Show HN: Shitty Listings algorithmically finds undervalued property • Hacker News Board

Re: Show HN: Shitty Listings algorithmically finds undervalued property

#21

Post by andybak » Sun, Mar 08, 2015, 8:13 PM UTC

tomjen3 wrote: post #18

ars wrote: post #3

This site is completely blank with noscript on.

And? It is a webapp, those require javascript. The fact that you do not like it is not really relevant. Ludits cannot be allowed to stop progress.

It used to be that "doesn't work with javascript" also implied "breaks the back button, sucks for SEO, isn't accessible and I can't email urls to people"

It was a convenient short-hand for many things but it's not very reliable in that regard any more.

This site seems fairly solid at first glance so personally speaking I'm not the slightest bit bothered that it doesn't work with javascript disabled.

Re: Show HN: Shitty Listings algorithmically finds undervalued property

#22

Post by [deleted] » Sun, Mar 08, 2015, 8:15 PM UTC

themartorana wrote: post #6

ars wrote: post #3

This site is completely blank with noscript on.

I always wonder if the developer should care? The only front-ends I write these days are admin backends for my own company, so I very specifically don't care. That said, is there any data on browser share with JS turned off? Because I'm sure I'm being obtuse, and I know I can be accused of being a dick, but I doubt I would care very much. My company makes mobile games. We don't support below Android 4, we don't suppo…

[deleted]

Re: Show HN: Shitty Listings algorithmically finds undervalued property

#23

Post by joshuaheard » Sun, Mar 08, 2015, 8:18 PM UTC

rgbrgb wrote: post #2

Here's the fun regex we use to find some initial candidates in our analysis: val = str.match(/probate|trust.sale|short.sale|auction|cash.offers|all.cash|(sold|sale|sell|offered|purchase|comes)[^.]+as.is|as.is[^.]+(condition|sale|contract|clause)|tear.down|damage|rehab|tlc|flip|fixer|needs[^.]+work|bring[^.]+(contractor|architect|builder|decorat|designer|developer|ideas|paint|brush|investor|hammer|handy|imagination|vi…

Is there a numerical analysis or just looking at the listing agent description? What I look for as a real estate investor is price disparity: a house with a much lower price than others around it. They say you make money when you buy a house, so buying a low-priced house and bringing up to the standards of the neighborhood has been my formula.

Re: Show HN: Shitty Listings algorithmically finds undervalued property

#24

Post by rgbrgb » Sun, Mar 08, 2015, 8:23 PM UTC

joshuaheard wrote: post #23

rgbrgb wrote: post #2

Here's the fun regex we use to find some initial candidates in our analysis: val = str.match(/probate|trust.sale|short.sale|auction|cash.offers|all.cash|(sold|sale|sell|offered|purchase|comes)[^.]+as.is|as.is[^.]+(condition|sale|contract|clause)|tear.down|damage|rehab|tlc|flip|fixer|needs[^.]+work|bring[^.]+(contractor|architect|builder|decorat|designer|developer|ideas|paint|brush|investor|hammer|handy|imagination|vi…

Is there a numerical analysis or just looking at the listing agent description? What I look for as a real estate investor is price disparity: a house with a much lower price than others around it. They say you make money when you buy a house, so buying a low-priced house and bringing up to the standards of the neighborhood has been my formula.

The regex above is one signal we're using. We also look at relative price per sqft and a number of other factors. We could do a little blogpost that goes in-depth on our algorithm if there's interest. We've also tried some fun stuff like running TFIDF on the descriptions [1].

[1]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tf%E2%80%93idf

Re: Show HN: Shitty Listings algorithmically finds undervalued property

#25

Post by aw3c2 » Sun, Mar 08, 2015, 8:24 PM UTC

tomjen3 wrote: post #19

ars wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't disable javascript, only some externally loaded scripts. Anything loaded from the same host is allowed. I expect some sites not to work fully, but completely blank is unexpected.

Hosting external javascript allows sites to load faster and it is easier for the developers so that strategy isn't going to last much longer.

