Purplebricks reported ‘strong progress’ across its business this morning, with revenues up and a ‘smooth’ launch in America.
There are now 640 Local Property Experts in the UK, up from 540 only three months ago.
This morning’s trading update did not, however, mention what profits the company expects to make.
It said: “Strong progress has been made across the business since the start of the financial year on 1 May 2017. Trading in the UK and Australia remains on course to meet the full year guidance provided at the final results in June: revenues of £80m for the UK and £12m for Australia.
“H1 revenues in the UK are likely to be more than double the same period last year and many times ahead in Australia, although they had only been trading two months in the comparable period. Local Property Experts have recently increased in the UK from 540 as at 29 June 2017 to 640 and from 77 to 100 in Australia.
“On 15 September 2017 the Group launched into the $70bn US real estate market, commencing a region-by-region rollout in the city of Los Angeles. The launch date was ahead of plan and has gone smoothly.”
It said that the initial response to the launch has been “encouraging with the volume of website visits and valuations booked exceeding both the UK and Australia at the same period in their development”.
Purplebricks also said that it was well funded, with nearly £65m of cash and no debt.
CEO Michael Bruce said the company’s focus will “remain on providing an excellent customer experience”. He added: “We are relentless at working to ensure we understand our customers’ needs and meet their expectations and are proud of our 27,000 Trustpilot reviews.”
For Countrywide, today has started much less well after its shares sank to a miserable new low of 108p – down 4.42% yesterday.
Comments (96)
ducky
You’re playing your usual game of trying to tie people in knots over past comments – which is fine, as the comments you are trying to find fault with had no issue with them in the first instance and any expansion simply adds negative weight to anything you are trying to achieve.
BUT while we’re playing that game – let’s see if we can squeeze some responses from you, on comments you have been asked to explain.
1. From 28 September:
“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…”?
2. From 26 September:
“I just sold a property in the U.S. and my address is in the UK.”
Is that right, ducky?
Funny – you’ve never brought that into conversation before now.
I would have thought that someone as analytical as you would want to draw a web of comparisons between your ‘experiences’ on the US Real Estate market to that of your arduous slog on the UK side of the pond.
Makes me wonder why…
3. From 21 September:
“So they followed the link in their invitation email by PB and it took them to the US site.”
But… but… but…
If they followed “their invitation email” as you state to be the case, ducky…
…HOW COME THEY WEREN’T marked as “Verified orders”?
4. From 20 September:
In your most recent line of business, did you:
1. Clearly publish a non-negotiable base fee and detail how this may vary?
2. Have the same rate for all customers?
3. Never vary from the above rate regardless of circumstance?
and finally
5. From 28 September:
“you’d want somebody who can tell the difference between serpua lacrymans and coniophora putaena”
Don’t you mean Serpula lacrymans?
And Coniophora puteana?
No doubt your reticence will continue…
He’s claiming today on another forum that: ‘40% of agents don’t even answer emails.’ and that; ‘Online Agents are more likely to improve than high street ones if you ask me‘.
Where’s that, PP?
a digital belch of what he put on here last week was posted on the group think shares forum
Hello Ducky
You can now add some real ‘fools’ to your list of people “daft enough to quote” my blog
http://www.fool.co.uk/investing/2017/09/30/10-reasons-id-sell-purplebricks-group-plc/?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter
Don’t be too hard on Daffy it appears he is doing a job. It very much looks like he is trying to convince the world passive intermediary listing services can be legitimately compared with estate agency.
The description of the service he posted he is paying for isn’t agency it is to my my a perfect description of passive intermediary listing where he the vendor accepts all the liabilities.If a firm is reliant on profits from share trading to keep going it’s important the next tier of investors is added to the pyramid. Anything negative has to be disproved or discredited. The pair of them are obviously tasked with stifling discussion. If that is the case and both have a connection to Purplebricks any property listed by a connected person ought to carry the obligatory notice.
