MNers review Purplebricks estate agents - read their feedback

[EmmaMumsnet]

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This is the feedback thread for the 10 Mumsnetters who tested the Purplebricks online estate agency service to try and sell their home.

Here’s what Purplebricks has to say: “Purplebricks has become one of the UK’s largest and most successful estate agents because we combine amazing Local Property Experts (LPEs) with world class technology that enables us to give a personalised, 24/7 service. The vast majority of our LPEs come from the high street and joined us because they recognise this is how estate agency should be – a proper estate agent, fixed and transparent fees, no commission and a clever portal that puts you in complete control of your sale. You’ll see everything, all your offers, viewings, feedback, the performance of your advert, at any time, from anywhere in the world, at the click of a button. And don’t forget to check out our 40,000 Trustpilot reviews, too. We’re really proud of them and it will give you a chance to see what other customers have said about us.”

Testers please answer the following questions:

First lot of questions: impressions on the valuation

• How helpful was your Purplebricks valuation?
• Was it made clear how Purplebricks works?
• Were you confident with your Local Property Expert’s knowledge and expertise?
• What most appealed to you about the Purplebricks service?

Second lot of questions: putting your property up for sale

• How pleased were you with your advert in terms of property description, photos and speed it went live?
• Did you feel in control through the process?
• Did you feel supported by your Local Property Expert throughout the process?

Third lot of questions: finding a buyer

• How have you found the Purplebricks tech platform?
• Have you communicated directly with any potential buyers?
• Was it easy to set your diary for viewings?
• Was your Local Property Expert available for you?

Final lot of questions: overall impressions

• Has your property sold?
• What is your overall impression of Purplebricks?
• Did your local expert really know the local market and have the experience you were looking for?
• What do you think of technology for sellers?
• Would you recommend selling with Purplebricks? If so, why?
• Any feedback for those thinking of using Purplebricks?

Everyone who leaves the required feedback will be given a £50 voucher of their choice (from a list).

Thanks and good luck!

MNHQ

Standard Insight T&Cs apply

• Has your property sold?

No

• What is your overall impression of Purplebricks?

Positive

• Did your local expert really know the local market and have the experience you were looking for?

Yes he is really good and really good at giving us ideas and suggestions to help pull more viewings in.

• What do you think of technology for sellers?

Brilliant, the app makes it all so easy.

• Would you recommend selling with Purplebricks? If so, why?

Yes definitely, it's affordable and you get a great service and the app is easy to manage everything through.

• Any feedback for those thinking of using Purplebricks?

As above.

- Has your property sold?
Yes. Our first buyer pulled out but the house was put back in the market immediately and resold within a week.

- What is your overall impression of Purplebricks?
Brilliant, have absolutely no quibbles. We received weekly updates from the post sales team, and they chased things quickly when requested.

- Did your local expert really know the local market and have the experience you were looking for?
Yes, the best part of the experience was the local property expert. She had years of experience in our area from both living and working there. She was passionate and enthusiastic. She went above and beyond (replying to late night messages etc) and nothing was too much trouble.

- What do you think of technology for sellers?
It’s fine, few niggly problems with the app sometimes crashing or just shutting down but expect these could be fixed well. Didn’t use the messaging service to the buyer much but imagine it would be helpful if there were queries.

- Would you recommend selling with Purplebricks? If so, why?
Yes, I feel my experience with Purplebricks was as good as my two previous experiences with traditional agents. I liked the level of control the app gave me and I felt supported throughout. I think the fact I had a god local agent made my experience better than others I have read about

- Any feedback for those thinking of using Purplebricks?
Do your research about your local agent, then go for it!!

*Final lot of questions: overall impressions

• Has your property sold?*

It went under offer within a couple of weeks. Hope to complete next month.

- What is your overall impression of Purplebricks?
The service has been as good as a high street agent all the way along. In respect of the Local Expert the support was better than we have had from a high street agent in the past. Post-sales support similar to a high street agent, just checked in with everyone by email weekly to ensure the process was ticking along and followed up if not, and the Local Expert kept in touch with us all the way along. Everyone I came across was quick to respond.

- Did your local expert really know the local market and have the experience you were looking for?
He was brilliant, I have recommended him to two friends who have used him.

- What do you think of technology for sellers?
It could be improved, we really struggled to see when the viewings were booked (as our LPE was managing them), and the process for making an offer could be clearer (we got one intention to offer in the feedback and no one spotted this, so you have to make sure you're going on the app and the website regularly).

