Purple bricks

[Agingdisgracefully]

Thinking of using these, has anyone used them. Are they good or awful?

My neighbour (didn't move in the end) hated them. Calls them "purple pricks"

Awful. Why would you consider paying upfront for a service they haven’t provided?

See if you can watch Watch Dog. They did a piece on them.

Don’t trust the trust pilot reviews either because anyone with a negative review has it pulled. You have to then provide evidence of your poor review before they decide if it can be posted again or fully withdrawn.

Would avoid

We will be looking soon and I’m put off by properties marketed by an online agent.

used them twice to sell and once to buy. really easy , good app, sold my last one within 3 days, all went super smooth. This was London market though so not sure how they are elsewhere. makes no difference if you are buying, if u like the house you use solicitors and it goes forward exactly the same as with an high street agent.

We considered selling through Purple Bricks because they were so cheap. The estate agent I was considering buying through came to give me a valuation and I asked him what he was offering that I couldn’t get through Purple Bricks.

He said they couldn’t compete on price but told me everything they would do to get our house sold and to just google and do plenty of research on them.

I did and instructed the local estate agent. There are a lot of horror stories online and they massively overvalued my house, when they eventually turned up to value it after the 4th time of cancelling. I don’t think it would have sold, it would have been on the market ages. As it was, I sold in 5 days because it was marketed just right.

You get what you pay for. We used them last time. Yes the house sold, but we did nearly all of it ourselves. I've bought and sold lots of times so that was ok, but if you're not experienced in selling homes, you won't get much help

Specifically:
Agents cover large areas so may have little local knowledge.

Pictures were awful and I was told that if we wanted quality pictures we should have gone to a professional photographer(!)

We explained we had a difficult neighbour so the for sale sign mustn't be put on their land. It was.

Once the initial viewings died down, we had to chase the agent and suggest a price drop, there was no proactive contact with us. She was impossible to get hold of most of the time. She eventually changed the listing to reflect the revised price and we received offers within days

We seemed to be expected to deal with all the negotiations on price ourselves.

Our agent said she had got proof of funds from the purchasers, I've no idea if that was true or not.

We never heard from her again after that point on.

I agree entirely about negative reviews being removed. Mine was, and I had to provide evidence before it was reinstated. I bet most people give up and don't provide the evidence, so most negative reviews are simply deleted.

Oh and my conveyancer said to never use PB conveyancing services as she always ran into trouble dealing with them. Our buyers did use them, and the service they got was desperate.

I’ve bought through them but not sold. Can’t imagine I would use them to sell, either.

As a buyer they were a bit useless but not really a problem. They couldn’t answer any questions before the viewing which was slightly a annoying. And dealing direct with a slightly bonkers vendor was a pita, but it wasn’t a massive problem.

If I were selling (which I hope to be soon!) I’d prefer the extra marketing you get through a proper agent. (Probably not an issue if you’ve got the sort of house which you know will just sell.) But I think all proper agents now ‘financially qualify’ buyers before an offer is accepted, hopefully cutting out problems later. With PB you’ve basically only got the buyer’s word that they can raise the finance. Buying and selling is stressful enough without the additional worry about whether a buyer can actually finance the offer they've made you.

If you are selling in a buoyant market then PB is probably fine, a harder market a local will be better as they will actively contact interested parties.

There are a lot of horror stories online and they massively overvalued my house,

Where I used to live houses would come on the market with pb and vastly overpriced. It would sit there before being put on with the local EA with a lesser value and sell very quickly.

Limited experience with them as a buyer and it was frustrating enough to make me reject protential properties solely on the basis that they were being advertised only with Purple Bricks or similar online only EA. Not saying everyone might feel the same but, from our experience, it was impossible to get a reply to an enquiry or to book a viewing. I felt they were doing the bare minimum.

I would call to enquire, they did not have information on the property. They said they would check with the vendor and I never heard back; called or attempted to book viewing online, the same would happen.

This happened with 2 different properties so it cannot be solely down to the vendor, although as it was the sellers who were expected to conduct all viewing, that might have made it more difficult to find suitable times.

It felt that they were not invested at all, contrary to our current EA who reply to our emails out of office hours and are liasing with all solicitors to ensure the sale progresses to a satisfactory conclusion.

Their work to sell us the property did not stop when our offer was accepted and their advice to the vendors was based on more than who was making the highest offer, but also who was less likely to pull out of the purchase, for example, as well as existance/length of chain etc.

If we, one day, decide to sell, we will definitely choose a traditional EA.

• existence not existance!

We used them and to be frank their local rep was completely useless. She was local but didn't do anything at all for the fee after she had taken the photos. Which were not good at all and we pulled some of them and set up some of our own.
She was virtually uncontactable, never replied to emails or phone messages (never answered her mobile) and got arsey with me when I complained about her, saying I had used her personal email address instead of her PB one. I used the personal one in a reply to her after she had used it first to email me! (Otherwise how would I have even known it?)
We binned PB and wrote off the fee. You get what you pay for, I'm afraid.

Thanks for all your replies. I have decided to go with a local agent

I literally hate this company, when ever a customer comes into my office saying they have sold with these I inwardly groan - they are a nightmare to work alongside and have held so many chains up when we do sales progression.

We are trying to sell with them at the mo. Never again. They sent round a blonde glossy American who sounded like an apprentice candidate- you snooze you lose, I smell success etc... and then handed us over to their rubbish viewing organiser who can not retain info on the property or write stuff down. We have constant no shows for viewings, no feedback and even when we go back to glossy American for guidance she just tells is to drop price. Please avoid OP. Wish we had. Also their costs are not the reality- the add ons are insane to the point that they're barely cheaper than most expensive high street agent

@crustycrab I am totally plagiarising you're neighbour's comment. Thank you!

When buying we avoided all the online Estste agents after having issues with Springbok and Purple Bricks. We just scroll past.

I bought through them and would never consider viewing a house through them ever again. Was an awful experience