Anyone used purple bricks to sell their house?

[Ragnar]

Hoping there may be some folk who have used purple bricks as an agent and would share their opinions as I am looking to sell for the first time. Have had them round and so far I like the time, the style, the way you use them but would like to know from people who have done the whole process if there is anyone?

[Badliar]

There are a few threads on purple bricks on here and most posters are not keen.

As a buyer it puts me off. I am currently looking to purchase and found it very fiddly to organise a viewing. I am in a popular area and the three houses that are sticking are all on with purple bricks and I wonder if that is not a coincidence.

[dontsufferfools]

Sold 2 houses in the last 6 months. You clearly pay for what you get, but mine sold quickly. No issues at all. And I paid a shit load less than an high street estate agent

[TheLongRains]

We're currently trying to buy a purple bricks property, and it's infuriating. If we didn't like the house so much, I'd honestly just move on to looking at other properties with a proper estate agent. I'd say avoid if possible, from a buyer perspective.

[Ragnar]

The long rains - what is it that is infuriating as a buyer if you don't mind me asking? Thankyou for your quick replies, I'm not sure how to search the threads but did think there may have been some previous purple bricks ones, will have a look at those ty x

[Dailystuck71]

They do not have your best interests at heart. They are a month to month business model. They want the property sold but don't care for what price.

In the Scottish town where I am an estate agent, this is evidenced by two identical properties recently sold. The PB one for £7k under valuation and the other one which took 3 weeks longer at a closing date for £5k more than valuation.

I know England is different but I hear so many horror stories. Just make sure they are working for you and not themselves.

[HollySykes]

I'll admit I'm an EA but I've not heard anything good about them, the general feeling is nobody uses them twice.

[Ragnar]

Our local guy seemed really keen on his reputation because he is a franchise owner and has been with the company since the beginning and that is appealing to me. How can they be so awful and still be successful enough to have 18 thousand reviews on trust pilot? What am i missing? X

[wowfudge]

He should be able to provide good evidence of his own track record then.

[Dailystuck71]

they apparently review themselves in TP.

[TheLongRains]

I just find the website clunky and a bit glitchy. Sometimes I get alerts when my husband doesn't, and we're registered to get the exact same things! It's not always been the easiest to navigate too. And trying to arrange viewings was a long and painful process of back and forths... And getting in touch with a real person is rather slow, compared to calling an agents office etc etc...

It's clearly possible, and hopefully it will work for us, but as I say, if this house wasn't perfect (and unusual in the way we need), I think I'd have given up.

So not all buyers will be put off, if your home is really desirable, but if you're likely to have competition in the area, it might mean yours gets less attention.

Good luck, whichever way you go!

[Note3]

I can't speak for the actual intricate workings of them and experience in dealing with them for a sale, but i have previously used a similar style company to sell my house. They were locally based and did the same style service as PB (relied on Internet marketing and a sale board) and we had not a single viewing over 6 mths! Only reason we stayed with them that long was we figured by then it was winter and the market slowed so we came off in the new year and went with a 'proper agent' and sold within 6 weeks!!

[ohforgoodnessake]

Remember that you pay their fee whether they sell your property or not - which in several cases, they don't. So then you have to pay someone else.

Plus, I don't like any service that you pay up front - what incentive is there for them to act in your best interest?

[xandersmom2]

I know you're looking for views from sellers, but I had to just jump in and say: as a buyer, I am seriously unimpressed.

We looked at two houses with PB; one we tried to submit an offer for but we were dealing directly with the vendor who had no clue the stamp duty rules had changed and was trying to finagle some weird deal with us that wasn't going to fly ("you pay me 249,999 for the house so that saves you 5k in stamp duty and then you can buy the fixtures and fittings - which by the way were fitted wardrobes - for 5k cash"...tried to explain to her she was only saving us 250 quid under the new rules, not 5k, but she wouldn't have it and was insistent she wanted 5k cash for fixtures and fittings either way. We walked off. House is still up for sale, now at a reduced price which is the same amount we offered her....!

As an aside, the online 'make an offer' thing is horrible, it's akin to submitting a sealed bid. If I'm putting an offer on a house I want to be able to talk to someone and explain my own position, and judge from their response whether it's worthwhile me putting in another offer etc. I dislike being forced to just type a number in a box and then being told 'yes' or 'no' with no context or feedback, and without the vendor being able to see whether I'm a better buyer than the next chap. We actually went round to the house and knocked on the door to talk to the vendor when we wanted to put an offer in...

Second house is just around the corner from us, we know the houses and area very well, and it's overpriced by about 25 grand. We went to view, the chap who showed us around knew absolutely nothing about the property (told us "I just open up and lock up") and wasn't willing to find anything out for us, told us to contact their Head Office. I did, with several questions, they were supposed to call me back but never did; I then tried emailing the 'local property expert' (whom i later found out covers the entire region by himself - what the?!) who didn't respond for over a week; he only responded then because I happened to be talking to my hairdresser about it and it turns out she knows the property expert's Mum and called her for me.....! He only answered half my questions so i went back and re-asked the remaining questions, that was over 2 weeks ago and nothing. DH and I just can't be bothered to chase this any more and are taking the 'it just isn't meant to be' route, though I'm tempted to stick a note through the vendors' door to let them know their agent is pants.

There are two other houses in our (small) village up with PB; both went up at 300k which is just too much; two weeks later both dropped by 20k, and then another two weeks later both dropped by another 20k. Like clockwork - on exactly the same day. Hmmm.

As an observer, seems to me they're trying to flood the market and take over just by getting as many vendors as possible on their books. They probably do this by over-valuing. They then do b*gger all to help you sell your house. If it hasn't magically sold itself in a short space of time they'll tell you to drop the price. Then wait and see if it sells itself again. And when it doesn't, tell you to drop your price. And so on....

