EYE NEWSFLASH: Purplebricks reports booming sales and profits in UK

Purplebricks this morning announced strong trading in the UK against a “tough backdrop”.

It said its “digital” competition had little impact and that its share of the non-traditional market is now 74% “despite greater investment by digital peers”.

Reporting its interim results for the six months to October 31 – the first half of its financial year – Purplebricks revealed operating profits of £3.2m against a loss of £0.3m in the same period last year, and said it sold and completed on £4.62bn of UK property. Its UK income was £39.9m in the period.

Purplebricks said it now expects its UK revenue for the full financial year to be £84m, ahead of its forecast of £80m.

While this morning’s results do not disclose UK instruction numbers, Purplebricks does say that monetisation per instruction is up 14%, to around £1,140.

The firm also announced that its number of Local Property Experts is now 650 and it will be recruiting more in the New Year, and that it now has 58 UK Local Letting Experts. It has new TV adverts about to air.

Purplebricks also flagged its upsell of Rightmove premium listings and argued that its brand awareness is better than Rightmove’s.

At group level, Purplebricks reported an operating loss of £8.2m, up from £2.8mm last year. It reported £6.3m of start-up losses in the US and £5.1m in Australia.

Overseas, its operations are now in the five states across Australia and Purplebricks said it has the third highest brand recognition.

It said its US operations are going well, with plans to launch into San Diego, Sacramento and Fresno next month.

Purplebricks said it had been a “bold decision” to enter the US market but said: “We are looking to modernise the US market as we have done successfully in the UK and are doing in Australia.”

Group CEO Michael Bruce said: “We have had a great first half, with strong trading, significant strategic progress and substantial operational upgrades.

“The UK business continues its rapid top line growth which is driving a strong increase in profits and margin expansion.

“We continue to win UK market share from traditional operators in what is a challenging market and consolidate our leading position with competing digital and hybrid offerings.”

City analyst William Packer of Exane BNP Paribas said that the results showed a “strong set of numbers”, especially in the UK, where Purplebricks is growing its market share versus both hybrid and traditional peers.

Another analyst, Anthony Codling of Jefferies, was more cynical, saying that Purplebricks had not revealed how many homes it had sold and was speaking “in riddles”.

He said: “No doubt investors will be expecting a rosy year ahead for Purplebricks.

“The operating statistics reported today look impressive, although despite the sparkle we still cannot see how many customers have actually been able to sell their homes after paying Purplebricks an average of £1,138 (ex VAT). Perhaps all will be revealed if we shine ultra violet light on the results statement.

“Once again Purplebricks continues to speak in riddles –  saying it sold and completed £4.6bn of property with a further £3.8bn in the pipeline.

“However we cannot tell how many home sales that equates to.

“However, that is the one thing we think that potential customers should be asking: ‘If I pay you more than £1,000 what are the chances that you sell my home and how close will you get to the asking price?’.”

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79 Comments

  1. ArthurHouse02

    It is because the meat on the bone is where the problems are. No number of properties that have completed, no completion percentage. The details will be in the report, but you will have to dig deep. Also look for information regarding “data sales”. This is where a decent amount of income is coming from. As i have mentioned previous on Twitter, the amount of sales they agree in the first 30 days is a pitiful amount, they are outperformed by Tepilo and the other call centre agents. Yes they sell properties, but it is not the customer who benefits.

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    1. Bless You

      The only thing they have left to keep their inflated share price up is this statement:

      Purplebricks also flagged its upsell of Rightmove premium listings and argued that its brand awareness is better than Rightmove’s.

       

      Which is trying to trick investors into thinking they could be the next rightmove..

      Rightmove should take note of this…pb record to date for honesty will easily bite the hand that feeds it to keep their share price up.

      On warren buffett valuation method PB is now worth £30 million mkt cap and not £900 million….. no that isnt a mis-type….£30 million…..  #dot.com

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  2. ama18

    Interesting that it has stopped commenting on its Trustpilot reviews now.it appears Something has certainly happened with Purplebricks and Trustpilots relationship. 

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    1. cyberduck46

      From the report itself ” Service rated Excellent with five stars in the UK, Australia and the US by independent review site Trustpilot”
       

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    2. MrLister

      Nothing’s happened with it. They still have a good relationship with TP and are still the most positively reviewed estate agent in the world.

