Purplebricks is launching in America and yesterday evening successfully raised £50m through new shares to fund the move. The placing was “materially over-subscribed”, Purplebricks said this morning.
In a bombshell announcement to the London Stock Exchange yesterday shortly after the close of trading, it announced it would be raising the money to enable expansion in the USA, likely to be in the second half of this year.
The announcement came at 16.57, with the company saying it hoped to complete the bookbuilding exercise by 7pm – giving just two hours for investors to subscribe for new shares at 220p.
Michael Bruce, chief executive of Purplebricks, which launched in Australia last September, said: “We are proud to announce our plans to launch Purplebricks in the US, a market we estimate to be worth some US$70bn in annual estate agent commission.
“Our customer proposition of high quality service and value, delivered through the combination of technology and people, is driving irreversible change in the UK and Australian markets.
“We are confident that with our understanding of the US market and our experience from having already launched in two markets Purplebricks can build a significant business in what could be one of the most fascinating and rewarding real estate markets in the world.
“For the realtors we recruit Purplebricks presents an exciting new platform to build scalable, profitable businesses in their own dedicated regions, supported by our strong technology infrastructure and marketing reach.
“For US customers we are seeking to offer a better deal in selling and buying their homes, with a more convenient, transparent and cost effective service.
“As with our UK and Australian launches we will adopt a state-by-state roll out strategy.
“The funds raised through the Placing will not only be deployed to build the Purplebricks brand in the US but, also, the people and infrastructure needed to manage rapid growth in that market.
“With trading in the UK and Australia in-line with the board’s expectations and with the development of the US opportunity, we are proud of the team’s achievements to date and excited for our global future.”
Net proceeds of the placing of shares, worth around £48.7m, will be used to establish Purplebricks in a number of key states. This will include finalising the recruitment of the management team in the US, the raising of consumer awareness, and the recruitment and training of Local Property Experts in the US.
The US, as the Purplebricks’ stock market announcement made clear yesterday evening, has a very different estate agency market from the UK.
In the US there is typically both a listing agent acting for the seller and an agent acting for the buyer. The listing agent gets a commission of up to 7%, with the buying agent getting a 2-3% share. Multi-listing is common.
The statement said that Purplebricks will be looking to recruit some of the most experienced real estate agents in the US: “The Purplebricks model should allow agents to spend more time focusing on looking after customers and selling homes, rather than a significant proportion of their time being taken up prospecting for the next listing.”
The statement said that Purplebricks has so far sold £6bn of property in the UK and has a 67% share of the online estate agency market.
In Australia, it said that it has over 50 Local Property Experts and that it has grown faster than any UK regional launch.
Few, possible no, UK agents have ever succeeded in the US market, and vice versa.
Foxtons, notably, lost money when trying to crack the American market.
In early reaction to the news Eddie Holmes, chairman of the UK PropTech Association, said Purplebricks’ US plan could only be seen as “a vote of market confidence for the business model and management team”.
He said: “It will be interesting to see if the model works as successfully as it has in the UK, if not more so, in a maarket with higher average fees and a natural tendency towards self-employed realtors.
“This is tremendous news for the UK proptech industry on a micro level and is truly a welcome export story during the upheaval of Brexit.”
Yesterday, before the announcement, Purplebricks’ shares finished the day at 226p – over double its launch price of 100p in December 2015. This values the company at £559m compared with, for instance, Countrywide’s market cap of £405m.
Reaction to the news of the successful placing sent the shares rocketing over 17% in early trading this morning to above 265p.
For more comment, see our ‘NEWSFLASH’ story below, when EYE broke the news yesterday evening.
They have got the money but what have Sainsburys.Tesco ,W H Smith,Marks &Spencer ,Dixons and HMV in common?
Same rules apply to the Bricks in the US. February has seen a spike in instructions thanks to the new TV campaign. In reality this has only served to pick up a poor instruction rate in December and a pedestrian Autumn .They have picked an opportune time to get the money -certainly a great achievement
Trump is hardly rolling out a red carpet to other countries to arrive on US soil to take business away from the natives They will be faced with a Mexican wall of resistance backed up by very deep pockets It could be Custers Last Stand for Bruce
Take your hat off to him being able to raise £50m at a years high in the SP It seems that the investment industry is saying that they will back anything to challenge the status quo .Maybe that voice ought to be heard .
