(Story updated)
A new ad campaign by Purplebricks launched on Boxing Day to highlight the commission householders have been paying to traditional estate agents when moving home.
But since our newsflash, it has emerged that the TV ads have so far not yet featured on mainstream TV.
They were missing, for example, from the ad breaks between Phil and Kirstie’s brand new Location Location Location show which went out last week.
The new Rightmove ad has been on prime time TV over the break, while Zoopla and at least one Purplebricks’ online competitor – House Simple – have also had their adverts featured on mainstream TV, but we were unable to catch either of the new Purplebricks adverts on any of the TV we watched since Boxing Day.
A Purplebricks spokesman told us: “They have aired on the usual channels they use, being a mix of terrestrial and satellite channels.”
He added that the adverts would be appearing on mainstream TV, in the same way that the previous ‘brothers’ campaign, featuring the supposed founders of Purplebricks.
The new Purplebricks ads, produced by Snap London, introduce “commisery”, described as the “misery you feel when you have spent thousands on commission and got nothing more for your money”.
Purplebricks charges a flat fixed rate of £849, or £1199 in London and surrounding areas for its estate agency service. Traditional agents’ charges can be as high as 2.5% but a typical fee is 1.8% (1.5% plus 20% VAT).
The campaign initially features two funny 30 second ads with actors discussing recent house sales and will run for three months. They end with the slogan “Save yourself from commisery with Purplebricks.com”
Explaining the ad, Ed Hughes, marketing director at Purplebricks, said: “In the past, people had no other choice but to put their homes on the market with expensive bricks and mortar estate agents.
“We wanted to open people’s eyes to commisery and show sellers the alternative to paying expensive rates of commission – one fixed, fair fee regardless of the value of their property.”
The ads see a move away from using the ‘brothers’, though Purplebricks said they could return in the future.
https://youtu.be/Vx0bPtSK5fk
https://youtu.be/Xmgs22J4FdM
Comments (52)
I don’t know about you chaps but every time I see a new listing with PB on my patch (4 in twelve months) they are always at the higher end on the price spectrum, in fact their latest in my area, added 26th December) is probably 5% over and above on asking price and probably 10% to 12% over it’s likely sale price. As I work in a small area with a surplus of agents we experience massive over pricing by my competitors on a daily basis, but this 5% is over and above the silliest estate agent in my area.
I suspect part of the problem is PB’s marketing tactic is to suggest their house will sell no matter what so it’s just about how much you want to pay to sell you house. Home sellers looking to squeeze every last penny out their asset are therefore doing two things. Over pricing their home and paying less agents fee’s.
The result of the last 4 properties on PB books in area is as follows. 2 instructed me, after being totally disappointed with PB, 1 they sold when it came down to the price I told them originally and this new one that came on the market Boxing day that I haven’t been out to and looking at the awful photos plus the ridiculous price I suspect they will equally disappointed not before long.
Which brings me to my conclusion.
At some point PB are going to get a little stuck as more and more vendors hear from people who tried and failed with PB and revert back to traditional agents.
A website littered with spelling mistakes, congratulations….
This was in reply to housesinsale89
Pee Bee Im confusing myself!! Its Home .co.uk as in the link Dont know why I referred to agents.co.uk. I think I will quietly disappear Home.co.uk still havent updated yesterdays figures which is unuusal .
Thought as much.
Are you on Tw@tter? I’d like to ask you a few questions away from here. I have good reason for this.
If you are, and are happy to parlay – I’m here – https://twitter.com/Agent_PeeBee
Pee Bee
I dont More than happy to email if you let me have an addy
I will get one to post on here – bear with me. Tried Zoho and it FUBAR.
Or if you ask the lovely and very obliging Ms Renshaw nicely she may agree to put you in touch with me – might be quicker ‘cos I’m like a duck in treacle with this technology malarkey…
Mystery Shop !!!
This random choice was listed on the 26th although appeared in latest 135 yesterday ( 28th) so difficult to count back accurately from the Bricks “newly listed” site so yesterday total of 139 is flawed What i did to get that numberwas take the last listing on the agents.co.ukl site on the 27th as a yardstick searched for it on brick and found it tobe no 140!!! Totaly flawed Confusing or what
m] Welcome to Purplebricks. My name is Tom, may I take your name please?