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      1. PeeBee

        From MrLister’s post above:

        “…are still the most positively reviewed estate agent in the world.”

        From PurpleSituationsVacant.coN today:

        “…the fastest growing and most positively reviewed estate agency in the UK…”

        You REALLY want to find a different topic to discuss over the pillow, MrLister – you’re starting to sound like their Recruitment Officer…

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  3. cyberduck46

    Everything pretty much as expected.

     

    From the report itself: “Average UK income per instruction up 14% to £1,138”

     

    That’s pretty impressive.

     

     

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    1. Robert May

      Hows that then? £1138/1034 is 10%

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      1. cyberduck46

        It was £1000 for the corresdponding period.
         
        Keep up Robert 🙂

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        1. Robert May

           It isn’t impressive if you’re a vendor who lists but doesn’t sell. You are now paying 14% more to list your home on the internet?
          This 14% might be great reading for investors but you just handed every agent reading this a wonderful line to use against Purplebrick’s listers.
          “Purplebricks have jacked up  their prices by 14% in the past year, that’s 12% more than inflation!”
          Cheers Ducky!
           
           

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          1. cyberduck46

            Be careful about jumping to conclusion Robert, if you make that claim can you substantiate it?
             
            What does average revenue per transaction mean?
             
             
             
             

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            1. Robert May

              what does it mean? has the average transaction gone up  13.8%?

              ok  everyone please modify Cyberducks’s advice.  “on average purplebricks have increased their average transaction prices by 13.8% in a year. quite why or for what for they haven’t said but their disciples are congratulating them for the way above inflation hike in average revenues.  it looks like their sales to listing ratio has fallen from 88% so that isn’t a  good reason for the increase. hey ho i’ll guess we’ll never know

               

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              1. cyberduck46

                Robert you need to substantiate your claims.
                 
                Nobody has said the average transaction price has increased by 13.8%.
                 
                The average revenue per transaction has increased. Are you sure all this revenue comes from the seller?
                 
                What about the mix of people paying London prices. Can you confirm you are comparing like for like between years? A higher percentage of London customers would also increase the average revenue per transaction.
                 
                What about the data sales unit?
                 
                From December 2016 “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.”
                 
                So if you claim that those listing with PB are paying 13.8% more then you need to substantiate this.
                 
                Can you? If not then it just the usual innuendo and speculation.
                 
                Come on Robert, answer something for once instead of running off to twitter and tweeting pictures of ducks. I trust you realise I’m not really a duck?
                 
                 
                 
                 
                 

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    2. Curious george

      ‘That’s impressive ‘!!!!!! 
      Hang on here , this is Purplebricks , a firm that is trying to claim a niche market by trying to stop consumers from being ‘ripped off’ by high street agents, yet they are reporting to their investors a 10% average increase in what they take from them AND get it upfront!
      so in essence, they are really just trying to suck the consumer in that they are cheap, but in reality they are Just packaging their fees as something else . This is a case for watchdog to investigate 

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      1. cyberduck46

        Curious george, revenue is not necessarily just from the homebuyer. It is average revenue per transaction that is up 14%.

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      2. Bless You

        Yes £400 per instruction more then TV claim,  by overselling their mortgage and solictor services. High street agents have been slammed for years for doing this but asleep trading standards cant see the problem with it.

         

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    3. P-Daddy

      Yes Cyber an increase in earnings per customer is always great, but the wild west show continues and look at how the market is reacting today. You pose a question later in the thread as to what everyone thinks of this update…simple its ugly! They have carved a niche which is getting bigger and the hype in their investment machine is relentless and the market has bought in…to a degree. But is it the emperors new clothes! They have ambition with all this TV and radio advertising (old fashioned) and it has got them established and they have knocked the other call centre businesses out of the park. Global ambition is impressive, but have they over built Rome and tried to do it in 1 day? That is the territory of those with an exit strategy and they will hurt a lot of people. An enduring company with income/profits has a P/E ratio of 13-16, this lot have a P/E of -393! The share price rose to £4.25 and then slumped to £3.55 and is currently down on the day by 6 1/2% That speaks volumes.

