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Idea

Add quality of life metrics to real estate property listings: number of passersby, air quality, noise pollution

Image credit: Ozirom

Darko Savic

Darko Savic Apr 12, 2022

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Quality of life metrics for real estate listings that help people get a better feel for the property area. Show the average air quality, noise pollution, frequency of passersby, number of sunny days, rainfall, yearly temperatures.
Why?
Some people prefer privacy/seclusion, others like to be in lively areas.
Everyone likes clean air. This might be a good selling point that makes up for the property's distance from urban areas.
Include data that affects the quality of living so that people can make better choices when buying/renting real estate.
How it works
A high-quality camera is placed at the outside front of the property for a week. It records and counts:
The number of different and overall people passing by on an average day (facial recognition)
The number of cars driving by
Average noise pollution levels
An outdoor air quality monitor is mounted on the property for a week. Short spikes of pollution are ignored as annomalies (someone blowing smoke at the sensor to mess with it, fire, etc). 
Additional useful data that can be obtained from other sources:
Local yearly rainfall
temperatures in the past year
monthly utility fees (optionally, if the owner doesn't mind disclosing the info)
All of the above information gets included with every real estate listing.
What wold ensure that the mesurements are trustworthy and not tampered with to make the property look more valuable?
What else could be a useful metric for real estate listings?

real estate quality of life

5

Creative contributions

Construction and view obstruction probabilities

Miloš Stanković

Miloš Stanković Apr 20, 2022

 Photo: Maarten van den Heuvel (Unsplash)
For places with not so regulated or enforced construction laws, it would be vital to check the risk of having construction sites in the vicinity. 
Why?
Imagine waiting to move into the new building for two years and as soon as you move in, the lot next door starts building a massive structure. Drilling and noise and dust for years. 
So having an indication of the probability of construction in the perimeter surrounding the property would be of immense value. 
The way I would go about it is to have a map of the neighbourhood that would be colour coded. 
blue zone - recently built objects (in the last 10 years) - practically no risk of construction
yellow zone - objects built in the last 30 or so years, yet who are well-preserved, highly rated. 
green zone - parks, forests, protected areas that are mostly safe even in corrupt countries
red zone - decaying small houses, basically ticking clocks. In my city I often see great new buildings, even condominiums constructed few meters from tiny one-floor houses dating back to pre World War II. They are going to get turned into new buildings certainly. It's just a matter of time. 
red zone - also, abandoned warehouses. 
But it would also be vital to check further than the surrounding blocks. There is also the question of the skyline, the view. Is there a high potential that something is going to obstruct your view of the cathedral you can now see from the balcony? 
So the service would provide a check for each of the sides of the house or the apartment. Scroll over the balcony that faces west and you'll get a wider scope of the city map. 
For places where they matter, it can also show how the areas are permitted and whether there are already places in construction that will be X stories high. 
The service could also illustrate the topographical level of the terrain. If your property has the high ground and by how much. If the lot below you develops a building of six stories, will you still have the view? 
All of these things can be calculated. 

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Michaela D

Michaela D2 years ago

Green zone can be a metric by itself. For some people, it is important to have nature close to their place.

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How many crossroads to school?

jnikola

jnikola May 03, 2022

For families, it could be useful to know not only how far is the school, but also how many crossroads their children need to pass in order to get there. If the apartment/house is located zero crossroads away from school, the children can freely go to school alone, without their parents worrying about them being hit by a car.

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Miloš Stanković

Miloš Stanković2 years ago

The speed limit on the streets on route to school too. Even better, have the cameras measure the average speed of cars on the path.
I genuinely feel like no metric is too much when we are talking about €100,000+ purchases. 

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Surveying residents

Spook Louw

Spook Louw Apr 13, 2022

Another source of data, which could either be offered as a service to agents who are looking to impress buyers or be gathered by the agents themselves, is simple door to door surveys. Asking residents of the area how they would rate the neighbourhood would give you a very real indication of what it is like. 
Of course, most people do not enjoy taking part in surveys, but you would be able to work around this with some creative incentives. 

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Use public data from cameras, air pollution and noise monitors

Michaela D

Michaela D Apr 13, 2022

The best way to make sure that the data is trustworthy is for the data to be public. Municipalities can share the data they have from cameras and they can install air pollution as well as noise monitors. Cities will benefit overall because they can use this data to show that they offer higher living quality.
In cases where it is too complicated to work with the public, real estate agencies can make their own collaboration networks. Very often real estate agencies have listings that are in close proximity to other agencies, so they can use data from the same cameras and monitors. This way, different agencies can check on the others so that they do not tamper with the data.

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Street dogs' frequency and numbers

Miloš Stanković

Miloš Stanković May 06, 2022

I know this is a non-issue in most fully governed places, yet real estate is quite expensive even in not so overall regulated countries. What's a three-minute walk to the beach villa in Mexico worth if you are afraid of street dogs and they are based on your route? Even if you are not, it's never pleasant to worry about it, especially if you have kids. 
Also, people who have educated themselves for years to be veterinarians can develop fears too after getting bitten or attacked. 
In my neighbourhood, this is an everyday issue for some people even though real estate isn't cheap in it and the price goes around €1,500+ per square metre. 
I'm thinking drone camera footage could measure this. You would have drones circle over a neighbourhood several times a day to collect info, maybe do it two days in a week, and randomize time. Dogs in no close vicinity to people, or laying in front of yard fences would get recorded. 
Update the info every two, three months. 

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Darko Savic

Darko Savic2 years ago

Stray dogs in packs belong in the wilderness. This problem sounds like a failure on the part of the local communities/government. 
It sounds like a worthy challenge. Maybe post it individually? It could be something along the lines of - how do local communities deal with packs of stray dogs when they can't count on the support of the government?

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Add your creative contribution

General comments

Miloš Stanković

Miloš Stanković2 years ago

Also, there are areas in all cities that are popular for motorcycle and quad riders, and those are far noisier than your average car. Categorizing motor vehicles would also contribute to making the right decision. 

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Darko Savic

Darko Savic2 years ago

Miloš Stanković recording the noise would also detect this problem

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Miloš Stanković

Miloš Stanković2 years ago

Facial recognition is a touchy subject and not quite legal in all places. In some instances, It would certainly cause a lot of negative press for the service. I think just counting the number of passersby and categorizing them would be enough. I'm guessing cameras can give a solid estimate of whether someone is a child, man, or woman based on body type. Maybe even for pensioners based on hunchness and speed of walking. 
I for instance would hate to have my place near a school or a kindergarten because of the noise. Or even on the commonly travelled path towards them. Even when I have kids, better for them to have that "walk from and to school experience." than to live across the road from the school.

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Michaela D

Michaela D2 years ago

Another useful metric is crime incidents in an area.

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Goran Radanovic

Goran Radanovic2 years ago

I'd love to know if the house is situated in an area that has potentially hazardous infrastructure such as transmission towers and 5G towers. How many houses in the area thieves have targetted and within what period. That information should be mandatory. Future projects planned for the area.
Each listing should include a link to a government study (PDF) that provides all the crucial information investors need to know about the area.

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