The average local estate agency branch is around 3km (about 1.9 miles) away from their properties – whereas Local Property Experts with Purplebricks list properties that are typically 10km (about six miles) apart from each other.
The claim comes from estate agency comparison website GetAgent.
The proptech firm focuses on local high street firms and does not include online agents in its comparison reports issued to consumers.
Last night a spokesperson for GetAgent told EYE: “We make our money from any full service estate agent. Vendors come to us looking for the best estate agents and we provide them a list of the best agents in their area, based purely on their past performance.
“We charge the estate agent £50 for each valuation lead we present them. We don’t have an issue with online agents but they do not appear on our lists as they do not offer the full agency service and so it would be an unfair comparison.
“Our focus is really on making sure the best agents are rewarded by receiving more valuation appointments and our vendors are happy as they are able to pick an estate agent that is going to do the best job.”
In its new research, GetAgent has specifically looked at the word ‘local’.
It concludes that: “Purplebricks Local Property Experts [are] far from local.”
However it also found that the average LPE had “substantially” more listings than estate agency branches.
The firm says it analysed over 14,000 estate agency branches and all property listings – more than 1m in total – over the first six months of this year.
Researchers also spoke to a number of agents, both corporate and local, although Purplebricks said it had not been invited to contribute.
The analysis found that London agents Kinleigh Folkard Hayward were closest to their properties, at just over 1km, while Sequence branches were furthest, at just over 3.5km.
Turning to Purplebricks Local Property Experts, GetAgent claims that “what determines the area they cover is the leads that are generated from the main website. As such, they often pick up listings from a wider catchment area than high street estate agents”.
The research found that an LPE listed 90 properties on the main portals in the six-month period, exactly double the 45 listings of the average high street branch.
This meant that Purplebricks’ LPEs “have further to travel between properties AND more properties to visit,” GetAgent concludes.
It also found that the closer the estate agency branches are to their properties, the fewer properties they list.
The research acknowledges that Purplebricks is on a drive to recruit more LPEs so coverage of a large area “may be a short-term issue”.
Asked about the difference in the way high street branches and LPEs were assessed in terms of distance, a spokesperson for GetAgent told EYE: “For us, the most important factor was how local an estate agent is to the properties they list. This is what gives them their local knowledge over time and their local database which are seen as key. They get to know an area and their branch is the hub. So for the high street agents the stronger measurement for us was branch to listing distance.
“Obviously Purplebricks don’t have a branch and the closest comparison we felt was distance between two listings. Given that 10km is the average distance between two listings we can conclude that the catchment area they cover is incredibly large.
“We did consider measuring the distance between two listings for both the high street agents and Purplebricks but we didn’t feel this focused on the fact that agent proximity to properties is the real key. This would have made it easier to make a direct comparison but doesn’t give you an idea of how close branches are to their properties, which is what we felt was most interesting.”
A spokesperson for Purplebricks said: “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.
“We have not seen the details or methodology behind the research or been invited to contribute, so cannot comment on the accuracy and validity of the data and calculations.”
The full GetAgent research is here:
https://www.getagent.co.uk/labs/local-agents
See also Paul Smith’s column immediately below – and how he views “local” and “expert”.
Comments (37)
Duplicate
OKAY… call it schoolboy humour… call it crass… call it what you like BUT I’m going to post this anyway.
For those of you with sensitive dispositions – look away now.
A nice person by the name of ‘Lady’ has just posted a glowing review on @trustpilot (who have blocked me but I don’t hold that against them in the least, of course…) praising their LPE, Stewart, for being “excellent and enthusiastic… also very flexible”.
Thing is – it wasn’t their first review. Have a look:
https://uk.trustpilot.com/users/58a0c2450000ff000a76a777
Methinks his mentioned qualities made him perfect for the job in hand…
Can we gather from that review that the LPE gave her complete satisfaction, I mean sold her house?
I’ll bet the marketing created a real buzz!
Above, ducky asks the question
“It would be interesting to know how GetAgent linked a PurpleBricks property to a particular lpe.”
Maybe Get-a-Gent would be good enough to volunteer their own method – but I’ll let you into the mahoosive secret of how I’d do it.
Let’s take their oldest unsold listing (as per Zoopla) as an example
https://www.zoopla.co.uk/for-sale/details/40708264#8WVMsewxxX29xVAS.97
1. Identify the address of the property – which is DEAD easy-peasy ‘cos PurpleBricks include all the relevant info on their listing.
2. Key the postcode into the box where it invites you to “Find your own Local Expert” on the main webpage
3. Hey presto – up he/she/prefers-not-to-disclose pops as the “Local Expert” – with the reassuring statement
“All our Experts live in and around the area they work.”
4. Check his/her/prefers-not-to-disclose details at Companies House – you have a location.
All that takes me, in between doing other stuff and typing out the steps here, 3 minutes 27 seconds. 28… 29…. 30….
…you get the idea. Have a go – it’s great funnnnnnn!
(For those that can’t be chewed to do all the above and want to know the nitty-gritty – this particular ‘Local Expert’ has a journey of 30.7 miles to get to the property at that particular postcode!)
Just because a company is registered to an address at companies house, you can’t make the assumption that the director is living or trading from that address.
Many use Accountants for all correspondence, so this assumption you have made, makes you look a little naive my anonymous troll friend!
OOPS – thanks for the reminder – I missed out step #5 in the guide:
StreetView the address and you’ll generally see that it’s a council semi/flat/mansionette and not some backstreet accountants.
There you goes, trolly boy.
Point 6 accountants trade from home quite often, Fail!!!!
Not when you – Point #7 – check the address for other businesses they don’t…
…now – what were you saying about ‘Fail’??
