Purplebricks boss Michael Bruce said yesterday evening that his company will be the number one agency in the UK.
The firm presently positions itself as number three, behind Countrywide and Connells.
Speaking on the Radio 4 programme ‘Breakfast with the Disruptors’, Bruce was challenged by Simon Gerrard, who heads up a highly successful high street agency in north London, and is also a recent President of the NAEA.
Despite the programme’s apparently morning title, it went out yesterday evening at 8pm.
In it, Bruce argued that his business model was clear and transparent, offering 24-hour access to the market.
He said he had “fundamentally changed the market.”
Bruce also said that his model had introduced less hassle, adding that his firm had introduced “seismic change”.
This was in reply to Gerrard, who said that for every 15 people he employed to oversee deals, Purplebricks employed just one person.
Bruce also accused high street agents of ‘unjustifiable’ fees, saying that between its charges and high street firms’ commissions, there was a £9,000 differential.
Gerrard countered by saying that much greater valuation skills were needed in the online model.
“Bruce also accused high street agents of ‘unjustifiable’ fees, saying that between its charges and high street firms’ commissions, there was a £9,000 differential”
Prove it Mr Bruce. You seem unable to prove almost any of your claims using independent, verifiable data.
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all estate agents who have a larger then 2% market share in your town tap your selves on the back….it means that if you didn’t mind lying to the public ( most think pb are free as asa and which are asleep at wheel).
it also means that if u had millions to burn you would be largest in Britain… It means nothing..remax is biggest in world….remax….lolf
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Once the gullible/sycophantic group think stops the whole house of cards will collapse. Property has a different set of considerations to other commodities and so the factors that suited the disruption of share trading are the polar opposite of factors in the trading of property. Mr Woodford”s support of this project is the sole reason for its credibility. If he removed his support therequest would be a reevaluation of the long term projections
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Number One Estate Agent.
It is very arrogant to believe they are actually an estate agent? They are an online lister….nothing more!
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‘Unjustifiable fees’
Come on then NAEA …….speak up for us all in our defence……we are waiting.
Or is the cosying up to the ‘larger’ online listers paying you money, more important to you than the majority of your other members?
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I haven’t listened to the program, but why oh why do interviewers not press for the truth from Mr Bruce?
The average high street agents fee is 1.3% including VAT. So what is the Fee Average per Completed Sale including Investment Subsidy (FACSIS) for PB?
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“I haven’t listened to the program…” probably best to just leave it there eh?
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Observer,
We all understand you have a vested financial interest in seeing PB succeed so you can make a big profit, but we have a vested interest in our livelihoods and incomes to support our families.
I personally also don’t like seeing ordinary people being misled into losing money. That includes small investors like yourself.
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But he/she isn’t making an profit from their investment. Unless of course they deal in shares which means you have to jump ship!
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I don’t have a penny invested in PB – I honestly have no idea about their medium term prospects. At some point their actual completion numbers may come home to roost but for now they have automated estate agency and their founders have made an absolute killing for themselves and their investors.
I do know that customers make decisions (and always have) on imperfect information – very few consumers know as much about estate agency as somebody that has been in the game for 2/3 years so of course they aren’t going to know everything that you know.
They are buying a service that is priced at £x up front and they know that. Some may fall for the
That traditional agents charge a % rather than a £ is completely up to them whilst charging on completion is completely up to them.
What winds me up is agents like yourself coming on here, whingeing and moaning about them not displaying their completion figures, or some ridiculous concoction you have come up with yourself when I can’t see any figures like that anywhere for any of my local agents. None of them publish their fees and none have any transparent record keeping of their performance. No agent is willing to put their own numbers into the public domain for everyone to see. So why on earth should PB?
I’ve probably been saying this for a couple of years now and nobody seems to quite get the message (so maybe I should just stop)… If agents cannot prove their value vs an automated estate agent then they don’t deserve to charge fees that are higher than an automated estate agent.