[Visitor] John
[Tom] Good morning John, how can I help you today?
[Visitor] RG22 4HZ when was this first listed.
[Tom] No problem I will check this for you now.
[Tom] Please can I confirm the first line of the address as we have a few properties on our records for this postcode.
[Visitor] Mozart Close
[Tom] Brilliant, may I take the property number also.
[Visitor] it doesnt say. Its on for £265k
[Tom] No problem, bear with me while i check this for you.
[Visitor] Thanks.
[Tom] I have found the property for you and to confirm it is number 92. I can see here that it went live on the 26th December.
[Visitor] Thank you
I think I know why…
Yes Bricks set up a whole series of hurdles to avoid spelling out the daily additions but according to their site added 139 yesterday as newest .Whether that contained any with revised prices – I really dont know I have been following agents .co.uk and they indicate that between the 9th and the 27th new listings were 882 which I guess is more accurate as they wean out all the revised ones ,
Its a game all the family can play .For some reason agents.co.uk stopped adding yesterday I wonder if the Bricks secret police have anything to do with it ?They seem to go to great lengths in disguising the figures
http://www.home.co.uk/search/results.htm?agent=920144&high=&minbeds=&low=&maxbeds=&detached=true&semi=true&terraced=true&flat=true&sort=FOUND_DESC&found_since=&inc_sold=0&showmap=0&loose=1
First point – agents.co.uk?
That takes me to a pretty cr@ppy landing page for chuff-all.
You say “… according to their site added 139 yesterday as newest .”
Care to clarify? Unless I’m missing something pretty basic, the PB website doesn’t allow searching in specific date range – just “Most Recent”.
But… on that subject…
The current top of the pile is this
https://www.purplebricks.com/property-for-sale/3-bedroom-semi-detached-house-bridgend-44990/#
SO recent, it appears, that neither Z OR RM are displaying it.
SO… why then is it flagged
**REDUCED*NO CHAIN** ?
A quick check on RMPLus confirms the REAL history… and it’s not a pretty one.
Ros has the details.
Hmmm… the above property no longer sits in the position it was at earlier on the ‘Most Recent’ list.
Funny, that…
Yesterday (28th) they enjoyed the best day of the month 139 instructions more than double the previous best some of these of course a hangover from xmas albeit they were listing on Xmas Day Maybe a good response to the advert ! Still going to be lessthan 1800 for the month The figure for yesterday I have gleaned directly from Bricks site as you can scroll down to search “newest ” t No date so you just have to remember the last one listed the day before ! Lets hope they arent including those with revised prices!
For some reason today agent ,co uk have not updated their list for yesterday ?. I wonder if they have been nobbled by the Bricks police !
Hillofwad71
Your figures intrigue me (as I hope the following does you…).
As of 0704, they had 53 “listings” recorded in the last 24 hours; 107 in the last 3 days (source: Zoopla).
Yesterday, I tweeted that when auditing their 25 “most recent” ‘listings’, FOURTEEN of them were #relistings that had been originally marketed weeks or even months earlier.
As at 0715, Rightmove show 69 ‘listings’ over 21 “branches” (there may be more but they currently elude me…). That total includes TWENTY ONE “Reduced” properties – taking the 24-hour score down to 48, which I am absolutely certain will also be fluffed up by some #relistings.
I’m not saying you are wrong – you obviously are getting this information from a source.
The question is – which source is correct?
Or at least nearest ‘correct’?
Answers, on a postcard, please…
In 2014 it was claimed by the end of the financial year ending in 2016 that Purplebricks would have 10% of all transactions. about 100,000 listings per year
Based on Rightmove listings yesterday that means they should have 39,864 properties on their register, they do not. They currently have a fraction of that. It hardly matters what they do or don’t have listed. Remove all the spin and fluff and they do not have the number of listing reps the predicted, they do not have the volume of properties predicted. With 4 years figures lodged with companies house none of the predicted profits have materialised.
I am part way through a detailed, listing by listing audit of their numbers with all of the doppelgangers removed to get down to cold factual numbers.
A ‘pay day loan listing service’.
As I believe, the Local Property Experts get £300 from each listing, surely this is ‘commission’ for listing the property.
Interesting to see they have also removed the customer reviews from their Facebook page, probably because they can’t hide these as they do on Trustpilot.