The RICS and NAEA silence is deafening They need to up their game to get the message across.
The £50m will get lost in the swamp and the exclusive club for investors invited to join the club last night better hope and pray the gamble pays off
Bold yet very dangerous
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foxtons went to U.S. back in 2007 and failed because 2% was seen as to cheap.
Agents would have adopted pay anyway model years ago but ironically we are to honest.
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I wouldn’t want to get money anyway if my vendors owned a gun!! Be careful.. UK is soft compared to the wild west.
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Just two hours to do proper due diligence and investigate the proposal/ business plan? No further comment required.
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Smart investors quickly realised that the proposal/business plan is the same scaleable business, born in the UK, rolled out to the Australian market, and now onwards to the U.S.
Heads up (or in the sand) this is not rocket science.
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Remind me again how much profit PB forecast to investors they would have made this year and how much actual profit they have made so far.
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*crickets*
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Please can we make sure we form a nice orderly que before commenting!
Everyone will get their turn!
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http://www.history.com/s3static/video-thumbnails/AETN-History_VMS/21/150/History_Hughes_on_Spruce_Goose_Speech_SF_still_624x352.jpg
THE SPRUCE BRUCE!!!
Similar fate ?
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I have rarely seen a market which on the surface is more unsuited to the PB model. The US system is predicated upon being a Multi listing system ( MLS) . For MLS to work there has to be sufficient commissions to split between listing and selling agent. With PBs flat fee there will be no attraction for selling agents to introduce their buyers to the PB’s properties.
The only obvious targets would be the Sale by owner market (SBO) but this in itself is a rich feeding ground for switched on realtors who understand that the reality is the SBO will fail to sell and will need a tradional realtor to sell for them.
I just don’t see any one area that they can exploit to be successful in the US market and two hours of DD prior to investing would never have given the uninitiated time to discover that.
May be wrong but if it looks like a duck, walks like a duck and goes quack then on balance it’s probably a duck.
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Could it just be that those who have seen the opportunity are just taking what they can as quick as they can before it evaporates or, is that just my being a little cynical?
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Funnily enough the investor scam aware radio advert warns about time pressure put on people by scamsters, interesting analogy don’t you think
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But they have raised £50 million more. This substantially deepens their pockets. Suppose they decide not to proceed with the USA later this year, but use some, if not all, money to keep subsiding and consolidate their offering in this country. Can they do that, if they choose. Does anyone know?
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It shows they have great fund raisers on board to play on the ‘We can save you £billions story’, it doesnt mean they are saving people £housands, or hundreds OR EVEN BEST SELLING PRICE.
If the model was making as much as its raising they wouldn’t need to gain outside investment for other country roll outs.
Maybe the actual business isn’t selling homes, but more to the point selling shares for later exit.
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The difference between them and us, though, is that their business model depends on instructions, not sales. It seems like you think they are not generating much money, which was true until last year which leads me to assume you think they are not generating a large number of instructions. Am I wrong? Because I see a lot of evidence of them winning a scary number of instructions, which means they must be making money.
Even if they were struggling, all they’d have to do is slightly raise their prices and still be much cheaper than high street agents. They have fewer running costs and earn the fee regardless of performance, so I do think they can produce a profit, but they obviously had to invest millions in advertising in their first couple of years in order to introduce this new concept to the world.
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America isnt about winning listings alone. Its about consumers wanting a brokerage model.
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The average fee in the UK of around 1% maybe too low to enable PB to achieve a profit?
So lets triple our fee and try the 3% average fee model in Australia?
Still not making a profit?
Oh well lets triple the fee again and try and crack the 7% model in America?
Will any of that £50 million be used to prop up the other two models as they must be running out of their cash pot?
Was this a clever way of raising more cash without highlighting that the UK or Australian models have not made a profit?
How much have the Bruce Bros and others made at investors expense? Are they the only real winners of this very expensive experiment?
