Land Registry Chrome Extension

[Digsby]

Please bring out a Firefox version! I know Chrome have a larger market share but I refuse to use it.

Correct me if I'm wrong but isn't the LR pricing available on the right-hand side for every property on Rightmove already? So it just saves a few clicks?

I can assure you that it is a lot less effort for you to switch to using chrome than it is for me to port the extension to firefox, so in the interest of co-operation, no - at least for now.

The purpose of the extension is not to just show you the previous sold prices, but to estimate the current value of the property based on that information using the LR HPI price calculator. To find that out without the extension takes somewhere between 5 and 30 minutes, some note paper, and a calculator, depending on how many previously sold prices there are.

Incidentally, I released an update yesterday which allows you to change the area used for the price inflation calculations. This is useful if you're looking at a house that is technically under one council or borough, but which is a borderline case and you know the market is closer to another.

It's sometimes fun to just use the up and down cursor keys to scroll through al the areas - when you think you're looking at a vastly overpriced property, there's nothing to reinforce the view and show just how high their kite is being flown than seeing that there is not a single area of the country that has experienced the amount of inflation they are asking you to pay!

[spunko2010]

I employ a freelancer/contractor who has built a few extensions in both Chrome and FF. I know that it's a PITA to convert it, but at least you built it in Chrome first and not the other way round as I hear that's even more difficult. Whether that's true or not I don't know. I'll check it out tonight, thanks.

(BTW do you think the LR will have issues with the name of the extension, if it takes off?)

[Digsby]

I employ a freelancer/contractor who has built a few extensions in both Chrome and FF. I know that it's a PITA to convert it, but at least you built it in Chrome first and not the other way round as I hear that's even more difficult. Whether that's true or not I don't know. I'll check it out tonight, thanks.

(BTW do you think the LR will have issues with the name of the extension, if it takes off?)

I wrote the extension purely for my own use, and then decided to make it available to my HPC comrades as I thought they'd find it useful, so never planned for it to be widely available (it's not publicly visible on the chrome store, you have to stumble across it via this forum, public as it is).

I am starting to change my mind though. Most of the forum members have a good grasp of how ridiculous some asking prices are, myself including, but having used the extension for a few weeks, it's becoming clearer just how many sellers are taking the p*ss.

Taking SW16 as an example (again), 38% of the listings where the last sold price is known have asking prices below the average rate of inflation for the area they are in. That's good, but another 40% have asking prices that are more than 10% above the rate of inflation. 20% have asking prices that are more than 20% above the rate of inflation, and 28% of those listings are currently either SSTC or under offer. And that's in a postcode with a relatively weak market at the moment, some of the other areas I look at have simply appalling numbers of kite flyers.

Take this one for example:

http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-32628129.html

Currently under offer with an asking price of £735,000, last sold in 2004 for £239,995. The extension says it's in Wandsworth which has had a price change of 114% since then, putting the current value at £512,893. Even if it had been in Westminster, it would still only be worth £609,331 now.

I wonder how many of the buyers that have put in offers for that 28% of listings that are priced at more than 20% above the rate of inflation would have done if they had had found the property on RM with the extension installed?

Maybe all of them, maybe none. Maybe prices have risen at a much faster rate in those particular locations within Lambeth than have in Lambeth as a whole. Maybe they've all been renovated to a very high standard that justifies the extra price. Maybe they don't care how much they pay because they believe that they are setting the market price and can only make a profit - but nobody can deny that if you buy a property that is 20% overvalued for the area, you're gambling on whether, when you come to sell it, there will be somebody out there who will be willing to buy it at 20% overvalued.

But they probably all would have thought twice, and maybe a couple of them would have thought better of it - and it's this possibility which is making me think that the best strategy is to try to get this extension installed in as many browsers as possible (including FF). It can only do good, right?

So I think if I do go public with it, then yes the Land Registry will have a problem with my using their branding, and so I've been thinking about alternative branding. I think I have a logo, but I'm stuck thinking up a name at the moment.

Edited April 2, 2015 by Digsby

[LiveinHope]

I wrote the extension purely for my own use, and then decided to make it available to my HPC comrades as I thought they'd find it useful, so never planned for it to be widely available (it's not publicly visible on the chrome store, you have to stumble across it via this forum, public as it is).

I am starting to change my mind though. Most of the forum members have a good grasp of how ridiculous some asking prices are, myself including, but having used the extension for a few weeks, it's becoming clearer just how many sellers are taking the p*ss.

It is a superb extension. And I agree that it could educate and swing opinions.