Every single customer that is with Purple Bricks had the choice to go with a local agent or with their automated offering. They chose PB. That should be ringing alarm bells – a small percentage of the general public does not believe that traditional agents are able to prove that value. PB’s acquisition cost is now far below their revenue earned from each property. You should be worried but not about sound bites or claims but about the real damage that they are doing to local estate agents everywhere. The problem is, you can’t put the bunny back in the box. This is a new era for the industry and you need to wake up and deliver a service that is worth that extra fee. Can I book a viewing with your company on a Sunday at 7.30pm? Can I make an offer at 11pm at night? How about 7.30 in the morning?
This is not to do with price it is to do with value. What do you provide that they don’t and does that justify the difference in fees?
Quit your whingeing, your moaning, your this isn’t fair and do something. Be better.
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Wth the V system, my completion to listing rate is over 91% and in most cases using the full V System we achieve above asking price. Our standard charge is 1% inclusive for properties over £200,000 and £1,995 for properties under …on a no sale no fee basis. Our average FACSIS is £2,000 inclusive.
For that people get everything including the most accurate floor plans possible, exceptional photography, fully accompanied viewings, full negotiation of offers, direct contact with a director throughout the process , and contract chasing through to completion.
People can request viewings or make an offer 24 hours a day, and we aim to achieve an accompanied viewing within three days of the request.
Buts let’s be clear about this, until they declare otherwise, I believe the FACSIS for every online lister is well above my £2,000.
I have no problem disclosing our figures, so why do they have a problem disclosing theirs?
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None of us whinge and moan about the competition, just about the misleading advertising and marketing propaganda, and the untrue comparisons on ‘saving people money’ when not at the same time declaring how many of their customers effectively lose far more money by not selling!
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I have a suggestion….why don’t you meet up with me, so you can cross examine me on everything we do as a local independent agent….face to face?
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AgentV,
Surely the response to these alleged misleading advertisments is for Estate Agents to publish their fees in big letters on their shop windows. State whether they are fixed or negotiable.
Can you explain why Estate Agents don’t do this and haven’t always been doing it?
Can you explain why a lot of Agents charge more than you? Are they offering a better service?
Why don’t Agents charge a fixed fee irrespective of how much a property is valued at? Doesn’t charging a commission mean that those who sell are paying for the marketing efforts for those properties that don’t sell?
Doesn’t the fact that Agent Contracts are typically for a few months create a conflict of interest with clients?
Doesn’t the fact that an Agent typically earns more for higher priced properties create a conflict of interest with clients?
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Is it reasonable to take the same listing fee from a negative equity vendor (who has no hope of selling at the price suggested by a listing rep) as is taken from the vendor of a £750,000 second home?Is it reasonable to threaten any vendor with court action and a possible CCJ if they fail to pay up on a deferred payment they weren’t aware was a loan? Doesn’t the fee taken from a negative equity vendor and the fees taken from the other 50% who don’t sell help to offset the losses of those who do sell but in a far more cynically unpleasant and unethical way?According to the analysts blowing smoke up Mr Woodfords chuff last week over £60 million is paid by failed vendors in the sector to support the 50% who do sell. Take that as a business plan to a traditional bank manager and see if that is a long term sustainable business plan they will lend money on.
We get £60 million from vendors who do sell, £60 million from those who don’t.
But all your previous accounts showed you made a loss, where is the shortfall going to come from?
We are going to get more people who do sell and more people who don’t sell.
Okay but if the two added together in any volume is a loss, you can have 100% market share, you will still be making a loss. You can’t run a business based on loss leaders when you have nothing else to offset the losses other than pensioners or investors’ money!
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“State whether they are fixed or negotiable.”
And you were a businessman?
Beggars belief.
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As agent V has said above, the difference between most full-service agents and many (not all) call-centre agents is that certain call-centre agents are making public, incredibly well funded, claims that, in some cases, have been provably misleading and, in others, using ‘convenient’ or spurious data in order to gain business.
If my local competition were making wild, unsubstantiated or knowingly false statements I, along with most on here, would be taking exactly the same stand (and have done so in the past).
With reference to no single agent in particular (and no inference should be drawn) – obtaining business by deception is fraud. Whether that is misdescribing your status as a professional, membership of an organisation such as a redress scheme or, telling consumers they will save money/ sell for more knowingly using flawed methodology or figures that are innaccurate, of poor or questionable quality or, materially out of date.
