| TheHouseShop | Purple Bricks | |
|---|---|---|
| Type: | Property Marketplace | Online Estate Agent |
| Covers: | Sales, Lettings, Products and Services | Sales & Lettings |
| Service: | Free property advertising | "hybrid" online agency service |
| Fees: |
Unlimited free advertising for estate agents, landlords and private sellers |
£798.00 inc VAT OR £1,158 in some London postcodes |
| EPC: | Optional Extra £79.99 | Included in price |
| Photographs: |
Upload your own or order professional photography for £64.99 |
Included in price |
| Floor Plan: | Create your own or order for £64.99 | Included in price |
| Advertise on: | TheHouseShop.com, Home.co.uk, Nestoria, Trovit & many more | Rightmove, Zoopla & Prime Location |
| Marketing Boost: | Targeted Google & Facebook ad campaigns | Rightmove Premium Display |
*Based on the average UK house price of £288,000 and typical estate agent commission of 1.5%
Purple Bricks are a “hybrid” estate agent in the UK, combining elements of an online-only service with elements of a high street agency service to help people sell and let property online.
An online estate agent offers a fixed cost, affordable service for anyone looking to sell or let their property. They are significantly cheaper than the traditional high street estate agency and act as a middle ground between the DIY approach of a private house sale and the comprehensive service of a high street agent.
Online agents can promote your property on the major portals, including Rightmove and Zoopla, create your property advert, take professional photographs on your home, create a floor plan, and be on hand to help guide you through the selling or letting process. If you are using an online agent to sell or let your property, you will need to communicate with interest buyers/tenants and conduct viewings yourself – although some online agents will offer a viewing service for an added fee.
Traditional estate agents charge customers using a commission structure, where they will typically take 1.5% of the agreed sales price as their fee. A homeowner selling a house at the average UK property price of £288,000 would expect to pay £4,320 in estate agent’s fees.
Purple Bricks, on the other hand, charge a fixed, up-front cost, with nothing more to pay upon completion of the sale. Purple Bricks’ typical fee is £665 + VAT, except for in some London postcodes where they charge a higher rate of £965 + VAT.
High street estate agents only operate within typical working hours, whereas Purplebricks are open for business 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. In fact, Purple Bricks claim that 65% of their business activity takes place when traditional estate agents are closed.
With a high street estate agent, you will have to sign a contract with the agency which can end up tying you into an ineffective service. However, with Purple Bricks there are no contracts to sign and there is no tie-in period, giving you much more flexibility if your circumstances change.
Even with the increasing popularity of online and hybrid agents like Purplebricks, there will always be demand for the traditional high street estate agency service. Homeowners with little time on their hands and no desire to spend any of their time and effort handling the sale of their property will most likely stick with a high street estate agent. These homeowners are happy to pay a higher price tag for the convenience of a comprehensive service.
Purple Bricks are a “hybrid” estate agent, meaning that they combine elements of the traditional high street estate agent and an online-only estate agent to give you the best of both worlds!
Unlike some online agents, Purple Bricks have a team of dedicated local Property Experts who cover the whole of the UK and have detailed knowledge of the local property market in their area. Your local property expert will visit your property and carry out a free professional valuation to make sure that you price your property correctly for a quick sale.
Some online agents will ask customers to create their own property advert, floor plan and photographs, but Purplebricks’ Local Property Experts will take care of all of this for you, reducing the amount of time and effort you need to spend managing your sale.
Purple Bricks are one of a few online agents to be open for business 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Meaning customers can book viewings, review offers and agree a sale or let at any time, day or night. Some other online agents will only operate within typical working hours, which can be frustrating for both buyers and sellers.
Purple Bricks will also assist sellers and landlords when negotiating with potential tenants or buyers, helping them to achieve the best possible price. This can be extremely useful for inexperienced homeowners who are not as confident with the sales or lettings process.
If you want to find out more detail about the differences between different online agents, then you can use this simple free tool to compare online estate agents and find the perfect fit for your home.
Selling your home privately is not the same as selling with an online estate agent. The main difference between a private sale and selling with an online agent is that private sellers cannot advertise their properties on Rightmove or Zoopla. Both these portals will only accept property listings which are being represented by an estate agent, therefore private sellers are not allowed to advertise their properties directly.
