Whos used online estate agents? Good/bad news?

mid_gen · 10 Jul 2020 at 08:27

IvanDobskey said:
Our aborted first attempt at buying was a house for sale through purple bricks and it was a nightmare. Dealing direct with awkward vendors who tried every trick in the book to wring more money out of us wasn't fun. The guy was constantly on the phone to me near the end, making threats to put it back on the market. Just had enough of their shenanigans.

I'd avoid any house on the market with purple bricks in the future.

The one we actually bought was through Firmin and they were fine to deal with. We sold through Newton Fallowell and they were fine too.

Our buyer and solicitors involved, another story unfortunately....

It's really about the other party in the transaction. If your seller is a nobhead then no agent is going to make it a pleasant experience.

I'm nearly at the end of a purchase through Purplebricks, and it's been excellent. Easy to arrange viewings, easy to negotiate an offer and the contents listing. No complaints at all.

I'd say about 50% of the high street estate agents I used never bothered returning calls or arranging viewings when requested. Booking viewings online is so much easier.

IvanDobskey · 10 Jul 2020 at 08:31

mid_gen said:
It's really about the other party in the transaction. If your seller is a nobhead then no agent is going to make it a pleasant experience.

I'm nearly at the end of a purchase through Purplebricks, and it's been excellent. Easy to arrange viewings, easy to negotiate an offer and the contents listing. No complaints at all.

I'd say about 50% of the high street estate agents I used never bothered returning calls or arranging viewings when requested. Booking viewings online is so much easier.

Yep, your mileage will vary depending on the people you have to deal with. I'd rather not take the chance of having to deal directly with the vendor again though. Knowing my luck I'll end up dealing with another awkward nobhead.

alexakasloth · 10 Jul 2020 at 14:27

@IvanDobskey What sort of tricks were they using to wring more money?

(Edit) spellings.

IvanDobskey · 10 Jul 2020 at 18:30

alexakasloth said:
@IvanDobskey What sort of tricks where they using to wring more money?

They got us round and tried to sell stuff for massively over inflated prices. Then when we refused, they ripped things like blinds and integrated kitchen appliances out and either sold them or took them down the skip.

alexakasloth · 10 Jul 2020 at 20:05

IvanDobskey said:
They got us round and tried to sell stuff for massively over inflated prices. Then when we refused, they ripped things like blinds and integrated kitchen appliances out and either sold them or took them down the skip.

Wow, they sound like stand up people.

IvanDobskey · 10 Jul 2020 at 20:29

alexakasloth said:
Wow, they sound like stand up people.

They were unbelievable to be honest. When we were coming up to exchange, he called me and told me he had instructed his solicitor to put it back on the market. By this point, we'd just had enough and didn't want the house any more. So we pulled out. So glad we did now. We bought a much better house.

fastwunz · 11 Jul 2020 at 03:51

IvanDobskey said:
They were unbelievable to be honest. When we were coming up to exchange, he called me and told me he had instructed his solicitor to put it back on the market. By this point, we'd just had enough and didn't want the house any more. So we pulled out. So glad we did now. We bought a much better house.

Haha! I bet that wiped the smirk off his face.

especially given he had ripped the integrated appliances out!

Rroff · 11 Jul 2020 at 06:14

IvanDobskey said:
They got us round and tried to sell stuff for massively over inflated prices. Then when we refused, they ripped things like blinds and integrated kitchen appliances out and either sold them or took them down the skip.

LOL previous owner of where I'm living now wanted a load of money to leave the blinds/curtains, we said no so they just left them anyway - they were all only fit for the bin.

We had a few would be buyers for our old place that sound exactly like your seller - we just told them to essentially jog on it isn't worth the hassle.

IvanDobskey · 11 Jul 2020 at 06:24

Rroff said:
LOL previous owner of where I'm living now wanted a load of money to leave the blinds/curtains, we said no so they just left them anyway - they were all only fit for the bin.

We had a few would be buyers for our old place that sound exactly like your seller - we just told them to essentially jog on it isn't worth the hassle.

Most of the stuff was just junk, but some things were just removed out of spite because they thought our offer was low. When we went round for a second viewing and there were gaps in the kitchen where integrated appliances had been pulled out, we were furious. They were a nightmare to deal with all the way through. The house is still for sale now, so obviously our offer was pretty good in hindsight.

IvanDobskey · 11 Jul 2020 at 06:28

fastwunz said:
Haha! I bet that wiped the smirk off his face.

especially given he had ripped the integrated appliances out!

His Mrs phoned me afterwards and tried to explain it was all a big misunderstanding and that he had called me without her knowing. But we'd had enough by that point and told her as much. Bet he was probably sleeping in one of the log cabins in the garden that night, haha.

IvanDobskey · 11 Jul 2020 at 06:50

Actually, early on, they were claiming they had Chinese investors interested in buying the house. But it was all a ruse to try and get a bigger offer from us. They were real game players.

Rroff · 11 Jul 2020 at 07:07

Yeah you just have to walk away when someone starts playing that game.

Mr Jack · 11 Jul 2020 at 08:25

@IvanDobskey What a bunch of *****s! But I'm not sure why your blaming PurpleBricks for this? Seems like a problem with the seller not the estate agent.

IvanDobskey · 11 Jul 2020 at 09:00

Mr Jack said:
@IvanDobskey What a bunch of *****s! But I'm not sure why your blaming PurpleBricks for this? Seems like a problem with the seller not the estate agent.

Its not really purple bricks fault directly. But their business model enables people to behave like this. There shouldn't be any direct contact between buyer and vendor. There should be an agent dealing with anything that comes up. Our vendor abused this, and that has made me feel less like buying through purple bricks in the future. In the end, they kind of did us a favour in a way. The house had its issues and we would probably have regretted buying it.

ChrisD. · 13 Jul 2020 at 18:57

Had a local and highly reputable agent round today, house is going on the market with them for 1.2%. I didn’t even have to haggle.

b0rn2sk8 · 13 Jul 2020 at 21:02

The % doesn't really mean much, how much is that in £ and is it plus VAT or not?

ChrisD. · 13 Jul 2020 at 21:08

It's 1% plus VAT, so 1.2% overall, house is going up for £300k.

b0rn2sk8 · 13 Jul 2020 at 21:19

So £3600 then, that's quite a lot, are you in London?

ChrisD. · 13 Jul 2020 at 21:51

Nope, not in London. But it's the going rate around here from what I can work out.

fastwunz · 14 Jul 2020 at 08:20

1% is pretty average these days