- Would you recommend selling with Purplebricks? If so, why?
Yes, I would definitely use them again too, not just because they were cheaper than a local agent, but the service they provided was better too.

- Any feedback for those thinking of using Purplebricks?
Check out your Local Property Expert, you can search for them by name on Trust Pilot, if you can get a good one then go for it.

- Has your property sold?
No. The local expert found a buyer but unfortunately their offer was too low to accept.

- What is your overall impression of Purplebricks?
Very good. I’m glad to have taken part in this trial as it’s changed my perception of Purplebricks.

- Did your local expert really know the local market and have the experience you were looking for?
Yes he did. I have confidence in the local expert, which is essential when selling a property. Communication has been good throughout.

- What do you think of technology for sellers?
It didn’t really work properly for me, but seeing as the local expert is looking after all the viewings it hasn’t really mattered.

- Would you recommend selling with Purplebricks? If so, why?
Yes I would, for my area. Please see the above comments.

- Any feedback for those thinking of using Purplebricks?
I’m going to continue to market my property through PB, and I would definitely use them again.

Final lot of questions: overall impressions

- Has your property sold?

Yes STC

- What is your overall impression of Purplebricks?

Good on the whole. I Liked the initial agent and they were very effective and have kept in contact throughout the procedure.

Not so fond of the actual agent doing the viewings, they were rude, untidy and unavailable in school holidays which I think is an overall problem with Purple Bricks.

The post sales team are very good. Monday morning updates (the property we are buying we have had radio silence from the sellers EA for about 4 months) when we have had issues they have chased up queries.

- Did your local expert really know the local market and have the experience you were looking for?

Yes, they had lived locally and were knowledgeable on the area and what a buyer was looking for. They were enthusiastic too and saw positive things about the house that we didn’t. We were very confident in them.

- What do you think of technology for sellers?

Not so good. I liked that you could edit the property brochure but the website has some issues, it is tiresome to navigate, some of the links don’t work, some things are hidden.

Example this week: I get an alert that I have a PB message, go onto site (to which I have to manually type in the e-mail address each time as my browser is only remembering the password) to see the speech bubble with a “1” in it on top right, except that the link doesn’t work, you have to go into the dashboard menu on the left to find the message.

Your neatly typed message to the buyer with paragraphs and carriage returns comes out in “justified” a block of text that is difficult to read. If you read messages on the app sometimes it jumps back up to the top message, sometimes when typing a message on the app the text runs off the screen and you can’t get the cursor back, in the end I had to select some text with my finger, then “select all” to copy all the text, close the message, re-open, paste all the text just to get the message/cursor back.

The message centre is a bit of a pain, I don’t like that you don’t have anonymity and it should have an option to be turned off.

Please also see:
Third lot of questions: finding a buyer
- How have you found the Purplebricks tech platform?

- Would you recommend selling with Purplebricks? If so, why?

Yes, in my experience they have been very efficient and attentive.

They are a cheaper alternative than a high street estate agent and you have more autonomy in the advert, although with any agent it is hit and miss. Where I had a good agent, there may be bad ones.

If they got their website sorted out (which should be easy to do) and the agents were more flexible for viewings then they would rank highly.

However as the agents knew that they were being monitored, it somewhat skews the findings of the survey.

- Any feedback for those thinking of using Purplebricks?
The app is worth putting on your phone.

You don’t have to use their solicitors.

You can edit your brochure.
Post sales are good.
If you want a relationship with the buyer you get the message centre (which may/may not be a bad thing)

Third lot of questions: finding a buyer
- How have you found the Purplebricks tech platform?
The website and app are both good - very simple and easy to use. However, I don't feel as though the app functions as promised in the videos that promote it. It still works well and is intuitive, but I thought there would be more of a "dashboard" feel to it. Otherwise, I have found the alerts / notifications very good and relevant.

- Have you communicated directly with any potential buyers?
No, we have no had any reason to at present.

- Was it easy to set your diary for viewings?
We used Purplebricks to do our viewings, so we did not need to set our diary up.

- Was your Local Property Expert available for you?
Yes, although we have had more contact with the person who has been doing our viewings (not the LPE) and we have been kept up to date at all times which has been great.

Has your property sold -
Yes as I’ve mentioned our property was under offer in a few days. We are now living in our new house :)

What is your overall impression of purplebricks? -

I have been really impressed with purple bricks. We were really pleased with the support available and the expertise of the local property expert.

