Member Info for cyberduck

>Looks like instructions are levelling off Indeed, I'm actually seeing a drop in levels. Just 170 on Friday (approx). Just 95 yesterday (approx) but still 23% market share (always around this level on a Sunday). LPE's adding listings on a Sunday. Not sure what traditional Agents are doing. And all this with 701 LPE's compared to around 450 back in April when listings were mostly over 200 daily. I wonder if PB have guaranteed some level of income to the new LPEs so that the slowdown doesn't affect their recruitment drive? >Jury still out in the USA with very few instructions yet on sellside Yes, nothing in the last few days (assuming my searches are still working). Like you say, it's early days. Does anybody remember what it was like in Oz at the start? I've found a total of 7 in the US so far. It will be interesting to see what happens if the stagnation seen in London spreads out to the rest of the country. Traditional Agents talk about PB not surviving in a slowdown but I'd have thought with LPEs being self employed they can cut their cloth to current levels of demand. In the meantime, traditional agents still have their rental costs and minimum staffing levels to pay for. Personally I could see quite a few traditional agents going to the wall and PurpleBricks picking up a percentage of the market.

terrace, I am thinking in regard to share price performance. Looking back there have been close to 50% drops on a couple of occasions. I really don't want to be over-invested if the share price is going to suffer. Perhaps for the time being it's better to be in cash or invested in another company or in an index tracker. I am concerned by the effect of Brexit on the share performance and was wondering what other people's opinions were on the effect of Brexit. You can see that sales are essentially at a standstill in London. If the uncertainty is likely to last more than a couple of years then perhaps TEF is not the place to be at this time.

Steph, I'd have thought that with Brexit being so important then the UK position on Brexit would be more of a cross-party one. If things get too far away from middle ground with the current government then surely that would result in an election. Not my area of expertise but these things usually end up in compromise don't they? What's the current thinking in terms of timescale for Brexit? I look at TEF and think they are OK for the next 2 years, then 2020 is a bit of an unknown to me. 2021 looks promising unless the greystar deal falls through, then hopefully by 2022 everything will be rosy again even if TEF haven't managed to pre-sell as much as they would like to. If I'm way off the mark then somebody please tell me because I've got way more invested in TEF than I would typically invest in one company.

>Purp don't have a profit so how can other onliners be way behind them Because Purplebricks are making a profit in the UK and the others aren't if I understand correctly. An operating profit of �0.2M to the end of April 2017 for PB. Self funding in the UK, the others are all still raising money if I'm not mistaken. To be honest I don't pay that much attention to the others but PB say they have 72% of the online market and I've looked at the number of listings that YOPA get and it's nowhere near what PB are getting. >whole online sector heamorraghing money No, you are wrong. PB only made a loss because of Australia which was �6.1M. In the UK, their turnover pays all the fixed costs including the �14M marketing costs as well as the cost of sales. To understand the business model search for "Hardman & Co". There's a report from September 2016 which is a bit out of date now but it explains how the profits are forecast to grow as they scale up their operations. Whether it can be achieved to the levels they predict is another question but at current rates of listings (assuming advertising costs remain at last years levels) there should be a healthy profit from the UK side with the increased turnover. PB have estimated an increase from �43M turnover to �80M in the UK and confirmed these targets in the recent trading update. At the moment I'm a bit skeptical about this but I expect them to increase marketing in the new year which is what they did last year and really benefited during the peak season.

