Article on large V small price reductions

[Murt10]

US article recommending making one big drop in the asking price rather than lots of small ones.

Here in Ireland, I always thought it strange when the various vested interests tried to stop sites, like the property pin etc., from showing the actual and % fall in asking prices. Personally, I always looked at the houses with the biggest % fall in the asking price first. If the buyer has just reduced his asking price by a large %, surely he has done this to get his property noticed, and to try and move on the sale. He should be happy to be have the EA shouting his reduction from the rooftops, not trying to hide it.

I suppose however, this is not in the vested interests interest. These are not concerned with this one purchaser, they are concerned with the wider market. It seems to me, they are forgetting that the individual who is paying them, and employing them to sell his property. This person is not worried about the wider market. All he is concerned about is his home that is for sale, and he wants to have as many potential buyers look at it as soon as possible.

 

[ClubMan]

Here in Ireland, I always thought it strange when the various vested interests tried to stop sites, like the property pin etc., from showing the actual and % fall in asking prices.

Who exactly tried to do this and when?

 

[rmelly]

Who exactly tried to do this and when?

I seem to recall something along the lines of myhome.ie changing their data formats regularly to break the mechanism being used by these sites and/or to make comparisons more difficult, and also hearing/reading they sent solicitors letters asking them to cease and desist from pulling the data from their site.

http://irishpropertywatch.wordpress.com/2007/10/08/recent-developments-at-myhomeie/

http://www.thepropertypin.com/viewtopic.php?t=3739#29764

 

[ClubMan]

Preventing unauthorised web scraping and protection copyright (?) content is a bit different to the scenario and motivation painted by the original poster.

 

[rmelly]

Preventing unauthorised web scraping and protection copyright (?) content is a bit different to the scenario and motivation painted by the original poster.

I guess that's open to interpretation - i.e. it depends on whether you accept the reason for myhome blocking relates to copyright or if it was for 'other reasons'.

 

[Murt10]

Preventing unauthorised web scraping and protection copyright (?) content is a bit different to the scenario and motivation painted by the original poster.

It had absolutely nothing to do with copyright. The link referred the viewer back to the EA's site. Also, I thought that the whole idea of advertising something was that it would be brought to the attention of, and seen by, as many interested parties as possible.

God knows they are making you pay enough to advertise your property.

 

[ClubMan]

It had absolutely nothing to do with copyright

Can you substantiate that claim by any chance?

 

[Murt10]

Can you substantiate that claim by any chance?

What makes you think that it has anything to do with copyright, just because the VI's said that it was. What would you expect them to say. We are trying to hoodwink the general public into believing that house prices are falling a lot faster than we care to admit.

The sites in question were not copying large parts/chunks of the advertisements, just the old asking price and the new one, and supplying a link to these on the EA's website.

On that basis, once RTE reported a story, every other newsgatherer would be prohibited on reporting on the same story because RTE would claim it had copyright.

The point that I made in my original post is that the vested interests did not want us to see how bad the downturn in the market was and how fast prices are falling.

Also. I was driving by a house yesterday which had a sign on the EA board saying that the price had been reduced by the seller. It's the first time I've seen this in Ireland but apparently it is quite normal in other countries.

 

[ClubMan]

What makes you think that it has anything to do with copyright, just because the VI's said that it was.

I'm just asking you to substantiate your claim. If you can't then just say so and we can all draw our own conclusions about how seriously we should take your comments/rants.

 

[Seagull]

Depending on how it's done. screen scraping can have a negative effect on response time of the website being scraped. If your website starts taking a serious hit in load rate and response time, users start getting annoyed.

 

[Pique318]

True, if it's being done numerous times a minute. However, performance of websites can easily cope with the slight, almost irrelevant load placed upon it by actions like screen scraping unless it's the subject of a malicious attack.

 

[Sylvester3]

Where I lived in England a certain estate agent used to hold regular 'sales' where all the housing in their stock was reduced. It was obvious that they were inflating the prices of the properties they were offering for a month or two beforehand and then (obviously with the sellers permission) reducing the prices dramatically to win the sale. I didn't go near them, myself.