Purple Bricks?

[themumfrombrum]

We're needing to sell our house relatively quickly to move for work. I've had the property valued by Purple Bricks and a local agent who seem to agree on a price.

I was really impressed with the chap from Purple Bricks - he was helpful and polite, and explained everything very clearly. The woman from the local agent was useless, barely looked at the property and spoke more about my son and paint choices than the selling of the house.

Purple Bricks fixed fee is less than a third of what the local agents want.

Would anyone recommend an online agent instead of a local one? We had no end of trouble when we bought the house with a local agent and it has put us off.

[madasamarchhare]

We used an online agent. If your house is in a desirable area and property is selling at a reasonable rate and home in good condition then I think it's worth going online. Be aware they will arrange viewings and add on rightmove but don't do anything other than that for you. We had to tell them we were completing as they were unaware! I found it fairly straight forward as once you have a buyer the solicitor does the work really and have always found them happy to advise you if things crop up. If your property may need a 'push' then may be worth sticking with a traditional agent.

[wowfudge]

Pretty sure they charge you whether the house sells or not. There have been several other threads about them on here - mostly uncomplimentary.

[madasamarchhare]

Yes they defo do charge upfront. I used Emoov u could pay one amount and that was it whether it sold or not or a lower fee but more on completion.

[madasamarchhare]

I agree with fudge if u think there will be any trouble whatsoever selling or you are not in a position to chase solicitors daily then online is not for you.

[Kirriemuir]

The recent purple bricks reviews on here have been shocking. Run a search on the board.

[Bearbehind]

You have to decide if saving a few hundred pounds in selling fees is worth potentially losing thousands of pounds on the sale price.

We bought through them and I'm convinced we got a bargain because no one we dealt with had ever even seen the house.

It's purely a facilitation service from what I've seen. Negotiations are just passing on messages.

If your property has direct comparables which have recently sold, ie you can accurately gauge the price, then they might be ok.

If the property is remotely quirky/ different or is just not comparable with other recently sold properties I'd give them a very wide berth.

Having said that, I also wouldn't go with a shite EA just because they are local- there must be others around.

[Kirriemuir]

Op. You said the following

I've had the property valued by Purple Bricks and a local agent who seem to agree on a price.

An agent shouldn't agree a price. They should research and know their market. Take comparables with them and discuss fully with you. Not just agree with you.

[themumfrombrum]

Kirriemuir, I just meant that they both came up with the same price at their separate valuations.