Im also surprised that Trustpilot lets people review before the completion of a transaction. That’s like leaving a review for Yodel before your parcel gets delivered?!
Only one consolation about these adverts is that they are not very good, even if they are trying to introduce a rememberable term. Cheesy, slap stick and cliche’d.
Is this it -the one trick pony ?-cheap fees .Not of course if you choose to defer payment as you are paying expensive legal ones to compensate .
I have been following on agents.co.uk the new additions so far this month Since December 9th they have taken on 882 new instructions which indicataes that they will probably hit 1450-1600 for December . Probably doesnt even touch the sides of the cost of the TV adverts!!!The Bricks police have been busy over the Festive period removing some unwanted unfavourable comments from Trustpilot .They certainly dont want too many of those littering the site when the TV campaign is in full throttle !
This is now getting absolutely ridiculous what is being claimed…..how can they put in an advert PB are proper estate agents, but don’t charge commision….. insinuating subliminally to people there is no charge for the service. Surely they must be made to say they charge a fee up front…and that is payable whether you sell your house or not.
These adverts are totally and utterly misleading to the public….where is the ASA…where?
“commisery”, described as the “misery you feel when you have spent thousands on commission and got nothing more for your money”.
More like the “misery you feel when you have spent nearly a thousand on listing and got absolutely nothing for your money”.
I also think it’s about time one of the industry bodies, like the NAEA, put their head above the parapet and mounted a fight about the claim “got nothing more for your money”. Let’s ask PB and their advertisers to show and prove their evidence to substantiate this claim. Go on PB. …prove to us and the ASA that your sales achieve the same level of completion price as other comparable properties using a traditional ‘no sale, no fee’ route. Well go on then….prove it!!!!
Don’t you have to be able to prove it to be able to make the claim?
Hmmm…
My take is as follows:
Commission = renumeration for the successful completion of a desired outcome.
Commisery = a charge levied for a service regardless of whether the desired outcome is achieved or achieved to a satisfactory level.
Based on the numbers floating around, it would seem that about 70% of PB’s customers have to deal with commisery. The corresponding number for full service agents is 0%.
This is the message we need to get across and it’s diabolical that the NAEA and other relevant bodies are doing absolutely nothing to highlight this.
They stepped in quickly enough to condemn the “For Sale by Tender” pricing structure that started to become popular a few years ago in an attempt to protect buyers potentially paying two sets of fees, but have said nothing at all about a practice that more often than not requires the seller to pay two fees. One to an online listing company and then another to a full service agency after they’ve picked up the pieces.
Well said. The NAEA exists to promote good agency practice of all property professionals and to protect the public from being misled by bad practice. The NAEA and RICS have remained silent on too many issues for too long.
Let’s hope you can help influence the NAEA Chris. Their total lack of commentary and abject silence just reinforces the message PB is trying to convey.
If one of the main representative bodies can’t stand up to defend it’s industry from such a blatant attack…….has that industry got anything to say in its defence!
If it wasn’t so unfunny it would be funny. The scary thing is people believe what they see on the telly. Make a change from the two gormless and sly looking brothers though 😉
Leave them to get on with it, blowing the equivalent £30k per branch on TV ads to save spending £12k on premises is the sort of irrational thinking that causes them to lose so much money, 340 rep covering 3500 territories means TV coverage is compulsory.
The numbers now filtering through companies house show how far from earning £100k there are reps not even earning the wages of a trainee negotiator on minimum wage.
Time for the Office of Fair Trading took a look at Purplebricks and bring to life what additional hidden charges are made for the ‘bolt on extras’. “We are estate agents” claim Purple bricks……..
Well, proper estate agents have a duty of care to their clients and give independent tailored advice for their relevant circumstances, all without taking a “back-hander commission” for the introduction to solicitors, utility companies, removals etc., and guess what……..on top of that they even accompany viewings all covered by their headline fees !………little of which is much over 1.25%
So OFT, it’s time to take a look at the advertisements and claims by Purplebricks.
And at the end of the day ‘estate agents work on the basis of “no sale no fee” – unlike almost any other service industry and the fees charged reflect the underestimated element of risk involved.
Hav eyou reported them ?
Whilst I agree with all of the comments above from our estate agents perspective …
I have to say I think these ads are very powerful from a sellers perspective and far more to the point than the Bruce brothers ads.
