Member Info for cyberduck

>Cyber Type in the postcode to find the expert and this comes up !!!! I understand now. You're commenting on when a potential buyer visits the PB website and instead of choosing "PROPERTY SEARCH" decides to choose "MEET OUR LOCAL PROPERTY EXPERTS". This criticism of the user interface is not really significant as most buyers would choose "PROPERTY SEARCH" after finding the property in Rightmove or Zoopla. Even less significant if you factor in that most of the few potential buyers who inexplicably do decide to choose "MEET OUR LOCAL EXPERT" will actually find find a property expert and the few (of the few) who don't will most likely do so sometime in the future when more LPE's come online. Come on, you're slipping. There are bigger problems with the current offering than that.

Sain, Not sure what you are saying. Where does it say there is no LPE? I didn't think the LPE was listed under the property details.

Looking at a PB listing that's been on for about a year http://www.zoopla.co.uk/for-sale/details/40707540?search_identifier=130f419ad38e62c1a04cf58a11b1fc67#AxyvZ7eza9hb07M1.97 3- bed semi with asking price originally £325K. Decreased to £300K then increased to £325K and then £375K Zoopla values at £290K Last sale price £220K March 2007 Recent sales in the same postcode: 03 Oct 2016 120 College Road, Maidstone, Kent ME15 6SU 4 bed Semi-Detached £310,000 30 Mar 2016 118 College Road, Maidstone, Kent ME15 6SU Detached £385,000 I can't think why the price has increased to £375K and I don't believe PB would have advised this :)

>Cyberduck. Interesting information from Which. Yes but it's easy to quote data and make it look how you want it to. If a property sells quickly is it priced exactly right or underpriced? You can spin these statistics how you want. I personally like the idea of reducing the price gradually over time but if you're in a hurry then you'll accept a lower price. We're downsizing so I will use the surplus cash to buy another property or perhaps even invest in PB :) Sain, are you a buyer yet? Do you see PB achieving a 10% market share or better? I personally think PB and a few copycats (Virgin?) will take over and the traditional High Street Estate Agent will be a thing of the past. This will be better for the vast majority of selling homeowners. Probably about 90% of them. The other 10% won't know that they would have achieved better in terms of price with the old style of Estate Agency. Such is life. I had a video consultation with a GP 30 miles away a couple of months ago. £20 for an 8 minute consultation. I told the specialist about this and he said that was cheap as they're paying close to £50 in Ireland.

"Which? said it analysed more than 370,000 property sales in England and Wales" "The sample represents some third of the 1,141,620 properties sold in the 12 months to last September" "Which? says online-only and hybrid agents sold more homes that hadn’t been reduced in price compared to traditional agents." "Which? also found that properties reduced by 5% or more took on average 243 days from first listing to Land Registry sale date. All other properties took on average 179 days from first listing to Land Registry sale date." >Well a good agent should play a much bigger role than that He should be a skilled negotaiter armed with local knowledge to improve an offer,sort the wheat out from the chaff and also assist the buyer in purchasing the proeprty in all sorts of ways helping with ,surveys,fianance valuations The price is detemined effectively by the buyer which will either be acceptable or not to the vendor Perhaps there is a roll for these type of services but again there's no reason why high street presence is needed. One of our 4 local agents takes a pro-active approach to hustling for sales on the high priced properties. To be honest they come across very pushy but I suppose there's money to be made. That same agent knows I've listed with PB and I'm getting calls from them weekly asking how I'm getting on. They say they know people in the area looking for properties like mine. They couldn't remember the house over the road that switched from them to another agent. They're offering me 0.75% for a shared listing with winning agent takes all. Clearly they don't understand that I've already paid PB :) I must admit their salesmanship was working and I was thinking that they might know people looking but when I asked the LSE he said that anybody actively looking would see it on Rightmove. Interestingly PB have a data sales unit "We launched the Data Sales Unit in October 2015 with only a handful of people and one year later it has grown to a team of 91 employees engaging with buyers, sellers and viewers. As part of our strategy to increase valuations and drive down the cost per acquisition, we continue to develop our Data Sales Unit. We continue to generate thousands of data points daily as people register with Purplebricks, arrange a viewing, make offers and agree sales. We are now able to increase our revenue generating opportunities from data and, as our people develop and we place them into dedicated product and service streams, we expect to see the unit make a significant financial contribution. There is also a meaningful opportunity to drive additional revenue with the newly introduced Conveyancing Sales Team. They will engage in real time as things happen with buyers and sellers with a view to converting them to using our conveyancing services."

