Purplebricks selling review

Bowley

I’ve sold using Purple Bricks. Paid the £999 upfront. I tried selling previously with a local agent and the service wasn’t any better, also had poor service from the estate agents I’m currently buying through so. 

I chose to do my own viewings instead of paying the £300 extra. Viewing requests, feedback, offers and messages come directly to you through the app. So not sure about people who are saying they never get back to you? Maybe they weren’t doing their own viewings. You can send queries on for the local expert to deal with but I liked being in the know in real time. 

Pleased with the photos and I also sent clips for a video tour which they prepared.

If your house is priced correctly and well present it will sell at the end of the day regardless of what estate agent your using. I went with their valuation for asking price as that’s what I wanted to achieve anyway and I accepted and offer £2000 under in the end. 

I searched Rightmove for my local area and did a tally of which estate agents had properties sold STC at the time, Purple Bricks are poplar around here and came up top with a couple of others. 

We didn’t have thousands to spare to it worked out well for us. No complaints and money saved. 

simonp

The thing to remember with Purplebricks is they're all local franchises so apart from the overall pricing model, every one is going to be different and there's really little point trying to compare one with another.

For me it didn't seem worth the risk shelling out £999+£300 up front compared to paying around £1500 to a traditional estate agent on completion.

bucksbloke

BrOz said:

I'm selling with purplebricks and they are fine. Agent always communicates with me and responds to any queries I have in good time, including Sundays and evenings! I paid the extra for them to do the viewings as I couldn't commit myself due to work. They were also happy to lock my dog in her crate and let her out after so she wouldn't be following people around during viewings if I was unable to take her out the house. It's more of a digital service as opposed to traditional methods. People book viewings online by a calander where you set the availability (you can either set this so you manage it yourself or the EA can do it if they are doing the viewings.) through this system you can then also communicate with the buyer / seller too. You can make offers online, you can negotiate yourself or ask the agent to do it on your behalf. It's a flexible approach. I suppose your satisfaction purely depends on your local estate agent. Maybe try the system out yourself and book a viewing?  

Just you wait until its sold and you have to use your online portal to try and chase paperwork from the chain yourself. 

gingercordial

As a buyer I'm not convinced by Purplebricks.

We were interested in a property through them last month and I did ring first and speak to a chap who claimed to be their local rep.  He wasn't all that helpful and even slightly offputting.  He just told me to book a viewing via the app, no other help.

The seller was lovely but I did find it awkward having to deal directly with her rather than an EA.  House sales are so personal, I think much as I dislike middlemen they are helpful in this situation.  I did not like the viewing being conducted by the seller (I know sometimes sellers are home anyway!) as of course we could say nothing to each other but compliments, and the same went for the post-viewing messages/offer negotiations.  It's difficult to even mention negatives or things that you would need to do to a place.

We didn't have our offer accepted and whilst I loved the house a part of me was relieved because, on the basis of having to deal direct up to that point, I wasn't convinced the sale would proceed in any kind of reasonable timescale without an actual EA helping it along.  As background, we had previously had an offer accepted before Covid and I have to admit the EA there did a sterling job of chasing all parties, and particularly encouraging the seller to get on with looking for somewhere or consider renting.  In the end we pulled out due to the changing market and our changing priorities in lockdown, but that was not for his lack of attention!  I was dubious a chain would ever form with Purplebricks as the seller had already said she wanted to take her time finding somewhere "perfect".

I'm not saying I won't look at further properties with Purplebricks, but it would definitely be with a sinking feeling if one I loved came on via them again.

PJBRFC

We've recently completed a sale and purchase.

We looked to sell with PB and also did two viewings on PB properties.The valuation we received from PB was similar to other agents but the agent we dealt with never really seemed like she wanted to sell it. My opinion was if she was like that when trying to get us to sign up, I can only imagine what she would be like further down the line. Our sale ended up being a long drawn out process and the local agent we used was worth every penny of the fee. I don't believe the sale would've ever completed without his constant work in chasing things up.

As for the purchasing side we did two viewings with homeowners, which I liked as they were very down to earth and happily pointed out both positives and negatives. One viewing was with a PB agent, and to be frank, he seemed to know nothing about the house at all. Almost every question was "I'll ask the vendor and get back to you". We actually did a second viewing with the vendor and told her how useless he was, and she couldn't believe it. Every question we told her he couldn't answer she replied with "We discussed this, he does know that". We never offered on that house as we found a better alternative. We did advise the vendor to use a proper agent if she wanted to sell though. She obviously appreciated the advice as two weeks later she re-marketed with a local agent and sold within 10 days.

Sunfl0wer

Hi all, I'm a first-time buyer (and new to the MSE forum!)  I've found a house through Purplebricks but not had as much communication as I'd expected (local rep as well as the owner outright rejected my what I considered to be reasonable offer, and no negotiation attempted by them although I had sent a considered message explaining my offer and interest).  I'm not really sure how to proceed and would have appreciated an estate agent as a go-between to help negotiate.  I've seen on threads from several years ago that Purplebricks used to notify buyers who had viewed a property if others go to view or make an offer, and wondered if anyone can tell me if this is still the case?  I have had no notifications about this, so if this system is still in place I might sit it out, as I think I'm quite an 'attractive' buyer as chain-free with an AIP sorted.  Thank you

movilogo

Online agents are not bad per se but try to get one when you pay them upon sale of your house - not upfront.

If they get the money beforehand, they have no incentive to work hard to sell your house.

A house always sells if priced correctly.

royalexander

I am using purple bricks and so far happy with the service, the fixed fee is attractive if you have a higher value property as agents are percentage-based. comments like PB have no interest once paid is not correct and not the experience I have had and they can only grow if they can demonstrate sales success. Counter to this Agents are keen for you to reduce the price to get a sale so they get paid and make no mistake if a property sits on their books for too long they won't pay it much attention if they have others they thing they can sell quicker. 

nnewtoarea

Increase you offer on the portal by 2 k and see the response. If not, find something else.

Missy79

As a buyer I like that I can book a viewing at a time to suit almost immediately rather than having the rigmarole of calling the agent, giving them a rough idea of availability, them calling the seller, then them calling you back again to confirm, only to find it was the one hour you couldn't make! I've had similar numbers of viewings with the agent or with the seller irrespective of the agency involved.
Having just (yesterday) had an offer accepted via PB their agent has already been in touch by telephone a couple of times to explain what they need by way of proof of funds/ID etc and how to input certain info on the website and the property is now SSTC; so far, so good.