Bungalow not selling, what would you do?

AnotherJoe

Catsacor said:

A 2 bedroom detached bungalow attracts a specific part of the sales market (older with no children) and as such it could possibly be a while before it sells as that market area could be slower to get going again after covid.
I think wait it out or reduce the price to get rid.

I agree, that demographic is going to be slow to move. at the moment for obvious reasons.

OP I would wait it out unless you really need to sell soon. You said it yourself, nearly;  "but are we not getting any viewings because the market is slow/poor for this type of house" and yep, but thats because of the buyers for this type of house.

I dont think you'd lose out by waiting apart from your desire to move quickly.

One other thought, the kind of buyers for this, may not be the sort who are happy with PB, perhaps have never heard of them,  and would prefer or only think of interacting with a more traditional EA, so changing agents might be a good idea anyway.

bucksbloke

homersimpson246 said:

We are on the market with Purple Bricks who are really good, however, its just not getting any interest and our discussions with them have concluded that we lower the price.

Surely being really good, means getting people through the door and receiving offers! What is really good about them? Because in my view they don't seem to be delivering anything!

You get what you pay for. I'm all for traditional estate agents. Selling the house is the just the beginning. The sales progression - calling through the chain - to keep everything on track is just as important, and this is something that PB want you to do yourself through their app! If EA's could have saved money by using apps, do you not think they would? This actually takes time on the phone to sort..... 

vic_sf49

I would echo what the last couple of posters have said. Change to a well known* high street agent.

*Well known in your area, not necessarily a nationwide chain. 

I live in what I call "bungalow land", where a good proportion of properties are in a 1970s built, bungalow estate.

My neighbours don't have / don't use the internet. They look at properties in EA windows, and in the paper. They also don't trust the newer EAs, because they're unfamiliar.

Sales/SSTC have started picking up a bit around here these last few weeks, according to my nosying skills on Rightmove. But whether that's easing of lockdown, or because grants of probate have started to come through, I don't know. 

homersimpson246

Thanks all for the comments, we are going to try one of the local estate agents whoare about 5 minutes from where we live and seem to have a good track record of selling houses including a few bungalows.  Hopefully this will yield results but if it doesn't then we haven't lost anything.

Unicorn_cottage

GDB2222 said:

Unicorn_cottage said:

Be wary of Crashy comments. I blocked him ages ago as he is like a stuck record.

He commented 4 minutes before you posted that, but how would you know, if you still had him blocked?

@GDB2222 - because I can see who has commented mostly recently but not what he says. He just recently said something vile about one of the posters and really hope he has been reported for it. I can only see his comments when someone quotes him.

eidand

Unicorn_cottage said:

GDB2222 said:

Unicorn_cottage said:

Be wary of Crashy comments. I blocked him ages ago as he is like a stuck record.

He commented 4 minutes before you posted that, but how would you know, if you still had him blocked?

@GDB2222 - because I can see who has commented mostly recently but not what he says. He just recently said something vile about one of the posters and really hope he has been reported for it. I can only see his comments when someone quotes him.

waste of time if that person blocked him as well a long time ago . He gets to see his own poison and that's it really.

Surrey_EA

homersimpson246 said:

We are on the market with Purple Bricks who are really good, 

Apart from being succesful in the one task you have employed them to perform?

homersimpson246

Surrey_EA said:

homersimpson246 said:

We are on the market with Purple Bricks who are really good, 

Apart from being succesful in the one task you have employed them to perform?

They did get us a sale initally at a price we were happy with and it wasn't their fault that the sale fell through.  They came out on a bank holiday monday to take the photos and did a viewing for one person on a sunday who then asked to view it again the same day so the agent came out again in the afternoon and did a second viewing although we couldn't quite agree on price with that person at that time.

Can you honestly say a high street agent would have service like that?  Even though they are guranteed to get paid I don't get the impression from them that they don't care either way, they have always seemed really keen to do anything we have asked, they came a re-photoed it when we put it back on the market after the sale fell through (which was their suggestion due to the changing seasons showing that the house was photoed a while back, they don't get paid any extra for doing that but were keen to help).

The only reason for looking at a high street agent is that out target market (the elderly) might not be as comfortable with the way Purple Bricks work and we might get more interest from a traditional agent, its really a clutching at straws move that won't cost us anything, if the new agent sells it then thats great and if they don't we don't owe them anything and will just drop the price and put it back on with Purple Bricks (which they have confirmed we can do at no cost).

I take it from your usename that you are a high street agent, i'm afraid that as time moves on the high street agents days are numbered.   I doubt any first time buyers would be put off by Purple Bricks on-line system, in fact they will probably prefer and they will then be the second time buyers, then third time buyers etc.  As time moves on like a lot of industries technology will revolutionise it.  Think of Blockbuster video, in 20 years time we all say, remember estate agents on the high street how novel.   One of the big high street agents went bust around here last week with the loss of 50 jobs and when we first put our house on the market we looked at the agents and half of the ones that were around here 10 years ago have gone out of business.

One other thing to add which Purple Bricks have in their favour, because you have to pay whether it sells or not it means that only people who genuinly want to sell will put their house on with them so you don't get the people who are just half heartly thinking about it or want to see what their house might be worth.  We offered on one when we thought we had a sale originally and the vendors then took the house off the market and decided not to sell!  Sadly this then means that the timewasters go to the traditional agents and increase their overheads and add to their decline.

Scotbot

homersimpson246 said:

Surrey_EA said:

homersimpson246 said:

We are on the market with Purple Bricks who are really good, 

Apart from being succesful in the one task you have employed them to perform?

They did get us a sale initally at a price we were happy with and it wasn't their fault that the sale fell through.  They came out on a bank holiday monday to take the photos and did a viewing for one person on a sunday who then asked to view it again the same day so the agent came out again in the afternoon and did a second viewing although we couldn't quite agree on price with that person at that time.

Can you honestly say a high street agent would have service like that?  

Yes a good one will. I was very interested to read on a separate thread that PB operate local franchises so in that respect they like other local agencies :as good or as bad as the agent you are working with.

Surrey_EA

I take it from your usename that you are a high street agent, i'm afraid that as time moves on the high street agents days are numbered.   

As time moves on, in many ways the industry is changing too, but not necessartily in the way you are suggesting. The need for a High Street office is no longer considered essential, my firm has never had an office on the High Street, we do have somewhere where people can visit if they wish, but rent is by no means my largest expense. Whilst obviously sad for the individual employees, the loss of some of the large corporates with their unethical practices and poorly tained staff will not be any great loss to the industry.

Are Purple Bricks the answer? Not in my opinion. The company is not even close to being profitable, and it's difficult to see how this will be resolved. This is hardly a view I hold alone, investors clearly have similar doubts. Take a look at their share price over the past 3 years, it's less than 10% of what it was at its peak in July 2017. 

Sometimes the complaint with PB is the service post offer acceptance up to exchange. In my view this is the hardest aspect of property sales, and generally requires more time, effort and effective communication than finding a buyer in the first place. With no incentive as to whether the sale goes through or not, as they have been paid already, PBs sales progression can sometimes be found lacking.