Selling London flat - should I use purple bricks or estate agent?

[Unexpectedlysinglemum]

I have had my London flat for over a decade and sadly it hasn’t increased in value (hopefully not decreased too much though!) I’ve had two recent estate agent valuations who’ve said that this would be capped at 500,000 as this is a cliff edge and stamp duty increased for first time buyers dramatically after this- as there are lots of similar flats around I need to be competitive (a shame as it was valued at 525-550 a few years ago!) but they were both very confident that buyers would be willing to go up to 500,000.

i want to move to be closer to family, also in London so no savings to be made there, and I’ll have to pay 20-30k stamp duty on my next home…. So I’m wondering whether I should go with a high street estate agent with potentially around 12k commission (they have quoted 1.5% + VAT and 2% + VAT) or whether I should go with purple bricks which is around £2000 + 599 if I want to get their agents to do viewings.

im wondering

has anyone sold with purple bricks (bonus points if a London flat!) and how was it?

Would purple bricks put you off buying a flat?

how would you feel about the owner doing the viewings, any pros or cons?

thanks so much!

I’ve sold three times with purple bricks
I Do the viewings except for during Covid
Viewers book viewings online in your online calender. You set when you’re available. It’s all very simple and we prefer it this way
We can accommodate weekends evenings whenever which suits buyers more I think.

They do of course do viewings for you aswell if you want

It’s quite streamlined and we’ve used their recommended conveyancers aswell. In fact we ask for the same guy by name each time
( Liam Ryan, I even know it off by heart 😆)

Putting together the amount other EAs charge and the service they give ( we’ve bought through others and sold once) I’d say you get a much better deal
with PB

I know people will come on to critise. It’s easy to do that but I’ve never had a problem at all.

( ps. we used them to sell a flat in Nth London )

Don't do it OP. Purplebricks have a hideous record and I won't consider a property that they are selling. Look at the negative reviews on Trustpilot and don't assume the positive reviews are all genuine.

I actively avoid PB.
As a buyer. They have a reputation for having unserious sellers who will be difficult.
As a seller. Estate agents can pay for themselves in their negotiation and efforts to get you the best price. (They still charge too much for what they do it’s frustrating that cheaper online estate agents aren’t better).
There may be some bargains in London flats. Can you sell and move to rented/family so you’re a very flexible buyer?
Am astonished the value of your place hasn’t risen in ten years though. Four years maybe.
I have a DC looking for a London flat and prices seem to be about the same as 4 years ago. Not 10.

Can you ask the EA for a fixed fee for selling?
We did it and saved a couple of thousand pounds.
Avoid purple bricks. Frankly they are shite in our experience

We tried to buy a house a few years back - the seller was using Sarah Beeny’s online estate agency (Trullo?) It started off well but gradually became impossible without an estate agent. There were several sticking points in the sale and we had to deal directly with the buyer (over email or the app) and she became so difficult we pulled out of the sale. I realised how important it is having the estate agent as the buffer and wouldn’t try to buy or sell with an online agency again. Good luck!

When I was looking for a property to buy, I avoided all of those that were with Purplebricks.

We bought our house a few months ago and our sellers had tried to use both Yopa and Purple Bricks for 2 years with no success. We tried viewing the house so many times and never managed to do it. We gave up and moved on. The sellers then decided to go with a local agent. We were finally able to communicate properly with someone, viewed the house and made an offer. The real use of the EA came during the selling process when both ours and theirs were invaluable. Around here (London) people take a dim view on properties sold through online companies. I would avoid a property listed with PB.

I think purple bricks has bad connotations.

I used a less well known version (a local agent using a purple bricks model)

It was a piece of piss tbh.

You just open the door (dont announce you are the owner theyll assume you are an EA) hang about in the kitchen and let them have a mooch - answer any questions without being too in your face / desperate and sent them on their way.
I preferred to meet the buyers directly to get a read.
i sold to a woman selling a 1 bed flat who on paper was a "worse" buyer than a ftb bloke
But the bloke was a panicky tire kicker who viewed 3 times and brought his parents and then grandad to view.
The buyer I went with was no nonsense solicitor and I has a superbly straight forward sale with zero dicking about over surveys and fixtures and fittings etc. The flat had an indemnity for an internal wall which I knew the male buyer would hand wring about. He kept trying to make higher offers once rejected too.