Sain, > Kitts Green manning the customer service board in Brum land doesnt even know the county your house at Upper Shagwell is in It's really a lot of money to pay for the benefit of support staff to be local. The LPE would of course know where the property is. Do vendors really care enough that support staff are local? I think with everything else being equal most people would sacrifice that to save themselves a few thousand pounds. I'm really struggling to understand why a High Street presence is even needed. I've checked a few of the PB LPE's and the ones I've checked all seem to be Estate Agents with many years experience but for the sake of argument let's assume the High Street Agent is better qualified or better connected. Why don't they close up shop and become self employed and charge the customer less? Also, what is it that motivates experienced Estate Agents to give up their jobs and start working for PB? Just been reading one of PB's LPE's description of himself "Having been an Estate Agent throughout Portsmouth & Southampton for over 20 years I have always taken great pride in listening to my clients, understanding their requirements and delivering great customer service and results. No other career comes close to the variety I experience daily with so many diverse properties as well as different clients which is why I am as passionate now as I was when I first began my career. Having worked for a corporate and independent estate agent, I am delighted to represent what I believe to be the only viable future of estate agency, Purplebricks, whose philosophy of delivering great service and results at an affordable price with no compromises is perfectly aligned with my own."

Sain, >Well firstly High street agents have responded by offering "performance fees" Do you have any examples of this?

>Secondly I wasnt comparing like with like I was commenting on transparency which Bruce makes a great play of Well there's transparency to the customer and then there's transparency relating to other matters. By referring to the instruction date you want PB to be more transparent than its competitors which would be completely foolish and not in the interest of its customers. Here's the quote from PB which prompted your criticism on the subject of transparency : “We welcome today’s report from Which? which highlights the need for more transparency in estate agency. Purplebricks provides customers with 24/7 visibility from instruction to completion and offers an alternative to the outdated commission model." Here he is talking about transparency to PB's customers. Transparency in regard to what is happening with their property. I imagine if the Which? Report is correct then he'd be happy with transparency in regard to the time it takes to sell a property but he'd be a fool to volunteer this information unless other agents do too. He also says “Customers should always be given information such as the value of similar properties sold in their area at valuation, have instant access to feedback and offers and be able to directly contact buyers at any time, from anywhere 24/7.” All things PB do and which in my own experience other agents in general do not do. In the end it's all about the customer experience and that's something I'm finding to be better selling with PB and your clear bias which is unsupported by evidence is not convincing me that this isn't what other people are finding too.

>doesn't it all boil down to which option will result in the best outcome for the vendor taking into account agreed sale price and agent fees paid to achieve that and time taken to sell?. Yes but you can't compare those things. If a property sells with a particular agent how do you know what you could have sold it for with another agent and how long it would have taken? As an agent PB has a refreshingly honest approach as far as I can see. Use the data they provide you with on a 24/7 basis to determine demand for your property. All other agents I've used try and outbid each other to try and get your property so it starts off being overvalued and you are left with the people who work in the shop telling you it must be overpriced. Hardly a very transparent way of doing things.

https://thenegotiator.co.uk/over-pricing-costs-vendors-4-3bn-a-year/ "Which? says online-only and hybrid agents sold more homes that hadn’t been reduced in price compared to traditional agents."

sain, OK, so we agree the new listing is not 100% accurate. You imply the difference is significant. I think it is negligable and can be ignored for share valuation purposes. >I give up !Look at Purplebricks website they dont date the instruction On Zoopla and Rightmove they do!!! There is the difference I give up too. You are not comparing like with like. What agent lists the instruction date on their own site? Why are PB being less transparent than other agents? >Valuation isnt simply looking at a whole lot of comparables and basing your assumption on that Markets move very quickly in both directions and although past transactions are a good indicator its a little more sophistcated than that Again you imply other agents do something significantly different. Not in my experience they don't. The LPE is always there for ongoing updates and in my experience significantly more available than valuers in traditional agents where you end up speaking to a non-expert. Your observations are completely biased and you don't even know how PB operate by the sounds of it.

sain@vision, Marketing break - this has to be 14 weeks for it to be classed as a new listing. You can't just remove the property and then the next day add it again. This doesn't result in a property being listed as newly added. When PB (Leila) referred to marketing break they meant a marketing break of 14 weeks or more. The number of properties who de-list for 14 weeks or more will be negligible so the newly added figures can be trusted in general. >I am looking at buying a property from Bricks whch has been available for 15 months and have now reduced the price by £20k I reckon it would have gone by now if it had been correctly priced Some people need to obtain a certain price and are prepared to wait. Some properties are difficult to value. Sometimes it's just about testing the market and waiting for the right buyer. You don't know what the vendors wishes are or what advice they are getting from PB so your conclusions are pure speculation. >My view as a buyer maybe wrong is that anyone using Bricks is going to be hard work negotaiting with Not necessarily. Valuation may be very easy. If your home is identical to other properties and there's a good number of sales and you are keen to sell quickly then you can set the price yourself. With PB you can change the price with the click of a button. I'm sure most people know roughly what their properties are worth and just wish to save the agents fee. If you don't know the valuation you can get a few agents in and see what they all say.. >Most agents using Rightmove or Zoopla offer date of instructionon the listing Now you've lost me. Please demonstrate what you are saying is different between PB and other agents in regard to transparency over the instruction date.