      Back to your question…are the reports and your highlighted average client spend impressed..no, because it masks the following:-

      Purplebricks Group said interim losses almost tripled as it invested in marketing.The company booked a pre-tax loss of £8.19m, compared to a £2.76m loss a year earlier.Revenue more than doubled to £46.8m, offset by a large jump in administrative and marketing expenses. The company upgraded its UK revenue guidance for the full year to £84m from £80m.

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  4. Robert May

    Does this seem a little subdued?

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    1. dompritch134

      Keep trying Robert.

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  5. J1

    Surely the less we worry about these bids and the more we concentrate on our own businesses the better our businesses will be.

    Park these bids as DIY agents and concentrate on being better.

    The regionals and nationals will be the ones who suffer most – faceless managers and  valuers with little or no local personal presence – these are the ones to suffer most, surely?

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  6. dompritch134

    Strong and impressive results, well done PB.

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    1. Property Pundit

      Share price currently saying different Dom. Strong opening then a bit of reality set in.

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      1. Bless You

        -6% now.  
        Strong results lol…at this rate PB will be making £10 million in 5 years time…. USA is obviously dead in the water like the lettings dept. 
        Dom as a consumer and not part of the PB PR #fake machine how do you feel defending a company that gets so cash from mortgage and legal referalls??  hardly the peoples champion are they with this practice. 

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  7. AgentV

    It began with the forging of the Great Rings. Three were given to the PIE posters, immortal, wisest and fairest of all beings. Seven to the portal lords, gold miners and craftsmen of the internet leads. And nine, nine rings were gifted to the race of online listers, who above all else desire power. For within these rings was bound the strength and the will to govern each race.
     
    But they were all of them deceived, for another ring was made. Deep in the land of Midlands, in the fires of the Alternative Investment Market, the Dark Lord Investor forged a master ring in secret, and into this ring he poured his mockery, his deceit and his will to dominate all marketing. One ring call centre to rule them all!!!

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  8. Hillofwad71

    Stopped short of saying how many sellside instructions in the US ? and it looks like rollout there is about £12/15m per region

    Plenty of money still in the Tommy to chance their  arm in another region

    Dismal showing by lettings  55 LPE’s -490 instructions.They  need to have  a quiet word with Eric !

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  9. Hillofwad71

    Eric has just come  back from  a visit to his tailor!

     

     

    http://www.gosuit.com/images/products/fer2b2p%20-%20prp.png

     

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  10. AgentV

    Is the £1,138 or £1,140 including or excluding VAT?

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  11. The Blame Game

    Here we go again…..

    As usual, any mention of Purple Bricks and computer screens light up all over the UK and contributors quickly reorganise there schedules to stay part of the feeding frenzy. Generally lasts until lunch time when the debate switches to mobiles in the local eaterie.

    There must be more productive things to be getting on with than join in another P.B.bun fight, which incidentally goes right over your customers heads as most, rightly or wrongly, are only interested in how much they think they can save.

    Between a mix of the cold weather and P.B. fobia, the national grid will be on stand by for over load.

     

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    1. MrLister

      Totally agree. I hate competition knocking. Shows fear, desperation and ignorance.

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      1. Hillofwad71

        Yes indeed  but don’t excuse Bricks from the equation whose main premise is to ” knock the competition”

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    2. AgentV

      The Blame Game, MrLister

      Well that’s pretty much killed the conversation!!!

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  12. Hillofwad71

    The Blame Game

     

    Looks like interest is  waning in the US  too !

    https://trends.google.co.uk/trends/explore?geo=US&q=purplebricks

     

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    1. Chris Wood

      Try this as a fairer comparison https://trends.google.co.uk/trends/explore?geo=US&q=purplebricks,realtor

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  13. Peter

    Income £39,900,000 / Ave Fee of £1,140 = 35,000 instructions.

    £4.62b / £250,000 (presumed Ave property value) = 18,480 completions.

    Above suggests completing on 53% of stock.

    With 650 local property sales people = average 108 instructions a year per person with 58 average completions per year.

    108 instructions per year X £??? (personal commission) = ??? – Can someone else put a figure here?

