Purplebricks, Yopa or private

JamesN

Alan2020 wrote: »

£4.5k is peanuts compared to house value. If you think this is too much do you really need to move? Stamp duty, removals would far exceed this.

You are making a serious assumption that you will get same sales value from online vs local. I always use a smaller local as it attracts less stingy buyers.

Like you want to save £4.5k your buyer that comes to put up with an online seller will want £50k reduction as they would also have the same attitude.
However the local upmarket agency who sell will get buyers who will pay a premium to avoid the hassle of bargaining.

So think carefully, maybe in your area £350k is entry level so it’s going to attract a lot of bargaining but if it’s upper middle, different story

I'm moving to relocate so cost isn't the only factor. Although, I don't agree with your premise on because the house is expensive its not a big cost. In terms of bricks and mortar EAs they really don't do a huge amount in terms of hours to sell a house. Certainly not enough to justify a few months of my pay. I agree I'll get more stingy people but if they offer £50k I'll just say no. I may market it as OIEO to ensure I get less of that.

There are similar properties advertised at the same price so I don't think an agent will be able to get more out of it. I can negotiate in that respect.

Its not entry level in my area. I'd say middle leaning slightly towards upper.

robatwork wrote: »

I can negotiate any local indy down to less than 1%.

Did you even try?

No, if a local EA matched PB on price, I'd be concerned about the service I'd be getting. £2k would be too much for me so it'd be negotiating below 0.5%, which isn't going to happen.

jimbog wrote: »

Really? Even if they managed to negotiated a £5K increase in the selling price?

If it was a unique house I may have considered it, but because its a new build, there isn't much that is difficult to overcome.

Appreciate everyone's responses. Didn't realise it'd be such a popular thread. Does anyone have any experience on selling privately. My main concern with that was although I'd get it on Rightmove etc, the lack of brand attached would put people off. I guess its the trade off between PB putting people off and private putting people off.

I've updated the original post. I won't use their conveyancers and I'd be doing the viewings myself so I wouldn't have issues with cancellations, etc.

I've seen several comments of issues after offer. The man I spoke to at PB said their structure was changing so that some remuneration was provided once the deal was closed not just on listing. That said, what specific issues were people having? Given i'm in a new build and all the searches are fine, and in a perfect world I get a FTB! what is there to go wrong? I get buyers pulling out/messing around but i'm happy to deal with that myself.

Thanks again!

ka7e

PB are a franchise and the level of service varies depending on how good (or bad) your local agent is. 3 neighbours have used PB in my small cul-de-sac in the past 18 months and the sales have all gone through quite quickly and the sellers were happy to recommend the service. 2 did their own viewings, all 3 used their own conveyancers,having heard PB corporate ones were dire.


I opted for a High St EA as we needed specific arrangements for viewings (my husband has dementia) and they have been brilliant at marketing, liaising with all parties and updating us on all matters regarding our sale. We had an assigned agent who handled most of our viewings and he knew what features to highlight and gave us informative feedback. They have earned their 1% in my opinion!

googler

JamesN wrote: »

In terms of bricks and mortar EAs they really don't do a huge amount in terms of hours to sell a house.

Really? Office open every day at least 9-5, sometimes evenings, weekends? Out-of-hours evening and weekend work for valuations, viewings and such?

You do realise that the majority of an EA's time is spent with people that, as a seller, you will likely never see, don't you?

Also that the majority of their time is spent with the people who do not pay them? Viewers who don't buy, casual enquirers, valuations who don't list with them, etc.

csgohan4

OP nothing stopping you using PB, some will have good some bad reviews, but end of the day you are reducing your pool of buyers by using PB compared to mainstream.

When I bought my house, I ruled out every house selling by PB, your choice for saving some pennies in the grand scheme of things

JamesN

googler wrote: »

Really? Office open every day at least 9-5, sometimes evenings, weekends? Out-of-hours evening and weekend work for valuations, viewings and such?

You do realise that the majority of an EA's time is spent with people that, as a seller, you will likely never see, don't you?

Also that the majority of their time is spent with the people who do not pay them? Viewers who don't buy, casual enquirers, valuations who don't list with them, etc.