[bear.getting.old]

Thanks for this extension. I used to manually go onto the land registry calculator to check this. Saves a lot of time. The calculator gives a general idea but is not infallible though. It does show how asking prices are detached from the reality of sold prices around the house though. Deluded sellers

[bear.getting.old]

Interesting. Found one where the extension says the house should be worth 31% less than they paid 7 years ago but they have it on for 110% more than this figure. This up north

[Digsby]

Have you checked the match is correct? There's a link at the very bottom of the popup that takes you to the matched page for verification.

[Guest_growlers_*]

This is so useful. Thank you! Haven't seen may APs below 'fair' value.

I'd make this publicly available. People need to see how they are being ripped off.

[Digsby]

The extension has had a subtle, but important upgrade. Providing you have previously visited a property while it is on the market, the extension now still works when you visit the page even if it is off the market.

This means if you have saved or bookmarked a property to watch, and it sells, you can go back to it in a couple of months time and the extension will tell you how much it sold for.

Remember, you have to have visited the page while it is still on the market and the extension is installed, so if you want to use this feature, I recommend you revisit any properties you are watching to make sure the association to the sold prices is stored.

Thanks for all the words of support from various members, I will be publicly releasing and promoting it.

Can I just reiterate the request that you rate and review it at the link below? It is the single most important thing when Joe Public finds the extension to turn a lead into an install.

Thanks

[Guest_growlers_*]

If you got serious numbers using this, could you suck up the data centrally and generate a decent real time pricing index?

[Digsby]

Yes, I could growlers, and have considered this, but as it stands, the extension only re-presents the information published on the site to the user of the site, embellished with further information, and as such there can be no question of any violation of IP rights or terms of use of the website.

If that information were collected by a central server, and especially if it were published, then there would be a much stronger case.

Worst case scenario would be that I have a legal case to answer for, which I'm obviously not keen on, but best case scenario would be that they take action to render the extension useless (they could easily, not without sacrificing functionality on the site, but only very little), and since I'd feel lost without it in my own house hunting, I don't want to throw the baby out with the bathwater.

So on balance, I think it is best as it is, without any data sharing or potentially stealing.

[Digsby]

Thank you to the user who rated the extension recently! :-)

Now, if the other 137 users could just do the same...

[Digsby]

I've released a major update to the extension today:

1. A complete overhaul of the look and feel to remove the LR branding and replace it with it's own visual identity, generally polish up the interface in preparation for a general public release, and make room for:

2. A new feature (available in the 'Trends' tab) that allows you to interactively explore the LR HPI data for the area you are looking at through charts. You can view the index itself, the monthly % change, the annual % change, and the sales volumes, at either 1 year, 2 years, 5 years or 10 years levels of detail.

As with some previous updates, extra permissions are needed by this version so it may get disabled after the update - just re-enable it via the chrome main menu as before.

Any feedback would be most appreciated, as would be ratings as usual - thank you to the 2 further users for the ratings!

[esvdx]

Thank you to the user who rated the extension recently! :-)

Now, if the other 137 users could just do the same...

I think it was me. Love the extension. It has saved me so much time doing the searching myself. Thanks again!

[simonsaid]

Fascinating extension, many thanks.

Going to view somewhere tommorrow and was thinking about sticking in an offer 20% below their asking price(fag packet calculations and how much I though I could push it) Was feeling a bit un easy about the offer going on past experience and the pumping of the market the past 2 years.

Your extension says the vendor over paid in 2006 by 15% and their asking price is 20% above today's value.LOL.

I already knew their asking price was cheeky. I don't think I could offer more than 20% below without laughing.

[mrtickle]

I think it was me. Love the extension. It has saved me so much time doing the searching myself. Thanks again!

It was me as well

[Digsby]

Fascinating extension, many thanks.

Going to view somewhere tommorrow and was thinking about sticking in an offer 20% below their asking price(fag packet calculations and how much I though I could push it) Was feeling a bit un easy about the offer going on past experience and the pumping of the market the past 2 years.

Your extension says the vendor over paid in 2006 by 15% and their asking price is 20% above today's value.LOL.

I already knew their asking price was cheeky. I don't think I could offer more than 20% below without laughing.

You're welcome - you know what to do, rate it!

I'm interested to know - how did it go with your offer?

[Digsby]

Can't seem to get this to work. I've downloaded the app, and see a small £ sign in the address bar, but no pop up window.

Only around 1 in 5 listings can be matched to a sales entry, so if the icon is not blue, the info is not available for that property.

[Digsby]

A new release today, 1.1.2. This is quite a big one and I recommend you read through the changes below.

1. The pop-up icon is now invisible until the extension has determined whether any sold prices are available or not, and if so, appears blue, otherwise appears grey. It used to appear grey immediately and then either turn to blue or remain grey, but I found myself waiting for an unknown amount of time to see if it went blue - with this change, you know if data is available as soon as the icon appears.

