propertysnake.co.uk - not really reliable?

Thali

Hi there,

Just checked out the propertysnake.co.uk website and scanning through some postcodes/ properties.

IMHO one shouldn't take this date at face value as some people will put their property on the market at a ridiculous price just to see if it goes! We just moved out of a high rise building in SW11, the last 3 or 4 two bedroom flats in the house just got sold below stamp duty @250k. Nevertheless, one property a couple of floors down (11-ish floor) went on the market @275k and the top floor (20th floor) wanted (wants?) a whopping 285'k. Can't speak for the top floor flat but - hearsay - the other one went for £249,999.

The same with the SW18 Bartholomew Mews/ Close properties. At the moment they go for £250,000 - probably as long as the first will go above stamp duty and all the other flats are following (up). Still, asking price on the website is everything between £250 - 285k.

Last but not least - the flat we only just bought was on the market for £300k, reduced to £279 and we paid £250. I wish we had made a £50 "bargain" , however, £250 is the price "all" properties go for at the moment (although our EA is still telling us, we made a barging and he could sell the flat tomorrow for £260). £300k is what the (Australian) based owner wanted that doesn't necessarily mean that flat was or will ever be worth that much.

I only wanted to say - handle the information on that website with a bit of common sense. I think it's more realistic to check out rightmove.co.uk and see the prices the properties actually achieved (even in 2004) and maybe compare that to propertysnake website ....

Regards, Thali

Jorgan_2

I used property snake for the first and probably last time yesterday. As an Estate Agent I was curious to see what the fuss was all about. Interestingly I was able to identify six properties that I had valued over the past twelve months and 'lost' to other agents. Each one had been reduced, but they were still on the market for more than the figure I put on them. According to property snake they had dropped in value by 2-10%, in reality the asking price had been reduced, not the true value.

Garbage in - Garbage out.

m00m00

all property snake does is show reductions in ASKING prices

it's not claiming to show intrinsic value of properties.


property bee is more useful for people interested in specific areas, but it requires more hard work.

property snake is very much handicapped by not being able to use right move data.

theGrinch

they have been severely hampered by rightmove and others threatening legal action if they reproduce links and data. so the information is narrow.

John_Pierpoint

m00m00 wrote: »

all property snake does is show reductions in ASKING prices

it's not claiming to show intrinsic value of properties.


property bee is more useful for people interested in specific areas, but it requires more hard work.

property snake is very much handicapped by not being able to use right move data.

So how is it that Google can use everyone's data?
(As in "theGrinch” site:forums.moneysavingexpert.com ->
[SIZE=-1]639 from forums.moneysavingexpert.com for "theGrinch”)

Surely propertysnake could show a list of links to rightmove saying "here is a property down x%", just as Martin's cheap flights engine can show "bargains" from the airlines?[/SIZE]

Jorgan_2

The achieved sale price data from the land registry is available on many sites, why don't property snake access that instead?

otter1_2

Jorgan,

Because Property Snake shows reductions in asking prices. It doesn't claim to say anything about the value of places or the price they sold for last. There are other sites that do this.

Where Property Snake was helpful (although I think the threatened legal action have turned it into a bit of a toothless tiger these days) was in highlighting properties which had had the asking price reduced, which can be an indicator of the seller's desperation/willingness to negotiate.

Also, it shows how long a place had been on the market. The figure given isn't always correct, as there are ways to 'cheat the system' to fool Property Snake into thinking your house is new on the market, but even an inaccurate figure is better than nothing, as it indicates the minimum amount of time it has been on the market. I think as an agent, you may be blinkered to the fact that for a new buyer, until one starts to recognise the same old places coming up time and again, there is no way of knowing if a place has been on the market for 2 weeks or 20, for 1 day or 1 year. This information is useful in working out what would be a reasonable offer. Incidentally, Property Bee does not (and cannot) offer this, even now.

m00m00

property bee does show the date something came on the market for new listings, which is going to be very useful going forward.

otter1_2

m00m00,

Oh undeniably that is useful, but you have to be prepared to put the time in to check it, day after day. And if you suddenly discover that a new area would be great for you, you have to build up your data supply from scratch.

Property Snake gives you an indication of when a house came on the market even if you only started looking at houses today.

m00m00

neither tool is perfect, but they are still very useful.

especially now property bee allows you to import and export datasets to CSV format

Jorgan_2

otter1 wrote: »

The figure given isn't always correct, as there are ways to 'cheat the system' to fool Property Snake into thinking your house is new on the market, but even an inaccurate figure is better than nothing, as it indicates the minimum amount of time it has been on the market. I think as an agent, you may be blinkered to the fact that for a new buyer, until one starts to recognise the same old places coming up time and again, there is no way of knowing if a place has been on the market for 2 weeks or 20, for 1 day or 1 year. This information is useful in working out what would be a reasonable offer. Incidentally, Property Bee does not (and cannot) offer this, even now.

Can you explain the bit about me possibly being blinkered again, I've read through it a few times & I'm still not sure what you mean.