# Purple bricks?



## great gonzo (Nov 4, 2010)

Has anyone bought or sold through purple bricks?
I’m looking at selling a property and would appreciate any feed back. 


Gonz.


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## percymon (Jun 27, 2007)

Looked at selling deceased father in laws property using them last year. They were quick to assess and photograph in fairness (albeit local estate came same day too!). Local EA was cheaper , and had the advantage of knowing the vicinity better with list of locals looking for the type of property. 

The deciding factor for me was trying to find a house for sale on my own street , being sold with purple bricks; it was very difficult to find online, so if I was struggling to see it I wondered how many potentially buyers failed to see it too. Perhaps a function of postcode or search area anomalies but it was the deciding factor to not use them. 

Whilst a lot of potential buyers will use the internet there will always be people, young and old, who window shop or visit the high street EAs


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## Andyblue (Jun 20, 2017)

One of the lads at work sold his house via them and said it was very easy, app worked well and he got alerts with viewing bookings (done via app I think he said) and also alert with an offer - this is when he then spoke to an agent to discuss. 

He was saying the other week he'd def recommend them...


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## Radish293 (Mar 16, 2012)

We sold ours in 2016 they were absolutely fantastic and I can’t praise them enough. Our expert Ian Welters really knew his stuff. He did loads of research before the first meeting. No hard sell left it up to us. Th Pericles was fantastic and we saved loads. We were aiming to get the maximum for our house so he suggested the premium listing in Rightmove which was extra but worth it. We also used their conveyancing firm which was interest based and a bit of a faff I would defiantly use them again. 


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## garage_dweller (Apr 10, 2018)

We sold my father in laws house with them. Found them useless in many respects , wouldn’t go near them again. 

There will be good & bad agents with them, unfortunately we got a hopeless one. 


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## Tyrefitter (Feb 13, 2010)

5 houses were for sale within a few hundred yards of ours,,4 with local agents all sold,one with PB didn’t sell he ended up taking it off the market & decided to stay.

Andy.


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## mike90 (Jan 30, 2016)

We bought our house through purple bricks and they where great! Like someone said it will depend who the local agent is but ours was very good. 


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## ollienoclue (Jan 30, 2017)

Will depend hugely on the local agent, your mileage may vary.

Our experience (as buyers who have viewed upwards of 20 properties over the course of 18 months): I would rather cut my own foot off than sell or buy from them.

Had a viewing booked on a property. Agent was late so the retired owners (who were understandably unimpressed with the woman as this was not the first instance she was late) showed us around. I had the impression she had taken the agency slot as a second job but I may be totally wrong.

When she did arrive she did not know the locality whatsoever and was not the kind of person I would ever has put down as a salesperson of any kind- one of those people who flip through things, float from one subject to another giving only superficial attention to any one topic.

We did not buy the property in the end for other reasons (did not suit our lifestyle and found out there was going to be a hoofing great new build estate parked nearby) but was not surprised to see the property re-marketed with a proper estate agent some weeks later.


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## Arvi (Apr 11, 2007)

Unless your one of the extremely lucky ones with a good local agent, and are happy to deal with any issues/negotiations yourself after a sale has agreed, best avoided. You pay your fee to them at the outset, after which a lot their representatives don't then have much of an incentive to push things along as they have already been paid. 

They will also push you to use their "recommended conveyancing firm " who will be miles away from your home, have the greatest online technology going to track the conveyancing progress on your phone app - but it will actually tell you little to nothing and you will just be a number to the firm.A good local agent and solicitor will have experience, rather than be a unqualified junior new into the field. And if you needed to see them face to face for any reason, will be more accessible.


You Tube Purple Bricks, Watchdog


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## great gonzo (Nov 4, 2010)

Arvi said:


> Unless your one of the extremely lucky ones with a good local agent, and are happy to deal with any issues/negotiations yourself after a sale has agreed, best avoided. You pay your fee to them at the outset, after which a lot their representatives don't then have much of an incentive to push things along as they have already been paid.
> 
> They will also push you to use their "recommended conveyancing firm " who will be miles away from your home, have the greatest online technology going to track the conveyancing progress on your phone app - but it will actually tell you little to nothing and you will just be a number to the firm.A good local agent and solicitor will have experience, rather than be a unqualified junior new into the field. And if you needed to see them face to face for any reason, will be more accessible.
> 
> You Tube Purple Bricks, Watchdog


Point taken, you can defer the payment for 10 months or till sold what ever is sooner.