     

     

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    1. AgentV

      Someone posted on twitter the other day, so I am just repeating the figures;
      £150 plus VAT for each take on
      £125 plus VAT for viewings service
      £50 plus VAT for legal completion
      I think there is also another £50 for a mortgage refereral 

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  14. cyberduck46

    Anthony Codling (of Jefferies) states “The operating statistics reported today look impressive, although despite the sparkle we still cannot see how many customers have actually been able to sell their homes”

     

    Didn’t he say he was going to tell us how many properties the top Estate Agents sold? He’s teamed up with Robert May and if I’m not mistaken there was going to be a report towards the end of this year after starting to collect data at the beginning of November 2016.

     

    Robert, can you update us on that situation? Didn’t you say this would be in November? Doesn’t your software work or is it just the results don’t fit the agenda? Strange that he says “we still cannot see how many customers have been actually able to sell their homes” though isn’t it?

     

     

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    1. dompritch134

      Ahh yes Antony Coding and his consistent buy Ratings for CWD and surprisingly Sell PB, anyone following his recommendations would be in some hell of a mess.

       

      Ohh hang on is he not CWD broker? ‘quelle surprise’

       

      Robert apparently has dynamite of data which is going to be exposed to the world, yet still we wait.

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      1. cyberduck46

        You can tell all is not rosy when the team revert to moaning about portaljuggling.
         
        Oh and an 88% conversion rate statement made about 100 years ago.
         
         

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        1. PeeBee

          “Oh and an 88% conversion rate statement made about 100 years ago.”

          Actually, ducky – it was 60 weeks and 4 days ago

          …but who’s really counting, eh?

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  15. Freepost143

    I’m not an agent but a financial adviser. Every time I have a buyer purchasing through Purple Bricks I dread it. To cut a long story short they give their vendors and buyers a shocking experience. The public will wise up to their approach in the end

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    1. AgentV

      Freepost….we may have a new product of interest to you. Email me at in@agentv.co.uk if you want to know more.

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  16. htsnom79

    I have some fun with them when I come across them, any buyer sstc through PB is informed that for the period of the transaction I am temporarily taking them on to the pay roll, but no pay obviously, they ( PB and their pet lawyer ) can’t or won’t help me but hey, you’ve paid already so they have to talk to you, proceed then to give an education in the nuances of getting to completion without doing it for them, we get on fine and by the end of it I think they’d rather I do it next time, chill people

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  17. 40yearvetran08

    £39.9m Revenue. Average fee £1140 = 35,000 instructions. Completed sales £4.62 billion. Average house price £234k = 19,743 sales completed. 56%. So 44%% of their customers will be left out of pocket. Not sure I would gamble £1,140 on those odds.

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    1. Chris Wood

      Ties in closely with GetAgents figures from earlier this year.

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  18. 40yearvetran08

    Looking at the accounts they actually show a total comprehensive loss of £8.192m for the 6 months. It will be interesting to see if US & AUS continue because it must be like trying to swim the Atlantic with a very heavy weight shackled to your legs

     

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  19. Shaun77

    I recently interviewed a guy who until recently was a Territory Owner for PB and had owned the territory for 2 years, with two other LPE’s reporting into him.

    He was an outstanding candidate, very experienced and thoroughly professional. His insights were illuminating and included the following:

    In his experience, their penetration has peaked and the level of enquiries/valuations was starting to fall away.

    There is huge disappointment that organic growth hasn’t taken off and they are completely dependent on TV advertising to generate enquiries. This is expensive and debatable as to whether it can continue ad infinitum.

    There is a growing feeling that to increase profitability, the commission available to LPE’s will be reduced. Most TO’s are now in the latter stages of a 5 year agreement and there’s an uneasy feeling that the terms will change when up for renewal.

    TO’s (& LPE’s I think) are all self employed and have to register as a Ltd Co. This supports Chris Wood’s argument that as such, they should all have their own Ombudsman registration, PI insurance etc.

    All of the good agents who joined have either left or are considering their options, leaving behind either industry journeyman or inexperienced rookies.

    The good agents are leaving for a number of reasons, one of which is because the earning potential they were promised isn’t coming to fruition and is only likely to fall or become further diluted by the addition of more LPE’s. However, the main reason people are leaving is the endless vendor headaches and complaining, which goes on 24/7 and apparently is “overwhelming and inescapable”. It would appear that once they’ve paid upfront to sell their property at a particular price, they get pretty angry when this doesn’t happen. Funny that!

    In his experience, they complete on around a third of instructions. Hence the endless headaches and complaining.

