Purplebricks Review

Rated #2 Best Online Estate Agent

Purplebricks Review [Updated 2023] – As one of the best-known and largest online estate agents, Purplebricks have caught the attention of homeowners with their memorable TV ads and low upfront fees. 

However, we have to be honest – we didn’t like Purplebricks at all when they first arrived on the scene.

But, most of that was down to the original founders of the company. They’ve since moved on and we’ve been really impressed by what the new owners have brought.

You can read all about it in our Purplebricks review, below…

At A Glance:

Their prolific TV advertising campaign means that Purplebricks (not ‘Purple Bricks’ as some may write it) are something of a household name.

They’re certainly one of the best-known estate agents around and that should help provide some reassurance to potential buyers.

Here’s how they perform in the most important areas:

• Potential to save you thousands over high street agents
• Open 24/7 with full online account management
• You can ‘pay later’ (Pro package only) but you must use their recommended conveyancers
• 91% of their customers rated them as ‘Great’ or ‘Excellent’ (Trustpilot – November 2023)
• Hosted viewings package available for an extra £400-£500

By far the biggest appeal is the fact that Purplebricks offer a low upfront fee (From just £999 inc VAT) to sell your home, and it comes with (almost!) everything you’d expect from a normal high street estate agent.

That includes a Local Property Partner you can meet with face-to-face, a detailed property listing including photography and a floor plan, listings on Rightmove and Zoopla, plus full support through to the completion of your sale.

Perhaps the only thing missing is accompanied viewings, though these can be added on for an additional fee (around £400-£500). That isn’t a big problem for us since we are big fans of homeowners hosting their own viewings anyway.

Whenever we have sold, all our offers have come from viewings we conducted as the owners.

None came from the ones the estate agent did. Frankly, no-one can explain what it’s like to live in your home better than you!

If you did want Purplebricks to conduct your viewings for you, consider upgrading to the Pro package. It costs from £1,699 but includes accompanied viewings and an interactive 3D tour on your property listing. Plus, it unlocks the ability to take the ‘Pay Later’ option when you also use their recommended conveyancers.

Anyway, let’s look at Purplebricks a little closer…

Is Purplebricks The Best Agent For You?

Take our short 5 question quiz to find out which online estate agent is right for you:

How Do Purplebricks Compare To Other Estate Agents?

With over 27,000 estate agents in the UK alone there’s plenty of choice for those looking to buy or sell property. To find the best one to suit your needs you will need to check out what’s on offer. Let’s take a look at one of industry leaders, Purplebricks, and see how they fare against a few of the others.

Purplebricks vs Yopa

When you compare Purplebricks vs Yopa, the first thing you’ll notice is that they both offer full sales packages from just £999 (both charge slightly more for some London post codes).

For that, you get a pretty similar service. Both provide full photography and a floor plan in the listing creation, and both will list you Rightmove and Zoopla.

Where Yopa has a slight edge is that they offer a ‘No Sale, No Fee’ package – though it is around double the price!

Both also offer a ‘Pay Later’ option but only if you also use their recommended conveyancers. Though we should point out that in both cases, Pay Later just delays your payment, it doesn’t mean you don’t have to pay if you don’t sell.

When it comes to hosted viewings, it’s Yopa who just have the edge once again. Their hosted viewing package is around £100 cheaper than the one Purplebricks offers (£400+).

So, where does that leave Purplebricks?

Well, for sure there are a few advantages to using Yopa which is why they are our top-rated online estate agent. However, the gap between is small and Purplebricks are perhaps a little better-known and that might give your potential buyers more confidence you’re a serious seller.

However, much of it is a personal decision and whichever one you opt for, you’re unlikely to be disappointed and will find you can achieve big savings vs traditional estate agents.

That’s very much what it came down to when we decided to sell our home with Yopa. Because our home had an unusual layout, and because we knew the previous owner had struggled to sell, we were a little unsure if we could sell at a price we were happy with.