Robert, I’m afraid your latest buzzword “Passive Intermediary” is totally wrong.
Have you looked up the definition?
“accepting or allowing what happens or what others do, without active response or resistance”
So how exactly is it that PurpleBricks pass on offers etc. if they are passive?
You need to take another look in the dictionary for a better buzzword.
https://www.ombudsman-services.org/docs/default-source/website-content/bis-2012-august.pdf?sfvrsn=2
This column gives me hope that the North Korea/ USA problem is probably (comparatively) far easier to resolve than many in the world believe.
“Sale or No Sale – You Pay PurpleBricks!” have 65 Million in cash?
I wonder what the poor unsold clients think of “Sale or No Sale – You Pay PurpleBricks!” having their cash whilst they sit their Unsold? ….or locked into a loan to pay whether their property sells or not?
Circa £1000 to list your property for sale? just to advertise your property for sale?
Well, I might as well launch my New Business
T-Shirts, Badges, Stickers, Leaflets, Kites, Balloons etc with the slogan “Sale or No Sale – You Pay PurpleBricks!” and of course the Limited Edition “PurpleBricks have 65 Million in cash!”
Anyone can make a profit these days, why not me?
AnotherPlanet,
If you’re looking to print tee-shirts a better business idea might be to concentrate on what traditional estate agents are getting up to. They after all service 95% of the market. PurpleBricks between 3 and 4%.
Have a look at this article “Town where estate agents went rogue! How six firms in Burnham-on-Sea – with one owned by a local MP’s husband – conspired to rip-off homesellers” from the DailyMail. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/money/article-4922744/Burnham-Sea-estate-agents-conspired-rip-sellers.html
“The conspirators called it a ‘gentleman’s agreement’. And at first it worked wonders for the agencies”
And
“Disturbingly, the scandal in Burnham-on-Sea could be the tip of an iceberg. In emails between the agents in the cartel, one alleged the practice was commonplace. He had ‘attended many meetings for agents to agree on increasing fees’ throughout his career, he said.”
You’d think that all hard working honest Agents would roundly condemn this practice but when the same matter was discussed on PropertyIndustryEye there was little actual condemnation and some Agents tried to discuss more minor technical matters and others even supported the practice.
See http://www.propertyindustryeye.com/regulator-lays-bare-what-went-on-in-estate-agency-cartel-case/
A bit of free business advice for you. Home in on the public’s distrust of Estate Agents. A big market for you to tap there.
ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ
COMMENT OF THE MONTH!
ducky… word of warning…
You’ve left ‘Spout Copious ********’ mode switched on – AGAIN!
I am not condoning this Burnham agreement at 1.5% but let us not forget that even at that % estate agency in the UK is amongst the best value in the developed World.
3% Australia and 6% in USA – perhaps this is why PB is finding it so hard to make a worthwhile profit in the UK and therefore looking at these much higher fee markets?
If PB were so confident with their investor backed UK model why more or less tripled their fees in these two markets?
Does this suggest that they need to find ways to charge more in the UK?
“I am not condoning this Burnham agreement at 1.5%”
I don’t think anyone actually did. ducky just wants people to think that the issue is widespread and he has nothing to chuck in as evidence except a bit of insinuation that more nasty-pasty Agents are rooting for it.
For the record, My own comment was along the lines of it made perfect business sense to stop the dive to the bottom of the barrel (they’d only meet ducky and dom-boy there, merrily scraping away…) and to stop fighting each other to be the cheapest – but where those Agents went badly wrong was to make a formal arrangement.
Personally, I don’t give a fuppenny about how cheap my competition is. If they want non-profitable business they can knock themselves out for it far as I’m concerned.
When I go through my Fees with a potential client – ducky… are you paying attention here? – I not only confirm every charge firstly inclusive of VAT and then excluding (so that they can compare my Fees with every other Agent in town who do not comply with current requirements), but I also confirm to them that there are of course cheaper alternatives to ourselves including online Listing Agencies.