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OMG
The UK property market has spawned a monster !
Most monsters look like dinosaurs, don’t they ?
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PB share price up 11.5% this morning with a market cap of £625m that’s enough to buy LSL and Countrywide!
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Good God!
WTF is going on here?
Fair play to PB’s Directors(retirement looks comfy!) but I just don’t see the value in the Company…
Lloyds bank has had its issues, in the past, but at least posts profits now in the billions and its shares are 70p!!
Estate agency is so labour intensive how is PB ever going to make proper money with the fees charged and commissions paid?
Please can Property Indutry Eye explain?
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Richard, you probably know but the actual 70p vs 266p share prices are irrelevant. Market Capitalisation is what you are after (value of all shares). Lloyds is £50bn, PB is £660m
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Maybe not the best example but i think it sums up the stupidity of it! Which shares would you buy HomeFinders plus?
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The Yanks won’t welcome PB with open arms, instead garlic and crosses.
Typically US Realtors charge 6%. So $1,000 /$1,500 wont give enough to share back into the MLS.
However a mid way would likely be a low cost to list model, then a 3%fee on sale that would pay to the cobroker sub Realtor.
Again this will upset Yank Realtors who under MLS associations may bring in minimal standards that sit above UK agent entry.
But the US has pretty big funds and US firms may upgear advertising to damage market entry.
Some UK States are bigger alone than the UK countries together.
There are a lot of very wealthy real estate bosses and holding companies who have very deep pockets that may be very protective against budget models trying to upset things.
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I suspect that Mr Buffet with his Berkshire Hathaway behemoth will be watching closely. He already has a Realty (as our colonial cousins call it) arm and he has quite a reputation for spotting opportunities I have read! Current share price a modest $254,151.00. I’m hoping to be able to buy a share one day; just the one mind. I can’t quite understand, if it seemed a good proposal, wouldn’t already have been tried and be working?
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Many Realtors earn substantial income. The best ones wont buy in and drop to cents when they have enjoyed big $bucks.
The sensible thing is to bring MLS nationally to the UK and agents collaborate at higher fees (2% – 50/50 main/sub agent)
MLS hear would kill off budget agents who offer too low budget fees to share back in.
If agents don’t share 1 to 1, it would be fair to block them from accessing others shared listings.
Anyone interested in MLS. By all means contact me.
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999 out of 10 for sheer audacity!
You just couldn’t resist the opportunity – could you?
For this post alone you thoroughly deserve an advertising charge bill from EYE – but be prepared for disappointment as the RoI will be utter 5h!t£…
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MLS like it or not PeeBee is something I know a lot about.
Listen and you might learn something.
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For a company founded in 2014, the fact that its market capitalisation is now greater than Countrywide’s tells me that they must be doing something right. I don’t think there’s anything any existing agent can do to stop it or slow the growth of Purplebricks. I think independent agents should now focus on how they can remain competitive as a collective against this new force rather than try to take it down.
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Totally agree.
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Well said! There’s nothing we can do to stop it, so all we can do is continue to deliver.
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Ha Ha, are you three serious? Re-read the post, do the company press releases in any way reflect the reality of the offering? Is this organisation prone to exaggeration and half truths to get its name out their to ‘investors’ who are maintaining the impression this is some sort of corporate power house…… with stock market successes and market capitalisation far in excess of long established highly profitable businesses.
Trying to crack America? Absolutely LAUGHABLE!. Realtors are trained often part time high fee earners, very often working in their communities for family/friends/recommendations. The cost of marketing beyond this would be astronomical.
I have before posted about how we need to be cautious of an organisation with so much backing and potential to grow. However, I now see it for what it is. As they continiously pretend to be something they are not, claiming to offer a service they cant, I am now assured this will not end well.
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I wish investors had enough confidence to splash out £50m on something I owned in 2 hours. Everyone knows Purplebricks. They’re a big brand now and you can’t deny that. Do you not also find yourself increasingly asked by other people about the threat of online agents as more people start to recognise how things are about to change? I can’t see them failing as their business model involves much less risk than traditional agency and agents therefore need to adapt to compete. How do you think we should compete with online agents? Should we try and set up our own portals to try or try to take down high-profile advertising campaigns in a futile attempt to reduce their exposure? Or should we adapt and modernise our techniques and make our fees more competitive? Which one will your average vendor appreciate more?
