Local Property Experts are quitting the Australian business of Purplebricks, a media report has claimed.
Writing in the Australian Financial Review, Larry Schlesinger says that at least 27 agents have quit since March, with overall numbers now 88 compared with the 105 reported by Purplebricks last October. The number of departures has been put at 16 by Purplebricks itself. The publication has not said whether the 16 have been replaced by new recruits.
The property market in Australia is currently in decline, and with widespread speculation of a property market crash, other property firms are likely to be affected.
Purplebricks agents who spoke to the Financial Review said they were struggling to make a living, with the earnings they were told to expect failing to materialise.
Employment contracts seen by the Financial Review show that Australian agents earn just over $1,000 out of the $5,000 to $6,000 upfront fee vendors pay when they list with Purplebricks.
Internal sales figures obtained by the publication apparently show that 15 agents undertook a combined 768 home appraisals between February and April, but have so far secured just 189 listings between them.
While two of these agents have 72 instructions between them, the remaining agents have won between zero and 18 new listings each over the three-month period.
Agents who spoke to the Financial Review said that the business model is “flawed”.
According to the Purplebricks Australian website, it has secured over 5,200 listings and sold over 3,600 homes since launching in September 2016.
Australian CEO Ryan Dinsdale told the Financial Review that 16 agents had left the business since March. He said over 80% were earning a “good income”.
He added: “It’s a new model in Australia with a new way of doing things so it won’t suit everyone. We are really pleased with how the business in Australia is doing.”
In another piece in the Financial Review, writer Matthew Cranston says: “It is time to start raising some big questions about the sustainability of hybrid real estate Purplebricks’ selling model in Australia – and not just because of falling house prices and volumes.”
Comments (32)
RESPONSE TO ‘CYBERDUCK46’
“>PeeBee and his merry men have gone a massive way to eradicate Portal Juggling.
If they did then well done to them. In my time of being involved (since around the time of PeeBee’s comment about the “big can of worms”) there’s been a lot of fuss about nothing and I can confirm that PeeBee’s attention was well and truly on PurpleBricks because I was communicating directly with him and I can remember his twitter account being dedicated to PurpleBricks.”
I first made contact with this man around 7 March 2017 in response to his various posts here on EYE. The contact was responded to and as a result, fairly intensive two-way communication was entered into for a period of just over two weeks, predominantly relating to PB and his primary interest as an investor.
The exchange of views was what could only be described as ‘a game of two halves’ – and Cyberduck46 took a very different stance and attitude during the ‘second half’. In an unexpected and I would suggest unwarranted change of direction his hackles came up and the defences were definitely triggered.
The trigger? I would suggest that this comment set him off on what is now his mission to disrupt my disrupting the disruptors:
“My concerns are not for the shareholders – just the public.”
Things definitely went steadily and quickly downhill from that point.
Since that point, both privately and publicly here on EYE his tack has been as you now see it. And certainly not reserved exclusively for my delectation – it is shared round nicely at anyone who dares to question PB in any way, shape or form.
And of course he’s even got himself a #fanboy_friend in dom-boy – another supposed ‘concerned member of the public’ who just also happens to be a in:out shareholder/customer – to add to the cries that one or two nasty-pasty estate Agent-types are doing hurty-harm to a poor, defenceless multinational PLC with razor-sharp Legal Eagles heavily armed with C&D letters that they chuck around like day-glo confetti at a chav’s wedding.
I will hereby remind him that my second DM to him after contact was established was as follows:
‘Believe it or not I have no problem whatsoever with ANY Estate Agent – that is as long as they do what they should do, in accordance with the legislation we as an industry are bound by!’
I still stand by that statement – and have a log of evidence extending to over 25GB of data and encompassing well over 450 Agencies from ‘1’ to ‘Y’ to back me up. In fact, those that have been following the thorny industry issue of #PortalJuggling for the last THREE YEARS will know that MY ‘crusade’ didn’t actually start with PB at all.
I would suggest that the following quote be relevant to add:
“Using social media (hash tag #portaljuggling) and the practice being a contravention of CPR regulations it will be very difficult to turn a blind eye to and if they try people like Peebee, Chris Wood are a bit tough to shake off a topic like this.” (poster on EYE, 5/10/15)
My PB ‘file’ was opened in NOVEMBER 2015 – some six weeks later. I had been investigating what is now accepted as #PortalJuggling for over four months at that point.