…one of which, as I write, has today AGAIN extended its’ most recent #permasale offer, which has been running now for several months…
>I am not condoning this Burnham agreement at 1.5% but let us not forget that even at that % estate agency in the UK is amongst the best value in the developed World.
But Thomas, do you or do you not condemn this anti-competitive practice?
This is what appears to be missing from comments by traditional estate agents. They don’t seem to think it is wrong.
The other day there was a post about two more Traditional Agents breaching Advertising Standards’ rules. http://www.propertyindustryeye.com/two-more-advert-cases-against-agents-informally-resolved-but-formal-resolutions-already-up-on-whole-of-last-year/ 840 page views and not a single comment.
Can you explain this Thomas? Can you explain why Estate Agents are being encouraged by Chris Wood to vet Online Agents’ websites and report them to the ASA?
Would I be mistaken in thinking that traditional Agents are actually guilty of worse things than the online agents but are ignoring these problems and making a big deal about the online agents just so they can damage them without actually having to compete?
PeeBee, have you ever been in conversation with your fellow Agents to discuss price-fixing? Have you witnessed other Agents who are involved in this? Or do you roundly condemn this behaviour and if so is this because you think it is wrong or because it is embarrassing for your industry?
ducky – in response to your three-part question:
1. No – I haven’t.
2. No – I haven’t.
3. Illegal activity cannot be condoned. Although I disagree with the words you have chosen to put forward, I will answer them anyway.
‘Wrong’ is simply that – no defence; no excuses..
‘Embarrassing’ is subjective. In my opinion there are plenty of ’embarrassments’ to my industry – they are not necessarily all illegal – either in part or as a whole.
No doubt you will disbelieve me – and most likely infer in a future post that my answers to the first two are in some way disingenuous.
Knock yourself out.
Cyberduck
Is a war chest of £65 million pounds on top of the many £10s of millions of other peoples money already spent propping up the business be anti-competitive?
Can YOU really condemn fixing fees at 1.5% as wrong when that is the exact default figure that PB currently use on their website?
At the time of that investigation, I seem to remember that the PB default was 1.80 %
If so, these agents were heavily fined for fixing a fee 0.3% less than the default promoted by PB at that time?
Could promoting a too high an average agency fee also be wrong?
The ASA thought so
Hello Ducky
“Can you explain this Thomas? Can you explain why Estate Agents are being encouraged by Chris Wood to vet Online Agents’ websites and report them to the ASA?”
If you actually read my posts on here and social media you will see that I am equally happy to condemn any agent of whatever business model who break the law.
I have always said openly that I believe around one-third of all high street agents should be shut down tomorrow due to either sheer lack of knowledge or, deliberate abuse of the law of agency. The reason I am focusing on the call-centre firms is that they have all claimed to be consumer champions or property experts and have a great deal of money behind them including expensive* lawyers to, presumably, check that they are not misleading people and are complying with the law.
If a business model aims to be a consumer champion, it has to act like one. Obey the law, be transparent, not use heavyhanded bully boy tactics to shut down legitimate questions or reviews they don’t like and not serially seek to mislead consumers with their advertising.
You keep trying to defend the indefensible. It is an unwinnable and unconscionable position.
*Very experienced and world-renowned, not the call-centre ones they recommend to their own customers of course.
Above… somewhere… dom-boy makes the statement
“Yet we see PB doubling turnover in 1 year and currently have 16400 listings on Zoopla.”
How’s about we do some reverse thinking and work out a figure for that “1 year”.
Current listings (Zoopla, 29/9/17): 16471
2016 listings (Zoopla, 30/9/16): 9914
Differential: + 6557
Current ‘sales’ to listings ratio (M Bruce): 83%*
Listings figure (12 months): 38570+/-
Average Fee (2017 Results): £1035
Income (Listings X Average Fee : £39.9m
Isn’t that just a ickle bit down on what has previously been claimed?