    When they first talk to PB, they are told that pretty much all vals convert to instructions, as V’s have already decided to use them. In reality, this really isn’t the case and val/listing is around 40%, meaning that the majority of V’s actually decide not to use them.

    Management is entirely by email and they tend to use “shaming” to try and get LPE’s to improve their results.

    Reviews are fervently encouraged, with some LPE’s asking buyers to review them after just one viewing!

    Working for them feels a little like joining a cult, with some staff feverishly supporting all things purple. However, a lot of people feel uncomfortable with this environment and think it detracts from being objective about their service

    Working from home may seem like a good idea, but eventually it becomes very isolated and you feel polarised by either being managed by Big Brother or castigated by angry vendors.

     

     

     

     

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    1. Hillofwad71

      Did he get the job?

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    2. Quags

      Very interesting reading, and almost identical to what I have heard.

      For all the nonsense and deflection from the purple tinted glasses of the dom and ducky show, the public will soon turn away from PB, it’s simply a model that can’t last.  Unhappy staff, unhappy customers.

      An inaccurate, condescending and dam right disrespectful TV advertising every so often can only last so long. #purpletricks

       

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    3. AgentV

      Shaun 77,

      Read this with great interest. A lot of it rings true with what I have heard. Would love to talk more…… in@agentv.co.uk….might have a story you would like to hear, but I can’t put out in the public domain.

      BSOS23PC

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    4. Property Pundit

      One thing is absolutely certain, there will be no (rational) comment on this post from Dick or Dom.

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      1. cyberduck46

        And all we get from you Property Pundit is name calling.

         

        I think my comment was that the results were pretty much as i expected and saying that average income per instruction increasing by 14% was pretty impressive.

         

        What’s your opinion of the results?

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        1. Property Pundit

          I was actually replying to Shaun77’s post – care to comment?

          FWIW, I thought the results were completely underwhelming. What everyone notices – analysts and other agents/property commentators alike – is their refusal to publish the number of properties successfully sold. It’s not rocket science for them to locate this figure, so why consistently hide it? Over to you.

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          1. cyberduck46

            >I was actually replying to Shaun77’s post – care to comment
            Two points. 1. It’s heresay 2. It’s an opinion of an LPE.
            It may or may not be correct in full or part. I don’t honestly care just as long as we hear the truth rather than innuendo & speculation all the time.
            >It’s not rocket science for them to locate this figure, so why consistently hide it?
            Because to supply this figure they would put themselves at a disadvantage to their competitors who don’t provide listing to conversion rates. Their competitors would be able to make a big deal about it without anybody actually knowing what they are comparing with.
            Property Pundit, now answer me this. Why do you think Robert May & Jefferies who are allegedly in possession of a years worth of data for listings and completions for the big agents don’t release the results as promised?
            I’m off out for the rest of the day now so will read your reply when I get back.

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          2. Robert May

            What, release data that hasn’t been thoroughly checked line by line and cross referenced.

            Without access to the company’s accounts and CRM systems I have to rely on a manual system of checking. Given the demonstrated confusion over which of the listed properties were invoice items it is inevitable  I won’t be as quick as the local auditor and without access to the FD it is likely I will have questions that might have very simple answers and explanations.

            I don’t have any obligation to be 100% accurate in my numbers, the company and their auditors do.

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            1. cyberduck46

              >I don’t have any obligation to be 100% accurate in my numbers

               

              So it can’t be relied on, which was what was originally suggested. Listing tracked right through to land registry, blah, blah, blah.

               

              So what still needs to be checked? When can we expect it? 2020?

               

              Not sure what invoices have to do with it, we were told it was going to provide a listing to completions conversion rate for the top agencies weren’t we?

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    5. Chris Wood

      This ties in with a great deal of what has been rumoured, passed on in confidence by whistleblowers and other sources. Thank you Shaun77

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      1. dompritch134

        The figure for an instruction is incorrect as I know this from LPEs, but hey keep speculating chris I’m sure the ASA will be interested as per the current investigation against you.

         

         

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        1. Quags

          Which figure specifically dom? You obviously know better than both a former territory owner and former LPE.  Where are you getting your information?

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        2. Chris Wood

          The figures are taken directly from a signed form from an LPE on letterhead paper but hey, what do I know?

