What are the best alternatives to Purplebricks? It’s a question many people ask since Purplebricks aren’t the only online estate agent offering big savings over their high street rivals.
As a vendor, it always pays to shop around and consider multiple estate agents before deciding which one is best placed to sell your home.
That’s what we did when we sold our home. We were drawn to online estate agents after seeing what Purplebricks offered, yet we were reluctant to use them as they only offer a ‘pay upfront’ option at the time.
While it’s very cost-effective, there is risk attached to paying upfront, so we decided to look at other online agents to see which were genuine alternatives to Purplebricks.
Here’s what we found out…
(If you’re interested in what we think of Purplebricks, read our review)
Top Alternatives To Purplebricks
Estate Agent | Cheapest Package | 'No Sale, No Fee' | Our Rating | Review | Official Site |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
£999 | £1,999 | 9.6 | Read Review | Visit Website | |
£245 | From £595 | 9.2 | Read Review | Visit Website |
In fact, when we conducted our online estate agents comparison, we found that there were several online agents that, in our opinion, offer a better service overall.
Our Top-Rated Purplebricks Alternatives
#1 – Yopa
Our Rating = 9.6/10
Cheapest Package = £999
Website = https://www.yopa.co.uk/
Yopa have been pretty active advertising on TV recently so you’ve probably seen them around. Their adverts are often entertaining and adopt a ‘humour-led’ approach to get their message across, much like the Purplebricks TV adverts.
Having received significant investment from an impressive range of investors and funds, Yopa are no lightweights in the industry. In fact, we expect that they could become almost as well known as Purplebricks if their marketing budget continues to find large-scale advertising campaigns.
In terms of the services they offer, their sales packages are comparable to Purplebricks. You get the local expert, you get the ‘For Sale’ board, and you get the listings on Rightmove, Zoopla, and the like. They also do it for a fixed-fee of £999 which is £100 more than the comparable Purplebricks package.
There is also now a ‘No Sale, No Fee’ option priced at £1,999 for most areas which is an advantage over Purplebricks who offer no such option.
Our Experience With Yopa
We have used Yopa to sell our last home. We did also get valuations from high street agents and other online agents to ensure we got the best estate agent for us.
Valuation And Rightmove Listing
The local Yopa agent that came to value our home showed a good knowledge of the area, which is important. His valuation was similar to the high street agents’ and agreed with what we were thinking as well.
He also seemed to have a good understanding of marketing, which made us feel that he would be great to sell our house.
The fact that Yopa offered a ‘no sale, no fee’ price option was what ultimately convinced us that Yopa was the right estate agent to sell our home.
Our same agent who did the valuation came very soon after instruction to take stunning photos of our property. We were really impressed how well he made our property look. He was also open to let us get involved with the Rightmove listing.
This is something we wouldn’t have been able to do with a high street agent. Because we wanted our advert on the property portal to stand out, my husband wrote it himself, using his experience and knowledge of what it is like living in the house.
The agent was happy to use it, as long as he could add any details that he felt needed to be included. A happy compromise really.
One thing we really liked is that he led the Rightmove advert with a picture of the view of our garden, which is one of the best features of the house.
Most other agents tend to lead with the front of the house. This meant our advert would stand out.
He also arranged the pictures so that they simulate the house tour. His reason was that this would make it feel familiar when potential buyers come to view the house. Very sound reasoning, we found.
Viewings
Once the advert was up, we very quickly got viewing requests via the Yopa online booking system. The system also allowed us to communicate directly with interested parties, which was a real bonus for us.
Unfortunately, not everyone engaged with the system, but that’s just one of those things. What we liked is that it gave us a lot of control over the booking process, as we could put in times that weren’t suitable for us.
We did our own viewings, because we believe that a homeowner can sell their house better than an estate agent. After all, we have been living in the house and know its benefits, the estate agent only saw it twice.
Our local agent would still get involved though. He would contact anyone who booked a viewing to find out more about them and pass on the information to us. After a viewing he would get in touch with them to get feedback and again let us know.