* Down from previously stated figure of 88% (Michael Bruce, BBC MoneyBox programme October 2016) but up on the 2016 figure of 77% (2016 Results)
But we seem to be missing some £3.3 million of income from listings – which I make to be the neck end of 3200 properties.
Any ideas where they’ve gorn?
Come on – you no likee – tell why!
It couldn’t possibly be fee reimbursements.
Haven’t posted on here before, but thought you might like to hear a story our Mortgage Broker is trying to get over. His client signed a credit agreement with PB to defer his agency commission ( that they don’t charge), this is on his Credit report and is now affecting him getting the amount of mortgage money that he needs from the lender to buy his new dream home!!!
Another way that PB is transforming our industry…………..’disruptors’ I think they are calling themselves!!!!!
I would suggest your broker is wrong. One credit agreement for a zero initial or ongoing commitment will not effect his credit. your client has other problems
Purple bricks is the way forward…….just keep fighting change.
Guys, many of you used to advertise in local property papers and pulled out over xmas or Summer months etc. Now you are locked in to Rightmove etc and they are increasing branch advertising costs for you. Right move changed the way you advertised and have increased your overheads. A trade body could have asked agents to not advertise for one week and pull out all properties. Customers looking on an empty site is bad news. My point is they have lead you….
Agents need a strong professional body and new ideas or you will become a thing of the past. Other Companies are pioneering new ideas and the only thing agents do is change a window card or take a new photograph.
Purple bricks are just a new idea, don’t knock them, study them and see how you can compete. Self employed listers?
Negotiators working from home (easy to monitor and no views/instructions then no fees.
The concept of franchised self-employed listers is neither new or innovative.
I didn’t say it was new, it was just an example of thinking how to change. But your immediate poo pooing of the idea suggests a closed mind.
I know someone who poo pooed, and he ignored the poo poos and before you knew it it all went to poo.
There are a growing number of PB advertising boards with sold proudly displayed on them. This is what the public is seeing and I see no reason why PB won’t continue to grow as a result.
I am surprised that so many of the career Estate Agents here have their heads stuck in the sand and seem to be just waiting for PB to falter. Well, what’s your plan B if they don’t?
I’m afraid you don’t have any undisputed right to be the only route to market and like it or not the consumer is now demanding the very best value for money, whatever the individual perception of that may be.
For the benefit of doubt I am not a career Estate Agent, but I am looking to change career after I’ve completed an NFOPP technical award 🙂
Meh! I was consulting to an international Bank and retail giant using an almost identical model nearly a decade ago and am aware of a number of agents across the UK who use a similar system. I think it’s an excellent model but one in which all franchisees and the franchisor must comply with legislation and not mislead. It’s not difficult.
We have been operating a highly efficient modern new style model since 2014. We reduced overheads by over 50% and developed systems that were far more cost effective. I think most agents could do the same as us, if they needed to.
From the ‘Notes to Editors’ at the foot of the AGM Trading Update:
“Customers… can choose to pay at instruction or defer, at no extra cost.. If a customer wishes to defer payment, they are required to use Purplebricks’ conveyancing services for the sale.”
which, as many of their customers have complained about, is AT EXTRA COST to them. Or, they can elect to use their own, cheaper, conveyancer…
…AT EXTRA COST.
Good job for all this ‘transparency’ and ‘honesty’, innit…
cyberduck46 It’s a funny word “turnover”, turnover financially, turnover the public?
I just wonder when the public wake up to find they are paying circa £1000 (before all the extras) to advertise their house for sale, whether it sells or not?
“Sale or No Sale – You Pay PurpleBricks!” remains the most concerning aspect for myself and many others, PB portray themselves as Estate Agents and they allude the same theme to investors, yet they are simply charging up-front “Sale or No Sale – You Pay PurpleBricks!”
