Purplebricks, Yopa or private

JamesN

Hi

Update 23/6: I’ve now gone with an estate agent having listened to the majority.

Thanks all.

babyblade41

PB and others don't proactively market your property, a lot of people won't have anything to do with a PB agent..I wouldn't

They over price everything and those who have used them would never do so again . My BIL used them and were stuck for 10 months , still had to pay the fee.

Went with a proper EA ,viewings and an offer in a month , now SSTC

Mrs_F_2017

I bought my house through Purple bricks last year & wouldn’t recommend them to anyone. A best they are incompetent, and all three people we met were rude.

Next time we move, I won’t even look at a house if it’s marketed with them.

julicorn

We bought our flat through Yopa, and I would not touch them again with a barge pole, even for the perfect property tbh.

Took us 2 weeks to arrange our first viewing because the agent wasn't local. She then did virtually everything she possibly could to talk us into NOT buying the flat (pointing out flaws we didn't view to be flaws, hinting at a 'very high service charge' although it's roughly half of the standard in our local area, constantly running out because she couldn't be bothered to pay for parking and was worried she was gonna get caught).

They then did absolutely nothing to help out throughout the actual buying process. When we were wanting to view the (vacant) flat again later on, it took us other a month to be let in, because the seller was on holiday and the agent had subsequently left the company, meaning there was not a single Yopa agent able to service our area. Their phone support is absolutely abysmal as well.

Had we not completely fallen in love with the property, we would have run for the hills. In future, we won't even look at anything advertised through them. You might think that they're just not particularly helpful, but in our situation, they put spanners in the works that would have made any sensible buyer pull out of the sale.

System

You pay upfront with PB, if you want to defer the payment you have to use their legal team for the conveyancing but it is a credit agreement and will have to be paid whether you sell or not. At least if you use a traditional estate agent it is no sale no fee and they will have an incentive to get you the best possible price.

Larac

We had a flat for sale via Express (similar ilk to PB). It was a nightmare for potential buyers as basically everything was done via a call centre in Manchester and had little knowledge of the property. Put in back in a high street EA -so much easier for both Vendor and buyer. Personally, this experience would put me off using an online agency for buying and selling and would avoid looking at houses that were advertised in such a way.

eddddy

JamesN wrote: »

I’ve ruled out typical estate agents because the cost is excessive. Value of £350k so looking at £4.5k on that route. It’s just not happening.

Maybe some things to consider...

• Most EAs will negotiate on fees. (You can usually get down to 1%)

• Traditional EAs will negotiate with buyers, PB etc won't. That might mean they can negotiate an extra, say, £5k from a buyer.

• Traditional EAs will progress the sale, PB etc won't. i.e. They will actively work on sorting out problems between offer and exchange. e.g. A 'flaky' buyer, survey issues etc. (A good EA might save a sale, that would otherwise collapse.)

But not all traditional EAs are good. You have to choose carefully.

But if you are in an area with strong demand, and an 'easy-to-sell' house, which won't show up any problems in searches and surveys etc - maybe PB etc would be just as good as a traditional EA.

trex227

Having worked at a legal firm that dealt with a lot of Yopa/PB transactions as well as transactions through regular estate agents there is quite a noticeable difference in how much effort is put in once the sale is agreed to get the transaction to completion.

With Yopa/PB they are paid regardless of whether the transaction completes so they don’t really push things along like a regular EA would.

From my experience I would say a much higher percentage of transactions fall through or if they do complete take a lot longer than with a regular EA.

kinger101

eddddy wrote: »

Maybe some things to consider...

• Most EAs will negotiate on fees. (You can usually get down to 1%)

• Traditional EAs will negotiate with buyers, PB etc won't. That might mean they can negotiate an extra, say, £5k from a buyer.

• Traditional EAs will progress the sale, PB etc won't. i.e. They will actively work on sorting out problems between offer and exchange. e.g. A 'flaky' buyer, survey issues etc. (A good EA might save a sale, that would otherwise collapse.)

But not all traditional EAs are good. You have to choose carefully.

But if you are in an area with strong demand, and an 'easy-to-sell' house, which won't show up any problems in searches and surveys etc - maybe PB etc would be just as good as a traditional EA.

This isn't quite true. Most online agents have a negotiators and sales progression teams. But in my experience with PB (as a buyer) the service falls well below what one might expect.

My concerns as a buyer with PB in particular are...

(a) if you use their agents to do viewings, it's very difficult for potential buyers to arrange viewings. Their online calendar shows lots of available time slots. You'll book a convenient one for you, and the agent will frequently rearrange it to an inconvenient time/date. The reason being, they cover large geographic areas, and cannot plan viewings effectively. When I was last buying, I think there were around 4 houses I gave up on viewing because of PB's inflexibility/intransigence/laziness/apathy.

(b) if you've used PB, it's very likely you'll (the vendor) be tied in to whichever awful conveyancing warehouse they're currently getting backhanders from. This will likely lead to a slow and frustrating conveyancing process.

It wouldn't put me off from looking at the right house marketed by PB, but all things being equal on two properties, I'd buy the one where someone's using proper solicitor.

csgohan4

Bargepole for PB for me, contacted them for a viewing and never got back to me, their not bothered, why should you

There's a reason why their in trouble financially, their business model is rubbish and people are coming round to it

need_an_answer

As a potential purchaser I rule out properties advertised with purple bricks,I find estate agents are much easier to deal with.


If you are selling a reasonably generic new build type house and a similar one was for sale with an agent,sorry I'd opt to view the other one not yours.