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A good idea would be for a fund of money to be raised nationally and used to extol the virtues of real estate agents over marketing only, pay anyway outfits. Other than that let time take its course, people are and will realise you can’t get a proper estate agency service by using internet advertisers with one member of staff servicing hundreds of houses.
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Do you see the traditional model as viable long-term though? I don’t. I don’t see anything viable long-term in today’s rapidly evolving world. Everyone knows the advantages of using a high street agent (e.g. no win no fee), but a growing number of people now feel that this doesn’t represent better value. I believe a hybrid model combining the best of traditional and online agency will emerge as the dominant force. Agents who aren’t fluid enough to adapt will be left behind. If I’m selling my £1m house, can I really justify spending £10k+ on something I can do myself for 10% of the price?
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There will be contraction in the market for sure. And yes if I was selling a house out of area, as an experienced house seller I would only need it listing for cheap.
I don’t deny that change will happen (a lot slower than you suggest) but at some point people will realise you can’t get proper house sales on the cheap, it just doesn’t happen. Just as you cant buy a good car cheaply. At the moment the onliners are selling their service pretending to be something they are not.
When the public in time understand this, you will get those that prefer spending in primark/poundland (to debenhams) using them, and the rest will carry on as before.
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Correct – the service offered is different and will appeal to different people. I strongly disagree with your idea that you can’t sell a property well for under 1%.
When I receive the occasional instruction from well outside our market (the kind which rely solely on portal leads) I do secretly wonder why that vendor had chosen us over an online agent. What are we providing that they’re not? Purplebricks have LPEs who I think we dismiss as far more experienced than people here realise, how is that better than me?
Why do you think a house can’t be sold for a cheap fee? Surely anything can if you receive the same level of exposure. And let’s be honest – absolutely everyone’s property search these days will involve Rightmove or Zoopla at some stage.
I genuinely don’t think the change will be rapid due to resistance from traditional agents but is inevitable as those who refuse to adapt will find themselves unable to compete.
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Some relevant comments and some mis-understandings here.
PB are focusing on those customers who are motivated and who will sell their homes and those same customers have accepted that they will be paying a fee to sell and move. “So why not minimise that cost” I hear them say? The remainder of the would be house sellers are less motivated and therefore less likely to be paying any sort of fee to anyone.
All agencies corporate and independent need to wake up to the fact that PB are disrupting the UK market and there are a significant amount of early adopters; circa 4% of the house selling population – a success by any measure in such a short space of time. Hence the support from the investor community – the noise from that quarter is now deafening.
The US move is very brave and risky but fully aligns with the notion of “speculate to accumulate”. If PB pull this off and coupled with the UK and Australian operations, they will quickly become the norm for the average home seller.
The writing is on the wall; consumers across all industries want and are demanding better value, lower pricing and transparency of charges. Why is the estate agency industry any different?
Agree with earlier commentator – the PB type model appears to be here to stay. The high fee, low volume operators in the industry now need to consider a way of addressing this challenge by reviewing their own models and cost base in order to both survive and still earn a reasonable living.
On the subject of share prices – the share price is irrelevant, it’s the market capitalisation of the company that is relevant; PB at £656m and Lloyd bank at £50,554m, Lloyds is 77 x more valuable currently.
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Your market share figures are not correct; the whole disrupter market share is only 3.6% Purplebricks do not have 111% sector share.
Success is measured by profit not turnover. The end of year figures are due out soon. All claims made can now be checked and verified.
£50million in 2 hours is a meaningless nothing without detail of who has invested.
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“The writing is on the wall; consumers across all industries want and are demanding better value, lower pricing and transparency of charges. Why is the estate agency industry any different?”