Some of the last post is missing. The last line should be In "practice" I believe that buyers and sellers communicating directly will improve openness and result in fewer sales falling through.

sain@vision, Some more jumping to conclusions... >[Leila] It can either mean the property has just been added onto the market or if the property has newly come back onto the market after having a marketing break. You are assuming a marketing break amounts to something less than 14 weeks. This is where you are wrong. Each PB vendor can take the property off the market themselves and it would be completely ridiculous if you could just click a button then click another button to add it again resulting in Zoopla & Rightmove sending emails to the thousands of people with an alert set for new properties in your area. >Just look at that poor seller whose listing I posted earlier unsold with over 40% price reduction in a year Clearly badly advised by the bricks LPE Not necessarily. The vendor could have chosen the listing price. Or the LSE could have told the vendor to start high and reduce over time. My LSE was completely straight with me. List high and reduce until the advert viewings and then the property viewings start was the agreed strategy. >Well there are good agents and bad Sorry to hear your experience has been bad Most are highlyy knowledgeable... Most? I think the public disagree. Estate Agents do not have a good reputation on the whole. >Many complaints about the actual fees cranking up for extras and the fact that pay higher conveyancing costs Many compaints that they havent been totally clear Well it is clear because I've just gone through the process. So the people complaining are at fault. Probably a small minority who don't read things before agreeing. >They are not transparent about how many instructions per month or how long they have been available on their site miost portals put on date of instruction Bricks chooses to be opaque Transparency ... “We welcome today’s report from Which? which highlights the need for more transparency in estate agency. Purplebricks provides customers with 24/7 visibility from instruction to completion and offers an alternative to the outdated commission model." I've never seen an estate agent provide the date of instruction. They don't volunteer the number of instructions they've taken either. So PB are no worse than others in that respect. On the other hand they do provide "their customers", the ones paying money, "visibility from instruction to completion". That's a lot better than all the Agents I've dealt with (many over the years as a homeowner and landlord). You phone them up and they don't seem to have any idea what's going on. With PB most of this is automated and available on the dashboard. Also my LPE has told me to phone him any time, even late in the evening. On the whole PB offer a better service from what i can see. In "theory" a traditional agent offers a few things you don't get with PB but charge about £3000 more on average. In "practice" I believe that buyers an

Also had a look at austinwyatt.co.uk reviews on TrustPilot - there aren't any. countrywide.co.uk have a BAD rating of 2.1

Just had a look at one of CountryWide's chains that are offering an online service and the first link I clicked in the Google Ad showed an error! Got there in the end http://www.austinwyatt.co.uk/sell-your-home/ £995 for a do it yourself service after a free valuation. With PB they charge £849 and come back after the valuation to take pictures. Not sure if this service includes that.

>The industry has done very little to respond to Bricks which is appearing arrogant especially where they can promote a whole range of skillsets which gets buried under the "cheap fee" Countrywide are offering a hybrid service. You can imagine the shore-sighted dinosaurs on the board of directors being frightened to promote it though because it will take instructions away from their high street branches which they are paying rent and staff costs on. Not sure what these skillsets are. I've found estate agents to be pretty useless on the whole. People don't trust them and if they reduce their fees people will trust them even less because it shows they've been overcharging.

sain@vision, Not sure what you are referring to as far as lack of transparency is concerned. I've read back over all your accusations over the months and I'm yet to see any evidence of anything you are saying. My own experience with PB suggests they are very honest. With an industry ready to pounce on anything untoward I would suggest they would be daft to engage in any dodgy practices. This includes portal juggling. I'll not be factoring in any reduction. I suggest you give PB another call and clarify what they meant by "marketing holiday". You will be told that the property has to be off the market for 14 weeks. I'm sure a customer would not allow this just so PB would be able to make it look like they had more new listings. There won't be many owners that have taken their properties off the market. From what I can see you are jumping to all sorts of conclusions with no real evidence.

Also found this http://www.propertyportalwatch.com/rightmoves-portal-juggling-change-prompts-response-zoopla-otm/ Apparently Zoopa also have mechanisms in place to stop this manipulation of search results. The conclusion is that the newly listed figures in both Rightmove & Zoopla only include new listings or those that have been off the market for an extended period of time.

Hi sain@vision, I'm not convinced by your argument that PB are taking advantage of marketing breaks. When I suggested this to my LPE he told me that in Rightmove the property has to be off the market for 14 weeks before they will be relisted as newly added. Apparently some time back some Estate Agents were portal juggling to scam the system but this has been stopped. I can't speak for Zoopla but I can't see them being fooled by this either. I found this dating back a year. http://www.propertyindustryeye.com/zoopla-confirms-removal-of-listings/