Aibu to think my buyer should contact me now they've had the survey for 48 hours?

[089ville]

I just want to know if it's going ahead or not. It's currently ssc and I'm not taking any more viewings but I think they've had long enough to get back in touch with me.

If I really like a house I couldn't give two shiny shits about who is selling it tbh. There isn't a high level of professionalism in your average estate agents, they're salespeople and not much more. Given they are all on Rightmove it makes no odds who it is listed by. I wouldn't choose them necessarily when we next sell, but would have no issue viewing somewhere with them.

Each to their own Barren

I’m not sure why they would contact you? Everything goes through the solicitors at this stage ime. If you’re really concerned I would ask your solicitors to check with theirs that everything is progressing. Did you expect the survey to bring up problems that would need discussing?

You sound like a bitter high street agency and you said you wouldn't deal with any of them, not just purple bricks.

Theyve sold the most properties in the country, so they probably have the most complaints.

Agree that local estate agents are often useless sales people, I love when the vendor shows me around as they know all the answers and the estate agents know nothing and never do get back to you.

@089ville You sound like a bitter high street agency

I've been called many things in my time but never been called an estate agency before. lol

and you said you wouldn't deal with any of them, not just purple bricks.

Yes? That's correct, I wouldn't. Estate agents may be a bunch of cunts on the whole, but they are professionals who are members of trade bodies and have a reputation, job, business etc. to lose if they misrepresent something or act in an unethical way.

If you buy through Purplebricks or any of the other 'online agencies', you're not really dealing with an agent at all, you're really dealing with
a vendor who is just a random person with absolutely nothing to lose.

We spent weeks last year sorting out the exchange on a long chain that we were in the middle of. Thank GOD that all of the agents, who have experience in these things and are paid for it, were able to talk to each other and to the solicitors while the rest of us got on with our lives and jobs.

And our agent (who was brilliant - we bought the property through them five years earlier and they know the area incredibly well) was able to sell our property far more effectively and with far less stress for us than if we'd had to do the viewings ourselves, with kids running around etc.

I heard horror stories about chains that had Purplebricks or similar involved that never managed to exchange (or it took forever) because once they have your upfront fee, they have no need to do any more work on it.

This is really key.

All of their work goes into generating new business - the trad agencies only get paid when the sale actually goes through, so they have every interest and motivation to get it through as soon as possible, no matter what.

Once PB have your money they don't give a shit.

I'd like to see evidence that high street estate agents are professionals and not just sales people attracted to a job with commission and a very low barrier of entry.

You do know the agent's for the online agencies are members of the same professional bodies?

I get with the purple bricks thing that you might not want to use them to sell your own property, but saying you wouldn’t view a property marketed by Purple Bricks? Sounds a bit bizarre. Think once the house is sold most of the work then falls to the solicitors so it’s doubtful delays in completion occur due to the estate agents tbh.

Well,this has taken a weird turn. I know two people who sold via purple bricks, neither had any lack of viewings.

I guess everyone has their quirks and this happens to be that posters one

Not bothered if it is seen as 'bizarre' - as I said above, each to their own, and we moved last year and have no plans to do so again for a very long time.

I've explained why I wouldn't want to buy a house when the sale wasn't being managed professionally.

Our vendors were getting divorced and the husband was very aggro and angry about everything - I would absolutely not have been willing to deal with him directly, so wouldn't have bought this house.

Incidentally if he had sold through PB they also wouldn't have found us as buyers (regardless of our opinion) - the only reason that we got this place is that the previous buyer fell through, and through word of mouth between local agents, the previous agent mentioned it to another one who knew that we were looking for something similar (and that the house we had offered on was now not being sold).

We were called to come and view it on a Saturday before it went on the market and we made an offer which was accepted on the same day.

When there are hundreds of thousands of pounds at stake, i want professionals managing the process, I don't want it all to be between me and some other random person.

Think once the house is sold most of the work then falls to the solicitors so it’s doubtful delays in completion occur due to the estate agents tbh.

In our chain the agents were critical in moving the process along. Solicitors can be very slow and it was the agents all being 'on it' and working together (presumably because they wanted their commission) that kept the process moving.

This was one of the stories I was referring to - cropped up in a google search earlier when I was looking for the Watchdog programme.

The house at the top of our chain is being sold by Purple Bricks and all the estate agents in the chain have been complaining about them not responding to emails or phonecalls and generally delaying the whole process. In the end the EA of the house we were buying contacted and dealt with the vendors at the top of the chain direct as purple bricks were useless!

forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.php?t=5570024

If you're relying on estate agents to push through a sale you should get better solicitors.

PB are the biggest sellers of houses in the country, I'm sure lots of people had some problems. It's like comparing Sainsbury's to the local corner shop, of course loads of people will have something negative to say about the big company that has a turnover of 1000000000% more than the local one.

If you're relying on estate agents to push through a sale you should get better solicitors.

Lol. Solicitors work at their own pace. It's very, very helpful having people who know they won't get any money until it's all gone through, working on your behalf.

Anyway, I have no skin in the game. (Thank god my move is done and dusted.)

It's my personal view - I think I've explained in as much detail as I possibly can and provided links etc., I don't care what anyone else does and I don't have anything more of substance to add.

Good luck with your move.

We put an offer in on a property with purple bricks but had to pull out due to a problem with the property. Purple bricks rang the next day to ask for feedback on the process. We had a good chat and she told me yes, there is a call centre but the agents who do the floor plan, measurements and photos usually live locally. Once your offer is accepted you can then keep in touch with them, which is much quicker than going through the estate agent. As a pp said, it's in the hands of the solicitor from that point.

We used a local agent. Our seller used PB. Our agent and us had to
Push it all through as PB we're useless. I would never use an online agency and would rather pay the 1% agents fee

I wouldn't believe everything a local agent says about purple bricks. Although no idea why the solicitors aren't doing the work. Get a good solicitor instead.

The purple bricks people are almost all former local agents.

Rubicon80 my dad has a ewemove franchise. He has an office, and does all viewings, and is a real person not some random in a call centre! Not sure where you got your ideas from about them.

Another POV - I absolutely do not want to view a house if I’m being shown around by the vendor. Similarly I did not show my house when selling. That’s why I pay an agent. I’m happy once an offer is made to speak to vendors/purchasers but not initially. I’d also only view a house being sold by a local agent as they know the area etc.

I've never viewed a house and seen the actual vendor. Likewise have always gone out for viewings when selling. It's the norm here

I worked in an EA for a short time when these online agencies were starting to take root. They were OK to deal with but buyers would always be fed the line of ‘oh they’re a nightmare, we have had to push so hard to get any info’ to discourage people from ever using them next time they sold. It was a v reputable and high end EA but after seeing what goes on and what they got away with I’ll never trust an EA again.

We viewed a property with PB a couple of months ago. The owners were so much more knowledgeable than EAs (of course) and the booking system much easier and more transparent (you can see when an offer is put in on a property). It wouldn’t put me off.

That's exactly it PooWillyBumBum, I've heard the same from several others. Lies and protectionism.