Surely everyone checks Rightmove?

[Zoricthespaceman]

About to put house on the market. Favoured high st EA is going to charge 1.5% (incl VAT) to sell our house- an actual fee £18k, if we get the £1.2m asking price. Purple bricks charges a flat fee of £1199 (and you can pay an additional £300 for them to do viewings).DH thinks we’ll get a better price and potentially quicker sale possibly without even going on the open market going through a high end EA. I think that everyone checks Rightmove and the same people will end up looking at the house regardless, and we could save £16k. Anyone used DIY EA for expensive properties?

I agree in that I think everyone looks at rightmove. I can’t see anyone seeing the perfect house on there and refusing to view because it’s with an online EA. We have sold before with an online EA not a property as expensive as yours. We swapped numbers with buyer but to be honest once sales start processing I think sols are the ones doing the actual work anyway. Often the high street EA makes matter more complicated.

Wow. That's a massive saving!

What's your area like? In terms of which estate agents are used? Are pb used much near you?

I ask because I think that makes a difference.

I used an online agent a few years back and didn't even get a viewing. I paid upfront idiot rather than after the sale as it was cheaper. Big mistake.

I used a local agent last year and had sold within a week for 20k above another local agents valuation! My comission was nowhere near as big as yours though. In my case, it was definitely worth it.

It depends if you think the local agent will get you a higher price? And what the market is like near you? If properly isn't selling, a local agent may have the edge?

Is there no middle ground? £18K is ridiculous but Purple Bricks can put people off.

I think it’s true that everyone looks at Right Move but if the photos are bad and they don’t put the right information in the listing then you are doomed.

Phone Purple Bricks and ask about a house they have for sale and see how they manage your enquiry.

I would definitely do that in your situation. Everyone does check RightMove.

Perhaps agree with your DH that if you get your asking price or above, you'll take the offer, if not then you'll move to a traditional estate agent after 8 weeks or so...

I think a lot depends on the local market, the people who viewed and eventually bought our house 2 years ago in London came via a local EA the same day we appointed them, before the details even went on their's and rightmove, Zoopla etc websites.

It’s not getting an offer where agents make their money - it’s getting the sale through to a completion, particularly if there is a long complex chain, difficult clients, deadlines etc etc.

Purple bricks are fine in regards to marketing to a degree but their sales conveyancing is next to hopeless. So you take your risks there.

Also bear in mind Hugh street agents only get paid on completion of a successful sale. Purple bricks get paid on listing, so there’s no incentive for them to push your property to sell. If it does great, if not they aren’t bothered.

Think it through

I would be put off if a house was listed solely with purple bricks. Only because we tried to buy a house through them last year, it was so bloody awkward we gave up! The inability to speak to a person was really annoying.

I think purplebricks can be offputting to buyers of expensive properties- status thing. We sold with them but our asking price was half yours. In a declining market though you may be offered at least 10% less than your asking and a local agent might manage the process better and get you a bit more. We’ve recently bought a house on for 900k for less than 800k and the EA did work pretty hard to get the deal done for the sellers.

You pay PB whether you sell or not. So changing agent if they’re rubbish is not a saving.

Agree most people look on Rightmove. For such a huge saving I'd give them a go first and see how it goes. I've moved house a fair bit over the years and haven't found EA particularly efficient at getting a chain moving, I usually ask for the other parties' contact details so we can communicate directly if there's a problem.

I'd buy through Purple Bricks if the sellers weren't using the Purple Bricks conveyancing services. That seemed to be where all the problems were in our chain.

We tried to save some money a few years back with Purple Bricks. Shoddy service, awful photos, impossible to contact, we eventually went on the market with local agent who generated so many more viewings. Our house sale was in a chain which got complicated for a while, the local agents kept everyone up and down the chain informed. I think without their commitment and communication the chain would have collapsed. I fear that as Purple Bricks had already had their money they wouldn't have been any help at all.

Just as an aside, we did eventually get our cash back from Purple Bricks, apparently this is quite rare but there was no denying the multitude of ways which they let us down and lied to us.

I'd avoid a house if it was marketed by Purple Bricks.

Also-can you negotiate? Friends recently negotiated down from 1.5 to 1% commission and with the drop in the market, houses are taking longer to sell in lots of areas so EAs will do a deal to get the numbers through their books.