It’s LaLaLand until the music stops and the public have no chair to sit on
So, from now on I must refer to PB as “Sale or No Sale – You Pay PurpleBricks!” at least it gives some clarity to the difference between a Property Lister and an Estate Agent
AnotherPlanet365,
>I just wonder when the public wake up to find they are paying circa £1000 (before all the extras) to advertise their house for sale, whether it sells or not?
They already do unless they are of below average intelligence or just don’t read what they are agreeing to.
“They already do unless they are of below average intelligence or just don’t read what they are agreeing to.”
As an Agent I would never question the intelligence of one of my customers; nor do I question that of anyone who elects to use another Agent. For a Shareholder/Non-Shareholder/Ex-Shareholder (delete which are not applicable at the time of submitting any response you wish to make…) that is a disgraceful slur on customers of a company that you have no doubt profited from in past; may be in the process of profiting from at present – and will no doubt profit from again in future.
As to people not reading what they sign and agree to – if you don’t firmly accept that as a given by now I severely worry about your understanding of the world and its’ population.
Approx. half the country is below average intelligence.
Estate Agents have a duty of care to their clients and should ensure that they clearly understand the implications of the contract they are signing.
PeeBee,
I don’t believe that you don’t question the intelligence of your customers. You question the intelligence of people all the time and are downright rude and confrontational about it.
Ostrich17,
When considering the care of duty you have to target the average consumer. “Under the CPRs, an ‘average consumer’ is someone who is reasonably well informed and reasonably observant and circumspect, taking into account social, cultural and linguistic factors. It is someone who takes reasonable care of their own interests, as opposed to a statistically ‘average’ consumer.”
>Estate Agents have a duty of care to their clients and should ensure that they clearly understand the implications of the contract they are signing.
See above, this is not true (and not one of the Agents I’ve used over the years has gone to any length whatsoever to do that. Nobody has ever told me the length of contract, whether it is continues and not one has mentioned their fees unless asked)
Here’s an example for you to look at http://www.propertyindustryeye.com/elderly-woman-charged-agents-commission-after-property-failed-to-sell-allegation/
Not much sympathy from Estate Agents there for an old lady who clearly hasn’t read or understood what they were agreeing to is there?
I’m a customer of PurpleBricks and because of the interactive nature of the agreement (you actually choose between paying now or later) you really do have to be completely negligent (or stupid) to come away thinking you don’t have to pay. Essentially you have a choice of “pay now” or “pay later”. It’s far easier and more likely in my opinion to sign a traditional estate agent’s agreement without realising what you are agreeing to.
Still, I expect I’ll keep reading on here about the odd case of somebody who hasn’t read the PurpleBricks agreement and be expected to believe this applies to a large number of their 80,000 customers.
‘You question the intelligence of people all the time and are downright rude and confrontational about it”.
Only the ones that require this treatment and I can only think of two posters here.
As per the TPO Code of Practice ‘ You should take special care when dealing with consumers who might be disadvantaged because of their age, infirmity, lack of knowledge, lack of linguistic ability, economic circumstances or bereavement.’
ducky
“I don’t believe that you don’t question the intelligence of your customers.”
Really? But – why would I do that?
They have clearly made an exceptionally sensible decision to appoint me as their Agent. Nothing whatsoever to question.
“You question the intelligence of people all the time…”
Question the intelligence of people? Never.
Point out the glaringly obvious? Confirm and reinforce their self-appointed status as blithering eejit? All the time. Always a pleasure; never a chore.
“…and are downright rude and confrontational about it.”
I prefer to use more appropriate phrases, such as ‘honest’… ‘succinct’… ‘sincere’ – and, of course, ‘knowledgable’ and ‘transparent’.
You can’t get the wrong idea from what I post, ducky…
…but if you do, I then have to honestly point out, succinctly, what is glaringly obvious – as stated above.
In the spirit of transparency, of course.
From the Dictionary
manipulate
verb
1.
handle or control (a tool, mechanism, information, etc.) in a skilful manner.
