Purplebricks banked more than £18m in fees for thousands of homes it did not sell last year according to this morning’s Daily Telegraph.
It says the agency withdrew 21,380 listings in 2019 as market jitters forced many buyers and sellers to stay put.
The paper cites housing market data firm TwentyCi as the source of the figures.
Purplebricks is quoted in the article saying: “We are very confident our customers understand our upfront fee model and know it gives them a much higher chance of selling, for a much lower cost.”
The agency is also quoted as suggesting that it had saved its successful customers over £150m in fees they would otherwise have paid to traditional agents.
You can see the full Telegraph story here, although it may be behind a paywell for many readers.
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No different than paying a lawyer and losing the case.
Paying a doctor and they misdiagnose you
Paying a mechanic and after he strips the engine realises a bigger problem exists
Paying for your child’s education and they fail final exams
Paying a personal trainer and not seeing results
Paying a high street estate agent upfront marketing fees and they don’t sell your property
Everyone knows when they engage a service there is a possibility that result they want won’t materialise.
You didn't think this post through first, did you Dave?
Slick name “Property Pundit”
More like buying an auto trader ad and your car not selling.
Worst comparisons ever!
It's actually very different to all those mentioned.
I hope you and Purple Bricks well together though
How are they very different Pete? They are different industries with clients paying for a service but don’t receive the desired result. To clarify I work in tech sales for a US MNC, and we don’t give our software away for free - do we have customers who call up after 6 months and say the software is useless and feel they were mis sold - yes. But do we have tens of thousands of happy customers yes.
Unless you use an Estate Agent.
Which, of course, they aren't.
Hardly News TBH - its not like it comes as a surprise.
shame there was no mention of the homes 'listed'' so we could get an accurate sense of how many were withdrawn. 10%? 50%? who knows. Such a number would help 'traditional' agent explain a fuller picture to sellers.
£18m of PURE COMMISERY
PB is nothing more than a route for FSBO to access and advertise on Rightmove.
As well as an HMRC tax avoidance scheme - no different to Uber.
Well it was 21,380 withdrawals that I reported to Vinjeru MKandawire senior reporter at The Daily Telegraph, for my story that ran under her name today in the Daily Telegraph- though a little surprised we ended up with 18 Million.
As Purplebricks charge £999 or £1,399 upfront plus £X for viewings. So 21,380 withdrawn in 2019 x £999 = £21,358,620 of fee retained by Purplebricks, add in some £1,399 and £X for viewings you are going to get nearer to mid £24M plus retained. Then of course they ceased trading in USA & Australia in 2019, so how many vendors lost their upfront fees, I think it could be thousands, so maybe we are at £28M.
No idea why the regulators do not put a stop to this? RoPA want to get teeth and regulate - our friends in Wales NTSEAT do not seem to want to know and the NAEA have no comment. Much talk of needing to bring professional standards in - but wholesale damage to credibility of the sector taking place.
I see 2 more online/hybrids are looking for crowdfunding - no wonder the public are sick of the industry. Silver lining. Purplebricks share price graph over last 5 years now resembles a 'Purple Dinosaur' started at 95.5p peaked at nearly a fiver in 2017 and traded at 85p yesterday down from 107p the day before. Vic Darvey I feel is for high jump and not an Olympic one.
(Two Andrew Stanton Proptech-PR.com Dinosaur stories in Daily Telegraph in 6-days - the other being Countrywide - 'failure to adopt proptech ... has left it a financially wounded dinosaur ' will there be a third one next week and who might it be?)
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