• Did your local expert really know the local market and have the experience you were looking for?

He was really good, we felt really well supported through the selling process.

• What do you think of technology for sellers?

I really liked the technology. I found it easy to use and I liked the flexibility of being able to pick when we were available for viewings.

• Would you recommend selling with Purplebricks? If so, why?

I definitely would (and have) recommend selling with purplebricks. I felt that the price in comparison to other estate agents was very competitive. The local property expert was knowledgeable and supportive. I really liked the fact they texted about potential viewings as well as putting them on the website and that they were open out of normal working hours.

• Any feedback for those thinking of using Purplebricks?

As I said above I would very much recommend purplebricks.

- Has your property sold?
No. I did not get any viewings through Purplebricks. Only one viewing was booked but it was cancelled on the day of appointment. I had property on the market through another agent too and they brought in regular viewers - not a big rush but a steady number of viewings.

- What is your overall impression of Purplebricks?
My overall impression is that it can work in your favour because of the cost effectiveness of selling and the technology platform it offers. However, it is only possible if your local contact is experienced and knows the market well. My first contact did not perhaps have the required expertise and the second one tweaked the images, added a couple and made the advert look better. The second contact also kept in touch regularly and were more enthusiastic. You don't get the traditional agents vetting the buyers before viewing and you don't get the benefit of knowing the situation of the buyers before they come in to view, so it is hard to assess and work out if they are serious buyers or just the curious ones.

- Did your local expert really know the local market and have the experience you were looking for?
The first local expert's knowledge and keenness were not in line with my expectations. However, the second expert assigned to me was good and appeared to know the market well. They had good experience.

- What do you think of technology for sellers?
It is good and functional, makes it easier for sellers to know about the level of interest and activity. The availability for viewings can be selected as per your wishes. I wish there was a way to see the situation of the buyers though, so perhaps adding a tool where a buyer can answer a few questions about their own situation (like FTB or chain buyers or 'already sold' or 'property on market') would be great.

- Would you recommend selling with Purplebricks? If so, why?
I would recommend selling with Purplebricks although in my case, I got two offers through another agent (way lower than expected but offers nonetheless!) and none through Purplebricks. The reason I would recommend is because it would result in bigger savings on selling fees (which can be hefty) and you can manage things yourself. I would not recommend it to those sellers who are looking for more support and more follow-ups via the agent. It is only good for those who want to be and can afford to be more involved in the marketing process.

- Any feedback for those thinking of using Purplebricks?
I would say speak to your local expert, check how much they know and base your decision on your deductions from those talks and meetings whether you want to go ahead with Purplebricks or not. It really depends on who you are dealing with.

Final lot of questions: overall impressions
- Has your property sold?
We have accepted an offer, but we are waiting for them to sell their property.

- What is your overall impression of Purplebricks?
Really very good. We have had excellent communication, the people we have dealt with have been knowledgeable and friendly. Everything has been very straightforward and easy at each stage.

- Did your local expert really know the local market and have the experience you were looking for?
Yes, she was very familiar with the local area (having previously managed a local estate agents). She seemed experienced and professional.

- What do you think of technology for sellers?
I think it's a great way to manage the sale of your property, especially when you're busy and don't necessarily live in the property or nearby. The ability to manage viewings / offers / the advert etc all via the website or the app is what people need nowadays.

- Would you recommend selling with Purplebricks? If so, why?
Definitely. We have had such a positive experience, and as well as the saving money element, I actually felt more reassured by the people we dealt with then when we spoke to local estate agents. Obviously, this will vary from area to area - but I would highly recommend giving Purplebricks a go if you are looking to sell (or buy!)

- Any feedback for those thinking of using Purplebricks?
Give it a go, at least meet the local property expert and see what vibe you get from them! Definitely use the app as it keeps you up to date. For us, getting Purplebricks to do the viewings was a really good thing, we didn't have to worry about when people were coming and going (however we don't live in the property anymore).

Final lot of questions: overall impressions

- Has your property sold?
Unfortunately no.

- What is your overall impression of Purplebricks?
It has not been very helpful for us listing our property with Purplebricks.

- Did your local expert really know the local market and have the experience you were looking for?
No, our local expert was not very knowledgeable regarding the local area and had to rely on us for information.
We also listed our property with a local real estate agent who were much more helpful in this regard.