‘Cyberduck46’ had (and has) no interest whatsoever in any other company – just PB.
And in my opinion that ‘interest’ appears far from a passing one and certainly not, as he stated to me in March last year, one of simply “protecting my investment. Nothing to do with being a customer.”
PeeBee out.
I’ll play it like ducky – I’ll not bother returning to this thread.
Or I might. Who knows.
“Most dot-com companies incurred net operating losses as they spent heavily on advertising and promotions to harness network effects to build market share or mind share as fast as possible, using the mottos “get big fast” and “get large or get lost”. These companies offered their services or products for free or at a discount with the expectation that they could build enough brand awareness to charge profitable rates for their services in the future”
Hmmmm, whose business plan does this sound like?
I find the comments around online / hybrid agents along with third party service providers fascinating.
So many ‘Latest and Greatest’ ideas are put forward on EYE and almost all fail.
PurpleBricks have so far bucked this trend but from those of us who know the industry it is not viable long term unless they become the ‘Amazon’ of the property world (which they will not).
We supposedly have a number of seasoned investors looking at PB as a worthwhile investment. I just don’t understand it, i do have a modest share portfolio and PB is not in it. Far too volatile with not much sp growth predicted.
These investors really should look at the ‘Dot Com’ bubble circa 2000, PB is the same, trying to build a business on other peoples money and fresh air. Its not a case ‘if’ but ‘When’ it will crash.
Out of all the stocks available why by PB?
Still, its not my concern just an observation. Its the same with OTM and all the other ‘Get Rich Quick’ schemes that pop up on here. Some drag it out but very few are viable. Its almost as though people are afraid of hard work in creating a successful business these days.
“The Devil tells an Australian Real Estate Agent, “Look, I can make you richer and more infamous than any Real Estate Agent alive. In fact, I can make you the greatest agent that ever lived as you do not even have to sell that many properties”.
“Well,” says the Real Estate Agent, “what do I have to do in return?”
The Devil smiles, “Well, of course you have to give me your soul,” he says, “but you also have to give me the souls of your children, the souls of your children’s children and, as a matter of fact, you have to give me the souls of all your descendants throughout eternity.”
“Wait a minute,” the Real Estate Agent says cautiously, “What’s the catch?”
Some Australian clients also query this ‘flawed’ business model:
https://au.trustpilot.com/review/purplebricks.com.au?stars=1
Love it!
The ‘business model’ was designed to enrich the founders. Not to disrupt the market, or to make things better for homeowners or agents. Both are victims of a few seeking to profit from those that can’t think for themselves.
As such, it has been successful for those few and will remain so for as long as there are agents and vendors that want to believe a better outcome can be obtained for less money and less effort.
Couldn’t have put it better myself.
BSOS23PC
Suspect won’t be long before the same problem becomes apparent here in the UK. There are simply not enough instructions to provide many of the 700 plus LPEs with anything like a reasonable living.
Now that is a thought !
How much do uk guys get? £200? 10 instructions month to earn £25k a year and sit in your lounge all day. Technology is a great thing. Bless thou gov’t. For they are blind and do not protect honest business models.
£150 an instruction £125 if they sell the viewing package I think.
Imagine they dont list anywhere near the normal number in December, January and August and if they have a couple of weeks off they earn nothing then either. If they are sick they arent earning. They’ve then got to pay for petrol, phones, car, and good old tax and NI. PB can take them off the road for training or because their available stock levels are too high.
Cant imagine the average LPE takes home anywhere near £25k.
PLUS (or is that MINUS?) there’s the dreaded clawback when disgruntled customers get their “NOT” commission reduced…
That’s gotta eat into yer earnings like Fluoroantimonic acid, innit!
And they can change your patch at the drop of a hat, its almost like they are employees
MAybe 1 good thing might come out of brexit…. lack of instructions… be who ever has the biggest war chest… local guys who flat line costs or pb who have to make up news to get more funding.
Dom?…..Ducky…….? Hello?
ECHO, echo, echo, echo…
Chris,
There is a valid question over whether PB will be able to reproduce their UK success overseas.
