Strike vs Purplebricks vs Local Estate Agent

BigJRock

Hi, what are peoples thoughts on this?

Does it make a massive difference (apart from fees) given most people looking to buy look on Rightmove or Zoopla?

babyblade41

IMO agents job only starts when an offer has been made. they talk to other agents involved in the chain keeping it altogether (That's what a good EA should do)

You will find many threads on here about these online EA's and most have had bad experiences with communication.

I won't look at a property who is using any of the online agents as I did it once and the experience is one I'd not like to repeat anytime soon 

firstbuyer

Viewed a house being marketed by strike, weird.. seller showed us round and was very uncomfortable. Never spoke to the agent dealing with the listing and only a general office type person covering the whole area.

Buying through purplebricks, they force you to go with their sols who are PPL... PPL have been horrible to deal with. I've also found it hard to get in touch with the EA after the sale is agreed, you have to go through their office support.

Sold my property via YOPA... yes, cowboys too - haven't heard from my EA in 3 months and have been doing their job myself.

We were buying through a local agent last year before things fell through and they seemed really on it. 

 

comeandgo

I won’t even look at properties under purple bricks after bad service from them.  

comeandgo

I won’t even look at properties under purple bricks after bad service from them.  

eddddy

BigJRock said:

Does it make a massive difference (apart from fees) given most people looking to buy look on Rightmove or Zoopla?

Essentially, an online agents role is to advertise your property.

Whereas, a "full-service" estate agent is paid to sell your property.

As you say, both types of EA will advertise your property on property portals - like Rightmove, Zoopla, On the Market, etc.

The full-service estate agent will also advise buyers, negotiate offers, and progress the sale to completion.


Maybe it's safe to go with an online agent, if...

• you have an "easy-to-sell" property
• you're happy to negotiate with your buyer
• you are a motivated, reasonable seller - who understands the selling process
• you find a buyer who is motivated, reasonable, and understands the buying process
• there are no problems / misunderstandings etc during the conveyancing process
• you're willing to spend time making the sale happen

But it's sometimes difficult to tell in advance if a person making an offer is motivated, reasonable, informed etc - and it might be difficult to predict whether there will be problems during the conveyancing.

twoLou

A good estate agent isn't cheap however as others have said it is not just taking a few pics and writing the description that it takes to sell a house.

I've sold a few houses and don't mind negotiating with anyone however, the complexities of dealing with the solicitors, surveyors and mortgage brokers of others would take a huge amount of time and knowledge and I would prefer someone who does it every day to do it on my behalf and I'm willing to pay for that.

It is entirely up to you of course and you are doing the right thing by asking others, maybe call a couple of your local agents and see what you think of them and ask exactly what you will be getting for the fee.

I wish you the very best of luck whichever way you decide to sell

BigJRock

Thanks for your comments - it seems the main benefits of a good estate agent are seen after you find a buyer and the service you receive then. This has definitely made me think differently and think an estate agent is going to be better for the whole process.

newsgroupmonkey_

Wow! In a seller's market, with absolutely nothing on the market, if the perfect house comes up with Purple Pricks, I shouldn't even consider it?

Good luck buying a house!

(And that's not to say I'd use any of the above, but in this market, I'll not be avoiding vendors that have)

luckbox

I have sold via a traditional and more recently purple bricks. Both sold, but the buyer was the main difference. Through Purple bricks they were great and moved along as fast as possible without needing a nudge, 3 months to complete.

Through the traditional, we had a terrible buyer, no mortgage arranged for ages, loads of extra viewings, 7 months in total.

For me, I want the property online, but getting a good buyer is the most important thing, which is not something easily controlled. Even through the extra vetting that you'd have going via a traditional agent, it just focuses on financials, not competency

catshark88

I've just bought through Purplebricks. From a buyer's perspective, they were rubbish: hard to book a viewing (didn't return calls), couldn't allow an offer to be made by phone and the app kept crashing, never spoke to the same person twice, absolutely no updates given during the buying process. 

As a buyer this was an irritation. There was a hold up during conveyancing (no one's fault) and I expect the vendors would have been very worried we would drop out (V cool market area), and Purplebricks didn't contact us once to check we were going ahead/ get their client reassurance. We would have paid a bit more too, so I expect they were more than an irritation for the vendors! They will have saved fees though.