commisery
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Latest property news
Traditional agents just ‘twiddle their thumbs’ in their high street branches, suggests Purplebricks
A video published recently on YouTube by Purplebricks suggests that traditional estate agents just sit and “twiddle their thumbs” in their high street branches. The 30-second video, which has attracted nearly half a million views since it was published both on its own website and on Youtube, features an apathetic woman reclining on a couch who asks whether, if she uses Purplebricks, she will have to “do everything myself?”. The video goes on to make the claim that its Local Property Experts can “manage every aspect of your sales wherever and whenever you need – we think that’s far better than then them twiddling their thumbs in an office on the high street”. Designed to allay consumer fears about using Purplebricks, the video is believed to have been produced by Snap, the same agency that cooked up the company’s ‘commisery’ TV campaign. Three other videos have been filmed for the ‘series’ including ‘how can you charge so little’, ‘why would I sell with someone new’ and ‘why would you get me the best price’. Investor worries The videos have done little to allay City investor worries about Purplebricks. Its share price has yet to recover from the report published recently…
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Latest property news
Purplebricks is ignoring advertising watchdog’s ruling over fee transparency, claims CIELA
Purplebricks is to be investigated by the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) over a ruling the watchdog published last year which upheld a complaint by the Charter for Independent Estates and Lettings Agents (CIELA) about its TV advertising. CIELA claims that Purplebricks is still not being clear about its upfront fee structure, despite the ASA saying it should do when, in October, the ASA found that Purplebricks’ ‘commisery’ TV ads had breached its Code of Broadcast Advertising. In the comments, the ASA said Purplebricks must “ensure that when making a comparison to other fee models in their ads, they made it clear that their flat fee was always payable.” Last week CIELA made a further complaint to the ASA, pointing out that several of Purplebricks’ online adverts made the same claims, and had not been amended to reflect the ASA’s earlier decision. CIELA has been told by the ASA that its complaint will not be taken forward. In an email to CIELA, it has said that “having considered your complaint, we have determined that it is not necessary to reinvestigate the issue, in light of the previous ruling. “Instead, we will refer this matter directly to our Compliance team to take…
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Has Purplebricks own ‘commisery’ report backfired?
Purplebricks has moved into attack mode once more and produced a ‘commisery’ report that it says proves traditional agents are “out of touch, out of date and leaving millions out of pocket”. But it’s hard to find much data in the report to back up this contention. The report also appears to have avoided asking respondents what they expect to get for the much reduced fee that Purplebricks charges compared to traditional agents. Nevertheless, the report contains some worrying research for agents. This includes how only 5% of those buying or selling are concerned whether an agent has a high-street office, that house sellers are becoming more aware about alternative selling models, and that 68.9% of the public now know that they don’t have to “fork out” a percentage commission on the value of their property. It also says that the average commission among agents is 1.5% excluding VAT or £3,929 per sale. But the survey results don’t conclusively back up Purplebricks’ contention that traditional agents are out of date. 35% annoyed by cost The company talked to 1003 respondents three months ago, of whom 35% said they were annoyed by the cost of using an estate agent, but only 11.37% said…
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