Read it when it was first published. I'm not sure it bears much resemblance now but I won't be reading it again. Chris told me that he offered experience, advice & insight and tried to charge me $500 an hour for such :) He is a regular tweeter and has tweeted �Hilarious but have missed off choosing a DIY agent where you pay �1k up front but only have a 14% chance of selling" so I was concerned about my investment because I held PB shares at the time. Rather than pay him though I spent a few hours researching and soon decided he didn't have a clue what he was talking about. Chris seems to think PB should be aiming to pay a dividend which shows you how much he knows about investing. He comes from a sparsely populated area of the Country and has used his data from where he's located as a basis for the whole country. Have a read of this https://pzwoody.wordpress.com/2014/12/15/cheap-agents-could-cost-uk-consumers-half-a-billion-in-wasted-fees/ if you want a laugh. And this guy encourages people to make complaints to the Advertising Standards Agency about online agents :) Chris sells himself as a campaigner for honesty in the Estate Agent world. Have a read of his comments here http://www.propertyindustryeye.com/regulator-lays-bare-what-went-on-in-estate-agency-cartel-case/ in regard to a case of 6 Estate Agents who were fixing prices and ripping home-buyers off. Do your own research.

propertyboy, I have to be careful over on propertyindustryeye. If I read what everybody writes then I can spend too much valuable time on there so I won't be checking back after my comment early this morning which pretty much sums up my opinion. It seems like another fuss about nothing and but if there's been anything of particular relevance since my comment then feel free to update me on here and I'll quite happily reply seeing as you appear to be missing my opinion :) I'll be back Monday morning for a short while to comment on any "news" though. :) Adding a bit of balance to proceedings in case any members of the public are actually reading it. If a member of public does read the articles and comments on PropertyIndustryEye, what opinion of Estate Agents do you think they will come away with?. Personally speaking, I think it makes Estate Agents look bitter over the loss of business to the online agents.

Sain, talking about mistakes, I found another journalistic error yesterday on PropertyIndustryEye. The other day in a report they stated that Zeus Capital said PB would be in profit to the tune of �15M but this was wrong because it was only the UK division Zeus were referring to. The article was changed after I commented. Then yesterday it came clear during the usual allegations of inconsistent figures by commentators that a post they (the commentators) were referring to as coming from the CEO was something PropertyIndustryEye had made up themselves. Check this post out. http://www.propertyindustryeye.com/purplebricks-getting-closer-to-profit-as-ceo-reveals-new-listings-of-3000-a-month/ The comment "On the current basis of 3,000 new listings a month with sellers paying �665 (not counting VAT) the firm would be making �2m a month, or �24m a year." doesn't come from the interview so it would appear that PropertyIndustryEye have miscalculated the profit levels (by ignoring costs of sales and expenses). So we have poor journalism from PropertyIndustryEye resulting in a bunch of comments from Estate Agents (and still going on to this day) for an article back in April 2016. I wonder how much of the other reporting on PurpleBricks is flawed in this way. "However, EYE was told that one of the properties pictured actually went on the market in April, with Land Registry records showing it had sold in August.". Well we all know that there's far more attention being paid to PurpleBricks than traditional agents. Do you not find this a bit biased? How about some like for like reporting in regard to traditional Estate Agents. If you look at the articles about traditional Agents they relate to far more serious things like when they run off with a clients money or form a cartel to rip off homeowners. Yet for PurpleBricks there's even an article when the share price drops but not when it recovers the next day :) Do you still think this is impartial journalism?

IreneKrapp, The other online agents are in a far worse position, they're miles behind PurpleBricks in terms of profitability and market share. PurpleBricks are at around 3.5% market share nationally and roughly at breakeven in the UK. It's only Australia which made PurpleBricks loss making in the last financial year and I think this was around the �5M mark. They have just raised �50M when they were loss making and this is for development in the USA where they will be loss making for probably 2 or 3 years even if things go well. Woodford invested a while back when they were loss making. I don't think that reducing prices to gain market share is a bad policy if you're looking to the long term. Of course this is all hypothetical based on Givethemthelowdown's local area in which he says PurpleBricks are losing market share. This is not what I'm seeing in my proxy on a national level.

Givethemthelowdown, Surely PurpleBricks are in a better position to reduce their fees than the other online agents. �60M in the bank and no shortage of institutional interest the last time they went to the market to raise cash. That would be plan B. The idea of a traditional agent selecting clients on their terms will surely over time just drive more people to the online agents. From what I've heard, traditional agents are lowering fees as it stands and the big question is whether they will stay in business, especially if online agents start reducing their fees. Time will tell.