Therefore, we were reluctant to pay upfront – just in case we decided to stay put. So, we discounted Purplebricks purely because they didn’t offer a ‘no sale, no fee’ option. Of course, if you’re sure about selling, there are big savings to be had by paying upfront and so Purplebricks will be an obvious contender.

Check out our full comparison of Purplebricks vs Yopa to find out more.

Purplebricks vs Other Online Estate Agents

We’ve compared Purplebricks to Yopa but there are plenty of other online estate agencies out there to consider. Purplebricks has the advantage of being a big player, and if you aren’t fussed about having a no sale, no fee option, they might just suit your needs.

As we mentioned, this wasn’t something that suited us and so we opted for a different agent.

However, if you choose to go with Purplebricks you will benefit from having the pull of a large and well-known brand.

But, keep in mind that if you do chose Purplebricks and want to use their ‘pay later’ service, you’ll have to use their conveyancing service and the fee will be due regardless of whether you sell your home or not. This option is also only available on their PRO Package which costs from £1,699 inc VAT.

Purplebricks vs High Street Estate Agents

When it comes to Purplebricks vs high street agencies the one thing that jumps out immediately is the price. High street agencies charge more, although many are adapting prices to compete with the online players.

However, there aren’t many high street agencies offering a cheaper upfront fee. 

When we were selling our home, we had a few high street agents come to conduct valuations for us to see how they compared to Purplebricks and the online agents we also asked for valuations from.

On the whole, we found their valuations were in line with those of the online estate agents. They also came across reasonably well, though we were surprised that the online agents actually demonstrated more knowledge about ‘selling’ properties than the high street agents.

The online agents spoke about how utilising the Rightmove pricing bands when setting your asking price can maximise the number of views you get. The high street agents didn’t mention this and actually gave us poor advice to list our property just below one of the search bands (thereby limiting our potential reach).

So, in our experience, online agents like Purplebricks are not necessarily less knowledgeable than high street agents, in fact, the reverse may even be true!

How Much Does Purplebricks Cost?

Purplebricks offer a fixed-fee ‘Classic’ package from £999 (or £1,499 for London properties) which is fairly priced compared to other agents. For this, you get:

This is a pretty standard package that you’ll get with most online estate agents.

Unfortunately, Purplebricks also do not offer a ‘No Sale, No Fee’ service. There is the option to pay on completion, but if after 10 months you still haven’t sold, the fee will still be payable. That means there is an element of risk when using Purplebricks service.

This option is also only available if you opt for their Pro package which starts from £1,699 inc VAT. The Pro package has everything from the Classic package as well as hosted viewings included and an interactive 3D tour.

Purplebricks don’t often issue coupon codes to help make their service cheaper, but when they do you’ll find it on our Purplebricks voucher code page.

Purplebricks Add-Ons:

When we conducted our Purplebricks review, we found that the prices for add-ons were not very transparent. Most other online estate agents publish the prices of the extra services clearly, Purplebricks do not.

Other than a fleeting mention that their viewings service costs £400-£500 (January, 2023), and an FAQ that states a replacement ‘For Sale’ board costs £60 plus VAT, we couldn’t find any clear information as to what additional services you can purchase and how much they cost.

This lack of transparency is certainly a little concerning but doesn’t automatically make them a bad estate agent.

In fact, given that the core package includes most, if not all, of the services you’ll likely be looking for, it’s probably only a minor point. Plus, because Purplebricks will send an agent to your home for the valuation, you’ll get plenty of opportunity to discuss add-ons and pricing before you decide whether to instruct them.

How Selling With Purplebricks Works:

Like most other online estate agents, Purplebricks offer a free valuation service. In fact, although it’s possible to use Purplebricks without first booking a valuation, you’ll find it hard to work out how to do it on their website.

As Purplebricks do not offer a ‘no sale, no fee’ option you’ll need to either pay the full cost up-front or take advantage of their buy now, pay later option. This essentially means you don’t pay anything until the property is either sold, or 10 months have passed, whichever comes first.