Considering that hosting javascript (and fonts and files) externally leaks information about your visitors to third partys hopefully some developers will care about their users' privacy and not do that.

Re: Show HN: Shitty Listings algorithmically finds undervalued property

#26

Post by [deleted] » Sun, Mar 08, 2015, 8:27 PM UTC

themartorana wrote: post #6

ars wrote: post #3

This site is completely blank with noscript on.

I always wonder if the developer should care? The only front-ends I write these days are admin backends for my own company, so I very specifically don't care. That said, is there any data on browser share with JS turned off? Because I'm sure I'm being obtuse, and I know I can be accused of being a dick, but I doubt I would care very much. My company makes mobile games. We don't support below Android 4, we don't suppo…

[deleted]

Re: Show HN: Shitty Listings algorithmically finds undervalued property

#27

Post by patmcguire » Sun, Mar 08, 2015, 8:45 PM UTC

themartorana wrote: post #6

ars wrote: post #3

This site is completely blank with noscript on.

I always wonder if the developer should care? The only front-ends I write these days are admin backends for my own company, so I very specifically don't care. That said, is there any data on browser share with JS turned off? Because I'm sure I'm being obtuse, and I know I can be accused of being a dick, but I doubt I would care very much. My company makes mobile games. We don't support below Android 4, we don't suppo…

Accessibility. Screen readers allegedly support JS - I don't use one - but I think we can agree it's a harder problem to solve than HMTL.

Not to get too much on my high horse, since you're clearly in an area where there's no way you could ever support vision impairment, the problem with ignoring vanishingly small portions of an audience is that the same people tend to be in that portion all the time and never get anything. For apps that aren't expecting interactions more than every ten seconds, it's so easy to just give them flat HTML.

Re: Show HN: Shitty Listings algorithmically finds undervalued property

#28

Post by tomjen3 » Sun, Mar 08, 2015, 8:49 PM UTC

aw3c2 wrote: post #25

tomjen3 wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hosting external javascript allows sites to load faster and it is easier for the developers so that strategy isn't going to last much longer.

Considering that hosting javascript (and fonts and files) externally leaks information about your visitors to third partys hopefully some developers will care about their users' privacy and not do that.

Privacy is long dead. I am sure some people will care, but not enough to matter.

Re: Show HN: Shitty Listings algorithmically finds undervalued property

#29

Post by ars » Sun, Mar 08, 2015, 8:54 PM UTC

rgbrgb wrote: post #20

ars wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't disable javascript, only some externally loaded scripts. Anything loaded from the same host is allowed. I expect some sites not to work fully, but completely blank is unexpected.

Ah, sorry about that. I agree there should at least be an error message. We originally built this as a page on openlistings.co (/fixers), but then found this awesome domain. The assets are all the same from openlistings.co, we're just checking the current domain in our Backbone.js router. Kind of hacky, but it was the quickest way to get it up! Also, if you click any of the detail pages you need the rest of the asset…

> you need the rest of the assets anyway

Like I said, I expect some things not to work. But the page should not be completely blank.

The plain text on the home page does not need javascript for anything.

Re: Show HN: Shitty Listings algorithmically finds undervalued property

#30

Post by CJefferson » Sun, Mar 08, 2015, 9:08 PM UTC

patmcguire wrote: post #27

themartorana wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I always wonder if the developer should care? The only front-ends I write these days are admin backends for my own company, so I very specifically don't care. That said, is there any data on browser share with JS turned off? Because I'm sure I'm being obtuse, and I know I can be accused of being a dick, but I doubt I would care very much. My company makes mobile games. We don't support below Android 4, we don't suppo…

Accessibility. Screen readers allegedly support JS - I don't use one - but I think we can agree it's a harder problem to solve than HMTL. Not to get too much on my high horse, since you're clearly in an area where there's no way you could ever support vision impairment, the problem with ignoring vanishingly small portions of an audience is that the same people tend to be in that portion all the time and never get any…

Nowadays screen readers are fine with the full-blown web, JS and all. The bigger practical issue is simpler things, like not putting alt tags on pictures, or abusing pictures (I saw a stupid website which put alt tags on spacer gifs).