Just because a address as multiple companies listed there doesn’t mean it is an accountants address.
Keep trying to justify you quite ridiculous attempt to prove a badly made point.
Why are you still hiding behind the troll account, are you too weak to show who you are?
People who have been here longer than the 2 minutes you have Dominic know who PeeBee is so his ‘identity’ here is irrelevant.
Nah – just do it to wazz people like you off.
Those who need to know who I am, do.
So the main point made is that you can’t assume that the address at companies house is the trading address of the LPE, merely a registered address.
dom-boy… I didn’t say that the method I spelled out was that which Get-a-Gent used – did I?
I offered a potential way of going about the job.
You’re the one who has had to think reeeal hard about debunking it.
Go lie down – you’ll feel better tomorrow.
Local is … local – by that I mean it’s relative.
In London (or Brighton or A N Other City) I would say it’s local if you can walk it in 30 minutes (about a 2 mile radius)
In rural England I would say it’s local if you can drive it in 15 minutes (about a 7.5 miles).
Or how about – no other estate agent branch between the agent and the property?
Of course there are bound to be exceptions that prove the rule… 😉
I must be doing something right with the amount of personal comments 🙂
PeeBee with an on-topic point today and no personal attack.
Suggest you look again, ducky…
You are confusing irritation with mocking.
I obviously don’t know whether you have a working relationship with Purplebricks, the lack of a connected person notice on your listing says you aren’t, so given you are not acting in an official capacity I am am surprised their litigators and marketing team haven’t shut you down.
Between you and Dom you are actively promoting negative press opportunities that other internet listing firms don’t enjoy.
Every time you whack the keyboard you are giving someone the chance to take the pi55 out of either you or the firm you’re schmoozing. I bet they really love you.
Time to stop feeding this troll me thinks.
WHAT?? Stop feeding the ducks??
I just can’t. They’ll starve. They always slurp it all up – so they must be hungry.
With the pseudo intellectual tosh you spout Robert, I’m surprised you haven’t had a cease and desist letter.
As if by magic!
How do you turn Cyberduck46 into a pop star? Put him in the microwave until its Bill Withers!
Before even clicking this I thought a certain quack would be defending the case of “local” experts…I live in Sussex therefore I am local to all of its cities and villages?
The moaning mallard!
I forgot to mention that in a straight line ish there are 5 high street areas for estate agency locations and if I go to work via another route, also a straight line there are 7 high street locations so measuring pb’s 90 instructions against a proper local estate agents 45 isn’t a fair yardstick as there is, in the smallest area 35 estate agencies against 1 lpe supposedly covering that same area, as I said earlier, according to his leaflet drop!
I own two homes and an estate agency there is 6.5 miles distance between my two homes and then there is a further 8 miles to my office so as a minimum there is a 14.5 mile distance however from the furthest homes local area it stretches away from my office by 4.5 miles and at the furthest point from my office the area stretches 3.5 miles thus making a distance of 22.5 miles and that is the distance of one supposed “local p e” according to his leaflet drop!
It would be interesting to know how GetAgent linked a PurpleBricks property to a particular lpe. I wouldn’t have thought that data was available. So there must be a questionmark as to accuracy there.
“The nation is often quick to criticise estate agents but our experiences have been quite different. Discussing the importance of being local with estate agents showed there is in fact a softer side to them. It demonstrated how proud and passionate they are about the neighbourhood they live and work in, not just about the properties they are wanting to sell.”
A tear came to my eye when I was reading that, but then I thought of the local agents who conspired to rip-off local people by forming a price-fixing cartel http://www.dailymail.co.uk/money/article-4922744/Burnham-Sea-estate-agents-conspired-rip-sellers.html and my own experiences over the last 30 years.
So what’s the answer to the question? How local do you have to be? For some reason the article focuses on PurpleBricks. Perhaps this is because GetAgent get paid by traditional agents, but they could take it one step further and suggest that it is only KFH that is local enough. No point is made in regard to 7 of the agents having twice as much distance to cover as KFH.
Perhaps all agents are local enough. How do we know? That might actually be the case with all the data available including HPI data for council areas, the land registry and the tools/data made available by Rightmove and Zoopla.
For my own property I used the local council HPI as well as data from Rightmove for sold properties in my area so I even had an even more local HPI than the council one. Then I also use Rightmove’s price comparison tool and just generally keep an eye on new listings in the area.
No sunday-name today?
“it would be interesting to know how GetAgent linked a PurpleBricks property to a particular lpe. “
Quite a few property listings I have seen contain the LPEs name – and even their mobile number on occasions. Next question…?
From what I’ve seen on Trustpilot LPE’s from the UK are doing a magnificent job in America. That bumps up the carbon footprint by a few tonnes
>Quite a few property listings I have seen contain the LPEs name
So guesswork involved for those that don’t.
Might be… might not.
You are no more aware of that answer than I am.
Or… maybe that’s not the case. Who knows?
“but then I thought of the local agents who conspired to rip-off local people by forming a price-fixing cartel”
They did not ‘fix’ an upper limit – they instead agreed to stop the race to the bottom of the barrel you scrape so efficiently. Some would say that is good business sense – but the CMA seem to want companies to dig themselves into debt or even closure through pressure of competition.
No smart@$$ response to this one, ducky?
“For some reason the article focuses on PurpleBricks.”
Wrong. This article focuses on the research carried out by Get-a-Gent, which clearly states
“we felt it was also necessary to look at the differences between high street estate agents and online estate agents, in this instance using Purplebricks as an example.”
“For my own property I used the local council HPI as well as data from Rightmove for sold properties in my area so I even had an even more local HPI than the council one.”
Sorry – in what context do you mean “For my own property I used…”?