Fair Comment but why do you think Bricks are any different ? Are their LPE,s any better I doubt it Their promotion of fees isnt fullly transparent as with all the bells and whistles its much higher Is it better value that you are paying in advance for a service? Do the 9% sellers who have listings 10 months or longer and those that have chosen to defer payment until then have been locked into an expensive firm of conveyancers -see it as good value
Do you really think consumers prefer a model which is hellbent on gaining the instruction rather than the sale?
What concerns me is that the LPE controls the territory and sublets parts out The service is as good as the lowest common denominator
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“Do you really think consumers prefer a model which is hellbent on gaining the instruction rather than the sale?”
In fairness, Hilofwad71, you’ve just described quite a chunk of our industry there… think ‘Numbers Game’ mentality of the corps and many corporatesque independents!
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I havent read the whole thread, but has Treveor mentioned multi-listing yet? I hear its a big thing in America… 😉
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He hasn’t disappointed – well… in that respect, anyways…
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Robert – apologies for rounding up the number, I should have said 3.6% instead of circa 4%.
Notwithstanding that, success with any new venture is measured by the number of customers gained, land grab and the momentum of the model. The highly skilled and experienced group of City and private investors focus on those factors and believe it or not, profit at this stage is a secondary consideration. The professional investor community has just voted with its £50m cheque book and mark my words – they will be aware of the future trends of customer acquisition, revenue and likely profits.
Despite the nitty gritty of the decimal point, the clear message is – ignore this shift in consumer behaviour and adoption of the new era model at your peril.
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Your 4% is 11% behind the proposed target tipping point for mid 2016, it’s a reduction of a full 1% from its peak early last year
0.4% isn’t an insignificant rounding up, that represents over £4m turnover. You can talk up the trend as much as you like, a sector TO contraction of £15m in a year is something investors can’t ignore.
At some point someone has to ask why was the 2015 profit prediction of £17m missed, the 2016 £25m missed and when the fabled HUGE profits are going to be delivered.
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MLS creates access to stock, lower exposure costs to agents who work together. It also means main agents can pitch sole at say 1% and MLS at 1.5% to 2% plus whereby more agents are likely to bring more buyers and greater offers to the table.
Low fee agents have too little in the pot to share, so if agents run on ‘givers gain’ then lawfully sharing agents could block non sharing agents.
MLS in the UK would be the best way UK traditional agents could work together allowing traditional and budget into a same platform whereby agents 1 to 1 could allow sharers to access their listings and block agents who don’t share back.
In some cases some traditionals not on or in all outlets could even find budget agents have a value to reaching some outlets.
Weekly I help agents get typically 0.5% to 1% higher than what other local agents sole rate is.
MLS in the UK would disrupt the portals stance. The trouble with portals is that they bring agents together to compete. The Yank MLS brings agents together to work together and support one another.
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Trevor, sorry I don’t think you have explained MLS well enough.
Can you repeat please
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Trevor, the US MLS system is primarily designed to expose the listing to the largest possible audience of home buyers, something which is achieved by the two leading property portals here in the UK.
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No Industry Pro. US MLS runs along side Trulia and Zillow (basically our RM and Z)
The MLS is there to facilitate property exposure beyond portals. ie its hard to sell what you don’t have or what the buyer doesn’t want. MLS allows a sharing pool where sellers have bought in to greater exposure via other agents applicants and contacts.
As such a sub realtor can offer a 7 x four bed homes upto $350,000 in XYZ school catchment area even though on his/her own 12 listings they only have 2 and 3 bed units.
There is a report here:
http://www.brightmls.com/index.php/2017/01/12/9-organizations-transform-into-bright-mls/
. …….that highlights even with two massive portals Trulia and Zillow that Realtors do better for themselves and consumers by being a MLS agent who puts listings in and accesses others listings for sale where a sub fee is available.
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……isn’t that what I said, or meant to say. Greater exposure to the buyers.
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No. You said isnt that what our portals do.
I said MLS achieves this away from what the portals do. Thus its a dual approach.
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Multi Listings have been done in the UK between competing agents. In Gloucester in the mid 80’s there was The Gloucester Group where all agents instructions were shared and unless it was the instructed agent selling the commission was shared with the selling agent. I also seem to remember that National Homes Network and Home Relocation with such revered figures as Vivien Moon and Richard Courtney Lord were years ahead of the rest of the country in their thoughts about sharing instructions between agents.
