Renthusiast2.0

According to Freakonomics, the Klu Klux Klan was a power group much like estate agents; deriving its power in large part from the fact that it hoarded information. Once that information falls into the wrong hands (or, depending on your point of view the right hands), much of the groups advantage then disappears.
Nestoria’s “large database of property listings” led them to take a look at how estate agents describe their properties and according to Ed; “we can’t find a single bad property!”

Back to Freakonomics:

On page 68 of the bestselling book, the writers proclaim information as “the currency of the Internet.” According to Levitt, the net is “brilliantly efficient at shifting information from the hands of those who have it into the hands of those who do not. Often … the information existed, but in a woefully scattered way [but the internet] has vastly shrunk the gap between the experts and the public.”
Levitt cites a study of estate agents in the US revealing how agents attempt to convey information in the for sale ads they write:

A phrase like “well maintained,” for instance means that a house is old but not quite falling down. A savvy buyer will know this (or find out for himself once he sees the house), but to the sixty-five year old retiree who is selling the house, “well maintained” might sound like a compliment, which is just what the agent intends.
An analysis of the language used in real-estate ads shows that certain words are powerfully correlated with the final sale price of a house. This doesn’t necessarily mean that labeling a house “well maintained” causes it to sell for less than an equivalent house. It does however indicate that when an agent labels a house “well maintained”, she is subtly encouraging the buyer to bid low.

Levitt claims that if the ad words for a estate agents own home are analyzed, the agent places an emphasis on descriptive terms (“new,” “granite,” “maple,” “move-in condition,” ) and avoids empty adjectives (including “wonderful,” “immaculate,” “well-maintained”).

Ed’s fascinating observations about UK property descriptions include:

* Properties are more than twice as likely to be “spacious” as they are to be “massive”.
* There are more “excellent” properties then there are “stunning” properties
* Fewer properties “boast” features than “benefit” from features

(Ed also revealed that he spent the last year in a bedroom where he could “touch all four walls,” and although he’s about 6′3 – 6′4, it still came as a shock to him that there were so many ’spacious’ properties available. Who knows, maybe he should have got a better agent, and of course because Nestoria wasn’t around back then we’ll have to give him a pass.)

What’s fascinating is the cryptic rise of internet power and the democratic shift of power in the real estate world. Witness for example the popularity and influence of London’s Rat and Mouse weblog; started by a self-confessed “property porn addict” (there’s so many), a guy who – it appears – really had no professional background in real estate.
Ed, Ivalio and others readily admit that the drive for them to start writing search scripts came from the individual frustration and to some degree desperation they experienced while searching for a home here in London.
Right now, the UK property market is hot and overheating; but for the most part, estate agents and property professionals are happy, well fed, and quite nonchalant. Most are acting like it’s going to stay like this forever. Wake up call – it’s not.
This too shall pass is what the wise say to themselves.
Witness the so-called “bubble” in the US and the way agents in that part of the world are (to a degree reluctantly) embracing the internet information power shift. If you can’t beat ‘em; join ‘em seems to be the ethos amongst US property professionals. They kicked up a storm when Zillow and Redfin entered the marketplace and – overnight – radically shifted the way people searched for property. But a few months later, they defend them.
The same hasn’t happened over here, because things are good.
Nestoria, Rat and Mouse and others are encroaching the UK market at a time when nobody in professional property is really paying too much attention to them. These services are viewed by most property professionals as novelties. But there is no doubt that these services are radically shifting the way people in the UK search for property. And there’s no doubt that – as the bubble begins to burst – property people will begin to pay closer attention.