The tech behind our Live Listing Monitor

At GetAgent, our technical team is always hard at work. We’re constantly developing new resources to help people achieve their dream sale. Over 300,000 homesellers have found our Estate Agent Comparison software useful, but this isn't all we have to offer. You can also use [our tool to compare estate agent fees vs performance (https://www.getagent.co.uk/vendor).

One of the most innovative tools we’ve created is the Live Listing Monitor. Like our comparison software, it’s free - but that’s not their only similarity. The Agent Comparison tool prioritises factual data over rough estimates, and the Live Listing Monitor is no different.

How does the Live Listing Monitor work, and more importantly, how can it help you? Let’s take a look in closer detail and examine some of its key features.

Why we made the Live Listing Monitor

For most of us, our homes are the largest sales we’ll make. Unfortunately, time and money often work against us, leading to a loss of control over our sale. This often happens after your online advert (or listing) goes live on property portals. If you live at your property, you can probably count the number of viewings you’ve had. However, questions about your listing's performance can go unanswered. It’s impossible to know how it compares to other listings or if you’re on the right track to selling.

That’s where our Live Listing Monitor comes in. Using data from your property portal (such as Rightmove or Zoopla) and the Land Registry, the tool analyses your listing's performance. All the latest facts and figures are visible in an easy-to-read format.

How does the Live Listing Monitor work?

The Live Listing Monitor is a complex piece of software. Several script programmes run throughout the day, collecting data from major property portals. These include the UK’s biggest property portals, Rightmove, Zoopla and OnTheMarket.

When you enter your listing URL (the web address of your online advert), we run this information against the data we’ve collected. A key piece of information we use is the property’s Unique Delivery Point Reference Number, or UDPRN. This is a unique ID number assigned to every door number in the UK, introduced by Royal Mail in 2004. We analyse this information using our algorithm to provide you with accurate, easy-to-digest statistics on your advert's performance.

What does the data mean?

When you run the Live Listing Monitor for the first time, a range of data and statistics will load on your page. The top three boxes are basic indicators of your property’s general performance.

• Expected sell by date: By analysing the local market, we provide users with an expected sale date. You can see whether you're 'on track’ to meet this date, as well as the average conveyancing time for your local area.
• Live on market: Here, you can see how long your property has been on the market (number of months, weeks, days). We show the date your listing first went live, as well as the average selling time in your local area.
• Property price: Like your online listing, we show the current asking price of your property. Attached to this is a sticker that says if your price is higher or lower than the average price of similar homes in the area. If you hover over this stat, you can reveal further data, including the average price of these properties. You can see how much lower or higher your property is than this average.

The next section ‘How’s your online advert doing?’ is based on your online listing’s performance in comparison to other properties in your area. We present this information in four key areas:

• Overall performance: We check the performance of your online listing using data collected from the portal. If your listing is performing as well as other homes in the area, you may get a statement like ‘About average’. If you’re underperforming, it might say ‘Could be better’.
• Total views: The number of views your online listing has had.
• Avg views per day: The average number of views your listing achieves a day.
• No. of days online: How long your property has been online on the property portal.

If there are similar listings to compare against, this section will be accompanied by a graph chart. The number of views your listing and its competitors have obtained is set against the number of days it’s been online. This is a visual indication of your listing’s performance in comparison to other listings.

Finally, we offer a glimpse of the four best agents operating in your local area.

If your agent is among them, your sale is probably in good hands. We measure the performance of these agents by:

• Average sale time
• Properties listed
• Percentage (%) of asking price achieved

If the agent excels in an area, we award them with an achievement. There are three achievements available:

• Fastest
• Most experienced
• Best valuer

Our achievement system shows you which agent is performing to a high standard. The more accolades an agent receives, the more exceptional they are.

A look to the future

Our software is always evolving to meet the needs and necessities of homesellers. We asked our Senior Developer, Pradeep Chandrasekaran, what the plans were for future updates:

“Effectiveness and efficiency are our two long-term goals with the Live Listing Monitor. There have been occasions where we’ve had to manually match listings where the system hasn't been able to. We really want to cut that need so homesellers can have the best user experience possible. Essentially, our improvements boil down to making the Monitor as fast and accurate as possible."

The Live Listing Monitor gives homesellers a real opportunity to change the course of their property’s sale. If your property's performance is below average, it might be time to reconsider your estate agent.