“he manipulated the dials of the set”
synonyms:
operate, handle, work, control, use, employ, utilize
“the workman manipulated some knobs and levers”
2.
control or influence (a person or situation) cleverly or unscrupulously.
“the masses were deceived and manipulated by a tiny group”
synonyms:
exploit, control, influence, use/turn to one’s advantage, manoeuvre, engineer, steer, direct, guide, twist round one’s little finger, work, orchestrate, choreograph
“the government tried to manipulate the situation”
It sums the situation up nicely in my view
‘CEO Michael Bruce said… “We are… proud of our 27,000 Trustpilot reviews.” ‘
Says.
It.
All.
I can condense this trading statement down to four words: ‘Nothing to see here’.
First real USA 1* neg review probably be removed Bricks already on the case
https://uk.trustpilot.com/users/59cc21710000ff000ace61b4
Here it is just in case
<pJohn Guerrero
United States
Purplebricks United States of America (USA)
Published 34 hours ago
Dissatisfied potential customer
Slow, rigid and out of date technology. Local real estate agent was slow to respond, talked too much and listened too little. Decided not to use their services after bad experience.
There are a lot of numbers in that story but no indication of turnover and more importantly profit.
Focusing on the number of LPE’s suggest someone fished about for the positive and that was it.
The problem the individual LPE’s have is the same as Uber drivers; the parent firm adds listers, sees an increase in revenue but the income for the individual lister gets diluted and less attractive when compared with a salaried position with employee rights and protections.
Purplebricks and firms like them have an Achilles heel, they can’t claim to be estate agents for marketing and fee comparison purposes and absolve themselves of their obligations and fiduciary duties as agents. No Sale no fee has a logical foundation; precedent says a negligent agent doesn’t get paid. Allowing vendors to list properties that are unsaleable or which are undersold below market value leaves internet listing firms liable for refunds and loss. If a proportion of turnover is suddenly subject to the real possibility of refund nothing is certain any more. With the PPI litigators soon to have nothing to do I wouldn’t be surprised if their survival instinct kicks in and one of them spots this as an opportunity worth investigating. With all losses to the principal as a liability the payout isn’t restricted to the fee paid. Watching a property you’d hoped to buy slip away from you, watching the market rise, it isn’t hard to prove real loss from negligent advice.
No indication of turnover? Fished about for something positive?
Time you gave up your analyst job Robert. Do you realise it was a trading update and not the first half results?
All in one paragraph:
“Strong progress has been made across the business since the start of the financial year on 1 May 2017. Trading in the UK and Australia remains on course to meet the full year guidance provided at the Final results in June: revenues of £80m for the UK and £12m for Australia. H1 revenues in the UK are likely to be more than double the same period last year and many times ahead in Australia, although they had only been trading two months in the comparable period. Local Property Experts have recently increased in the UK from 540 as at 29 June 2017 to 640 and from 77 to 100 in Australia.”
FYI, turnover for the UK was something like £42M last financial year so they are once again looking like doubling it. They expect £12M from Oz.
This was from Zeus this morning
(1) Purplebricks UK is growing very fast and profitably. (2) Purplebricks Australia is on track to breakeven in November 2018 (after 15 months trading) and will be a similar sized unit to Purplebricks UK. (3) Purplebricks’ USA, which is developing more quickly than either the UK or Australia, has the potential to be many times larger than the rest of the group.
I am not an analyst, have never claimed to be. It’s OK for you to note the scarce detail but not me?
You didn’t just say it was low on details you said they were fishing around for something positive which wasn’t true.
“Focusing on the number of LPE’s suggest someone fished about for the positive and that was it.”
Comment of the day! Take a look at a few of the LPEs’ annual accounts and for the (VERY) few who seem to have been trading for one financial year or more*, none that I have seen are showing any form of profit/ turnover in the region being trumpeted by Purplebricks PLC.