As buyers, we now avoid any houses listed with PB. I can't imagine that they are particularly good at keeping the chain and buying/selling process alive and on track, based on my experience of even trying to get an offer sorted out!

[Gobbolinothewitchscat]

only responded then because I happened to be talking to my hairdresser about it and it turns out she knows the property expert's Mum and called her for me.....!

I have nothing to add about Purple Bricks but that is 😂😂

[xandersmom2]

Gobbolin - says it all, right?! Think I probably got him into bother with his Mum (looked him up and based on his picture he's about 16.....)

Hairdressers are ace. They know everything.

[smudgedlipstick]

I have arranged viewings with purple bricks and have found it so easy! Just a few clicks and your booked in, had an email from them after the viewing to leave feedback, so simple, was a button to click if you wanted to make an offer or leave a note. I found it really good. Obviously I don't know what it's like to seek through them, just the experience I had was really good

[Scottishchick39]

I'm also an Estate agent and haven't heard good things, I will say though that if you tell your local agents that you're also considering PB they may give a good discount to get your business.

[CowParsleyNettle]

I'm house hunting and PB never seem to shift anything, just price drop after price drop until it goes to a local agent and gets sold.

I've viewed one property through them and it was very deceptive, so much so I didn't even view the upstairs. The advert made it sound as if it had a huge garden, turns out 'large open space' was a patio and the pictures were of the neighbouring field.

[VelvetSpoon]

Contrary to some posters above, I think they undervalue houses. They came out to me last month and their valuation was based on nearby (smaller) houses. The figure they suggested was about £50k less than I would put my house up for. They said I should go for 'offers over...' which suggests to me they just wanted to get people making offers at any price.

I hate Estate Agents, I think their fees are nonsensical and a complete rip off for the little they do, I did hope PB might be a better alternative but it would seem not...

[badgercat]

I'm on with them at the moment, quite pleased so far, we had a buyer in the first week but he had told us/them he was a ftb no chain - 3 weeks in he remembered he had a property to sell that he hadnt even got on the market yet !
I'd say 90% of our viewings have been booked outside office hours, its quick and easy to confirm or change via the app, communication is good and very quick to respond to any issues I raise.
I've done some further work to the house and messaged my contact at PB Saturday to ask if further pics were possible and she called me back within an hour and is coming tomorrow.

Only downside is every high street estate agent in our town is aggressively trying to steal our business from them and the calls/letters are starting to get annoying !

[Andyjb23]

We sold our house last year with PB, which overall was a positive experience.
We decided to pay up front and do our own viewings (there is a pay after option - slightly more and only if you sell, and they can do viewings for you)
We liked that we were in full control of the diary (online) to block out when we couldn't do viewings. When a viewing comes in, you get a txt and confirm if convenient. Also a snippet on the viewers status e.g. Ftb, need a mortgage etc.
We had good support from the agent during negotiations - which happened on three occasions, due to sales falling through.
Down sides - obviously you have to 'sell' you property yourself ( I mean sales pitch) but we felt viewers appreciated speaking candidly to us as owners, and while we were hosting viewings it tied up time, which meant social sacrifice/not viewing other properties. I think a weakness in their model is they will never have a database of buyers, so you won't have an EA persuading ppl to view and it therefore solely relies on Rightmove/zoopla/onthemarket for motivated buyers to view.

I think it worked for us at the time. I think we probably would use an online EA again, but its all down to the person. We got a good feeling from 'Tom' during the valuation and felt he was a genuine person, and we appreciated his experience and advice during negotiations. At no time were we asked to drop the asking price and in fact we up'd it ourselves after first sale fell through.
We viewed a few props with purplebricks overall positive and appreciated that we could confirm immediately/Sunday viewings.
In summary, if you're comfortable selling your property, prepared to do the work yourself and have a house that is relatively easy to sell, where properties are selling, I don't think you can go far wrong.
If you have the opposite, I think an EA would be best as they are therefore going to have to work hard to earn ( and rightly so) the commission you pay them.

[Ragnar]

Thanks everyone for your thoughts and experiences, some sound truly awful but encouraging to hear from some that have had more positive experiences too, thanks for taking the time to share with me :)
I had 6 texts in a day from one local ea and had to phone them to ask them to back off so the less aggressive tactics appeal but obvs not if they actually don't do anything and the house sits on the market unsold. Its so tricky to know what to do, it's the first time I've sold. I did sell where I lived before but that was a boat and I did it myself as it works somewhat differently.

[StokieSun]

I tried to, but it was a disaster. Suffice it to say, I still think estate agents are grossly overpaid for what they do, but so are Purple Bricks.

I went on Trust Pilot and saw the amazing reviews for them, so we had them over. They promised the earth, so we signed up. Nothing of what they promised came to fruition. Lost almost a year and all the fees we paid, and in the end had to get a blood-sucking estate agent from the area. They got us an offer (that we accepted) in 2 weeks.

I dislike estate agents, but I hate Purple Bricks more now.

P.S. To add insult to injury, I tried to leave a review on Trust Pilot, so others could see it's not always so rosy. It was immediately taken down, as Purple Bricks complained my review was fraudulent (which is odd, since I don't know how they could tell that from my first name). I sent Trust Pilot my invoice, etc. Nothing. Review is still down. Later I heard this happened to many others. Meanwhile I looked at the reviews on Trust Pilot for them and they are almost all from people who've left no other reviews. Hmm, funny that. My review was fraudulent, but none of these other 5* ones.

[Celeste18]

There’s more proof for you that PB are a scam: sellers like kareno38 have to spam this forum to try to sell their home through PB, because their agents sell their service, not your home.

P.S. BBC radio did a piece recently on how PB scam online reviews via Trustpilot.