“There is a problem with PurpleBricks ......”
5 Star Review
Jul 22,2019
By:
'robin'
Jul 22,2019
Branch: Solihull, Suite 7 First Floor, Cranmore Place, Cranmore Drive
Services: Sales (as a Vendor)
Sold price: £650000
Would you recommend?: Yes
Postcode: GU15
Branch: Solihull, Suite 7 First Floor, Cranmore Place, Cranmore Drive
Sales (as a Vendor)
Sold price: £650000
Postcode: GU15
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There is a problem with PurpleBricks [PB]. If you are trying to work out should you use them, the reviews are either very bad or very good. Allagents has 200+ reviews with a 1.2* average. Trustpiliot is 89% excellent, while compareonlineagents concludes that “a local agent makes all the difference”. In addition, PB themselves lead with the strapline of “commerisary” emphasising the importance of low cost. I want to sell my house. Sure, I want to save money, but selling my house is most important. Despite my uncertainty. Despite the lack of impartial analysis. I decided to go with PB. Let me first tell you why and then let me tell you how it went.
Why did I go with PurpleBricks?
1. I live in small town. 2 years ago, I researched estate agent quality. I visited each of the office 4 high street brands, told them my brother was moving into town and asked them to provide me with housing information for houses that were like mine. I was uniformly disappointed with their office professionalism and follow up
2. The agents are closed on Saturday afternoon and Sunday
3. My house is largely undifferentiated. 5 bedrooms. Estate. 1990s build. If it was going to sell, it was going to sell mostly on price
4. A local house sold with PB. During my inquiry he declared himself satisfied with the service
5. Each PB agent has a maximum number of unsold houses they can hold in their portfolio. I was comfortable that this provided incentive to succeed with properties
We invited the PB agent for interview. Robert Lapthorne was knowledgeable about the area. His price suggestion met our (researched) expectation. He had over 10 years' experience selling in the area with Highstreet brands. He at least met the capability of the local traditionals so we decided to give him a go. We selected the sale and viewing offering, but initially declined legal support.
What was the result?
Photography and house plans were concluded within 4 days and ready for web viewing on rightmove within 7. As the photographer said, PB have some of the best back office systems in the game. Note that this professional is outsourced consultant, so he only takes photographs that were very good (perhaps unlike local staff with a camera in local agents?) we were not waiting for ages before a local estate agent staff was available. Additionally, the photo day was dull. We took a photo of the house 2 days later and the back-office systems came into their own – we had it loaded up on rightmove in 20 minutes.
The house sold in a week. This detracts from the quality of this review. A more normal trajectory would have been more convincing. However, the agent had just sold a house to a client of his and knew they were still looking (this service is usually considered an advantage of the traditionals).
How did the transaction proceed?
Legal: We decided to use the PB legal representative. For us, this was a good choice. Again, they have a great backoffice system and our filing system is strong. So within a week, we had all the paperwork and were good to go. Yes, it was hard work for a week, but all communications were electronic and tracked and outstanding tasks were clearly documented on the sale dashboard.
Representative: I'd like to have something bad to say about the PB team. I'm providing a balanced review and it seems like I should. However, Robert Lapthorne and his team were simply everything we needed; professional, competent and courteous. Moreover, they were available after hours and – shock horror – at weekends! I still do not understand why this is not the case with the traditionals.
Chain: Our chain was 4 houses long. Turned out to be a small nightmare, with multiple delays. Action only complete after my threat to delay completion if exchange was not concluded within 24 hours. However, I put some small research into causes and do believe these rested with the legal team at the base of the chain (not PB). Throughout our PB estate agent was in contact, clear about the problems and helpful throughout. To the extent that I struggle to understand how I was able to receive such good service given the fees I paid.
Purchase: Our purchase involves a change to boundaries. For this reason, we went with a local lawyer as the high-speed predictable process driven nature of our PB legal support might not have been fit for purpose.
Conclusion: We sold our house with PB. The transaction was for a commodity dwelling. PB and legal support in backoffice systems is strong. I am capable of asserting my desire for support when needed and providing the input they need through their quality IT system. Our PB estate agent provided support not only with our sale but throughout the chain of the sale. I believe that if you are reasonably confident and competent and are selling a non-unique house then PurpleBricks is a great choice for you and I unhesitantly recommend them to you – despite my initial concerns.
However, I recommend that:
1. You still criticaclly review the quality of your agent. Ours was experienced and good. It does not matter how good PB is, a bad agent will get you a bad result
2. If you are neither confident nor competent, you might like to consider how much you will have to do on your own. I'm speaking here of a pretty low threshold, most of you reading this on the web will not have a problem. But little old lady/man in the 80th year putting their house on the market after their partner has died … possibly not
3. If you are selling a unique expensive house, consider how important intangibles will be to the price. It may be that the bespoke experience you would get with a traditional estate-agent would be worthwhile. I think this may be true, my wife comments that for the amount you pay and the quality of service that PB provides, she'd give them a go for 3 months regardless first.
Fundamentally, this review states that today the internet and rightmove facilitates your sale. PB simply provides a great interface with this and supports this with great quality staff. Possibly PB's greatest weakness is its focus on price given the quality of its service. Highly recommended.
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