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Agent performance and house valuations revealed by new PropTech tool

A PropTech start up says its new free tool allows prospective sellers and buyers to get an automated valuation of their home or a property they are interested in.

SwirbVal, produced by London-based start up Swirb, has collected data on some 30m residential properties in the UK.

Using a proprietary automated valuation algorithm, this database can give an estimated value; it will be available with a free-to-download local area report.

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This includes recent sales, details of similar properties, recent price movements, time of properties on sale, local schools and transport links, and what it calls “estate agent performance”.

In that sections of the sample report shown to Estate Agent Today - and which you can see here - includes the number of properties advertised in the local area by different agents, and the apparent speed of sale of different agents.

The tool can also identify properties with reduced prices.

“For far too long people have been forced to make the most important financial decision of their life, with less information than they would have if buying a washing machine or booking a flight. As of today, that will change, as we make our data and insights available to everyone” claims co-founder Aaron Robinson.

“Of course estate agents and mortgage lenders have a huge amount of information on property in a particular area which is not available to Joe Bloggs looking to buy their first house. With SwirbVal for the first time you have an independent estimated market value for a home, calculated using a proprietary valuation algorithm, so you don’t only have to rely on the agents’ asking price or a bank's valuation.”

  • Nigel Adams

    I hate to break the bad news to the founders of this business but there is a very big difference between reams of undigested information, which is what this report gives, and useful insight of where to pitch a property's price based upon an understanding of what's importatnt in the data and a feel for the market, which is what a good estate agent provides.

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    Hi Nigel,

    Thanks for taking the time to respond. The feedback is welcome.

    We agree that there’s no point just throwing data at people, it needs to mean something, give them insights as you say. This is something we’re always trying to improve and you’ll see the report does already offer insights in some places.

    For valuations, we believe estate agents and a high quality AVM tool have their place. Each has strengths and weaknesses. There are some thing our model will see that agents won’t and vice versa.

    We’re constantly looking to improve the model, the report and the services on offer. I’d be interested in hearing your further thoughts in that regard if you would be interested in having a discussion.

    Aaron Robinson
    Co-founder of Swirb, CTO, interim CEO.

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