*Few LPEs’ seem to trade for more than one year. Bearing in mind the length of time PB PLC have been launched and the anecdotal evidence on Indeed and other sites (such as LinkedIn) that LPEs’ are leaving due to unfulfilled promises, lack of income and discovering that their exclusive postcode area was not, after all, exclusive, it strongly suggests that LPE turnover is high for a number of good reasons.
Probably good accounting rather than income?
Chris, is that what you call substantiating a claim 🙂
You are a danger to yourself and anybody daft enough to let you publish such nonsense.
From the retired gentleman that wrote the following on a public forum (London South East) on 20th Sept:
‘It’s a real shame that Property Industry Eye see fit to encourage people to post non-legitimate reviews to PurpleBricks’ TrustPilot pages.’
Ah, you mean such people/ organisations as the BBC, Reuters, The Times, The FT, The Telegraph etc.? Idiots the lot of them of course…
PB are listing between 30-70 properties a day Even if you took that high number as a daily guarantee that is only 25K a year meaning each LPE is only listing 40 a year!!!!
So; where does £80m come from?
possibly here http://www.hardmanandco.com/docs/default-source/company-docs/purplebricks-group-documents/purplebricks-dec15
Actually it is this one
http://www.hardmanandco.com/docs/default-source/company-docs/purplebricks-group-documents/15.09.16-fy16-sales-448-fy17-a-second-whole-new-market.pdf
I didnt have to employ someone to slug around review sites and industry boards to trick shareholders when i opened my agents…i just told the truth and made some money…. you are #fake Dom ..can someone ban him like they do to bad reviews :)?
‘you are #fake Dom ..can someone ban him’
So by having an opposing point of view you wish to ban me, perhaps North Korea may be a better option for you?
I knew that but wanted to show the fluidity of the numbers which have been scaled back massively from the 1st draft which promised 10% of all transaction by a date that is now long past.
The only real facts we can get at here are……..
Everytime Purple Bricks headlines on P.I.E. the site lights up !!
Very light on numbers, perhaps not surprisingly. With 640 LPEs, PB need to be listing at least 100,000 properties/anumm for them to make a half decent living. Stories now beginnng to surface of LPEs leaving after the reality of 7 days a week workmisery to try and eek an income. House of Cards.
Can you point me to these stories of LPE not making a living?
The ones I know are working great flexible hours and earning 25% more than when a corporate branch manager.
And…..they do not even need to sell a property with all the hassle that may entail.
That is not estate agency.
As above. House of cards.
For how many hours? the claim is 24/7/365, so 5x the hours for 1.25 x pay. Then there’s the liability to clients, accountant fees, liability insurance, no sickness or paid holiday, no pension contribution, no redundancy payout . You aren’t selling it to me
Very interesting numbers indeed. An average of £125,000 of income per LPE. That income is likely a lot higher per LPE as PB have only just reached that number of LPE’s. I wonder when the spectre of number of properties sold by PB will reappear and they will tell what everyone really wants and it’s customers deserve to know???? Come on PB be straight with everyone; what do you have to hide?
when we know average lister is dont about 6 insturctions a month = £1500. would sound about right.
Well this is convenient timing, share price slipping away, and now a positive statement to boost investors again. All this smoke an mirrors means nothing if the company isnt making any money.
The whole problem with this statement is there are no facts to it…..lots of website visits and vals booked etc, you’ll have to forgive my doubts.
Happens every year at this time Arthur 🙂
AGM today.
just shows if you have a funny advert even investors with charts get confused.
Now let’s see what the market makes of it.
Sparse on detail.
I’ve been looking to see if they’ve listed a property in the U.S. yet but haven’t been a able to find anything. Looks like they’ve had a buy side mandate though
“we received our first buy side mandate soon after our launch campaign went live.”
it says they have 2012 properties Results in L>A> .
is this some clever listing site they have linked to?
if you can multi list then no reason why pb doesnt turn into a rightmove site. confusing stuff …as usual with this outfit
can CHRIS our roaving protector call trading standards USA to see if this is allowed. cant see genuine real estate agents being happy with this.. tbf ,, no wonder they have so many agents if you can just steal other agents stock for ‘multi listing’
Bless You,
PurpleBricks will act as a buying or a selling agent. They list all available properties, not just their own. According to the update today they had a buying mandate which I presume means PurpleBricks have been appointed as buying agent and will earn that part of the commission which I think is 3%. I believ this is somehow shared with the buyer.
