answer the phones, did not return calls and rarely responded to emails.

As for the conveyancer, they have ignored around 10 emails from my solicitor and failed to return numerous phone calls. I read up reviews of them online and it filled me with dread! They are shocking! If we dont get some movement soon we will start to view other properties. In fact if something suitable comes up we will pull out without a second thought.

I will never buy a house marketed by purple bricks again!

Fairyliquid

Ha! same experience for us using PB as a buyer. PB were totally off-grid after you make an offer and it is accepted by the seller. We too had an on-line agency (emoov) and were getting nowhere so we appointed a quite expensive high street agency and are satisfied that without them the whole process would have collapsed on several occasions. I was able to call into the office and speak to the partner or head sales person and get action. They phoned around when things got tricky etc so I am sure they helped hold the deal together.



On a similar vein we had on-line solicitors. They were competent to an extent but the fact that their office was 300 miles away did matter several times, the other parties solicitors expressed frustration with our legal team for not giving out facts. I know that high street solicitors have let us down in the past and they too ignore calls and emails (to be fair our solicitors did answer the phone and respond to emails as per their T&Cs).


But overall, never again will I use any agency/solicitor that is not within walking distance!

westernpromise

So, surprisingly, you pay less and you get less, and possibly you get nothing at all.

googler

Lost £26m (pre-tax) this year, not looking to break even until 2021, number of Local Property Experts dropping, not increasing ....

https://www.estateagenttoday.co.uk/breaking-news/2018/7/purplebricks-the-largest-uk-estate-agency-so-what-says-stock-market

boatman

I put in a letter of complaint to PB and this is the reply:



"Thank you for contacting our head office in relation to your concerns, once an offer is received those best placed to assist you through to completion are your conveyancers or our Post Sales Support Team who can be contacted on 01926 xxxxxx however they operate on a reactive basis and will only become involved should you ask them to."
"our Post Sales Support Team are a value added dedicated team who operate on a reactive basis"

As can be clearly seen, unless you chase the 'post sales support team' nothing will happen. My understanding of a 'proper' estate agent would be someone who is 'proactive', the incentive being that they get their money sooner. In the case of Purple Bricks it would to be the opposite.
People will argue they are cheap, yes, because all they do is put a couple of adverts on Rightmove, to me £850 for doing that is not cheap, its misrepresentation, that is not a 'proper' estate agent.

As for their adverts professing to be a proper estate agent, I think its clear that this is pure lies, not only that, they have admitted as much in their response to me.






This was in a couple of emails I received from them on the day of exchange:
"We will now be available to offer advice should you have any problems or concerns throughout the course of your legal transaction."

"Our role is to support your transaction in accordance with the Purplebricks Post Sales Charter"


"We confirm that the sale of the above property has now been agreed. If you provided an email address for your Conveyancer, we have emailed them full details of the sale so that they can get to work. Please contact them directly if you have any questions about the transaction."


All a bit late, 'So they can get to work', its a joke, the Solicitors have been working on the case for the past 5 months and they send this on the day of exchange, unbelievable!

hb2

To add balance to the thread - We sold our house via PB last year and bought from a local EA. The local EA did nothing to try and speed things up, although it was our vendors holding up the, small, chain all along.

To add insult to injury, the local TA didn't even have any keys to give us on completion (and, as usual, our vendors were not answering their phones) so we ended up camped out in their office until the vendors brought the keys round!

TamsinC

Also have to say we sold through PB (but didn't use their conveyancing service) and it was brilliant - best EA assistance we have ever had. At the time we were also pursuing an purchase and the house was with a normal EA - they refused to answer emails, phone calls etc. Once the offer was in and accepted we were persona non grata. Conversely the PB agent was a brilliant conduit between us and our buyers. Answered emails, texts etc within 10 mins. Very helpful indeed especially after the offer was accepted.

boatman

TamsinC wrote: »

Also have to say we sold through PB (but didn't use their conveyancing service) and it was brilliant - best EA assistance we have ever had. At the time we were also pursuing an purchase and the house was with a normal EA - they refused to answer emails, phone calls etc. Once the offer was in and accepted we were persona non grata. Conversely the PB agent was a brilliant conduit between us and our buyers. Answered emails, texts etc within 10 mins. Very helpful indeed especially after the offer was accepted.

As you say, complete opposite. Our sellers EA was very proactive which only highlighted how bad PB were. Its interesting you say the PB agent was brilliant, because according to the email I received from PB complaints staff, once you accept an offer and it goes to the solicitors, PB told me its then down to the Post sale support team, not the local PB agent. If the local PB agents are all ex EA's then perhaps they see it as their role to chase as they would have done previously, regardless of the post sales team.

It still doesn't excuse the fact that PB post sales team only operate on a reactive basis, certainly not the way one would expect a proper estate agent to work.

csgohan4

I wanted to view a house once through PB as a buyer, didn't get back to me after taking my details, didn't bother with online now. If their not bothered why should I?