purple brick

Richard_888 · 25 November 2015 at 11:32PM

Can i ask was your place in London…Ive just signed…as I'm in London…and was looking to save myself a few quid…

Petercorne · 3 December 2015 at 7:39AM

Just to balance this thread a little. I'd recommend seliing through them, if your prepared for a little more work. I sold for more than my asking price very quickly and save over £4000 in fees.

A couple of downsides. The website experience could do with some tweaking, also some buyers don't like using it. You do have a local agent that both you and potential buyers can use, but in my experience I found it easier to personally deal with the offers and questions from them. This did mean more phone calls / emails/ text work for me but end result was well worth it.

lime_pickle · 7 December 2015 at 4:53PM

There are no up front fees ONLY if you use their crappy conveyancers. I was told I had to pay in full upfront before they'd accept my instruction. Well, I paid and its been radio silence ever since. My ad hasn't been drafted or sent to me for approval let alone put up on Right Move and the agent is ignoring calls and emails . . .

Keely_lewis · 7 December 2015 at 10:27PM

From a purchased point of view I had to argue with someone at the call centre tongrtvthem to book me a viewing, I was on a 10 minute break at work so did not have time to register on their website. When we turned up at the viewing the owners had no idea we were coming and had taken their house of the market a week before!! We never had a follow up call or apology from purple bricks.

My advice. Don't go anywhere near.

Matt121 · 23 December 2015 at 8:52AM

I didn't want the house purely because they were showing us around. Disgusting customer service, long winded registering, just some girl who seemed to be alone in the office who can't write!.. and then we actually looked around the property, the estate agent was late, rude, and hassled us to make an offer. Obviously the only offer I made was for my boot to go up his !!!. Please don't use purple bricks, they're terrible!
TERRIBLE!

peapie3 · 31 December 2015 at 3:31AM

After 3 sales fell through I realised their post sales support was non existant. It is in the Charter but not pointed out clearly. Yes, I was and still am quite stressed which didn't help. I've moved 4 or 5 times in past with non of this palava before!
I would have sold and moved by now. You have to know what you're doing.
The online aspect is fine for some but I know it's put peopke off viewing my property. I had to log on for one buyer to make and accept offer/negotiations.
Expert agent uninterested.
I disputed the conveyancing company's fees and usef my own solicitor. They add on lots of hidden fees so £800 more than quoted.
Final bill due in few weeks and not completed yet and it's £100 more than quoted!
It has not been worth the stress.
They don't vet prospective buyers and unless you're on the ball and ruthless it can become a nightmare.
Do your research. I'm sure you can haggle with other estate agents.
I would not sell or buy through purplebricks in future.

halesowenmum · 2 January 2016 at 10:40AM

cstevens99 wrote: »

We have just sold a second house using Purple Bricks and have been very happy with the service. We paid the extra for the viewings to be done by Purple Bricks as one of the houses was 45 miles away. You get a regular estate agent so you get the experience and they get all the pictures, plans, descriptions done before uploading to all the property websites. I had contact cards galore from rival estate agents saying Mr XYZ is looking for a property please contact us!

I would use them again and quite happy if anyone wants more feedback.

I'm just waiting for Purple Cars next (-;

Ditto. My experience with them has been EXCELLENT. I wanted to sell at a realistic price that the market could afford - and that's how they work. They do it based on 'offers over' so you are always right at the top of the Rightmove pages for anyone searching in a specific price bracket. I'd had an initial offer within 24 hrs and a revised and acceptable offer within 48 hours. I did 5 viewings altogether and had another 4 on top that I didn't even need to see.

It all depends on who the local agent is that you get (as it does too if you go to the high street). My PB EA was absolutely bloomin' brilliant so I cannot complain at all, not one little bit.

