Purple bricks property over 2 million

[Lotty32]

Anyone used them for a property in SW London for over 2 million please? Thx

You could see if anything is listed in that price bracket on their website.

If the house is of a type that generally sells itself & the market is reasonable, give them a try.

Why on earth would you use purple bricks if you had a property worth that much? They only listing crappy properties in my experience.

I wouldn’t use them unless they have sold similar priced properties in your area. Properties over a million outside Central London often require expert local knowledge just to get viewings.

You get what you pay for
If you are skimping on paying for that i would assume you had skimped on property maintenance

Absolutely. I don't think we would view a property under purple bricks because they don't help with the buying process once offers have been accepted. It's a massive risk to a lot of money. It's all about trust, you won't build trust in buyers if you have skimped on a proper estate agent.

Thx for these helpful comments as I've got no knowledge of Purple Bricks.
That's kind of what I thought but wanted clarification.

Alexalee - thought your comment was totally unnecessary

@Lotty32

Alexalee - thought your comment was totally unnecessary

I think it’s pretty fair.

@Lotty32

Alexalee - thought your comment was totally unnecessary

Welcome to Mumsnet

Why?

They only listing crappy properties in my experience.

Erm, the property we bought was listed on Purple Bricks and it’s very lovely, thank you very much.

I don't think we would view a property under purple bricks because they don't help with the buying process once offers have been accepted.

If you’re using Purple Bricks to sell, you can pay extra to have an agent deal with the buying process for you I believe. Obviously that pushes the price up, but I presume it must still be cheaper than using a traditional agent?

@Lotty32

Alexalee - thought your comment was totally unnecessary

It really wasn't.

If someone is using purple pricks for a property that price then I'd assume they scrimp and have probably done the same with the upkeep of the property too

No personal experience of them however my friends had a property on with purplebricks for well over a year, she moved it to an estate agent and it sold in less than a month with two competing buyers.

@Alexalee

You get what you pay for If you are skimping on paying for that i would assume you had skimped on property maintenance

That’s rude. We used Purple bricks and our house is maintained to a high standard. We chose them because I knew I would manage without an EA; the property is only 17 years old and we bought it off plan, I work for a mortgage lender so understand the proceed, my broker is my neighbour and we knew the property would sell itself- as it did on the first day of being on the market. We’re due to complete next week and have had zero need to contact PB throughout! Granted I know the business but don't make unfounded statements about why people would use non- traditional EA’s- I’ve got what I paid got because that’s what I needed!

@myhobbyisouting

If someone is using purple pricks for a property that price then I'd assume they scrimp and have probably done the same with the upkeep of the property too

If someone were using purple pricks I’d assume the same. Purple Bricks on the other hand...

@Juby18 upkeep for a run of the mill house is very different to that of a 2m house... unless you are going to tell me that yours was?

I buy and sell properties for a living. I have never had a good experience when looking or trying to buy a house listed with PB. In fact it really puts me off viewing a property listed with them.

I used a different online agent. My house is immaculate & extremely well maintained. I just don’t like to spend money where not needed. I know I’m quite good at selling. It’s part of my job. So I was happy to do viewings & the negotiation. I knew properties on my estate sell easily & what for. We sold in 3 weeks via a bidding war for over ask.

That said, my house wasn’t worth millions 😂

I’ve used online agents and bought and sold through online agents. Admittedly nothing close to the 2M mark but some pretty expensive too. I wouldn’t judge the seller for not using a local agency as the fees can be ridiculous.

However, it’s not for everyone, eg some vendors get very stressed out during viewings and make you feel like running away as it’s really cringey. I have also seen some terrible listings written by vendors that frankly work against the house.

I have only ever been to one viewing done by a Purple Bricks agent and it was rubbish. The guy covered a vast area and didn’t know anything about the property he was showing, eg service charge, amenities, transport links etc. Completely useless.

So I’d only consider an online agency if you feel v confident showing people around and won’t get emotional etc.

Alternatively, it could pick an agency that you find good and negotiate the fees. At 2M the commission will be pretty ridiculous anyway.

[quote Alexalee]@Juby18 upkeep for a run of the mill house is very different to that of a 2m house... unless you are going to tell me that yours was?[/quote]
Oh I wish!!! And I agree that a £2m property is more specialist but my point is that its a stretch of assumptions to think the choice of estate agent directly reflects how well you've looked after your property. The property market is ripe for disruption and the likes of Purple Bricks will become more commonplace in the next few years.

Except OP is selling now not in a couple of years.

It's irrelevant how well maintained OP's house is, the perception of her buyers will be that she scrimps on stuff. It will put people off.

Go for a local agent and play hardball negotiating the commission.

We bought ours from a vendor who was using Purple Bricks and it was on at £1.5m.

We put in a slightly cheeky offer on the off-chance and the vendor accepted it. Any "normal" estate agent would have treated it as our opening bid and bargained us up a bit. So from that point of view, I don't think the vendor was wise to use Purple Bricks.

(Purple Bricks was crap and disorganised during the buying process, too, iirc. But we didn't mind because we'd effectively saved a fair bit of money due to their incompetence.)

I have found their properties do not have good floor plans and don't give the overall sq.m. for the size of the house - which is important to me. Also - amateurish photos. Some comments about them on face book recently.