Property Bee - fugding the figures?

Hopejack

I've got Property Bee installed and I'm noticing more and more that EAs are effectively 'deleting' rightmove entries and relisting as new properties which is clearly skewing the figures. Isn't this a bit naughty?

I've seen it a few times recently but one house in particular was marketed for the first time before Christmas (prob around Nov time if I remember correctly) and then surprise, the listing went and it's popped up today as a 'new listing' - same price, with the same agent. It also states on the details that the house is being sold by a connected person to the EA.

Are EAs allowed to do this? I guess so but it makes a mockery of Property Bee if you are trying to watch the market and use it as a tool to do so.

Anyone else found the same in their area?

Batchy

Yes I guess they are... why would relisting as the SAME... be fudging the figures thou?

Same price
Same agent

are you worried about... HOW long the property's been listed.

Personally dont think estate agents would go to the bother of doing it, too much hassle, for the numbers of people who use property bee.

googler

How do you know it's not Rightmove at fault? Isn't it possible that Rightmove is 'losing' data, and when the data comes in from a particular agent, RM thinks it's new?

Without access to all the data from both sides of the activity, you can't place blame on one or the other.

I get e-mail updates from s1homes and primelocation for my county, and often get notifications for what seems to be ALL of an agent's properties, which I know immediately aren't all new. Whether this is due to the agent manually uploading them to get them 'refreshed', or primelocation's systems throwing a wobbly, I can't tell....

pastmybest

Yes found exactly this with one EA who were doing it on a daily basis. I was saving one day then next day finding it had been removed from my saved stuff and then it appeared again the same day as a new listing.

I had though about having a moan somewhere - Rightmove or even the EA.

pastmybest

I have come to the conclusion it is nothing to do with Property Bee but cynical attemt to keep flagging it up to those on the email alert system.

googler

Are they allowed to do this?

Well, unless it goes against any rules that RM have, I can't see our govt legislating on the manner in which EAs upload to portals.....

Gwhiz

No point moaning - it's not illegal or anything. Some EAs don't like a property looking too old and some obviously do not want buyers to know how long the property has been hanging about or what price drops have occurred. Can't blame them - we now have all the data and gives us an edge. However - at end of day a property will sell for what it's worth.

Hopejack

Thanks for the replies. I'm not going to lose sleep over it or anything, just think it's a bit underhand and wondered if anyone else had come across it. BTW in my area it's the same agents (2 in particular) that have them relisted a few months down the line so I would say it probably is the agent as opposed to RM as it doesn't seem to happen with the other agents - can't prove it though. Obviously if there is a price change or a change to the details that is understandable, but to simply pull a listing and relist isn't very honest. Goes back to the good old days when it was like pulling teeth trying to find out how long a property had been on the market for when asking the EA!

Lots of people recommend Property Bee on here for help with house hunting. It is a great tool as it is useful from a negotiating pov to know how long something has been on the market, but this sort of 'practice' obviously limits it's use. Just thought I'd mention it. Anyone who is a serious buyer will be keeping an eye on the market anyway and as there is so little decent stock, most things 'repackaged' will be noticed anyway I guess.

ETA - the house in particular I mentioned above was a property for sale via someone working in the EA as I said - imo that is totally wrong, they are using their 'position' to their advantage and remarketing it to make it look new on the market when in fact it's been up for sale for a few months... Not illegal no, but not very honest either.

Trollfever

Sensible agents would relist properties that have snow in the pictures as it tells viiewers when it was listed.