Purple Bricks up for sale after £20m losses

[Frimley111R]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-64678984

[vulture1]

"They're not like other estate agents"

Yeah other ones make money

[LordHaveMurci]

vulture1 said:

"They're not like other estate agents"

Yeah other ones make money

[classicaholic]

The iamsold (modern method of auction scammers) website is down for "update" over the weekend - not the time to update a house selling web site I would have thought! Hopefully they are going bust and putting an end to this modern method of auction!

[Tango13]

EmailAddress said:

Remind me what Estate Agents actually do though?

We would like to tell you but the problem is, well, erm, we don't know either.

Sorry

[av185]

They are stting Bricks.

[GroundEffect]

Tried to buy a house for sale on Purplebricks.

Holy crap it was an awful experience.

[Diderot]

GroundEffect said:

Tried to buy a house for sale on Purplebricks.

Holy crap it was an awful experience.

Yep, us too. We eventually pulled the plug. They were utter buffoons. We call them Burple Pricks.

[baptistsan]

GroundEffect said:

Tried to buy a house for sale on Purplebricks.

Holy crap it was an awful experience.

Try selling one Their recommended solicitors are just as bad too.
Glad it wasn't my decision to go with them

[mac96]

GroundEffect said:

Tried to buy a house for sale on Purplebricks.

Holy crap it was an awful experience.

That was us too, in 2021. We just ignored everything selling through PB after a couple of 'experiences'.

[sutoka]

Looks like the shareholders are stting bricks

I've honestly never heard of anyone doing virtual evaluations and virtual viewings. How you could buy a house from a photo or video is beyond me.

[Sixpackpert]

sutoka said:

Looks like the shareholders are stting bricks

I've honestly never heard of anyone doing virtual evaluations and virtual viewings. How you could buy a house from a photo or video is beyond me.

They do in person viewings of properties.

[lord summerisle]

baptistsan said:

GroundEffect said:

Tried to buy a house for sale on Purplebricks.

Holy crap it was an awful experience.

Try selling one Their recommended solicitors are just as bad too.
Glad it wasn't my decision to go with them

When we where buying our place last year, someone further up the chain was with purple bricks & their solicitors. the solicitor's were "hacked" in nov '21 and completion date was set back about 2 months.

[andy43]

Has anybody managed to get a viewing yet? We’re thinking of offering 18 mill but we do need to see it first…

[deeps]

I used 'Doorsteps' to sell a couple of years ago, the total fee was £99, I did the write-up and photo's myself and the property went live on Rightmove, and I then did the viewings myself. I found the whole process simple and effective.

Just did a quick search to see how they are doing now and I see they've gone bust too.

[dingg]

Sold ours through purple bricks 3 years ago, no real issues tbh, although their recommendation of conveyancing firm were absolutely ste and dragged things out, no onward chain and a cash buyer too.

[gotoPzero]

EmailAddress said:

Remind me what Estate Agents actually do though?

[Gareth79]

deeps said:

I used 'Doorsteps' to sell a couple of years ago, the total fee was £99, I did the write-up and photo's myself and the property went live on Rightmove, and I then did the viewings myself. I found the whole process simple and effective.

Just did a quick search to see how they are doing now and I see they've gone bust too.

From what I gather, PB are ok if you do viewings, use your own conveyancer and chase between everybody. The problem is when sellers leave it all to them and presumably don't want to get involved for whatever reason (busy, lazy, perhaps think it's not their place to do so). Most decent EAs seem to have a "progression team" whose job it is to keep things moving (presumably to avoid them breaking a chain and losing their commission. PB seem to push their fixed non-refundable fee model, so they don't have an incentive to get a sale through.

[ScotHill]

andy43 said:

Has anybody managed to get a viewing yet? We’re thinking of offering 18 mill but we do need to see it first…

Just make sure you get a Letter of Comfort from the council for the en-suite FAQ they installed last year without planning permission.

[survivalist]

Gareth79 said:

From what I gather, PB are ok if you do viewings, use your own conveyancer and chase between everybody. The problem is when sellers leave it all to them and presumably don't want to get involved for whatever reason (busy, lazy, perhaps think it's not their place to do so). Most decent EAs seem to have a "progression team" whose job it is to keep things moving (presumably to avoid them breaking a chain and losing their commission. PB seem to push their fixed non-refundable fee model, so they don't have an incentive to get a sale through.

So they are charging you £1500 for a Rightmove listing? When we last sold they wanted to list us. We declined based on them not being able to reference a single property they’d sold in our area in the last year. How do their salespeople survive? Don’t seem to be making much commission.