Sain, You could argue that on the same "short term strategy" or "conflict of interest" basis, traditional agents with a 3 month contract will sell for any price within that 3 months or risk getting no commission. If you view it on a long term view then PurpleBricks LPE's will want happy customers which means they want them to sell their homes. Just like a traditional agent with a long term strategy would not want to get a reputation for selling below market price.

>Was your post mean to be on Bricks site Yes :) I have both the pages open on adjacent tabs. Apologies.

https://www.redfin.com/CA/Dana-Point/33392-Sea-Bright-Dr-92629/home/4963785

https://www.redfin.com/CA/Dana-Point/33392-Sea-Bright-Dr-92629/home/4963785

Can a small agent afford an online platform and training of the staff? 40% of agents don't even answer emails. Do they want customers talking to each other? Possibly cutting them out of the deal? Online Agents are more likely to improve than high street ones if you ask me and High Street Agents are always going to be held back by their high street rents, staff wages, and lack of funding for advertising.

Graham, AllAgents have no system in place for verifying whether reviews are fake or not when a company asks. There are other agents who have complained about fake reviews but they have probably not had the financial backing to take legal action. Have a look at the reviews on TrustPilot for allagents https://www.trustpilot.com/review/allagents.co.uk PurpleBricks asked them to verify a certain amount of reviews and remove them but instead AllAgents closed down the page, effectively removing them all, valid & invalid. AllAgent's review site is not up to standard as a review site because it's easy for competitors to fake reviews.

Very impressive CV. "I became a licensed real estate agent in 2013. After selling $7 million in residential property over the last two years, I expanded into land and apartment acquisitions. I managed an acquisition team to purchase multifamily for a boutique investment firm and started a small brokerage focused on generating quality leads for my agents and the highest quality service to my clients. I'm known for going above and beyond to surpass my client�s expectations. I started my career 13 years ago as a civil engineer for one of the top companies in the world, Turner Construction. Being an entrepreneur at heart, I took a hiatus from construction and expanded my resume with starting two businesses and successfully managing each for several years. Always having a passion for construction and architecture, I then decided to broaden my aspirations where she began a career in real estate. I attended Saint Vincent College in Latrobe, Pennsylvania and the University of Pittsburgh in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Civil Engineering, and a Bachelor of Science in Mathematics with a Minor in Physics. While attending Saint Vincent College on a full scholarship, I was a member of the women�s basketball team. I was a four-year starter and captain on both her high school and college basketball teams. I bring leadership skills along with a competitive nature and drive to a professional life and love a challenge. I also enjoy hiking, working out and living an active healthy lifestyle."

https://software.purplebricks.com/search-local-expert I don't think this is a complete list.

Could be wrong but I think this is listed by PB https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/7501-Alpine-Way-Tujunga-CA-91042/20092717_zpid/ Possibly this one too http://www.movoto.com/eastvale-ca/6432-high-country-cir-eastvale-ca-92880-202_ig17224203/for-sale/ Also had a 5 star review on TP which will please Sain :)

OK, perhaps not quite 100%. But Hardman say "The main development for Purplebricks recently is its launch in Australia, expanding its ultimate potential by 75-100%." in the September 2016 analysis. And "It seems the opportunity is as large at that being successfully grasped in the UK. The Australian market currently is serviced by 36,000 agents, which compares to 18,000 in the UK � for a population 35% as large as the UK�s. Estate agent fees total �3.3bn. This compares to �4.4bn size of the UK market. The positioning is into a market which is large (75% as large as the UK in terms of estate agency transaction fees and income) and high margin. The average Australian estate agency fee is �6,000 (nearly 50% above the UK level, with average house prices nearly 50% higher too)."

>Purplebricks Australia is on track to breakeven in November 2018 (after 15 months trading) and will be a similar sized unit to Purplebricks UK. I think what they are saying is that they will be a similar sized unit eventually, not by November 2018 which is the the month they will break even (on a monthly basis).