- What do you think of technology for sellers?
We only had a couple of viewings with Purplebricks which did not progress to an offer and so we did not make much use of the site's technology. The agent conducted these two viewings for us and so we did not have to manage these/communicate with potential buyers via the site.

- Would you recommend selling with Purplebricks? If so, why?
Not really no. We have had more viewings via the local agent than with Purplebricks and all in all they have been a disappointment sadly. That said I see that other Mumsnet testers have had more positive experiences with them and so it may just be that their site was not useful in attracting potential buyers to our particular London property!

- Any feedback for those thinking of using Purplebricks?
Perhaps also speak with a local agent to see if your property could be marketed better or differently with them versus the Purplebricks do-it-yourself [with some support] model.

Final lot of questions: overall impressions

• Has your property sold?

No

• What is your overall impression of Purplebricks?

They are okay - but there are a few extra complications on putting your house on the market with them such as the local property expert not being very available to do viewings. If I had paid for this extra I would not have been happy.

• Did your local expert really know the local market and have the experience you were looking for?

Yes

• What do you think of technology for sellers?

There are a few problems with the technology. The app runs slower than the real world, so I would get an email telling me about a viewing before it appeared on the app - sometimes the time-lapse was considerable and sometimes only a few minutes.

The diary is something that I think needs to be reviewed. As a seller you either have full control of your diary or the local property expert does. If the expert is busy elsewhere or takes a holiday then there is no availability in the diary for viewings. We ended up taking back the control so that potential buyers could request a viewing and then we would work out between us and the expert who is doing the viewing. This has worked well.

• Would you recommend selling with Purplebricks? If so, why?

I'm not sure at the moment. It feels like it hasn't been easy with the diary issues, we also haven't had many viewings (3) in the time its been up for sale. In this time other properties on our street have sold. I'm not sure whether all potential viewers are just online, I wonder whether some buyers prefer to deal with more traditional estate agents.

• Any feedback for those thinking of using Purplebricks?

I think if you are not in a hurry to sell then it's worth a try as it is so much cheaper than more traditional estate agents, for us it has not been a quick option but no real complaints.

As someone buying via Purple Bricks currently, I'd say that mostly the process is fine up until offer stage, but after that there is little support (for the buyer anyway).

I am a first time buyer and am struggling a bit as there is no 'middle man' to help keep both parties up to date, and/or chase where necessary. It feels a bit uncomfortable to keep directly chasing the seller.

So I'd say Purple Bricks was good but could do with allocating a named contact to support post-offer activity as you can feel a bit lost with no estate agent.

I think anyone signing up to an online agent should be aware that many of the older generation (I include myself in this at 56) groan at the thought of having to download an other app or having to sign up with passwords, sigh, just to be able to view a prospective property.

I put my flat up for sale with an online agent as well as a high street agent and however good an online agent is, when the market is as flat as it is currently, you can't put a price on the experience of a good local agent and just being able to pick up to the phone and talk to someone.

Buying and selling property is a hugely complex process that cannot be done easily solely by email.

Suffice to say, once the online agent has your money they don't have a huge incentive to keep working on the sale.
I did sell quite quickly with the high street agent in the end - like others in here I would actively avoid attempting to view a property on with an online agent as it is such a faff and their solicitors are famously so slow.
Worth a punt in a fast-moving market perhaps.

I work (currently on maternity leave) in the property industry as a lawyer and I have to say, the amount of my clients who used Purple Bricks and regretted it was almost 100%. It broke my heart when the confused and bullied an elderly client of mine into selling her house. I would always use a local reputable estate agents, it may cost more by they work for you. Once PB's get your money, you are just a number.

Impressions on the valuation

• How helpful was your Purplebricks valuation? OK - in retrospect our property was over valuated but we got valuations from other EAs and the PB valuation was fairly in line.
• Was it made clear how Purplebricks works? Yes - Agent was up front about fees and viewings etc.
• Were you confident with your Local Property Expert’s knowledge and expertise? Yes
• What most appealed to you about the Purplebricks service? Low cost. We were (incorrectly) confident the property would sell fairly quickly. Liked the idea of being able to book/manage viewings and offers online