Advertising ‘no commission’ without direct reference to the up front fee is a clever marketing strategy that is designed to generate ‘what’s it all about’ enquiries. I
In short, I think these ads will work well, the fact that we agents can criticise the service PB offer is a different issue altogether.
I have my own strategy for combatting PB and other online agents and I’ll share it next month iwith those agents who have already contacted me.
Hi AgentPink92 – how can I contact you? I’m also working on something to take the wind out of the PB sails…
charlie,
Apologies for late reply,
Email me at agentpink92@yahoo.com
Commisery
paying an upfront fee and not selling or 0% until sold and being tied in to a 10 month contract which you must pay the fee to get out of…
…or…
paying a low fee and selling for £1,000s less than the BEST PRICE that could be achieved.
Commiserations if you list with Purple Bricks.
My take on Commisery (Gif) http://gph.is/2hGBJwr
Ahhh commisery, the feeling you get when you finally realise you could’ve got 20% more for your home but didn’t because you didn’t see that a tiny percentage of that extra windfall was warranted.
Simon
Never mind Comment of the Week, yours goes straight into the Comment of the Year nominations
I see this argument a lot. Any data to back it up. I think a lot of home owners are quite clued up on the value of their home.
How much data do you want? A lot of people have looked up the same random number generator as the internet listing reps without realising (like the listing reps) that isn’t a valuation.
Odd that the average fee they quote is at considerable variance from their own preferred conveyancer (I believe MyHomeMove.co.uk ) whose own stats show the average fee for agents in the UK is actually 1.2% on a no sale, no fee basis, rather than a ‘pay whether you sell or not’ charge. Not that they are worth writing too but the ASA might want to take a look at the claims made in this advert.
PS. Thank you to PIE for finally enabling me to change my name easily to the correct spelling. The estate agent formally known as ‘Chri Wood’
Does the advert mention the 121 vendors in London who according to Rightmove data took their property off the market in the past month wasted £145,079 not selling their home? What about the 522 vendors outside the London area who spent another £443,178 having a photo of their property shoved on the internet but not selling, do they get a mention? If the portal are good to their word those 643 properties can’t now be re-listed till Easter.
What I can’t work out is why London vendors have to pay more to list their property, what does the extra £350 buy? Do the portals charge more to list in London is the VAT rate higher or is it pure opportunism. If I were selling in London I would definitely ask the question. Why is the flat rate fee higher
RM charge more for London based agencies, although there is absolutely no logic to this as far as I can tell, other than profiteering.
Shaun, Perhaps RM should charge the same for an agent in the Shetlands and Kensington and Chelsea??? For goodness sake. Give me a break!
Hi Robert
where did you pick up the 121 and 442 listed and withdrawn please? Rightmove’s new layout for reporting as me completely lost…
Thanks
Sacha
It’s part of the portal watch system we have developed to crack down on portaljuggling. Our results are being compared with the portals own reporting systems. So far our numbers have been found to be 100% accurate.
Rob, Clearly you do not realize, costs are generally different in London, and not just in the property industry. Not sure what planet you have been living on?!
Their instructions to sold during 2016 in our area was 33%. They listed 110 during the year. Commisery.
Hi Dezza
where did you pick up this stat please?
Thanks
No sale No charge. 0% misery.
Upfront listing fee say 40 to 50% misery? That is why trading standards need to ascertain PB’s listing to sale ratio so that their retail customers can make an informed choice on this loss leading ‘upfront payment’ ?
Trading standards also need to understand whether PB’s deferred payment is on the understanding that they have to use their conveyancing service with their mind boggling referral fee, if so, surely this add on is part of the fee and therefore must be promoted at the substantially increased fee ?
Why are not the NAEA, AM and others are not prepping the press with PB’s actual cost of listing of around £2,600 (more than many third party traditional estate agents charge in the average market) for every instruction for 2015/2016? This is surely a dereliction of their duty to their paying members?
Why doesn’t OTM produce an advert defending full service agents based on the above and putting PB and others under investor pressure by pointing out the above?
Why is the independent sector allowing the portals to charge the majority (those small 1 to 2 branch agents) so much more per listing than the likes of PB?
Hi sachascott04,
Zoopla Pro initially, then verified through RM and other sites. I am aware of quite a few re-lists too so their conversion is possibly even worse!