Multi Listing usual in the US and also in Australia.
But in those countries the seller is used to paying a much higher percentage.
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Hi Robert and All
Just checked with my broker who confirms the following consensus PB profit/loss forecasts from a cross section of the UK broker community;
Years ending April;
2017 (£4.84m) loss
2018 £7.56m
2019 £20.75m
I fear that too much time is being spent on “what they are doing/not doing” and not nearly enough time is being spent on what the remainder of the industry is to do or should be doing to survive and thrive.
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Can you confirm your broker has used EBITDA calculation of profit and loss?
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How long do you think the redress schemes are going to tolerate some of what is being reported through Trust pilot, twitter etc? What happens to the share price and profits if the firm fall foul of trading constraints?
Purplebricks has an Achilles heel, as an Industry pro you will understand what it is. From what I can see Purple bricks are only a single escalated complaint away from being referred to TPO and given some of the goings on that are being posted on a near daily basis I really don’t think I would have any confidence them achieving the numbers your broker has predicted
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Hats off to them.
No seriously.
They went into business to make money and boy have they!
These guys have done their research, sent out a strong message and it is paying handsomely.
They do not care about the sellers or investors they are just in it to make as much money as possible, in someways we should admire that.
Its a long shot that this is a viable long term business but by then they will have made millions (and probably destroyed a few housing markets along the way).
I do not blame PB as such.
I blame the supposed bodies that are suppose to enforce laws to create a fair and level playing field. I also blame independent agents being far too dismissive and not working together to nip this in the bud.
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Some of the best comments of the day Smile Please!
We have to unite behind a brand banner that we can use to promote the value of what we do. We cannot depend on any organisation or agency to do it for us…they all have vested interests elsewhere or are not interested enough to disrupt their cushy cosy bubbles they exist in!
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Smile please…………Michael Bruce’s gain: £110m at today’s share price with a circa 16% shareholding. Brilliant.
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And we would all like that in our current account!
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One day when the protagonists of this raid on the stockmarket for mug investors cash, helped by brokers totally inept forcasts, are sitting on a nice beach in Cape Verde, and it all blows up into a cloud of dust with nothing but accusations and law suits left hanging in the air, people will demand to know how this was allowed to happen, GREED is a mother that robs people of their common sense is all I can say
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Let’s put this all into perspective.
PB have around 400 staff in the UK with a good conductor and a slick looking/working “shop front”. The independent sector alone numbers around 40,000 head count. Ask yourselves….who could have the upper hand…?
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But the great British already public know them better than us!
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Which is why we have to have a ‘banner’ to unite behind….. that becomes a powerful marketing brand in its own right. No one to date fulfills that role. I have been banging on about it for months now. All it would take is a few hundred of us to make a start. If you want to talk email me hiphip@agentv.co.uk
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Too little, too late, I fear.
Ah well.
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Smeaton’s book, The Real Estate Agent and the Great Conspiracy Theory, offers a simple and reasoned argument why online agents will never make a profit acting as they do in a chapter explaining the wider differences between them and the high street.
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Is this even legal? Educate me. Please.
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You people and your criticisms…
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http://www.linkedin.com/in/ericeckardt/
Take a look at this. This is the new CEO for the US His recent career experience as an Outapatient Attendant should see him through!!
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Checked the new CEO’s CV and I see in his last job he ”Empowered homeowners by preserving homeownership and reducing housing debt while providing investors with shared equity investment opportunities in performing owner-occupied residential real estate through our pilot program”
Thats equity release to you and I!
The yanks have a lovely way with words don’t they, Donald.
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Will have to be licensed in the States. Shame the Industry in the UK isn’t and RICS and PropertyMark are happy to let these so called “local experts” get away with it. Heard a story today that they cancelled the appraisal. When asked to rebook it, they said there was know need to see the property, they sent a best price guide and their contract to sign. How much are they costing Vendors selling their biggest tax free asset? The cheapest estate agent is the one that achieves the highest price for the property, not the one that charges the cheapest fee. As Agents are we demonstrating this enough?
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