Gonz.


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## slimjim (Mar 22, 2007)

I went with one of the most expensive estate agents thinking the whole buying selling process would be easy and I would be looked after. Utter ****e.
Paying more doesn’t mean better so I would consider the likes of Purple Bricks next time .


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## ollienoclue (Jan 30, 2017)

slimjim said:


> I went with one of the most expensive estate agents thinking the whole buying selling process would be easy and I would be looked after. Utter ****e.
> Paying more doesn't mean better so I would consider the likes of Purple Bricks next time .


I agree, you may get a duff estate agent handling your transaction but I certainly would not go with purplebricks. Not in this locality. I dread to think how they would have handled our purchase or one with any kind of problems that can result. At least with a reputable firm you know they will have a local office of bods who will have at least some experience in the game.


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## Marve (Jul 5, 2013)

I put a couple of offers in on a Purple Bricks listed house when I was house hunting in late 2017. The property was listed as "offers in excess of £550k" so we put our first offer in at £535k thinking we would finish around the £550k mark. It took a week, during which we had no contact from Purple Bricks or the seller for that to then be declined, but with no feedback as to what he would accept. So we spent another week badgering for some information, finally spoke to the local agent who told me it just had to be in excess of £550k, he wouldn't accept anything under. So we went back with an offer of £555k. Another week passed with no response and then that was declined. So we spent then another week chasing the local agent and the seller to find out what his number was as we had put in an offer that we believed met his criteria and then they came back and said he wants £570k. So we walked away.

So our experience was incredibly frustrating as we felt the seller didn't have a clue (he was an old chap selling to downsize and free up some money for his kids) and the local agent had no incentive to understand a) what the seller really wanted and b) to bring the two sides together.


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## great gonzo (Nov 4, 2010)

Interesting comments lads. 

Gonz


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## Brad-ST (Nov 17, 2013)

My parents sold through purple bricks last year, they didn’t have a problem selling, but the chain was a bit of a pain (people down the chain arguing over who pays for what) so they were chasing purple bricks for weeks for updates and no one really knew what was going on. I think it was more the buyers further down the chain being unreasonable on exchange and moving dates that’s made it a pain.


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## great gonzo (Nov 4, 2010)

No chain my end so hopefully will not complicate too much. 
Tbh I’m going off the idea of purple bricks. 

Gonz.


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## slimjim (Mar 22, 2007)

great gonzo said:


> No chain my end so hopefully will not complicate too much.
> Tbh I'm going off the idea of purple bricks.
> 
> Gonz.


When we sold my father in laws house we went with a local company . The advice was you don't need all the i's dotted and t's crosses so go for a cheap local lad. 
It worked out well for us


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## Marve (Jul 5, 2013)

If you think the house is in a desirable location, will be keenly priced and will be straight forward for a buyer, then Purple Bricks should be fine. If not, then the expertise of a proper estate agent, should help you sell it quicker (and for a better price which may offset the Purple Bricks "saving").


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## GP Punto (May 29, 2007)

Heard of one bad example from Purple Bricks and one great one.

Great example was next door neighbours house was sold within 24 hours at the advertised price. I asked them if that meant that they possibly could have obtained a higher price if they had waited, they said they hadnt thought about that.

The bad example was a house being sold, prospective buyers were sent around, parents and three teenage kids arrived. They looked around the house seperately.

A couple of days later the seller noticed that some small items had gone missing, jewellery, bunch of keys, sunglasses. Estate agents had not verified the buyers address.


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## Taxboy (Aug 23, 2006)

Like everything, there will be good and bad. If you can haggle the commission down with a local agent I would say go with them for the following
1. You can go in and speak f2f over any problems with the sale
2. They have an incentive to actually sell the property I.e. no sale no fee as opposed to PB who only need to sign you up
3. If the bricks & mortar agent turns out to be totally useless you can change agents at no cost. 

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