If you want your home to appear on both Rightmove and Zoopla then you should use an online or “hybrid” agent like PurpleBricks. However, if you want to sell your home privately (i.e. without the help of an estate agent, whether online or high street) you should use a DIY or private house sales service who will market your property to thousands of buyers and tenants, but will not advertise on Rightmove or Zoopla.
If you are unsure about the different routes to market and don’t know if you should be using a high street estate agent, online agent or private sales service, then this How To Sell Your Home guide will tell you everything you need to know!
Purple Bricks advertise their clients’ properties on all the major property portals including Rightmove, Zoopla and Prime Location. They also advertise on PropertyNews.com, PropertyPal.com and s1Homes.com.
They also promote some of their properties on the company’s social media platforms with a weekly #PropertyOfTheWeek hastag on Twitter.
Purple Bricks offer a fixed cost service where customers pay an up-front fee with nothing more to pay upon completion.
Customers can sell their property with Purple Bricks for a fixed fee of £798 including VAT.
However there is a higher fee of £1,158 including VAT for properties located in certain London postcodes. You can check if your property is located in one of the higher fee postcodes using Purple Bricks Price Checker.
Customers who use Purple Bricks to sell their properties make an average saving of £4,158 per customer, when compared to the cost of selling with a high street agent.
If you own a high end property, then you could save an even larger amount by using a hybrid or online agent. For example, if you are selling a property worth £1million, you would expect to pay £15,000 to a traditional estate agent in commission fees.
When you compare this to the Purple Bricks fee of £798, you would make a saving of over £14,000!
Purple Bricks was launched in April 2014 and is now the 4th biggest estate agency group in the country. The company was founded by brothers Kenny and Michael Bruce, who decided to move into the online agency market after many years running a successful traditional estate agency in the Midlands.
Michael and Kenny began working on the development of Purple Bricks full time in October 2011, and they started with a limited launch in the South Coast of England but have now expanded across the country and have recently entered the lettings market.
Chief executive and co-founder, Michael Bruce, has said that they have ambitions to expand into overseas markets like the US and Australia where traditional agency fees are high.
Purple Bricks was the first online estate agent to float on the stock market, with a valuation of £240 million. The company has raised tens of million from private investors with prominent fund manager Neil Woodford buying a 30% stake in 2014. Capita chief executive, Paul Pindar, also made a significant investment into the company, and the company has raised over £58 million from selling shares to institutional investors.
Since floating on the stock market, revenues have risen to £7.2 million from £800,000 in the 6 months to October 31st 2015. Pre-tax losses also climbed to £6.4 million from £2.5 million in the same period of the previous year.
The company’s market share is also growing, rising from 43% in April 2015 to 60% in October 2015.
Since floating on the stock market in mid-December last year, Purple Bricks share price has experienced a bit of a rollercoaster ride.
The company floated with a share price of 100p per share, but in January 2016 their share price had dropped significantly to 75.0 per share.
Almost immediately after trading started on the Alternative Investment Market (AIM), Purple Bricks ended the first day down 7 per cent at 93p per share, perhaps showing a lack of confidence from investors. However things are looking brighter for Purple Bricks as just 3 weeks after their share price dropped to 75p per share, they have seen significant turnaround with their share price hitting a high of 106.5p in early February.
The positive momentum came shortly after the company announced its first set of figures for the City and it seems that investors have reacted positively to the first set of results.
PurpleBricks have launched a multi-million pound advertising campaign, with regional and national ads on television, radio, online and in print.
The PurpleBricks TV advert features two men who claim to be the Bruce brothers who founded the company, however property industry blogs and forums were quick to point out that these imposters are in fact actors and not the Bruce brothers themselves.
Purple Bricks put an emphasis on good customer service and have repeatedly championed their 5 star TrustPilot rating, with an average rating of 9.4 out of 10 from over 4500 individual TrustPilot reviews.
The Purple Bricks website contain short video profiles of customers who have used the company to sell or let their homes, as well as traditional written reviews and testimonials.
Website: www.purplebricks.com
Phone number: 0800 810 8008
