Just thought I would ask, is this purplebricks what it's cracked up to be.
as last year, we put our property up for sale, we were quoted around £8,500 to sell with a local estate agent.
This company does it for £798 all in including photos and epc if needed.
I know some of you people on here do properties, so is there a catch, or is it right.
cheers, greg.

p.s. we pulled out on the 14 day cooling off period, as things were moving too fast, and we had no where to go.

Don't know anybody that's used them but I'm struggling to understand how they can do it so cheap. Is it because lawyers have had the monopoly on conveyancing dod years and it should be that expensive?
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Well, I've read there website, and I think the gist is, you do the work, and they guide you.
if I'm not mistaken.
Thanks for the reply.

That would worry me. There's so much small print that could end up losing you your house. Got - 2017 SDV8 Autobiography in Loire Blue
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I thought they were an agency service, I think they do have in house solicitors but I would expect that it was a bolt on extra. I wouldn't buy a house using a conveyancer nor would I sell one using a conveyancer. I would use a reputable firm of solicitors for the legal side and a decent agent for the selling side.

Basically all they do is list your property on the web pages for you. But at the end of the day that is not what estate agency is about. The basics of agency is matching properties you have for sale to people who have just sold theirs or have just put them on the market.

I have just sold a house through an agent to one of their clients who had just sold through them where what we were selling wasn't on the radar of the chap because it wasn't part of his search on the net. The agent thought of putting it to them, as part of the matching they do and hey presto.

There is nothing wrong with the online companies, they do what they say on the tin, but I personally would only ever use them for the listings service only, but being a RICS member i have a little more of a handle on it than most, so have the confidence to do that. That said I don't do that as I rely on local agents to put in the leg work, I still don't know what some of the high street agencies do for their money. I wouldn't ever pay more than 1% and currently pay 0.7% for our local agent to market, match out, find a buyer and manage the sale which I still feel is a little steep, but hey ho.

Personally I think a good local agent is just about worth their money, one of those which has been in the area for ever, knows he lie of the land and has a few branches, rather than one of the national brands.....

My advice would be:
Choose an agent you like
Agree a fixed price for the service
Find a good solicitor and agree a fixed price for doing the legals, as you will most likely be buying at the same time as selling then you could try and negotiate a good deal on both.

Sit back and let them do the legwork.  There is nothing that can't be fixed with a hammer😜😜
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Just sold a property through Purplebricks , they do the viewings , list the property on main sites , rightmove , zoopla , etc etc , set up your viewing account online where you log in and see what any buyer thinks of your property , all it cost me was the £798 ... Although they do offer you a lawyer , but I choose to use our own family lawyer whose speciality is property ...

Only other outlay was a Home Report ... House sold within 8 weeks 👍👍👍 ====================================

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The estate agents cost doesn't include any of the cost of conveyancing this will bin addition and can be completely independent. The agents generally charge a % of the property sale price, potentially plus vat and manage the viewings I.e bookings and accompaniment. They then work as a go between when offers come in, between the buyers and vendors.

The online agents vary in what they do from marketing the property online on the likes of right move, to booking viewings etc. If you go online you take more responsibility for pricing the property and negotiations. Again dependent on which one you use. At the end of the day you still get to choose whether to accept an offer or not.

When a sale is agreed, until contracts are exchanged no one is legally bound and that is a long time after a sale price is agreed and all the legal work is finalised. Unless you exchange contracts via your solicitors, no one will loose their home P.S. This doesn't apply to Scotland!

I think that firms like purple bricks etc will become more prominent in future years, but as northern monkey says the high street agents, if they're any good, can also provide an excellent service and be worth their money. I wouldn't rule out online tough if your prepared to invest some time yourself.

Also just to say I don not work for and am not affiliated with any estate agents or with any online agents.

I never had to do anything regarding the sale of the property the Purplebricks agent dealt with everything pictures , listing , viewings etc , every now and again he would give me a courtesy call to say how things were going .... 👍 ====================================

"Open Mike Night " sounded like a lot of fun until i found out i was going to an Autopsy

Last edited by JOKER on 29th Aug 2016 10:46pm. Edited 1 time in total

not purple bricks but we used an online agency, cost us a flat £350 (gone up to 600 i think now) but they were fine. I did the photos, much better than they could take, I was happy doing all the viewings as i knew my house and the area better than the agent, but the most important thing, the agent put it up on right move. Thats where the big number of buyers are looking. I'd never pay a normal agent ever again, but be prepared to do some of the leg work yourself. First time FFRR owner

What great replys, and thank you. My concern was, the amount of money it was costing to move.
obviously if I can save some I will.
Cheers lads, I have a lot to think about.
Greg.

