Purple Bricks – Should i use PurpleBricks?

Purple Bricks who are they?

Purple Bricks is an online estate agent for the housing market & commercial properties too. Purple Bricks is also known as a hybrid estate agent and does not operate like your traditional estate agent.

These types of online estate agent carry out the bulk of the house selling process work online. Their aim is to harness the latest technology to bring house sellers and buyers together to transact online.

They are a market leader amongst the top 10 online estate agents in the UK.

Why should I use Purple Bricks over high street Agents?

Selling a house through Purplebricks could save you money, however, please read this blog carefully. They don’t use estate agents like your traditional method. They call the people you physically meet and deal with “Local Property Experts”.

They do not have local offices like conventional high street estate agents do. They organise everything from one central office by phone or email.

They market your house online, using property online property search portals. They do not use techniques like window displays and newspaper advertisement as your old traditional agents do.

Purple Bricks charges selling a house on a fixed fee basis, as do many other online estate agents. Traditional estate agents usually charge for selling your house a percentage of the selling price.

Purple Bricks’ basic fixed fee for London is £1,399, which includes VAT. For the rest of the UK, it is £999, including VAT. You will have to re-check the fee at the point of entering into a contract as the fee structure may change.

You may attract other Purple Bricks fees in addition to the standard fixed fees for add-ons.

They offer all the usual agency services like inventories, conveyancing, survey, and property valuation.

The central support team can usually manage all the main tasks that drive the operating costs down, enabling them to offer attractive fixed fees for selling or renting. The online reviews on Trustpilot seem to suggest they generally do a good job.

The chief executive has done a reasonable job of taking a big chunk of the market share of the estate agency market which means the company must be doing something right.

What are the advantages of Selling using Purple Bricks?

Selling a house using Purple Bricks is simple, straightforward cheaper. First, they will put you in touch with a local property expert. So, you will not have to deal with an estate agent.

A property expert is usually a local person who knows the local market and area well.

With online agents, you will have to show any potential buyer or renter around the property. Now due to the easing of the COVID-19 rules, accompanied viewings are possible once again.

Most online agents don’t seem to offer the same comprehensive service as Purple Bricks, which is what the positive reviews suggest.

Selling a house online seems to be a more modern, 21st century way of doing business.

Your typical real estate agent cannot compete with an online estate agent on the selling fee or conveyancing fee online agents offer as a package.

Purple Bricks’ fixed fee rates are cheaper than the estate agent’ commission in most cases. They are estate agents, local and online agents who are more affordable than Purple Bricks. Do they offer the same level of service?

Purple Bricks, in some cases, maybe an expensive choice, depending on the package you have selected. The add-ons can drive up the cost, which may work out more than some other online agents.

One of the main reasons online estate agents is capturing the traditional estate agent lion share of the business is very simple.

They have a vast online audience when selling or renting a property for a property owner. This means the property owner will sell or rent much quicker, and the sale price or rental value will be achieved.

PurpleBricks Reviews

Customer reviews can be an incredibly useful indicator of any business if the customer reviews are organic. Positive reviews or negative reviews all help towards decision making before using any online portals.

You shouldn’t expect any online agency to have a 5-star Reviews, you always get some negative reviews in all businesses.

Purple bricks houses for sale

Purple bricks houses for sale covers England, Wales & Scotland and you can search by town or Postcode. The search result will also show all types of property including land. You can also search for recent properties sold.

You can also see the properties available for rent and this is particularly useful for landlords. You can use this to search the rental value of your property if required.

Alternative Real Estate agents to consider:

PurpleBricks Share Price – Company Background

PurpleBricks share price has taken a beating in the last few years. Let’s have a look at the company background.

Purple Bricks was founded in 2014 by brothers Michael and Kenny Bruce. Both brothers have extensive experience in the UK property market.

They accounted for about 75 per cent of the UK’s online estate agency sector. Many have accredited the Chief executive during this period for doing an excellent job.

Its online agents model is simply a hybrid agent taking advantage of centralising everything reducing operating costs. This way of doing business has seen the company mushroom into one of the largest estate agents in the UK today.

They list properties for a fixed fee of around £999. This is the fraction of the cost a high street agent would charge.

However, high street agents in the UK typically ask for payment only if they sell the property. No sale, No fee!

Purplebricks and other online agents, the fee is paid upfront in advance, however, an online estate agent will generally charge a lower fixed fee.

The company has been under the spotlight, as its annual results showed losses of £52m. Purplebricks Share price has seen 75 percent wiped off since its high in 2017.

However, like many online companies who knows Purplebricks share price could bounce back?

In May, the co-founder, Michael Bruce, abruptly quit. The same month, the company announced more bad news when it shut its Australian branch.

It also announced it was withdrawing from the US property market two months later. This was only about 2 years after starting operations in the US.

They announced that the decision to exit the two businesses, the US and Australia, has “allowed us to refocus on our UK and Canada businesses.”

They are not the only property agent struggling in the UK. According to a recent accountancy firm Moore Stephens survey, 27% of estate agents are in “financial distress”.

FAQ

Could online agencies like Purplebricks upset the UK estate agency market?

Charlie Huggins examines the rise of online estate agents like PurpleBrick, and the potential impact they could have on real estate investment trusts (REITs)

Will the photos used by online estate agents be professional?

Will the photos used by online estate agents be professional?

Online estate agents use pictures taken by professional photographers just like their high street counterparts. A quick glance at these websites shows just how poor some of the images used by the online agents they recommend are.

With high street agents, you could choose from extra virtual tours and 360-degrees images.

You need to include the cost of photography when choosing an agent. Some agencies might add additional costs for their services. It’s important for us to include professional photos in our home marketing packages because we think they help sell houses faster.

How many people use online estate agents?

At the moment, online estate agents only have a small share of the estate agency market, though this looks likely to grow.

Online estate agents had a market share of 7.9%, based on the number of exchanges to take place in the fourth quarter of 2019, according to a report by the data consultancy TwentyCI.

The data agency also reports that online estate agents are most commonly used by people selling lower-value properties and homes in the Midlands and northern regions of the UK.

Do online estate agents overvalue properties?

Just like any realtor, an online agent finds houses for their clients at the lowest prices available. In fact, we’ve found that some estate agents regularly overestimate property values by up to 40 per cent – leaving them vulnerable to losing out if house prices fall.

Which? looked into the agencies heavily reducing (by more than 5%) property prices in order to sell, as we think that this indicates homes being listed with an inflated initial asking price.

Among online realtors, we found this practise was less common than for traditional high street estate agents

On average, online real estate agents sold houses 38 days sooner than their conventional counterparts. In addition, among homes listed through conventional agents, 19 percent saw an average reduction of at least 5%, compared to just 13 percent of listings handled exclusively online.

As one of the largest online estate agent – made heavy reductions on the smallest proportion of its properties, while EasyProperty heavily-reduced 34% of its properties.

EasyProperty says it has sold hundreds of new-build homes across Australia at affordable prices for years. Out of the properties that were sold for private clients, agents claim they’ve been able to sell less than half of them.

Author: Amanda Goldsmith  Date: 2nd of January 2024

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