Purple Bricks - disrupter and the future?

You cannot have failed to see the adverts. You cannot have failed to see their boards. Purple Bricks are certainly disrupting the market with their no nonsense approach. Are they the future? Are they the new Uber, Netflix, Ikea, What's App, Spotify........................

I recently acted for clients that bought a property from Purple Bricks and I thought that it might be constructive to shed some light on my experience. Bear in mind this is from a purchaser's perspective!

• I originally contacted them to note an interest. After the usual round of wearing out the buttons on my phone to connect to "The Central Property Expert" being the grand title of the person that was looking after the property, I was put through to a call centre where the call handled spoke with a broad Birmingham accent. Slightly worringly she then said that I could speak to someone on the ground who had a KY postcode - I was buying in Hamilton! This turned out to be inaccurate as following a post on Linkedin it became clear that they did have someone on the ground with ML experience in David Bennie. As one post on Linkedin from Purple Bricks said - Conrad Bem - "Sounds like a mistake I'm sure we have all made them."

• The noting interest process was a bit clunky as I had to have some specific details of the client to have my note of nterest accepted. I guess that the system suits individual viewers who want to make an offer than professionals.

• I then made an offer a couple of days later over the phone - £10K under HR!

• No negotiation followed and I received an e mail confirming that my offer had been accepted. The e mail confirmed the price and the name of the seller's solicitors - one of the remortgage firms.

• I needed a HR and after leaving a message and e mailing them, I received details of how to get the HR. Nice and simple as you can download the HR direct from their site. No forms to fill in. That was a nice touch. And they did return the call to my astonishment.

So the takeaways that I have are these

• Simple process, very automated and good from a purchaser's perspective.

• Liked the ability to get an HR from the web site.

• The call handlers were good and they did return the call which was a surprise given the volume of calls that they must receive.

• Little negotiation suited me but what about the seller.

• Not sure who I would have been negotiating with if the offer had been refused - the call centre, David Bennie or "The Negotiating Expert"?

• You should not ignore the power of advertising. My Linkedin posts get between 100-300 views. The PB post generated over 5,000!

• You pays your money (or not?) and you takes your chance.

Given the advertising spend of an estimated £1,000,000 per month PB are not going away. With a price disrupting philosophy, it is going to attract many who feel that a property sells itself. Time will tell if they will create a significant enough foothold in the market to allow their investors to cash in their chips. It will not suit everyone and as I sign off the sage word of my dear old gran begin to resonate - "Jonathan, those that know price of everything know the value of nothing!"