Second lot of questions: putting your property up for sale

• How pleased were you with your advert in terms of property description, photos and speed it went live? Overall fairly happy. The agent took too many photos and they were poorly lit - but I went through and culled and tweaked the photos and the final ad looked pretty good
• Did you feel in control through the process? Yes, but the same story over and over around people thinking the property too small. The agent wasn't as proactive with recommending price drops. I liked the way you could manage everything online.
• Did you feel supported by your Local Property Expert throughout the process? Yes - but post offer support was nowhere near as good as the current support we are receiving from our traditional EA (we switched away from PB after 5 months and the offer we finally received fell through)

Third lot of questions: finding a buyer

• How have you found the Purplebricks tech platform? Fine - some glitches around uploading EPC but overall works well.
• Have you communicated directly with any potential buyers? Yes - via messaging in the platform
• Was it easy to set your diary for viewings? Yes it was fine
• Was your Local Property Expert available for you? Yes - availability good when I asked questions - less proactive than traditional EAs however

Final lot of questions: overall impressions

• Has your property sold? Yes - but not through PB
• What is your overall impression of Purplebricks? You get what you pay for - be prepared to do more leg work in getting the ad right, proactively changing the price, doing the viewings and doing a lot of chasing post offer
• Did your local expert really know the local market and have the experience you were looking for? I believe so
• What do you think of technology for sellers? Fine - it does the job
• Would you recommend selling with Purplebricks? If so, why? Maybe. In a buoyant market with a house priced attractively then it makes sense. In a slow market I wouldn't recommend. The viewings also get very wearying because you can't plan things on the weekend. At the end of the day the company and the agent don't have skin in the game to sell and the difference was immediately noticeable when switching to a good, traditional EA.
• Any feedback for those thinking of using Purplebricks? Think carefully about what you want to achieve and your motivation for choosing an online EA. Check how many properties have sold via PB vs. alternative agents in your local area and compare against how many are listed. Although my experience of PB was not overly negative - in future I will go down the traditional EA route every time.

just informationally my friend put her house on the market with Purple Bricks.
Big sell from them-blah blah blah-then nothing. Crap pictures and nothing.
needless to say not one viewing in months.
And she has now been approached by a local agent who took new pics and has had loads of viewings-Purple Bricks put all their effort and charm into getting you and then what is their motivation to do any more as they are now paid???
Horrible business model for the house seller

Firstly I bloody hate their ads, just not funny and cringeworthy. Secondly, they are misleading. No commission? OK but you surely pay something for their services? It isn't free, but implies that it is.

How is it better to pay upfront, then they don't sell your house, then you go to another agent, to only paying commission when someone does sell your house?

My only comment is that it might work well if you have a house in a city which is very similar to every other house in the street with little price differential. I've looked as a buyer at the ads and the photos are so bad I wouldn't be happy going further ... and if the photos are dodgy, the floor plans probably are too.

If you are a canny seller and can put up your own photos, tweak everything on the site, do the home tours and add value, fine. But the after sales doesn't seem to work for buyers very welll so you could get them dropping out.

Wow looks good from a sellers point of view but I’ve not got a good work from a buyers point of view. Nightmare to organise a viewing. Asks for feedback on houses we couldn’t view as seller never turned up. I now purposely avoid PB properties. Maybe sellers should know about these issues?!

Word not work!

You get what you pay for with PB. We're just about to complete after using them.

The valuation was over by a bit, but our home is pretty unique so not easy to value. One other EA valued the same as PB, another £20k under what we got.

If you know your way around the property market and are happy to do most of the work yourself, they were fine - just a way of getting on RightMove and Zoopla really.

The photos were absolutely desperate, and the PB agent was quite arsey with me when I pointed that out, saying they were cheaper than normal EAs so we shouldnt expect professional pictures. They werent even amateur, never mind professional. We retook them ourselves and used those.

There was very little interaction with the agent and she was extremely hard to get in contact with, rarely responding to messages. We decided to drop the price ourselves, rewrote the blurb and sold within 2 days. We did all the negotiation ourselves and our PB agent hasnt been in touch once since we agreed the sale.

We've probably saved well over £3k so I suppose for us it is working out OK, but I dont think I could ever bring myself to recommend them.

Oh and the app is awful, it crashes constantly.

What an amazing coincidence that all the freebie reviewers had an amazing experience, but nobody else did. Hmmm

I can't believe this many people have had good experiences with them. Currently selling a property with them and cannot believe the absolute dire service and general lack of knowledge about the local area and pricing. Then they kick up a fuss if you try and go dual agency (at no cost to them) Ridiculous. Would avoid using them again at all costs.