For an average house, how much time do you think they spend on it in hours? I'm not saying they do nothing, but for the % fee, there isn't comparatively more work on an average £150k house vs an average £400k house. As others have said, they don't always do a good job either!

For me, they used to have the power because of the marketing in the area. Now we have Rightmove, Zoopla, etc. They have lost a lot of that premium.

eddddy

JamesN wrote: »

For an average house, how much time do you think they spend on it in hours? I'm not saying they do nothing, but for the % fee, there isn't comparatively more work on an average £150k house vs an average £400k house. As others have said, they don't always do a good job either!

For me, they used to have the power because of the marketing in the area. Now we have Rightmove, Zoopla, etc. They have lost a lot of that premium.

Advertising a property is often a very small part of what an EA does.


Everyone has there own anecdotes, but I can think of at least 2 property transactions I've been involved with which would have fallen apart if it wasn't for the persistence of the EAs. (One EA in particular spent many hours over many weeks on the sale.)

In both cases, I think I would have ended up with a worse outcome, if the EAs hadn't kept the sale alive, and I had to start again from scratch.

However, some EAs are rubbish. And some property sales are problem free, and don't need much input from an EA.

googler

JamesN wrote: »

For an average house, how much time do you think they spend on it in hours? I'm not saying they do nothing, but for the % fee, there isn't comparatively more work on an average £150k house vs an average £400k house. As others have said, they don't always do a good job either!

For me, they used to have the power because of the marketing in the area. Now we have Rightmove, Zoopla, etc. They have lost a lot of that premium.

It's difficult to think of a comparable industry where those in the industry spend so much time in their daily work dealing with members of the public who do not pay them anything, nor where the public expects to get so much for free. It's not all about how much time they spend with you in particular.

In terms of the work on your home in particular - add up time spent on pricing and other research, valuation appointment, listing appointment if you don't sign up at valuation, photography, measuring up, preparation of listing, money-laundering checks, general admin over the whole duration of listing, viewings, liaison with enquirers/viewers/buyers, negotiation over offer, sale progression after offer, liaison for completion, possibly post-completion wrangles if there's issues over fixtures and fittings, and probably a bunch of things I've missed.

How much would you want or expect to be paid if you were doing all of the above?

But then there's the overhead of all the time spent that leads to no income. Valuation appts where the owner just wants a figure to use when listing with an online agent, or selling to friend. Viewers who are simply going around houses on a Sunday out of nosiness. Casual enquiries that go nowhere. It all has to be paid for, and you paying for only the work done on your home in particular on (say) an hourly rate would clearly leave the EA out of pocket.

Put yourself in the position of the business doing all this. How do you fill the gap in income left by doing all this with folks who do not pay?

No sale, no fee, if that's what the public wants, has to be financed from somewhere, or else the EA goes out of business; and at the end of the day, despite the invective that goes their way from some contributors around here, they're all still regular folks like you and me, looking to put food on the table and a roof over their heads.

Losses on the £150k sale must be offset by profit on the £400k sale.

1% of 150,000 = £1500, potentially in E&W the only income from a sale that has taken maybe six or eight months from start to finish. Doesn't strike me that there'd be much profit in that, given, let's say an office with a few agents, admin staff, a couple of cars to run, etc.

You may well get good agents and bad, but that's a separate issue to an overall discussion of pricing structures.

JamesN

I agree they need to charge that much to cover their bases but that doesn’t make it good value in all instances. The ones in more expensive houses subsidise the ones in less expensive houses. Plus the ones with lots of quirks versus the standard new build. I guess that’s where my bias comes in because my property is very standard, no quirks, safe searches etc.

I’m not too trusting in letting other people look after such important things as If something is going wrong id rather be at the forefront rather than dealing with a middle person. It’s probably where I differ as I assume people would prefer the reverse.

jimbog

JamesN wrote: »

If something is going wrong id rather be at the forefront rather than dealing with a middle person. It’s probably where I differ as I assume people would prefer the reverse.

Might your buyer much rather the reverse too?

JamesN

I guess it depends on the situation. It’s a simple purchase. Not doing it as a chain. I’ll go into rental or live with family for a bit so I can’t see any major issues from my side that would put buyers off. Plus the conveyancing will be done separate if I were to use PB. So would ensure I got one that was well regarded.