Dird · 2 January 2016 at 2:11PM

If you want to save money just go with an online package where you (or your partner) handle calls directly. That way you're in complete control of arranging viewings & getting feedback afterwards

bobothebear · 17 January 2016 at 12:36PM

Has anyone found this a simple process with buying as 2 days in and they are getting on my nerves already!
We put in an offer which they wanted our proof of funding before submitting it to the seller. I refused as I don't think we should have to do that beyond explaining our position.
Now we've had some automatic email saying we need to give details of our lawyer before the offer is submitted! I've not even considered a lawyer yet until an offer is accepted.

This is all completely different to the last place we offered on to a normal estate agent and I'm thinking more pain is on the horizon if we follow this through.

tonytee · 22 January 2016 at 12:51PM

I think it is important to note a few things about Purplebricks.

Firstly I want to address the reviews. My experience with them has been horrendous but I will leave that out of it. I want everyone to see their reviews.

https://uk.trustpilot.com/review/purplebricks.com

Trustpilot is a website for all types of business to host their reviews. Purplebricks pay Trustpilot a lot of money to have their reviews hosted on an 'independent' website. Trustpilot work for Purplebricks and want to keep them happy. Purplebricks are allowed to report reviews and they are being removed. They are working very closely, up to the point that TP uses PB's in their sales literature. They are only ranked 10th out of 83 agents on there! So 9 agents that are better on there even with the help TP give them.

https://www.facebook.com/purplebricksUK/reviews/

PB cannot remove the Facebook reviews fortunately. They have done all they can to hide them from the front page though.

5 stars 225 people
4 stars 20 people
3 stars
2 stars 5 people
1 star 64 people

They score much lower than the 9.4 they claim on Trustpilot.

http://estateagentsuk.co.uk/listings/purplebricks/

A truly independent review site that does not accept payment from any estate agent and does not have any affiliation. Reviews are independently checked. http://estateagentsuk.co.uk/reviews/

I am not entirely sure why they have Purplebricks on their website because they seem to review LONDON ONLY estate agents but they are there and have been there since the last week or so. No other online estate agent.

Maybe these are the true reviews!

Purplebricks are solely online with just one office nationwide. They employ freelance property agents who are not fully qualified to, say, ARLA level. Each property agent is paid on commission only. No fixed wage or other benefits. Each agent services a very large area so their knowledge is not local as claimed by the website. Servicing such a large area and carrying out so few appraisals over that large area does not make you a local property expert. The turnover of staff is very high as expected with a new company that wants to dominate a huge industry using other people's money. It's a race to the top. Vendors should be a little apprehensive.

They have raised many millions through crowd funding and this money is being spent on TV advertising and other paid advertising online. They actually make a loss at present and some commentators think this is a bubble waiting to explode. Indeed, their share price has dropped by about 25% in the month since it listed on the AIM. Using an online estate agent that is losing many millions per year trying to grow large and dominate so quick just to sell out is a risky bet just to save a few pound. The company may go bust sometime soon. You are selling a very expensive possession. Yes you will save on commission but you may lose out £5,000 or £10,000 or £20,000 on the final value price. Remember, once they have you signed up, you have in effect paid them money and they have little inventive to push your property to find the best possible price.

They also make a huge deal about being available 24/7 online and through the phone. But what's the point? You talk to an outsourced call centre that just 'handles your query and passes it on' Yes you can book viewings online at 2am but why would you do that? I would want the seller to qualify that I am a suitable buyer before me doing a viewing, saving me and the seller wasted time. I would just want a personal service.

Some services that might be traditionally included with the usual estate agents might not be included with this online agent. These might include accompanied viewings, EPCs, for sale boards, descriptions and floorplans and photographs. You really need to check what they are offering as they have increased their price by a very high percentage recently.

Online estate agents sell a lower percentage of property than traditional estate agents. I can link to a report if needed.

My advice would be to only use an online only estate agent if you know exactly the value of the property and you know that it will sell itself. In my simple opinion that will never happen. For the sake of £500-1000 you might end up losing 10 times more and have lots of hassle to boot.

Lastly, the user # 49 Tristanita has been posting in various other online forums, where I have made my message clear as well! For someone who has no issue with PB they sure do seem to make a lot of time for them.

PLEASE READ BEFORE POSTING

purple brick

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