2. A big performance boost when you open the pop-up, you'll spend a lot less time waiting for it to be populated after this change. It's also massively lighter on network traffic, so it uses less bandwidth and puts less demand on the Land Registry's servers.

3. As well as the asking price being either red for up or green for down, it will now also turn amber if it is up less than 10%, like traffic lights.

4. There is now an options page, which you can get to by right clicking the icon and selecting 'Options' from the menu. The only current option defines the behaviour where there is more than one sold price. Previous versions always averaged the LR valuations for the estimated value, but if the property had been improved at some point, justifying a price increase, this would throw the estimated value off. You can now choose to have estimated based on the latest valuation only, which is better in those circumstances. You can also choose to show both types of estimates, which is the best of both worlds and often gives a good perspective.

5. There is a new tab, called 'Info', which contains further information about the property. At the moment it contains some geographical information such as ward, parish, parliamentary constituency etc, plus the council tax band for the property. It will also show whether the property has an 'improvement indicator', which is a mark on the council tax record indicating that some planning permission has been granted for the property for improvement, which is obviously an important factor in valuation and useful to know. If a property has an improvement indicator, that is also highlighted on the appraisal tab.

6. When you change the chart type or time period in the trends tab, this is remembered as a preference, so if you like looking at a particular chart, you don't have to keep changing to that chart type every time you open the window. I have also added an 'All Time' option which shows all data from 1995 onwards.

[mrtickle]

Really nice! Thanks for all of your hard work!

[Digsby]

The extension is now released publicly.

I have knocked up a website for it as well, needs a bit of tidying up but I'm happy with the content generally - any suggestion would be welcome as usual though:

http://getappraised.net/

[Digsby]

As of the last major version, the extension now informs you guys of any noteworthy features automatically the first time you use it after updating, so there's no need for me to keep posting details of updates on this thread and it can die a death.

But I'm very excited about a new feature in the latest version, released just now, and it adds something completely different that some non-users might be interested in even if they aren't interested in the other functions.

The extension can now monitor property listings for you, and notify you when either the status or the price changes. You can put any number of listings* "on watch", and the extension will try to check each once a day. If the price or status changes, you will be notified via your system tray.

I'm excited because it's going to save me time going through all my saved properties every now and again to see if they've changed. I hope you find it useful too!

* There are limits though - it will only check one property every 10 minutes at the most, and it can only do so while Chrome is open, so if you're watching 100 properties, and you only use Chrome for 10 minutes a day, some might not get checked very often!

[Digsby]

great plugin, thanks

how far back through the Land registry results does the plugin check?

I am using OSX yosemite, and chrome Version 41.0.2272.89 (64-bit)

a couple of properties I have LR data for , I get No last sold price match was found for this property.

For example the crazy woman who lives here has put her house price up every couple of months for the last year and a half:

http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-45217210.html

The house has been on the market on / off for the past 2 years , neighbours identical house sold under 250K back in 2013,

her house keeps going up 20/30 K every few months!

It is now @ 357K

This property is on the land registry,

28/04/1995 £53,000

19 Whitehill Road, Cambridge, CB5 8LU

Thanks

tyres,

You might be interested to know that I've been working on a major re-write of the extension that goes a long way to resolving issues where RM haven't done a good job of matching a listing to a sold price, and a lot more too.

In the current latest version, when you view a listing like the one you mention, you get a popup like this:

I've found it really frustrating when I *know* the address of the property, but I have no way of telling the extension, so it remains virtually useless in these cases.

As of the new version, the popup looks like this:

Note the address is now a dropdown, and contains all potential address matches. Now, if you know the address, and sold prices are available for that address, then you can choose it from the list and get all the usual benefits from the extension.

However - unfortunately in your example above, the sold date was 1995 and Rightmove don't import data going that far back :-(

But, since there looks to be a few similar houses in the street, we *can* choose one of those addresses and compare the asking price of number 19 against the previous sales of those houses.

19a sold in 2013:

21a sold in 2005:

The extension is putting the value of both of these in the £250-260k range, so it gives number 19's asking price of £360k a bit of context, which it couldn't do before the rewrite.

You can do this comparison to the sales prices of other properties on the street whether or not the address of this property is known or not.

The new version isn't released yet, it's nearly there, should be out within a few days with luck - just giving you a heads up as it's a major improvement and I've already found it useful just during testing.

Hope you like the new version!

[Digsby]

Just released the new version with the above improvement, and a number of other new features. The extension will upgrade automatically next time you launch chrome.

[mrtickle]

Many thanks for the continued development!