Please or to access all these features

Add post

Watch this thread

Save thread

Start a new thread

Flip thread

Hide thread

My feed

Active Unanswered threads

Getting started FAQ's

Unanswered threads Acronyms Talk guidelines

Hide shortcut buttons

Talk

Property/DIY

Join our Property forum for renovation, DIY, and house selling advice.

Flip

Original poster

Purple Bricks

18 replies

Katebromley · 06/06/2018 15:04

Has anyone out there genuinely used Purple Bricks? What was your opinion? Thinking of using them as it will save me over £6000 on my house sale (as opposed to using a high street estate agent).

OP posts:

LRL2017 · 06/06/2018 15:07

Don't do it! They have been useless with us, still on the market 6 months down the line
And only 5 viewings. Can never get hold of the agent, they did an open day which they only advertised 2 hours before on social media. Now looking at selling with another agent who sold a house over the road within a week. It's like they get your money and then don't want to help.

beachcomber243 · 06/06/2018 19:15

Do a search for 'Purple Bricks' on this website . Should give you fair warning. I wouldn't touch them for buying or selling, appalling service.

usernotfound0000 · 07/06/2018 10:56

Haven't used them personally but when selling our house, we had an offer from a buyer who was selling their property via PB, our estate agent warned us to think carefully before accepting the offer (we didn't). So even if they sell yours, if you are buying another property, vendors may be put off if you are using PB.

notagain2018 · 07/06/2018 12:48

No experience of them but I have of other 'high street' agents. I would have thought, as long as they take decent photos and get your house on both Rightmove and Zoopla then what more do you expect them to do?
my house has been sat on the market for a year now and have changed high street agents twice and not entirely sure they do that much more for the money.

southbailey · 07/06/2018 13:06

I'm in the process of BUYING a house which is listed with them. Not a lot of contact with them yet and although both the vendor and myself want it to be speedy, not a lot has happened yet...

Mildura · 07/06/2018 13:19

my house has been sat on the market for a year now and have changed high street agents twice and not entirely sure they do that much more for the money.
Given this information, it would seem that your price expectations might be the problem, rather than being with the wrong agent.

unintentionalthreadkiller · 07/06/2018 13:20

They were useless for my mil. There are three for sale on my street with purple bricks and they have been for over a year. Can't directly say that's gem or he state of the market.

The agent mil had had to cover a huuuuuuuuuge area.

sprinklesandsauce · 07/06/2018 13:22

I wouldn't use an online agent, all they do is basically advertise it for you.

A high street agent will:

do all viewings
answer all queries
give local information on schools, employment, facilities etc
give information on councils, bin collections etc
liase with solicitors to chase up exchange dates
liase with vendor and buyer to ensure problems are ironed out

Having worked for an estate agent, I was amazed at the stress levels and how hard the agents worked sometimes to stop sales from falling apart.

and of course, when a sale does fall apart, the agent gets nothing, despite paying out advertising costs and staff wages etc.

Online companies get the money upfront, stick it on Rightmove and then don't do much else once they have got their money.

massistar · 07/06/2018 13:24

We sold ours via PB in 2 weeks of it being on the market. I think it depends very much on the local agent and ours was personally recommended and had sold a lot of houses in the area.

It also depends on the market in your area and the type of house. Houses sell themselves round here if priced correctly so would have been throwing money away with a traditional agent.

Contact drops off dramatically once an offer has been accepted as they effectively hand over to the solicitors but they were open and upfront about that.

Tinks15 · 07/06/2018 13:28

As mass says. We sold/purchased with them we were quite happy with them to be honest.

Caroian · 07/06/2018 18:49

Contact drops off dramatically once an offer has been accepted as they effectively hand over to the solicitors

This can be the real issue. The high street agents who recently sold our house earned their money not in getting us a good offer (though they did do that) but in keeping the sale progressing after that. The trouble with dealing with just your solicitor is that they can only really speak to solicitors above and below them in the chain. The estate agents can deal directly with both buyer and seller and good ones are happy to liaise with other agents in the chain - and even other solicitors if they are ones they know well. Our agent certainly kept things going and personally I wouldn't have wanted to be bothering my solicitor with some of the small issues the agent sorted out - this applied with a completely separate purchase we made through them too.

Like many things it is a bit of a gamble though. It may go well but if it doesn't the up front payment may leave you out of pocket.

notagain2018 · 07/06/2018 19:59

@Mildura or it might have more to do with the fact I've had 3 sales fall through. The first one being after 14 weeks of being off the market. And my agent had a hand in this by not telling me the buyer at the end of the chain hadn't even paid for searches after 14 weeks.
They're all as bad as each other.

notagain2018 · 07/06/2018 20:02

and my agent were also selling my buyer's property so they should have known what was going on all through the chain. They chose to keep it quiet in case I pulled out.

bearbehind · 07/06/2018 20:21

We bought through them; saved us a fortune as they were so shite on negiotiations we got a bargain.

Cost the seller a lot more than £6k.

bearbehind · 07/06/2018 20:25

EA fees are generally about 1% plus VAT so if you're looking at £6k fees your house must be worth c£500k

A good EA should more than cover their cost in terms of price achieved on the sale.

MovingThisYearHopefully · 08/06/2018 11:07

I wouldn't bother tbh. We were persuaded to give it a go by a friend who is a local property expert & we gave it a really good go for 5 months. Had our house on at a low level in order to attract lots of interest. We did get the interest but potential buyers were then wanting to reduce us a further 25-30k on our price, which we simply couldn't afford to do. At this stage you need your agent to work for you & earn their money by negotiating the price up to an acceptable level. Our PB agent was incapable of doing this & we lost out on buyers due to this & also lost the house we were in the process of buying. The whole situation was incredibly frustrating tbh!

I think in part they are a victim of their own success & don't have time to give the service that they promise. Luckily we managed to find an agent prepared to reduce their fee by what we paid to PB upon completion of a sale. Its like a breath of fresh air tbh. I get immediate feedback from the agent about what potential buyers thought of our house. No offer as yet, but im confident that when the interest is there that our agent can fight our corner!

DulcetMoans · 18/06/2018 20:35

I'm trying to decide on an agent now too so looking for feedback. Seems mixed but I guess all agents will be.

Don't know why more agents don't look into online slot booking as that is what really appeals to me! Responds to the market!

Ruffian · 18/06/2018 20:44

We signed up with HouseSimple last week as they've gone over to 'No Sale No Fee' model. Before that we were with a local Agent for 2 months and found them pretty rubbish - over-valued the house, really poor photos, lack of feedback. I realised when I attended one of the viewings with the agent that I could easily say what she was saying!

Had quite a few viewings last week so we'll see how it goes. I wouldn't want to go with any online agent where you had to pay a fee even if you don't sell.

Flip