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    6. PropertyGirl2074

      I worked for PB as an LPE and in my opinion you’re accurate in our summary of an LPE/TO role.  It is a shame culture where you pushed to see things all purple and the sad thing is, watching your people being brainwashed in to a purple cult.

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      1. Quags

        Great to hear confirmation of what Shaun77 has written from someone who has experienced the same for themselves.

        I’m sure a certain pair on here will try and say you’re wrong despite your own experiences as they are the fountain of all b…. , sorry, knowledge when it comes to all things purple.

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      2. AgentV

        PropertyGirl2074

        What made you leave, and what are you doing now?

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        1. PropertyGirl2074

          Quite honestly i didn’t feel i was giving the best service i could.  I am used to completing the journey start to finish.  I am still in property its all i know and work for a corporate. The culture was another issue for me, they work together socialise together its like a cult!  Their meetings reminded me of a scene from the film the witches, with everyone cheering and clapping and quite honestly, all you are doing is lining the brothers pockets!!!

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  20. Thomas Flowers

    £1,140 average transaction fee appears way too low with all those extra fees charged?

     Cyberduck and dompritch as you both appear to be accountancy and market savvy.

    Please can you answer these two questions:

    1. Do customer refunds appear as a separate expense in PB’S accounts or are they included in say marketing?

    2. Do profits from conveyancing referral fees appear in PB’s accounts or are they accounted for separately?

     

     

     

     

     

     

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    1. cyberduck46

      Not really bothered enough to try and work it out myself and don’t like to speculate like many on here.
       
      What are your thoughts Thomas? Do you have any insight on the amounts and how they are accounted for?
       
      >£1,140 average transaction fee
       
      you do know, that’s not what was stated by the company?
       
      That’s the problem with people speculating, the next thing you know somebody is stating it as fact.

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      1. Robert May

        that would be you!
        cyberduck46
        December 13, 2017 at 07:28
        Everything pretty much as expected.

         

        From the report itself: “Average UK income per instruction up 14% to £1,138”

         

        That’s pretty impressive.

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        1. cyberduck46

          Robert that is not speculation it’s quoting the report.
           
          You turn it into speculation when you say ““on average purplebricks have increased their average transaction prices by 13.8% in a year”
           
          That’s not the same thing as “Average UK income per instruction up 14% to £1,138” and I’m not quibbling about the 0.2%.

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    2. Chris Wood

      Refunds come out of LPEs’ own funds as clawback so no damage to PBs’ bottom line. Funny that.
       

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      1. Marc Cottrell

        Especially when the refunds are issued by PB without consultation with the listing LPE.

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      2. cyberduck46

        Chris,
         
        Are you sure the full refund gets taken from the LPE or is it just a proportion? Is it conditional on the reason for the refund?
         
        What is your source?
         
        Given your track record I would imagine you’ve misunderstood.
         

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        1. Quags

          I hope thats not a dig… Would be terribly childish.

          Even if a percentage was clawed back, it’s very unfair on what I’ve heard are extremely pressured staff.

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          1. cyberduck46

            >I hope thats not a dig
             
            It’s a warning for people reading Chris’ posts based on my experience of reading his posts, tweets etc. 
             
            He could be right this time but I have my doubts. 
             
            “Refunds come out of LPEs’ own funds as clawback so no damage to PBs’ bottom line.”
             
            He claims that refunds don’t impact PB’s bottom line. I find that very unlikley although I do imagined that in certain cases LPEs will have to pay some/all of a refund.

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            1. Chris Wood

              If I publish something that I have evidence to substantiate, I say so. If I publish something I believe to be true, I say so. If I publish speculation, I make it clear that is what it is.
               
              Extract of a Purplebricks agreement supplied by one of many disgruntled LPEs and Sub LPEs over the past few months:
               
              “Refunds” means any refund provided to a customer or customers’ or any of the Referral Businesses as a result of any action or failure on the part of the Sub-Licensee.”
               
