any advice? Purple Brick

Jesse009 · 11 June at 5:36PM

I am about to sell my flat. I am considering to use purple brick. Anybody use them recently? The agent gave me 2 options pay upfront or pay when sale is completed. Pay Upfront is £2000 cheaper.
Can anybody recommend or share their experience please

Herzlos · 11 June at 5:52PM

Have a search on here for Purple Bricks. Many people won't touch them with a bargepole. Go and find a reputable local estate agent.

Bigphil1474 · 12 June at 7:28AM

I found the problem with purple bricks is when you are looking to view as a buyer. You can't book appointments without creating an account, and with loads of properties to choose from, some people just won't bother. A traditional EA you can just ring them up. I wouldn't use them personally.

We asked 3 local EA's to quote and they were all a much of a muchness. They charged for the photos, and the rest was commission on sale of 0.9% + VAT.

Suzycoll · 12 June at 9:53AM

Hi

I sold my house with Purple Bricks & it was great (was 8 years ago).I controlled the viewing appointment myself using their portal & negotiated on the portal

The agent was always available on the phone & regularly rang me.

Im not sure if their business model has changed since then.

I have since used two local EA to resell who were frankly - useless

Good luck 🤞

Albermarle · 12 June at 10:10AM

Im not sure if their business model has changed since then.

Due to huge losses, their share price went down 90% in 2022/23.
Eventually they went up for sale and were bought for a Pound by a competitor, but still trade as Purple Bricks.

GDB2222 · 12 June at 11:27AM

Purple Bricks currently offers a fee free service that doesn’t include listing on Rightmove or zoopla, but you can add those listings for £600. They do a pretty decent package for a bit over £1000.

How that compares to the fee for a local estate agent depends on how much the house price is. Can the local agent get you around 1% more for your house than PB, to cover the difference in fees? Maybe! That obviously depends in part on how standard your house is, and how many comparable sales there have been.

RHemmings · 12 June at 12:13PM

I personally liked being able to book viewing appointments online. I have viewed a number of PB properties. I'm not saying that makes PB a good option overall. Just chipping in my £0.02 about having to register to make bookings for viewings.

ka7e · 12 June at 5:32PM

A neighbour sold with them 6 years ago and he recommended using your own local conveyancers as the in-house ones were awful.

Neil49 · 12 June at 5:37PM

ka7e said:

A neighbour sold with them 6 years ago and he recommended using your own local conveyancers as the in-house ones were awful.

Definitely agree with you on this. They use online only conveyancing and they seem to be trainees who are doing the work.

Procrastinator2 · 16 July at 8:00AM

I have experience of an online conveyancer recommended by the EA they were absolutely useless, you could never get hold of them ,they never phoned you back. Ultimately I went to a local solicitor, a little more expensive but always contactable.

itsthelittlethings · 16 July at 8:03AM

I bought my flat off Purple Bricks, very satisfied with it, it took over a year to go through as the seller used Purple Bricks conveyancers though. I was in no rush to move but he really struggled.