The underquote has been a problem for any real estate professional since time immemorial, but two influential men from Melbourne have developed a mobile app that they claim will solve all problems associated with underquote.
“Vendors are going to have a bowel movement this weekend,” boldly said by Melbourne buyer’s agent David Morrell of his pet project mobile app called realAs. The app, based on an algorithm developed by RMIT University, promises to predict the selling price of any residential property in Australia with a high degree of accuracy.
“It’s very clever and it’s going to be very disruptive. It will put underquoting to bed,” said Morrell.
The algorithm has a high rate of accuracy according to Morrell and Newbold. Predictions were within 5 percent of the selling price two thirds of the time and within 10 percent of the selling price 9 out of 10 times. The best part is that the app is FREE for download.
For Mr. Newbold, the app he hopes will provide more transparency within the real estate market, borne out of a good idea and for execution within the market to start something positive and strong within an industry.
“We’ve done a lot of testing and we’re very confident that it will provide accurate real time predictions.” Mr Newbold said. “I’ve dabbled in property and property investment and one of the most frustrating things is a lack of transparency and a lack of information.”
“There’s blatant underquoting and everyone is sick and tired of it,” said Melbourne estate agent Greg Hocking. “David has been a lightning rod exposing this culture among some agencies and how they operate.”
For users, using realAs is simple: register and input the address of the property. Users can also comment on listings and ask agents about the prices.
According to RealAs chief executive Josh Rowe, the app would get more accurate due to weighted participation where more buyers registered and have used it. Aside from crunching historical buying data and keeping track of present market index, the app will also use crowd-sourced data. “Punters will be able to input their own estimates. The algorithm will weight them in determining a price, depending on how accurate the user has been in the pat.”
Mr Rowe also added that by comparing the accuracy of past quotes with realAs predictions and current index selling prices, buyers would also be able to form an intelligent view about the market knowledge of a particular agent and whether they underquote.
National Brokers Network Business Brokers Victoria advocates transparency and integrity of practice for real estate, especially with the practices of property broker within Victoria. We encourage the use of apps and index intelligence as a positive collaboration between buyers / sellers and brokers to determine just and fair pricing of real estate properties.