              3.1 The Licensed Estate Agent will pay to the Sub-Licensee the Published Rates for the Services.
              3.2 The Software Licensor may deduct the following from the Valuation & Viewings Fees:
              3.2.1 the Additional Training Fees;
              3.2.2 the Repayment;
              3.2.3 any Refunds, Reductions, Credits or Customers Compensation;
              3.2.5 the Instruction Clawback;
              3.2.6 any fees, costs, expenses or deductions agreed between the parties from time to time in writing or
              provided for in this Agreement.
              3.3 The Sub-Licensee is liable to pay to the Licensed Estate Agent an Instruction Clawback in the following
              circumstances all of which must apply:
              3.3.1 the Sub-Licensee has provided the Customer with a Property Value; and
              3.3.2 the Sub-Licensee has secured an Instruction from that Customer; and
              3.3.3 the Customer has accepted the Property Value at the time of Instruction; and
               
              3.3.4 the property has not Sold or Let; and
              3.3.5 the Customer has accepted all the Recommendations; and
              3.3.6 the property is withdrawn by the Customer during the Repayment Period; and
              3.3.7 the Customer has made a Claim for Repayment.
              The Instruction Clawback must be paid to the Licensed Estate Agent by the Sub-Licensee within 14 days
              of a written request to do so and for the avoidance of doubt the Licensed Estate Agent may deduct any
              Instruction Clawback due from any monies owed to the Sub-Licensee.

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      3. Thomas Flowers

        Yes, indeed Chris.

        So I guess that many self-employed LPE’s may have some pretty painful ‘marketing’ costs even though they don’t pay any portal fees?

        Makes you wonder if that may be another reason why there appears to be a large turnover of ‘good’ LPE’s in addition to Shaun 77 enlightening post?

        Remember the pie post this summer whereby one LPE had £800 (4 x £200) clawed back one month?

        Ouch.

        Also, remember that long experienced good estate agents are not used to dealing with high volume ‘no sale’ fee complaints.

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  21. Thomas Flowers

    Cyberduck,  I would sincerely like your opinion on the following:

    PB customers are offered the choice to defer payment if they agree to use PB conveyancing partners.

    If they decide not to use these conveyancers at a later date for whatever reason, possibly as a consequence of extremely poor reviews, high cost or take their property off the market with PB, this customer is then automatically charged up to £400.

    Should this deferred fee payment be boldly advertised together with £300 viewing service charge and ‘fee is payable regardless of sale’?

    With those extras, plus eye-watering conveyancing referral fees, in some cases, for sale and purchase (circa £800 fee)? – I am very surprised that their average fee per transaction is only a rounded £1,140?

     

    Particularly when they charge nearly £1,200 in London and surrounding areas?

    Is it any wonder that the regulators are looking to ban referral fees?

    My question to Cyberduck is ‘would you ban or cap referral fees’?

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

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    1. cyberduck46

      Thomas,
       
      I’m not sure these things need to be in an advertisment, though it’s necessary when it comes to making the agreement.
       
      It’s a bit similar to whether traditional Estate Agents should be publishing the contract t&c’s in their advertising and on their websites.
       
      > I am very surprised that their average fee per transaction is only a rounded £1,140
       
      They didn’t say their average fee was £1140, they said “Average UK income per instruction up 14% to £1,138”.
       
      There’s little point speculating as to how they calculate the average uk income per instruction but they certainly haven’t said it’s a fee have they? One thing we do know is that they haven’t put their prices up in the last year so the increase comes from some other source.
       
      If you can get the numbers to make sense let me know 🙂 By the way, they’ve been publishing this value with every set of results that I can remember so the auditor is happy with them doing it.
       
       
       
       
       
       

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      1. PeeBee

        “One thing we do know is that they haven’t put their prices up in the last year so the increase comes from some other source.”

        Ahhh, ducky – I love it when you say something so fundamentally stupid that everything else just dissolves into nothingness.  For the last part of that sentence to be unequivocally correct, it would need there to have been no increase in pricing right from the start of the previous accounting period.

        You see, your knowledge of all things Purple only started in January.  You admitted that yourself.  You need to lookie at what happened in September 2016 which completely bu99ers up your argument:

        Purplebricks puts its prices up – but still claims big savings for vendors

        Maybe your New Year Resolution should be to engage brain before pressing the POST COMMENT button.

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  22. htsnom79

    Additionally, what gets lost in all this is that it’s a battle being waged which will not define the war in the end, PB are ***** as a partner if you want to sell or buy, this is fact regardless of fee/advertising/ratios etc, I am yet to see CD/DP make any reference to the positive experience of mammals using them only the metrics of their business as if they were an early Amazon, that is not this business and never has been

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