Do your own research, I haven’t looked at this closely.
PB is a real life comedy, being played out before us
Clowns abound as does the prospect of tears
For a company that just lists property I’m amazed that they charge such a staggeringly high up-front cost!
The public will turn, investors just hope they will have cashed-in before the public wake up.
‘Group launched into the $70bn US real estate market’ -which they will do their best to make a $1 billion industry with no profit…
share sites seem confused their was no mention of profits in the report…
thats becuase the average instruction takes the same to create,,and once you have the custoemr you need another one…its not like a normal business..welcome to the ‘your only as good as your last instruction’ world of estate agency..why do you think foxtons and countrywide trage at 5x and not 100x like pb…. #realworld
Could someone get the mop please. There is a nasty outbreak of moistness on the site.
Keep going Purplebricks, you are here to stay and are doing a fantastic job.
Fantastic update, UK is flying, Australia is well ahead of expectations.
No debt with 65 million cash.
USA off to a very encouraging start.
Great work PB.
For a company that just lists property
NOT an Estate Agent
It’s laughable. I wonder when they will get found out?
Just like RM then, £2.5 billion isn’t it?!
Not a clever comment, 1TB – Rightmove doesn’t tell anyone it is an Estate Agent.
That did make me smile Dom, even you couldn’t make Australia sound like it’s been a good move.
PB don’t even mention Lettings these days, are you even still doing it?
Morning Dom. What Mr Bruce doesnt address is the alarming decline in the amount of properties they are selling. It had been previously stated that they were agreeing sales on 88% of properties listed. According to Rightmove as of right now, they have 2968 properties listed, yet only 1498 showing as Sold STC, meaning they only have agreed sales on 49.53% of properties. That slide in numbers is catastrophic!! Surprisingly no mention of this in the press release.
we don’t have any disclosed numbers for this ratio, as no other disclose these either.
dompritch134 the ‘we’ again.
That is because maybe those ‘either’ agents do not charge for failure.
If ArthurHouse02 is correct how transparent is it for a AIM listed company not to disclose that so many of their customers lose so much money and possibly end up paying two agency fees?
“dompritch134
SEPTEMBER 29, 2017 AT 8:00 AM
we don’t have any disclosed numbers for this ratio, as no other disclose these either.”
In fact ‘your’ CEO has made precisely these ratios on the BBC and in writing from ‘your’ lawyers. What you or Purplerbricks PLC have singularly failed to do, is to provide any evidence to corroborate such a statement. Not good, especially from a PLC.
Were you not stating that Hybrid Agencies were losing market share and contracting only 2 months ago?
Yet we see PB doubling turnover in 1 year and currently have 16400 listings on zoopla.
Volume for vanity, profit for sanity.
The investors are only interested in the 2968, that is fees earned, turnover. Those who didn’t sell yet are of no concern. Listing and selling are two different things. It is of no consequence so why mention it?
Your listing numbers look like they are for a single region not all of them.
Nope this is from the main Rightmove feed at the Birmingham head office, showing properties for sale all over the country. If there is another feed, showing 1000s more properties, please show the link and i will stand to be corrected.
If that ‘s the case about 13,000 listings have gone missing
Its been that way for a few days, but as i say maybe i am looking in the wrong place. Am happy to be enlightened
ArthurHouse02
What is the link you are looking at?
09.42am share price up 5.75p (+1.54%). Yeah, really flying.
Proud of their 27,000 Trustpilot reviews but cheesed off with their 95 allagents reviews! I smell a rat ….