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Purplebricks has copped endless hate since entering the Australian market: for having a poor business model, for misleading and getting substandard results for vendors and for recruiting “bottom-feeder” agents. But a recent sale in Victoria, where the property sold for $380,000 above the reserve, might suggest the criticism is not exactly warranted.
Vendors Kerrie and Phil Logan from Rowville in Melbourne chose Purplebricks agent Salvi Galati to sell their home because Mr Galati was “very personable and returned our calls”, and “the pricing was right”.
After 25 days on the market, the property, listed at $1,050,000 to $1,155,000, sold on auction for $1,480,000 where its reserve price was $1,100,000. The auction attracted 31 groups on the day and in the 40 minutes it took to conclude, it had more than 100 bids.
Mr Logan was thrilled with the result.
“It was quite outstanding,” he told REB.
“Salvi is an absolute operator. He gave us a very good breakdown prior to what was going to happen and led us all the way through, and came up trumps at the end. It was absolutely what we wanted.”
On time
Mr Logan said that it was a positive experience.
“When you are not sure of the process because you don’t buy and sell every day of the week, you want somebody that is available when you want them.
“Salvi was there like a rock to be able to bounce ideas off and explain auction formalities that we didn’t know about because we hadn’t been to auctions before. I would without hesitation recommend Salvi.”
Mr Galati told REB that he had a sense that Mr Logan was pleased with the deal.
“He specifically pointed out my negotiating skills in regards to it, just in terms of talking to people,” Mr Galati said.
“He thought that was quite unique. But it simply goes to show that when you put in place an effective marketing campaign, you can get a great result. We focused on the property’s unique features — which it had — and at the end got the Logans a great result, and saved them at least $27,000 in fees.”
Eventual
Mr Galati has been with Purplebricks since July last year.
“I’ve been in real estate a little while now and I saw that things had to change eventually,” he said.
“There is not too much transparency in the current model, there are a lot of disgruntled vendors out there, and, as we all know, no one actually trusts a real estate agent as such. Certainly from my perspective, I was aware of that.”
Mr Galati also said that the market changing is loading pressure onto agents.
“The beauty of Purplebricks, I believe, is that I am able to focus solely on my selling,” he said.
“I can use their platform in terms of being able to just focus on my vendors and purchasers because I can focus virtually 100 per cent of my time on them, rather than worrying about trying to prospect looking for my next listing.
“Working with Purplebricks has been great. Like any other company, it’s had its teething problems and they will cop a lot of flak from everyone else because they are totally changing the industry. It’s like what Uber did to the taxi industry is what Purplebricks is now doing to the real estate industry, so there is a lot of pushback from a lot of traditional agents who are ultimately charging huge fees. Whereas I believe that what we charge is fair value for what people get.”
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