Purplebricks, Yopa or private

GDB2222

I’m not sure why you would pay £1k to PurpleBricks. All you really need is a listing on Rightmove, and there are other online agents that are much cheaper. There is a list here.

https://hoa.org.uk/advice/guides-for-homeowners/i-am-selling/compare-online-estate-agents/

It obviously depends what you want, but if you’re capable of negotiating yourself and dealing direct with the buyers it’s better to cut out the agent.

Scotbot

GDB2222 said:

I’m not sure why you would pay £1k to PurpleBricks. All you really need is a listing on Rightmove, and there are other online agents that are much cheaper. There is a list here.

https://hoa.org.uk/advice/guides-for-homeowners/i-am-selling/compare-online-estate-agents/

It obviously depends what you want, but if you’re capable of negotiating yourself and dealing direct with the buyers it’s better to cut out the agent. 

Only estate agents are allowed to list on RM, private individuals are not, same with Zoopla 

GDB2222

Scotbot said:

GDB2222 said:

I’m not sure why you would pay £1k to PurpleBricks. All you really need is a listing on Rightmove, and there are other online agents that are much cheaper. There is a list here.

https://hoa.org.uk/advice/guides-for-homeowners/i-am-selling/compare-online-estate-agents/

It obviously depends what you want, but if you’re capable of negotiating yourself and dealing direct with the buyers it’s better to cut out the agent. 

Only estate agents are allowed to list on RM, private individuals are not, same with Zoopla 

Yes, that's precisely why you'd need to use one of the online agents listed on that link I sent. Strike, for example, will do the Rightmove listing for £Nil. As that's by far the most important part of the process, I cant see why you'd pay PB £999. 

LostMyMSEAccount

I'm thinking my local independent will be a better option based on the feedback.

juliedee4663

We were in the process of buying a house through Purple Bricks which fell through (not any fault of PB), but the whole process with them was hard work. It was difficult to book a viewing. We booked a the first available viewing immediately the listing came on right move, but when we viewed the house the vendors had already had about 10 viewings the previous day, still don't really know how that happened. We were in the end the successful bidders, however as soon as the bid was accepted Purple Bricks wanted nothing more to do with the transaction and actively encouraged the vendor and the buyer communicated between themselves, which to be honest we were very uncomfortable with.
It would have to be a very very special house now for us even to view one listed with Purple Bricks.

GDB2222

@juliedee4663 Can I ask why you were uncomfortable with communicating direct with the sellers?

I haven't sold a house using an online agent, but I have rented one using OpenRent. It went very very well, compared to using a normal agent. It was more work for me, but I found a tenant within two days. In fact, I had a normal agent working on it for weeks, and he failed to find anyone. 

NinjaTune

LostMyMSEAccount said:

Thought I'd resurrect this really old thread.
How have opinions changed? I was about to part ways with £999 to go with PB, but after reading this I bottled it. I'm now torn between a local estate agent at £1440 and PB at £999. To me, it feels that the local estate agent is directly competing with PB, which means they're doing something correct, or maybe I'm mistaken?

£441.00 is not a huge amount in the grand scheme of things especially if your property isn't necessarily an easy sell.

I avoided PB like the plague when looking for properties as they were not 'buyer friendly'.  I emailed them numerous times with questions about lease length and service charges on flats I was interested in but got zero response.  The only way you can get this information is to register with PB, book a viewing and only then does it give you the option to 'ask seller a question'.  If the lease is short, or the service charge is high then I don't want to view it so then have to cancel my viewing.  What a waste of time for both buyer and seller.

Having said that, I saw a flat I liked that was advertised on PB.  If it had been on with a high street agent I'd have booked a viewing immediately but it took me 3 weeks to finally decide to view due to the fact it was with PB.  I viewed it, loved it and have now bought it.

Due to a typo in the brochure the lease was stated as 147 years when it was actually 174 years.  Not a major issue as 147 years was still a decent length and wouldn't have put me off viewing.  Had it been a 97 year lease transposed as 79 on the brochure then I wouldn't have booked a viewing.  Small error but with a potentially big (detrimental) impact.  

The pros of PB were that I had a lovely seller who spent 45 minutes showing me round and answering my questions in detail.  I had direct contact with my vendor via email which was invaluable when the conveyancing hit some very sticky patches.  

ele_91

What we found when viewing was that many sellers with cheap agents, and particularly Strike, hadn’t invested much money and therefore were very flaky. Seemed to be a lot of properties through Strike at inflated prices where the seller was just trying their luck. We viewed a house that had been reduced by 60k by Strike after being on the market for a month. We offered, which was accepted, although the seller moaned that they had ‘already lost 60k (they bought the house 2 years prior for £120k less) and then pulled out a month later as they decided not to move after all. We found sellers willing to pay an agent much more motivated to sell and invested in the process. 

Also as a buyer, with online agents anyone can still request to view with the vendor, even after your offer is accepted. This really encourages gazumping which again would put us off. For the property we are now buying we actively avoided Strike, PB etc. 

LostMyMSEAccount

NinjaTune said:

LostMyMSEAccount said:

Thought I'd resurrect this really old thread.
How have opinions changed? I was about to part ways with £999 to go with PB, but after reading this I bottled it. I'm now torn between a local estate agent at £1440 and PB at £999. To me, it feels that the local estate agent is directly competing with PB, which means they're doing something correct, or maybe I'm mistaken?

£441.00 is not a huge amount in the grand scheme of things especially if your property isn't necessarily an easy sell.

I don't think I'll struggle to sell with either EA. I think I'll go with my local indie. It's not that I don't trust Purple Bricks. I found the guy who came round very good. I honestly don't know which to pick but based on the fact you guys think the additional 400 quid is worth it, I'll go for it

You can see how indecisive I am though.

fishfingerbutties

I was buying a house previously that was being sold through PB and didn't really have any issues. I actually viewed a couple through PB and one through HouseSimple (as I think Strike was back then). I was moving up to a new area and actually found it really handy having the sellers show me round as I could ask lots of questions about the area as well as the house itself.

But it's not for everyone. I think for an 'easy house' (so freehold, family house, bog standard kind of house) it's probably a little easier. And as you read on here many people have had issues getting viewings or kite flying sellers (although I'm not sure why people are viewing them if they are that kite flying...)

For the sake of a few hundred quid, personally I'd go for a local agent. I'd be a bit more tempted once the difference starts to become a bit more stark.