Most agents (of all business models) are decent, law-abiding people who take great pride in what they do and the career they have chosen. The reason there is so much ire, time and effort deployed against spurious claims, is that it reflects badly on all agents.
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Well I guess its not that difficult to imagine them moving up the leader board by default .Highly possible that CWD wont be in its present form for too much longer and will break up into constituent parts
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Bruce was also pushing Gerrard for his listings/sales conversion numbers…the irony!
Gerrard also had a PB ‘Local Property Expert’ value his own house at £250,000 below market value…. I’m no DIane Abbott but even I know £250,000 is a tad more than £9,000.
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Purple Bricks also predicted in 2014 a £25m profit for their investors by the end of 2016, but according to reports they were £24.7m short in reality……. Looks like their business predictions are as inaccurate as many of their valuations.
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IF the £0.3m you are referring to is the reported £0.3m ‘profit’ from their last Trading Statement, may I remind you that the stated “profit” was an “adjusted EBITDA” figure and NOT actual profit (that ‘cash in bank’ malarkey that eludes all the CCEAs year-on-year…)
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And now over to Observer.
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“offering 24-hour access to the market” – What a spanna – t’internet did that ages ago.
What about PB’s panel solicitors who HAVE to charge more than they normally would so that the local property berk and PB get thier cuts. The local property people are heavily targetted to sell the overpriced legal services to everyone. It’s immoral introducing someone to a service that you know they can get cheaper elsewhere.
Advertising Standards are seriously letting Real Estate Agents down by not pulling up PB and other call centre agents on their claims and practices.
just keep swimming
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The ‘CURRENT’ industry representative bodies could speak out about what you say and ‘puting the consumer first’, but of course they have more vested interests to consider!
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The legal services arent such a hard sell – I understand its the only way you can avoid paying PB upfront, by taking their expensive legal service (which incidentally starts at £599 plus VAT, but their LPE will quote individually at the time they sign you up). Commisery could start to look like value for money!
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The legal services arent such a hard sell – I understand its the only way you can avoid paying PB upfront, by taking their expensive legal service (which incidentally starts at £599 plus VAT, but their LPE will quote individually at the time they sign you up). Commisery could start to look like value for money!
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Isn’t this actually or very close to ‘conditional selling’ which I thought was outlawed. Perhaps a legal person could come on and enlighten me?
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And in RM and Zoopla had any respect for the industry that has made them millions PB would never have been allowed to appear on their sites.
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EXACTLY…… if they had any respect at all for the sellers the buyers or their real customers ,,the agents,,they woukd make it a NO SALE NO FEE portal only…..if ZOOPLA maybe had some balls and went on this policy they coulld win the war…..
maybe onthemarket should let anyone on as long as they are no sale no fee……
i didnt actually think a few years ago that i would be selling my business o the face that we have an office, we have staff and we only charge if we sell….. wow #fake agents have really scraped the barrel.
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Just had a PB client on who couldn’t thank me enough for sorting out the mess left by a PB Lexpert.
He says the the Lexpert has caused more stress and anxiety than any “agent” he has ever had, and he has had a lot. The lack of support post listing is madness.
The clients’ verdict on PB Lexpert’s was “no expertise” and “no support” – “took their money and ran”
What a joke!!!!!!
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Name and shame . Suggest he puts up a post on Trustpilot outlining his experience and then you can monitor their attempts to get it removed! Important to show the public what their true * rating is
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The client is embarrassed he put the review on TP at lisiting – says it’s been a disgrace since!!!!!!!!!!
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He s a discrace for going with PB in first place….taking money out of the local economy…etcetc
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I have come to the conclusion that Mr Bruce says these things just to come on here the next day and wet himself laughing at the outrage and indignation his spurious claims elicits. What does he care any more now that he has millions in the bank with promise of more to come later on from further share sales.
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No one likes to make money without respect…he knows what he is,..rather be poor then get there in that way….same goes for his double glazing listers ( actually,,,at least double glazing salesman fitted the windows before charging you….this lot charge anyway… shame on you.
