Purplebricks claims to sell residential properties on average 10 days faster than its competitors.
The online estate agency, which was acquired by Strike earlier this year, for the token sum of £1, has posted an advert across various social media platforms, particularly Facebook, that states ‘Purplebricks sell 10 days faster!’.
But the claim made by Purplebricks with its latest advert, which first appeared online a few weeks ago, has been questioned by a number of online users, including many existing clients of the company; too many comments to mention.
The claim from Purplebricks that it can sell properties much faster than its competitor agents is a bold one, especially given the current state of the property sales market. But what is this assertion based on?
“This statement is based on data from TwentyEA, the most comprehensive property and home mover databases in the UK,” a spokesperson for Purplebricks told EYE.
“The time to sale agreed is measured by the lag in days between the instruction date and the first SSTC date,” the spokesperson added.
However, it transpires that all first SSTC dates relate to 2022, when the sales market was booming.
The information provided by the online estate agency includes the following:
+ Data collated on 13th December 2022, covers first SSTC dates between 1st January 2022 and 12th December 2022
+ Data showed the average time it takes Purplebricks to agree the first sale on a UK property that they have instructed (34 days) versus the average for all other UK estate agent brands in 2022 (44 days)
+ Instruction dates and sale agreed dates are based on whole of market data from TwentyEA
+ To substantiate this statement, between 01/01/2022 and 12/12/2022, TwentyEA saw 1.508 million new instructions for sale and 1.193 million sales agreed, of which 952,124 were the first sale agreed on a property
We asked the company if ‘providing old data from last year, when the sales market was buoyant, is misleading, given that the date range is not provided in the advert, and market conditions have changed this year’.
But the company spokesperson insisted that “the data is the most recent we hold from research conducted by independent industry analysts”.
When we again questioned the accuracy of the data, and suggested it could be somewhat misleading without showing the date range, the online estate agency declined to comment further.
Do you think the data offered by the company is misleading?
A lot of people will remember Maureen Lipman’s ‘ology’ advert on the telly where she played a grandmother who managed to find something to celebrate when her grandson failed all his academic exams… “If you’ve got an ology you’re a scientist”
If someone wants to tell people they’re a scientist based on their sycophantic nan’s patronising encouragement let them. Making such a claim will simply deliver more disappointment and reputational damage. Over promise – under deliver!
By now every #local agent who ever lost an instruction to a passive intermediary will have example cases where the client came back and they sold the home. The fee paid for failure was a tax on vendors who know best.
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Utter garbage. TwentyEA have positioned themselves as the company to go to if you want to make a completely unsubstantiated statement and support it with grossly manipulated statistics – they’ll literally put their name to anything as other companies have previously demonstrated – often publicised on PIE!. Personally, I don’t think anyone of relevance is paying attention and the general public aren’t interested in estate agents bragging about how great the are(n’t) either.
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Mike – I agree with you on then” I don’t think anyone of relevance is paying attention and the general public aren’t interested in estate agents bragging about how great the are(n’t) either.”
However, I would like to bring up another point. Given the credibility and professionalism of TwentyEA in the property market, it’s quite surprising to see such an accusation in your post.
As someone who has consistently relied on their data, I’ve found their statistics to be transparent and dependable.
Can you provide any concrete evidence or specific instances to substantiate your claim about their alleged manipulated statistics Mike?
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You have to consider they are reporting what they are being shown
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I agree with you Robert, yet in this instance, it is in the Agents advantage to both put the listing on as soon as possible and slap a sold sticker on it as soon as possible
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In contravention of case laws that define agency?
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To be honest Chris, I can hardly be bothered to reply such is my disdain towards PB and claims like this that are frankly liquid sh1te in my mind but out of politeness and respect to you, I think 20EA will dig and delve to come up with whatever they are asked for such is the ambiguity of the claim. It’s not only the ‘when’ it’s recorded, it’s the ‘how’, the ‘where’ and against ‘whom’. It most certainly won’t be against the leading leading agents in the various market places that PB operate. Ask any decent agent and they will tell you that PB were only a mild irritation at the best of times – and most of that irritation was derived from when a PB vendor made an offer on one of your properties. They always were utter charlatans in my book but thankfully they are now virtually invisible – only one up from the horrific [Words removed as they breached posting guidelines]that are Strike. I have no interest in 20EA other than their association with these risible claims but if I did, I’d think even less of them now for dishing up this rubbish.
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A more interesting set of statistics would be how much have PB cost consumers by underselling their homes or how much have they cost other genuine estate agents who end up doing their job for them – both down to their incompetence. Maybe TwentyEA can dream up a way of measuring incompetency, PB would win that one hands down!
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This might well be true.
When sellers list with an agent and ‘pay upfront/regardless’ they are more motivated to sell. They price better and are more likely to accept an offer.
Agree?
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In an era of 16+ week transaction times, time taken getting out of the gate has less currency, glacial sales pace resulting in pleas to extend mortgage offers or reneg because a new rate is a higher rate, these are practical problems and not whether the MOS is sent day 5, 10 or 35
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Lie, damned lies, and statistics.
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Quickest to lose a Billion more like.
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People are overlooking the fact that PB’s model is based on listings, not exchanges.
As such, they’re eager to flip a listing to ‘sold’ as it communicates success which leads to more listings, hence their current advertising campaign.
As a result, they’re much happier to accept offers from unproceedable/flakey buyers that a traditional agent wouldn’t touch, so it’s no surprise their SSTC stats are flattering.
The only true metric to crow about is listing/exchange, which they have never been prepared to disclose. Funny that…
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https://propertyindustryeye.com/trading-standards-issues-important-new-guidance-to-agents/#:~:text=Sold%3A%20A%20property%20where%20the%20sale%20has%20concluded%2C,relevant%20codes%20of%20practice%2C%20and%20local%20planning%20laws.
PurpleBricks/Strike should not be claiming they ‘SELL’ ten days faster if what they mean is sold stc. That is according to National Trading Standards Estate & Letting Agency Team.
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complete BS
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I thought all this sharp practice stuff had been put to bed after PB went T up last time. The problem is it is actually a good piece of marketing IF you get away with it.
ASA are a toothless body that will more easily turn a blind eye or at best give a slap on the wrist-don’t be naughty boys and don’t do it again- for a few weeks at least pretty, please. Or until you can come up with a better idea
I know -PB sell houses 9 days faster!
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Didn’t PB try this once before a few years ago (maybe earlier) and when digging deeper into the claims then I recall ‘their sale’ was not a sale but an offer.
Unless PB know what every agent in the country is doing day to day with offers received, offers accepted, notification of sale issued, contracts issued and completion …….. the claim is utter garbage. Are we surprised!
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