There are a lot of investors who think they will but personally I’m not so sure.
Flippin’ ‘eck Ducky. Have they upped your meds? That’s the first time I can recall you posting something containing an element of doubt in respect of the Purple Ones. Keep it up. We might start to respect your views a bit more.
As far as I’m concerned I tell it how it is but find many of the comments on here misleading.
My main posts on here are to correct misleading comments by traditional agents. Ones that either don’t know the facts or like to deliberately mislead.
“My main posts on here are to correct misleading comments by traditional agents. Ones that either don’t know the facts or like to deliberately mislead”. Maybe you should apply the same principles when non high street agents do that then cyberduck46?
“Ones that either don’t know the facts or like to deliberately mislead.”
Come on, ducky – YOU DON’T KNOW “the facts”. You put forward ‘alternative fact’.
One that suits your agenda – which seems to change to suit the mood of the purple press coverage.
Your problem here is that I and others aren’t doing this for personal gain.
But – that’s YOUR Achilles Heel – and OUR strength.
>Come on, ducky – YOU DON’T KNOW “the facts”. You put forward ‘alternative fact’.
Well actually I do my own research to check on what others like people on here and PurpleBricks are telling me.
>Your problem here is that I and others aren’t doing this for personal gain.
>One that suits your agenda – which seems to change to suit the mood of the purple press coverage.
See above – I do my own research. If you read my posts on the lse forum then you will see I was talking about the reduction in the number of Oz LPEs way before PIE picked up on it and you will also see I picked up on the fact that PB weren’t going to meet guidance well before one of the Analysts picked up on it and PB came out with a warning in February.
As an investor you need to know the truth. There’s no point kidding yourself. So I’m not sure where the agenda of wanting to know the truth is a problem. Of course in the case of yourself you want to believe certain things so lack objectivity. Perhaps you like to mislead to damage your competitor? Or perhaps there’s another explanation why you get things wrong?
So it’s your motives or lack of objectivity and your version of the “truth” that is flawed.
One example being all that portaljuggling ‘huge repercussions’ nonsense that you were coming out with when you were misinterpreting the evidence to suit you biased “truth”.
http://www.propertyindustryeye.com/rayhans-proptech-news-whyy-purplebricks-is-the-story-that-keeps-on-giving/
“Oh, mon ami…
…you have NO IDEA how big the can of worms you have just opened is going to get!”
Hi Cyberduck46
Going of on a tangent a bit, you obviously do a lot of your own research as I assume do a lot of investors. Given that portal juggling misrepresented the amount of actual instructions etc do you feel that investment desicions may have been made based on false data ?
AgentQ73,
The only misleading going on was from traditional Estate Agents like PeeBee who were trying to suggest there was wrongdoing and the number of listings were being deliberately manipulated by PurpleBricks.
Here’s another thread where PeeBee clearly thinks there’s some huge problem that never was http://www.propertyindustryeye.com/supply-of-property-on-estate-agent-books-at-lowest-level-since-2002/
“Meanwhile, I’d predict 60% YoY – with a wind behind them – and that being reliant on every ‘listing’ being a genuine, FIRST TIME listing.”
I can’t remember the exact number but audited accounts showed PeeBee was way off the mark again. Of course he’ll probably say that there was a conspiracy involving the auditors or that PB managed to pull the wool over the auditors’ (and any company that has subsequently undertaken due dilligance and taken a stake in them) eyes for what is essentially a business where PB receive their full payment pretty much on listing (either from the customer or the third party who provide the finance).
Cyberduck46
Thanks for the response
“The only misleading going on was from traditional Estate Agents like PeeBee who were trying to suggest there was wrongdoing” I can assure you 100% that wrong doing was going on and in my patch was absoutley rife from all sections of the industry.
Regardless of if it was a conspiracy or not (i guess not but dont know) portal juggling is/was a huge problem in that it it distorted the publics view of how long property had been on the market and how successful agents were, in my opinion this has a direct impact on who potential vendors decide to call out.
If investors were looking at Rightmove or Zoopla to try to gauge activity levels the information they would be getting would be incorrect.
PeeBee and his merry men have gone a massive way to eradicate Portal Juggling. As a campaigner for fairness and honesty I would have thought you would acknowledge this ?