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Just a thought but at 10.33 today (12 hours after the terrible event last night) perhaps we could all suspend commentating on our industry and post something for the children, parents and ordinary concert goers who were injured or lost their lives last night.
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Can anyone who disliked this please explain why they don’t agree with taking a little time out to show respect to those people that went to a concert last night and won’t now wake up this morning to continue with their lives?
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maybe we are letting out a bit of frustration as this kind of thing represents the evil of our new world….lying to get what you want, brainwashing people , fake stories, …the list goes on….
I am getting sick of having to live an honest life with people who dont play the game ( in business, religeon etc) and nobody does anything.
i didnt thumbs down by the way..
Iam not at work today,,,whats the point when kids can get killed and life taken away….hard to stay motivated.
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I agree, so bless all those who were unnecessarily taken last night.
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It may be easier for PB to move up the estate agents league table a little more quickly than had been anticipated but not necessarily for the reasons they have anticipated!
I noted the other day that the Countrywide brand in one of our towns ( Taylors in St.Neots) had a CLOSED sign on the door – no sign of life at all. The door was fully locked and nobody was in the office. It’s the same today.
I did take the trouble to telephone the office but just got a recording asking me to leave a message.
Anyone else noticed anything similar?
Might be worth keeping an eye on?
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Probably a casulty of their consolidation programme.
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‘Clear and transparent’.
Ignore my lisp but I suspect some of those unsuccessful customers who may have had to pay two agency fees may consider that Mr B probably does not hail from ethics?
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Donal Trump had more cross-hairs looking at him than anyone else, until now!
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I was listening in on my way home from the office at 8pm having spent the afternoon working hard on sales progression and stopping sales from falling through.All I could think about was the impossibility of sales progression with a PB sale in the chain.
I could not beleive what this man was sayining. He was clearly using the programme as an advertising tool which was not subject to ASA regulation.We have not earned a £9,000 commission in 13 years of selling homes for our clients.
We should write to the BBC en-masse and ask them to ratify the PB claims and subsequently apologise to its listeners for letting this person pull the wool over peoples’ eyes. In fact, isn’t it time the consumer groups got onto this. It would make a brilliant Matthew Allwright case.
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Have a look at the history of the high street agent, the brothers owned before, and what happened to it?
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…and while you’re on have a shuftie at the history of the business they moved on to after said Agency.
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Where i live the average house price is about 300k so at 1.5% that £5400 inc vat. Or i can instruct a PB for what is it £999 ? and get the valuer who used to work at countrywide for the last 10 years.
Agh but i,m not getting accompanied viewings, no problem as i know my way around the house, Kitchen included.
Agh but you won’t have an expert negotiator working for you…..Is that one of the experts who has just been on a weeks course as a result of the 50% staff turnover.
And if it doesn’t work out then any agent on town will drop their pants for my instruction minus what i have paid to PB as they can’t even neg a fee.
The futures bright and it aint Orange
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Good luck! 10 years at Countrywide is a great way to learn estate agency…They are the ones with the high staff turnover don’t forget.
You never know the true value of an expert until you hire an amateur.
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I would say go ahead Hodge. Pick a route where there is no incentive whatsoever to represent your property the best it can be to maximise Interest, generate the most viewings creating lots of offers, and then negotiate these to get you the best sale price possible.
Just tell them the minimum you are willing to accept and leave it at that. I wonder what you will then achieve with your sale price?
But don’t worry, I am sure that despite this route being less profitable the harder anyone works to get you a better sale amount, you will always believe you beat the system and got the very best net result you could have hoped for.
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interesting to see what other review sites are saying about the soon to be number one estate agents! funny how these are not published as much as Trustpiolet! https://www.allagents.co.uk/purplebricks/ in my view Allagents have always been the most common review site lanldords and vendors look on! but with the publishing of Trustpilot on the adverts and website they draw away clients from other review sites! i dont think i have seen such a bad score for an “agent” before, i assume the trustpiolet reviews are done before the sale or let is completed! hmmm
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