Personally having bought and sold twice i find agents have zero value add

It's not so much that I don't want the owner to do the viewings, but that I don't want to deal with them directly during the offer and conveyancing process.

Unless I was utterly in love with a property, I would avoid PB marketed properties. Possibly unfairly (and it probably is unfair but it's my perception) is that people that use PB are more likely to quibble over tiny things/ have done renovations on a shoe string/ take the light bulbs.

Thank you!! That’s good to know for context!

i over paid I think initially (upsold by an estate agent when I was in my 20s and stupidly told him what money I had access to via inheritance) value went up initially and down again, as hundreds of newer flats have gone up in my area since I moved - so lots of competition! And lots of the newer buildings had cladding issues - I should have sold them- but they’re sorted now so lots of them are trying to be sold, as no one wants to be a landlord now it’s now only first time buyers not investors that are potential buyers for flats like mine.

I think my sticking point is this 500,000k cliff edge - if that didn’t exist I think a talented ea might be able to get a higher price, but maybe not if it’s a ceiling as the buyer has to them pay so much more stamp duty.

If you do, I wouldn't go with the conveyancers they recommend as PB will get paid to refer you and in our experience those type of conveyancers are shockingly bad.

Which is this version? Please could you share?

Yes that’s exactly my plan, sell then move in with family and get my child into outstanding school next to their house then buy near (but not necessarily inside the catchment area where prices are inflated) new school in new London area.
this time I’m wanting to avoid a block of flats because even though I like things being modern and clean, the service charge increases stress me out so much.

There is one local to me that was bought three years ago at 585000 and is now being marketed but not selling at 525,000

They arent offering fixed fee now. It think independents.went through a phase of doing it. You could ask local EAs if they'd do it though.
My friend sold in Hampstead using YOPA and found it fine.

This^

I actively avoid looking at any marketed through PB or similar.
I expect the quality of any works or maintenance done to be of the same quality- cheap & penny pinching.

Friends are splitting and her controlling ex is insisting on doing this & conducting the viewings himself. He’s even detailed all the maintenance they did before listing, on the ad, which he thinks is a bonus. It’s not. It just highlights that he did no maintenance for years until forced to because no one would consider viewing if he didn’t.

The market for London flats is pretty poor at the moment. I'd go with a decent local agent. Remember that the EA doesn't just do viewings- they also keep the deal on track after you've accepted an offer.

https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/moving-home-with-charlie/id1665475245?i=1000660314989

If London flats were flying off the shelves then perhaps you could take the risk but I wouldn't at the moment. I agree with PP that I tend to suspect that sellers using PB do everything on the cheap.

Laughing at the concept of a “decent local agent”.

Go with PB and see how it goes. You don’t sound in a huge rush to sell and remember, MN is so far from reality that it’s full of people who don’t answer the door when someone knocks.

We have used Strike, now owned by PB and it was excellent. Cost us nothing

Personally having used hatched and then traditional estate agents, I would go with the traditional agents. They earn their money after the offer is made, by keeping the chain together and chasing it through/resolving any issues.

PB have completely disappeared from my area of Se London. They have a terrible reputation.

We tried moving in 2022 (didn't go through with it in the end because the housing market was overheated and we kept being outbid).

We got PB to do a valuation for us but got the impression they didn't really understand the local housing market. We went with a local EA in the end because they already had a list of people looking for property in our area. We also viewed a PB property and, again, I thought the pricing was off and they were charging too much. It put me off viewing other properties marketed by PB, it felt like they didn't know what they were doing.

I've struggled as a buyer with PB properties; difficult to make appointment to view etc. If I LOVED the property I would probably persevere but there were a couple of properties I thought were ok but I ultimately didn't bother viewing because they were with PB.

If sellers are doing the viewings you sign up and book your apointments with their online calendar
Then you can message the sellers through that with any questions

It cuts out the Chinese whispers middle man
Sellers just answer directly to your post.

Seeing a property listed with Purple Bricks would count against them - I’ve never had a good experience with them. They just seem to be key holders (never had an actual owner show me around) and know less then nothing about anything if that’s possible. Plus hate the way they do offers online (unless it’s changed). I made an offer on one property and just never heard back. I called them and they said the owner had to reply online too. I wonder if he ever sold the place!