>PeeBee and his merry men have gone a massive way to eradicate Portal Juggling.
If they did then well done to them. In my time of being involved (since around the time of PeeBee’s comment about the “big can of worms”) there’s been a lot of fuss about nothing and I can confirm that PeeBee’s attention was well and truly on PurpleBricks because I was communicating directly with him and I can remember his twitter account being dedicated to PurpleBricks.
“Well actually I do my own research to check on what others like people on here and PurpleBricks are telling me.”
So – I repeat – YOU DON’T KNOW “the facts”. You put forward ‘alternative fact’.
“As an investor you need to know the truth.”
So – you are currently a PurpleBricks investor – is that what you are saying? Why else would you be putting yourself through all this embarrassment if it wasn’t for personal gain at the cost of others?
“Or perhaps there’s another explanation why you get things wrong?”
Please, please – show me what I have got wrong, where – and how.
But make it factual – not your usual, fatally flawed. opinion-based ‘duckyfact’.
I really don’t see the point of the last part of your post – other than to try to discredit me… and thereby also the work that a number of people employed within the property industry (of which I played my own small but I’d like to think meaningful part) to highlight and thereby achieve the cessation of a major part of misleading property listing activity by a number of national, regional and ‘online-based’ Agencies.
BUT… you’ve shown me that can of worms again!
THANK YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Still the conspiracy theorist 🙂
I currently don’t hold any shares in PurpleBricks but I still follow them in addition to a small number of companies I know a lot about. The point is that if you know more than the next investor then you have an advantage when it comes to buying and selling.
It’s the same with anybody who trades. They need to know their niche.
“I currently don’t hold any shares in PurpleBricks but I still follow them”
REALLY? I, for one, don’t think so – and I doubt that some others will either.
You’ve got a lot “invested” in this crusade of yours, ducky.
I would suggest that you’re severely over-leveraged in that respect – metaphorically speaking.
Well PeeBee I told you and others I was a shareholder when i first started posting on here, then told you when i sold my shares. You then accused me of being a liar. I then provided you with evidence that I’d sold up when i said I did so your intuition isn’t too good is it?
Also, if people read my posts on the lse forum people can also see that people on there accuse everybody who posts anything interpreted as being negative as being a disgruntled Estate Agent. One shareholder even filters me out 🙂 So it’s a common situation, everybody thinks you have an agenda.
I don’t think any reasonable person would assume I’m a shareholder if they read my recent posts on lse. During the decline in LPE numbers I’ve been posting the information for the benefit of those holding the shares. Likewise I posted in regard to the number of listings when PB were clearly going to miss their guidance.
I recently posted the Article from Oz a day or two ago which PIE must have read and regurgitated.
If I’ve stated that I am a shareholder before, why would i say I’m not now? Also if somebody is a shareholder it doesn’t mean they’re going to mislead people does it?
But in the end, why does it matter? I really don’t give two hoots what you or anybody else thinks.
Anyway, enough of my valuable time. Enjoy the rest of your day. Once I’ve checked below to see if anything needs a quick reply, I’m going to move on.
Do you think PB will also fail in the USA or will that be a successful venture unlike Oz appears to be at the moment ?
Back in the room everyone…
Some very interesting internal stats in the published article…hurtful and irritating, but no more at the moment, but could build to something more dangerous in Oz…and therefore USA.
Their greatest threat is over ambition no doubt linked to the speed that the founders and large share holders are looking for exits and milking the hype. They need to do it before the worlds property markets correct themselves, hence the money that is being poured in. Axel Springer will want to monetize the traffic also and try and get a bridgehead into Europe fast. I have said before how the investors and founders are very well versed and connected in the city enabling them to fund raise. It has been hugely successful so far!
The UK biz can shrink or expand to absorb market shocks, but without enduring profits and return on capital, its share price will get massively pressured. They are here to stay though, I am in no doubt, but will they be a £1bn biz or £100m or £50m for that matter. They will need to increase their charges and then the savings are even less clear cut. BUT, I still see the USA as a huge threat to them and now maybe OZ. They only have 70 bods earning a respectable income in the land down under according to the report! Likewise, when the founders and driving forces tire..as they will, the direction will get lost and then there will be threats of being the ‘Countrywide’ of the interweb space.
Success?….