Be aware though that you’ll need to use Purplebricks recommended conveyancing service to remain eligible for the buy now, pay later option as well as opt for their more expensive Pro package that includes hosted viewings.

When you instruct Purplebricks, a local property expert will visit you and your property to take photographs, create a floorplan and carry out an EPC if needed. From there, they’ll create your property listing and send it through to you for approval. As soon as you approve the advert, your property will be listed on Rightmove and the other portals.

Like with many agents, Purplebricks allow you to manage all of your viewings, feedback and offers through an online portal. This is great for keeping track of everything.

How Accurate Are Purplebrick’s Valuations?

There’s a debate as to whether online estate agents can offer the same local expertise as their high-street counterparts. However, Purplebricks offer valuations in person.

This means a property expert will visit your home to take a proper look around (although in light of the recent pandemic there’s also an option to have this done via a video call app). Following this, Purplebricks will provide a full valuation report so you can make an informed choice.

In our experience, all online agency valuations we have had have been more or less in-line with those of high street estate agents. There have been a few exceptions, but then there are exceptions with high street agents too.

So, on the whole, we would expect valuations from Purplebricks to be more or less the same as a high street agent might come up with.

How Long Does It Take To Sell A Property With Purplebricks?

This one is tricky to answer! Property sales depend on a multitude of factors, from the current economic climate to where the property is located and the condition its currently in. Purplebricks state on their own website:

“The average time nationwide is just under six weeks. This is far quicker than a year ago when the average was almost nine weeks.”

When we sold our property with another online estate agent, it took slightly longer. However, that was much down to the unusual layout of our property that meant it took a little while to find the right buyer (we had lots of interest throughout).

Is Purplebricks Really Cheaper?

A lot has been made of the fact that Purplebricks is a cheaper way to sell your home. However, this entirely depends on what you’re comparing them against.

If comparing them to a traditional high street estate agent (where your bill is likely to run into the thousands), then yes, they offer a cheaper way to sell your property.

However, if you’re comparing them to other online estate agents you’ll find they are on-par with the other leading contenders (e.g. Yopa).

When we sold our property, we found Purplebricks to be priced around the same as the other online agents we considered. However, to be honest the difference was relatively small and they were significantly cheaper than local high street agents.

What made the difference for us was the fact with Purplebricks you couldn’t opt for a ‘no sale, no fee’ option. We preferred the safety that such an option gave us as we had doubts whether we could achieve a sale price that would give us enough equity to pursue our dream home in the countryside.

Purplebricks Reviews From Customers:

I have just had an offer accepted on a house with Purple Bricks. Matthew Port has been fantastic and i can only say great things about my experience so far!! From Matts advice i made changes to my property advert and sold in just 2 weeks after that allowing me to offer on my new property! Brilliant professional service!

Jaw Swan via 5-star Trustpilot review

Easy and hassle free way to sell a house. Expert advice and contact all through the process . Excellent response to advert ,all handled by our property expert.

Elliot Reed via 5-star Trustpilot review

Any Purplebricks Bad Reviews To Be Aware Of?

As with any business, it’s rare to achieve glowing reviews across the board. Purplebricks gets its fair share of positive and negative feedback. Ratings seem to vary depending which customer review site you look at.

It’s fair to say Purplebricks can’t sell every house they advertise, and that some of the negativity stems from frustrated vendors who find themselves saddled with a home they are struggling to sell.

However, customers have been irritated by the conveyancing fees that they have been hit with and don’t always describe Purplebricks as pro-active enough in the way they conduct their service.

That said, Purplebricks has benefitted from a robust advertising campaign, and is recognised as a steadfast agency that everyone knows.

So, Is Purplebricks Any Good?

Our Purplebricks review has found that this is probably the largest of all of the online estate agents and by some distance too. That means you’ll see lots of their ‘For Sale’ boards around and plenty of their advertising, particularly on TV.