When we got an offer, the agent would negotiate with the buyer and then submit the offer via the online system. We then could go in to either accept or reject it. But this doesn’t mean that we couldn’t talk to our agent if we needed to. He was always available for us via phone or text.
After Offer Support
Once we accepted an offer, we got passed on to the Yopa sales support team who was responsible to guide us from offer to completion. Our experience with that team wasn’t as good.
However, we have to say that we sold our house during the pandemic, when estate agents and solicitors were all in a rush to complete before the end of the stamp duty holiday.
It wasn’t really a problem for us that the support team wasn’t as good as they could have been. We had established direct communications with our buyer, which meant any issues we could solve directly. In our opinion, this is the reason we managed to push through the conveyancing process so quickly.
Maybe because we are control freaks, but we liked the fact that we could get so involved in the whole process. While it was stressful at times, it allowed us to keep taps on everything that happened and solve issues quickly.
Our experience with Yopa was great, but you have to be prepared to get involved if you go with them. If you are looking for a hands-off approach, then a high street estate agent might be a better choice.
But remember, this convenience comes at a price. And we believe that for the price we paid, we got great value for money and would recommend Yopa to anyone selling their home.
Click here to read our full Yopa review
#2 – Griffin Property
Our Rating = 9.2/10
Cheapest Package = £245
Website = https://griffinproperty.co/
Griffin Property is far from being as well known as Purplebricks, but don’t let that put you off.
They are one of the lowest cost estate agents in the UK with packages starting from just £245.
For that low price, you get a very similar service to Purplebricks free option but, unlike the Purplebricks free package this even includes a Rightmove listing. Though it should be noted your Rightmove listing will need to be renewed at an additional £50 per month after the first month.
There’s also an option to pay on completion which is something Purplebricks do not offer. With Griffin Property, that option costs £595 and includes everything you get in the upfront package.
However, for both packages, you’ll need to create your own property listing (including taking your own photos) unless you opt for the Premium Upgrade at an additional £150-£200. You’ll also need to pay an additional £50-£100 if you want a For Sale board.
That means there’s still some cost savings to be had versus the paid packages of Purplebricks but once you add everything up, the prices aren’t that much different.
Click here to read our full Griffin Property review
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#3 – eSale UK
Our Rating = 9.2/10
Cheapest Package = £695
Website =http://www.esaleuk.com
eSale UK are a really interesting alternative to Purplebricks as they offer a very similar package for less that the paid packages of Purplebricks. That includes all your viewings management and sales progression too.
But, it gets better than that as, unlike Purplebricks, the up-front fee package offered by eSale UK comes with a 30-day money-back guarantee. That means if you change your mind for any reason in the first 30 days, you can get your money back.
That essentially removes a lot of the risk that you usually take on when paying up-front and it gives the agent more of a reason to work hard in getting you some early interest in your property.
Also, whereas the fixed up-front fee is the only option Purplebricks offer, eSale UK do also provide a ‘no sale, no fee’ option too.
Click here to read our full eSale UK review
#4 – SellMyHome.co.uk
Our Rating = 8.8/10
Cheapest Package = 0.5%
Website = https://www.sellmyhome.co.uk
SellMyHome.co.uk is a really interesting proposition. Although they lack the brand recognition of some of the other top-rated online estate agents, they make up for that with their excellent customer reviews.
Whereas Purplebricks has a real mix of extremely positive and extremely negative reviews, SellMyHome.co.uk reviews are excellent everywhere you look.
In terms of pricing though, SellMyHome only offer percentage based fees. this means they’re much more like a traditional high street agent with an online presence, rather than a true online agent with the benefits they bring.
Click here to read our full SellMyHome.co.uk review
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Other Alternatives To Purplebricks
We have detailed our three top-rated alternatives to Purplebricks above. We strongly believe that at the time of writing, these, along with Purplebricks, are the best online estate agents available.
However, if you would like to see more Purplebricks alternatives, there are several other online agents worth considering.
We have conducted a thorough online estate agent comparison that ranks all of the major online agents in one easy to digest table. Use this to find your ideal agent at your ideal price.
If you are still considering high street estate agents as an alternative to Purplebricks, make sure you watch this video which shows everything that’s wrong with high street estate agents.