Does anyone have experience of online estate agents like purple bricks

[brittanyfairies]

I've been trying to sell my property in the North East since March with a local agency. We've had 2 viewings. We were thinking if changing agencies but they all want payment up front and it worries me that they will make no effort to sell it.

I've been looking at online agencies like Doorstep and Purple Bricks who are much cheaper and list on all the big sites. Does anyone have experience of these kind of estate agents and whether it's worth it?

Payment up front sounds very unusual - agents take their commission when the property sells. How many agents have you spoken to?

I sold a house in Scotland last year using Yopa, an online agent. I found them very good, and the house went under offer in around about the length of time I was expecting and the sale process went no differently to when I’ve bought or sold using a regular high street agent. I imagine it entirely depends on the individual agent rather than whether they’re online or not, my Yopa Guy was very efficient.

We have used purple bricks before. Very happy with them but we did have to pay upfront for it.

We used PurpleBricks (PB) but found the local agent a bit slow to respond and it took 3 months before the first offer came in (which in all fairness may not be the fault of PB)

You usually pay upfront with PB. You can defer payment but the payment (I think) becomes a loan with a credit company which will attract interest in the event of non-payment. - feel free to correct me if anyone knows different to this. Also, if you choose not to use PB conveyancing services on the deferred payment scheme then you will be charged about £350 extra.

We used Love2Move who are affiliated with local estate agents. We were impressed. The affiliated local agent came & valued and organised professional photos. Then through the selling process, we were able to get bits of support from the local agent. They gave me some great negotiating tips following offers. & they put our house on their website and in their windows. We obviously had to do all our own viewings & it was me doing ALL the chasing of solicitors & vendors & buyers and me in contact with other EA’s as everyone else was using traditional agents. It was a bit time consuming at points but I liked being in control to be honest & not just waiting to hear from other people!

Saved us a fortune. We got over ask. But our house was an easy sell & in a very popular area. And we def got a kinda hybrid experience!

Payment up front is not normal at all. Aren't there any other estate agents around your area?

Whatever you do don't use their conveyancing service

Our buyers used them and sold within a month so seem to have been fine for them - think it depends on local agent and how sellable you house is - ifs its an easy sale could try though I prefer local agents. I wouldn't use anywhere requiring full payment upfront. We have never paid EA upfront, always on sale and no fees if don't sell. Purplebricks wasn't that cheap compared to our agent.

We went with Doorsteps and sold within a week. They were proactive about getting a photographer out, and he got us onto Rightmove etc within a day. I wouldn't expect too much from them beyond that, but all we needed was to get on the sites (we did viewings and negotiated offers ourselves).

I've had experience with Purple Bricks as a buyer in two different locations over 100 miles apart. Frankly even being listed with Purple Bricks would make me hesitate viewing a property.

We tried to buy with Strike who I think were formerly doorstep. The vendor accepted our offer but it took weeks of phone calls to ask them to mark it as sold. Then buyers could still view the whole time until we eventually got gazumped despite offering asking price. I would not even consider another property marketed with them.

We tried to buy 2 different houses with purple bricks. And failed.
Three houses in our desirable road had purple bricks boards outside. All three then changed to a local estate agent.

I've had experience of trying to buy somewhere with Purple Bricks and it was a nightmare. They knew nothing of the area or the house. They couldn't answer my questions and didn't have my details to respond. I had three viewings and they still sold to someone else, then it wasn't, then it was. It was so stressful and I didn't even end up having an offer accepted. I no longer look at any properties they have anything to do with.

Yeah same as PPs from a buyers perspective I'd never view a house with them again. They were worse than useless. The house was on the market for AGES and houses in the area are usually sold within two days of hitting the market.