The advantage of using an online estate agent with a recognisable brand is an increase in trust and awareness from potential buyers. This isn’t something you’ll always get when using lesser-known estate agents, especially those not advertising much.

We have also found that Purplebricks offer a fairly priced service that includes most of the same things as comparable online estate agents. Therefore, from a value for money point of view, there is plenty to like.

We found Purplebricks to be comparable to other leading online estate agents in the range of services offered and even on price. It was only really the lack of a ‘no sale, no fee’ package where they feel behind the other online estate agents we were considering.

Our Purplebricks review has also uncovered a raft of positive reviews on TrustPilot, including plenty from people who appear to have successfully sold their property which is always a good sign.

Negatives Of Purplebricks:

One obvious negative is the lack of a ‘No Sale, No Fee’ option. This is negated partly by the ‘Buy Now, Pay Later’ option but this does mean you have to use Purplebricks conveyancing service and opt for the Pro package if you want to take advantage of it.

There are minor concerns over a lack of transparency, with their website making it difficult to find any prices for the additional services that may be required such as an EPC or premium listing upgrade.

However, since you’ll get to meet a Purplebricks local agent during the valuation, you have a good opportunity to clear up any pricing concerns with them directly.

Talking of their website, it’s a really smooth looking website with lots of large colourful imagery.

Finally, while there are lots of positive reviews about Purplebricks, they also have their fair share of bad ones too. However, it’s worth pointing out that the company has gone through several different owners since launching.

The original founders had a reputation for hidden costs and questionable business practices that led to lots of bad reviews. However, more recent owners have cleaned much of that up and in 2023 the brand was taken over by another online agent (Strike, formerly Housesimple).

We find the service has much improved since this and we fully expect to see the reviews start to improve now they are in charge.

Do I Need A Solicitor With Purplebricks?

When buying or selling any property, you’ll need to hire a conveyancing solicitor to handle the legal side.

While you can technically do the legal work yourself, it is not recommended unless you have previous experience.

As with any estate agent, you can either choose to find your own solicitor or you can hire the ones recommended by the estate agent.

Just keep in mind that Purplebricks, like all estate agents, will receive commission if you choose the ones they recommend. This means you may not always get a personalised recommendation on what is best for you.

If you prefer to use an independent conveyancer, you can use the form below to find ones in your area.

A Short History Of Purplebricks:

Purplebricks was founded back in 2012 by brothers Michael and Kenny Bruce alongside David Shepherd. The brothers had sold their successful midlands estate agency Burchell Edwards the previous year and saw online as the future of estate agency.

Through an aggressive advertising campaign and the financial backing of several serial entrepreneurs such as Neil Woodford and Paul Pindar, Purplebricks have established themselves as the largest online estate agent in the UK. In fact, they were estimated to have a 60% share of the market.

More recently, Purplebricks ended a failed attempt to get into the US market and have been on the wrong end of several rumours about their profitability and the security of their future.

This came to a head when the original founders of the company all left and were replaced with a new set of owners. However, the financial difficulties continued and the brand was eventually acquired by Strike, one of the other online estate agents at the time.

Strike have then merged with Purplebricks and begun implementing what they learned running their own successful estate agent, with the brand and reputation Purplebricks had built up. We are looking forward to seeing how Purplebricks evolve in the future.

Purplebricks Review – Summary:

Overall then, our Purplebricks review has found that they’re clearly the market leaders when it comes to online estate agents and they’re up there when compared to traditional agents too.

This reputation should help potential buyers see you’re a serious seller if you use them to list your home.

As far as pricing goes, they’re very favourably priced with packages starting at just £999 that include everything you’d expect from a high street agent. Perhaps with the only exception being you’ll have to pay a bit more if you don’t want to conduct your own viewings.

There is of course a ‘Pay Later’ option but this only delays your payment and you’ll need to pick the more expensive Pro package and use their recommended conveyancers if you want this option.

However, when you consider everything they offer, including being one of the best-known estate agents in the UK, our Purplebricks review has found they are an excellent option for most people.

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