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Purplebricks defends its Local Property Experts after website criticism

Purplebricks has issued a strong defence of its Local Property Experts after an agency comparison website’s analysis was critical of the hybrid company. 

 

Yesterday we reported that GetAgent had analysed 10 traditional estate agencies and Purplebricks; for the traditionals it found that the nearest branch (with its local experts) was on average around three kilometres from a listed property, whereby for Purplebricks the distance was 10 kilometres.

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“The research has made us question whether the Purplebricks Local Property Experts can really call themselves 'local'” GetAgent concluded.

 

Now Purplebricks has responded with a spokesperson saying: “Purplebricks is a truly national brand with a local presence. As last reported in June 2017 we work with over 540 Local Property Experts across the UK, a number that is constantly rising as customer demand grows. 

 

“It is encouraging the report has calculated that on average, each of our LPEs list twice as many properties as the average high street branch, while delivering a 9.5 out of 10 rating on Trustpilot from over 27,000 reviews. 

“This is made possible through the effective use of technology and flexible working practises which allow LPEs to be more efficient than high street peers – we agree a sale every nine minutes, 24/7” the spokesperson says.

The agency concludes: “We have not seen the details or methodology behind the [GetAgent] research or been invited to contribute, so cannot comment on the accuracy and validity of the data and calculations. What we can comment on is the fact that our customers love our knowledge, service and expertise and continue to recommend us to their friends and family.”

  • Paul Singleton

    9.5 out of 10 on trustpilot but only 1.6 out of 5 on AllAgents before they forceably got AllAgents to remove the reviews! 32% valuation accuracy and only 20% of customers would recommend Purple Bricks. The only company ever to force a review site to remove reviews due to such a poor performance. Fortunately I screenshot every review prior to removal and they come in handy on a regular basis.

  • Simon Shinerock

    I think PB are embracing the controversy and the publicity, the establishment will always sound like sour grapes in a situation like this. I say let's all just do the best we can and see what happens, I'm confident good agents who add value will win from this and bad ones will, well, who really cares what happens to bad ones....

  • Welsh  Cynic

    Just a typical corporate cover up. If you are so confident in the qualities and abilities of your 'local' experts, why not allow AllAgents to accept comments, good or bad. It is unlikely that the LPE's are better, more able and more helpful than long established Agents, but how about 'allowing' sites other than TrustPilot to report. I wonder how many customers 'love our knowledge, service and expertise and continue to recommend us to their friends and family'.

  • Mark Wilson

    If I was a buyer looking for an edge I would want to use Purple Bricks to find my new home compared to using a local local agent. Local agents are much more likely to know the market and be able to advise on value. Cheap fees may work out to be not so cheap.

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    Funny you say that Mark, as I know an agent who buys and sells in one of my old patches, who targets Purple Bricks to buy through, and has been successfully profiteering on the back of their failures.
    Purple Bricks have a place in the market place I am sure of it (when the market is easier than now), but as I have predicted a few years ago, the internet agents will win the market for between 1-5 years before consumers realise how much they have lost doing it themselves and head back to the high street, where good agents will raise their fees due to lack of "cheap" options.
    I am still left wondering why Propertymark are not putting in place what actually constitutes an estate agent as Purple Bricks from an industry point of view are a listing tool, nothing more, nothing less (IMO)

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