Purplebricks selling review

G3ralt

Sunfl0wer said:

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

I can confirm that PB still notifies if there are other viewings or offers on a property you viewed. You just need to save the property in your account in PB website and then you get email notifications.
Personally, from a buyer's perspective we have had only good experiences with PB. We found the booking system hassle free and quick. Also liked the fact that often it was the owners who showed us around so it was possible to understand their situation bit more without having to deal with EAs (in our experience EAs lie all the time about vendor's situation, so much that they often can't keep track of what lie they told us the first time ! ). Although to be fair we haven't yet offered on a PB property so don't know how the experience may be from that point.

khanji17

In the end, we decided to go ahead with PB, our property goes live this weekend or next Monday, so far the process has been smooth. Will keep you posted how to viewings and after sale process goes. We decided to pay upfront, so that we can use our own conveyancing services (that we are yet to find). 

natasha22

As a buyer ive prefered purple brick for all the reasons others have said eg being able to book online appointments, offer online etc.

Bowley

khanji17 said:

In the end, we decided to go ahead with PB, our property goes live this weekend or next Monday, so far the process has been smooth. Will keep you posted how to viewings and after sale process goes. We decided to pay upfront, so that we can use our own conveyancing services (that we are yet to find). 

Make sure you have downloaded the Purple Bricks app and turn notifications on so you see requests and messages right away. Also fill in your availability in the diary so people can easily request viewings. Ask about a video tour too if that’s something you’d want to do. 

In terms of the after sale process, I had a call from the post sales team after accepting an offer then haven’t heard much since but I get a call once a week from my sellers estate agents post sales team who says he has been speaking with them regularly, so it’s all happening in the background and I mostly deal with my solicitor now anyway so I haven’t felt the need to phone them myself. No complaints. 

Also my local expert stepped in to negotiate with my sellers estate agent and I felt like he went above and beyond for us. We’d agreed a price before we were proceedable, went back with it once we had sold to be told they wanted more money. Frustrating times but it all got sorted it the end with his help. My buyers also said they were happy with being able to get hold of him etc. 

Anyway, hopefully your experience is as positive as mine was. Best of luck! Keep us updated. 

Bowley

natasha22 said:

As a buyer ive prefered purple brick for all the reasons others have said eg being able to book online appointments, offer online etc.

This is what appealed to me too. As a seller I liked being in control of the whole process. 

As a buyer, going through a well known local high street agent I can’t say my experience has been positive, it took 3 days to get my first viewing arranged. Could never get hold of anyone in the office, always waiting for a callback. Lengthy and frustrating process. 

It may seem I’m on commission, I’m not, I just remember googling for peoples experiences of purple bricks like this when I was deciding whether or not to use them and I feel like there is a lot of negative feedback and not enough people who voice the positives. Hopefully it can help someone else save £1000 or more. 

hb2

We sold via PB 3 years ago and were very happy with them. As has been said, it is a franchise operation and depends a lot on the quality of the agent. Ours knew the area well (having worked for bricks and mortar EAs for many years) and was very responsive to questions etc, including Sundays and evenings. We opted to do our own viewings and our buyers said they much preferred this. We accepted an offer after 2 weeks and had no problems with the sale (so no need for further input from PB). 

We had a troublesome purchase and the local, bricks and mortar, EAs acting for our vendors were as much use as a chocolate teapot!

Beeboo23

We’ve had an offer accepted on a house through a traditional agent. I can say that from a buyers point of view purple bricks were awful. We arranged to view a house twice with them and the agent didn’t turn up or answer his phone when we called to see where he was. We called the office and they just said they forgot to let him know. We arranged other viewings through them and none of them went ahead. They either cancelled last minute or didn’t get back to us. Of the four or five houses we wanted to view with them we didn’t get to see any. They might be cheaper but I certainly wouldn’t sell a house through them. Sometimes you pay for quality.