A comparison through my experience of Purplebricks and Faira. Purplebricks has a flat rate of $3600 when selling a home that must be paid within 6 months of signing on to their service while Faira has a 1% fee during the closing of your home sale.

Selling Your Home: Purplebricks vs Faira Comparison

While trying to sell my home, I initially started as For Sale By Owner and tried out several different services before ending up using Purplebricks.

FAIRA’S “FREE” LISTING SERVICE AND 1% SERVICE

After some Googling, I found Faira. A slightly shady practice. They several tiers of service and they market their “Free” service as being free, but there’s a 0.5% fee upon the closing of your home’s sale. I don’t like that.

Faira’s next tier of service takes a 1% flat rate commission and they take care of most of the home sale. They’ll have an agent with you throughout the process. As I was trying to find out more information, I was only able to talk to a support person from Faira and not a realtor.

PURPLEBRICK’S $3600 FLAT RATE SERVICE

Then I went to Purplebricks. I wanted to know more about the service and they scheduled a call with me and a local real estate agent. Over the phone the realtor explained that Purplebricks has a flat rate fee of $3600. That could be paid up front or at the end of the home sale. Once you sign on with Purplebricks, you have to pay that fee within 6 months even if you don’t sell your home. That does mean they would support you with your home sale for that duration of time.

I immediately signed up with Purplebricks when they told me they could bring down the buying agent’s commission down to 2% instead of the standard 3%! This was big! My home sold for 290k and since the fee for Purplebricks was $3600, that makes their commission 1.24%. Paying a grand total of 3.24% in real estate commission instead of the standard 6%.

BEST VALUE: FAIRA VS PURPLEBRICKS

Obviously 1% through Faira is lower than 1.24% from Purplebricks for my specific situation. Although, Faira didn’t tell me that we could bring the buying agent’s commission down to 2%. That means I would have paid 4% total with Faira while paying only 3.24% with Purplebricks! That is the best value for my specific situation.

If I did everything on my own, paid a real estate lawyer and wrangled my own legal documents, I would have ended up paying about the same amount. This was because my home was set to sell at 290k.

Faira is cheaper if you’re selling a home for less than 360k and Purplebricks is the better deal if you’re selling for more than 360k.

User Dashboard: Purplebricks Wins!

I didn’t sign on with Faira, but their website didn’t show images of the user dashboard. They didn’t mention that sellers could organize and schedule showings.

Purplebricks made it easy to understand and to block out my availability for showings. I received text messages whenever there was a showing request and I could easy reply with a “Y” or “N” to confirm or deny a showing.

Signing Paperwork Digitally

I confirmed that both Faira and Purplebricks processed documents digitally which made things much easier for me. The only thing I have to sign in person is the transfer of the deed during the last stages of escrow.

Most sites comparing Purplebricks and Faira Lack Quality Info

As I browsed more, I like Purplebricks’ scheduling dashboard and everything was easy to use. I searched for comparisons for Faira and Purplebricks and found most websites lacking all the quality information. I think it’s because most real estate agents don’t want people finding out about these sites.