Mines up with Purple Bricks at the moment.

The price is right, but they did quote me something extra for them to do the viewings - IIRC something like £150 one time fee - but happy enough to show people around myself.

Local agents wanted 1.5% +VAT - a dodgy way to operate in my book as VAT wan't mentioned until right at the end, even though it was clear from the outset that it was our personal residence & therefore blindingly obvious that we would need to pay the VAT.

Traditional agencies can't really justify what they are charging IMHO - there may be a few people who still walk into branches and like to walk out with glossy brochures, but I'm happy with it being on RightMove & Zoopla and saving over £10k

Remember it also depends where you are in the country.

inside the M25 a listing on the main property websites is probably all that is needed, but as you've further out the areas people search using the main websites becomes too specific to maybe pick up properties which aren't necessarily in their initial radius but may be suitable, which is where the matching process a decent agent will provide can be valuable.

I do tend to agree that the costs of some agents is pretty unjustifiable, as more and more of the online "agents" come to the fore then i tend to find that the old stalwarts can be more flexible on costs than in the past. Near us there are several high street agents who are now starting to adopt fixed price sale packages rather than a percentage, I do think that the market is slowly starting to react to the online providers, though obviously with the costs of maintaining a high street presence the local agents will have some way to go to keep their costs down.

A few months back had to decide whether to go direct to Rightmove or not, it was possible as we would have been on the commercial side of the business but we decided against it for several reasons, direct cost was one of them, it didn't seem as cheap as it should have been.

Another issue to remember is that a good agent will write you particulars, well. and make sure that they comply with the relevant laws governing the sale of property. I am not sure how the online agencies stand should they misdescribe or misrepresent something? Are they governed by the Property Misdescriptions Act? Who does the valuations for them, what qualifications do they have? Is the person, their "local property expert" NAEA or RICS accredited who will be able to give a professional opinion on value, otherwise its like having your mum value your house...... Nice but with no basis in reality.

Local to me there was a property for sale with Purple Bricks for 8 months, initially on the market for £600,000 which i presume was what the owners valued it at and what PB accepted marketing it at. It sat on the market with minimal interest was reduced to £550,000 where there was slightly more interest but it still didn't sell. It eventually sold closer to 500,000..... which was where the true value lay, and was what the guys with the local knowledge (incl me) thought it would be price wise.

anyhow you pays your money takes your choice..... But if you do chose to sell online, then personally I would get several local guys round too to give you a steer on price and the current market, there is nothing worse than being in the situation above and chasing the price downwards, it makes you look desperate and after a period the property starts to go stale and attract less interest, and you could end up selling for less than if you had priced it correctly in the first place.  There is nothing that can't be fixed with a hammer😜😜
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@ Alistair, the estate agents fees to buy and sell was between 25k to 30k, that included stamp duty and removals. we paid an upfront fee of £400 for photos and epc, which we have never received, i think for a big high street estate agent, thats bad.
25 to 30k is an extension to me, and i know you cant buy and sell for nothing, if i can reduce that pricei will be happy.

@ nmj, high street agents are good in they have people on waiting lists for certain criteria of property. they had lined up 10 veiwings before it hit the net. but i do believe most people including us, do search the net with certain criteria of property.
there are a lot more properties on the net this year that match what we are looking for.
i will go in with my eyes wide open, and certainly consider pb.
thanks for all the straight and excellent advise, as you say its a big thing to get wrong.
greg

I agree with Mr Northernmonkeyjones, in some areas all that's needed is a 'for sale' sign. Vancouver and Toronto are like that. In saner places, you may want an agent to ensure you're getting the best deal. But it would be incumbent on the agent to justify both his/her efforts and charges. I wouldn't want to pay someone if all I got was someone nailing a sign into the front lawn.

I've come back to say in the end we went back to the estate agent, we sold in 5 days of it being on the net.
a lot of rumours going round, this part of the country, a lot of solicitors won't deal with purple bricks, as a lot of people are not getting all the information correct.
so wifey and me decided best stick with it as we don't have a personal solicitor we could use.
I may not be on here for a while, as new place has got to be gutted, to bring it into the 21st century
thank you to all that contributed, it's great to hear other experiences and points of view.
Cheers Greg