I think there are other companies who do more of a hybrid service which might be worth investigating.
For less than 18k you could get a top photographer/home stager get amazing photos and I think that would help sell.
Also fixed fee local agents.
1.5 percent seems high for such a high value house could you get a few quotes and get them to improve their price?
I have heard mixed reviews about pb sales progression does it depend on the local agent or is it all done centrally?
Good luck

A lot of people don’t realise you can negotiate the fees. We got our EA down from 1.5 to 0.6%. At the end of the day they’ll want your business, you’re in control here.

EA will do all the leg work to secure a sale if you find a good one. There list of contacts buyers etc is invaluable. PB are nothing but a listing service and will not go out of there way to secure you a sale.

With our EA in London we had 12 viewings lined up before it was even online and sold 2 days later at an open house the first Saturday on sale. This was August last year.

Personally I view PB properties with caution as I think it says somewhat about what a seller is going to be like to deal with. As a buyer I want to be able to contact a real life EA throughout the sale if necessary.

No- we made a high end sale to a hedge fund manager buying multiple properties for tax planning. He went into our estate agent and told them to find them for him. Honestly if you’d met him you’d Laugh at the idea of him looking through RM

As a buyer I'd still view a house on with purple bricks but none of the online agents would be my choice. We're in a chain with difficult clients and our agent is working her arse off to keep the chain together. She had several people through the door before our house even went on right move and has been very proactive with our buyer and with others who looked at the house (fingers crossed she remains our buyer but that's a different story). I'd prefer to be buying off someone with an agent who would do similar.

We actually sold our last house with purple bricks. It was a standard semi which we'd renovated extensively, extended, not overlooked at the back and never will be, in the catchment for an outstanding school. It photographed beautifully and the agent's blurb was fine. We had a few issues with floor plan but have had those with our current agent too. However, once the sale was agreed the agent did nothing to progress the chain. Our solicitor did loads. Admittedly the problem was further up the chain but still... The house had sold at the first viewing which was great for us but purple bricks therefore did hardly anything for their money!

After all that rambling, I'd use purple bricks again to sell a house like our old one, it was a top end version of a standard house, if that makes sense, at a price which meant it had plenty of potential purchasers and the market was great. I wouldn't have touched them with a bargepole to sell our current house which is trickier and still isn't even as expensive as yours.

Am in the midst of my friend having an absolute nightmare with purple bricks and all the initial concerns that she down played in order to make a savings (on a much smaller scale than OPs) have all come true-rubbish photos and no viewings in months.
A local agent has gotten in touch, done proper pics and has had quite a few viewings.
Her experience has been just awful-hard sell from PB up front then once they have your money there is no motivation to sell your house as they get paid no matter what.
I'd run a mile!!

Make sure you pay the commission on the selling price, not the original asking price, out EA tried that on but as there were two contradictory statements in the contract and the one in our favour was first they relented but weren't happy,

Thank you. I just used PB as an example, I know there are other online EA who may do a better job. We are in a London commuter belt village which is very much on the up (although was never really down, just overlooked by a bigger more expensive town close by), we will be chain free as are moving into rented or with family. Also should probably have mentioned that we have a historical feature in our garden which favoured EA said could be used to get the house used as a ‘featured property’ in national newspapers. PB certainly won’t do that! Wasn’t sure if you could negotiate, and the 2 other EAs have implied they only reveal their fee once you decide to go with them, so have already chased that up. Def think we’ll try to negotiate fee.

I’m looking for a house and I never look at rightmove because the interface is shit. I am looking at Zoopla and onthemarket though. Purple bricks houses appear on both of these but it’s a massive pain in the arse trying to book viewings using the purple bricks viewing booking interface. I’ve been waiting over a week for one of the houses to confirm a viewing.
My house is currently sstc and we had the offer on the second viewing before the house even had photos taken and went on the website. That is the big advantage of a good conventional estate agent. They knew exactly who the buyers on their books were and who was likely to buy.

P.s. you can definitely negotiate fee if you play a couple of estate agents off against each other. We got a reduced fee on ours after negotiating with 3 EA

😂 2 other EAs have implied they only reveal their fee once you decide to go with them

That’s a fast no then! Imagine them trying to get you to sign a contract with a mystery fee!!

Yes of course you would look at Right Move! I would go with the cheapest EA. Houses seems to sell well with PB around here.

Trying to get an appointment with a purple bricks property is impossible, I gave up on a house I loved the look of, but this was four years ago so they might of improved.