Data Quality
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My wife and I were out looking at new houses this past weekend and I was amazed at the data issues that we found in various listings. Actually they weren't new houses; I'm not quite in the bracket where I can afford a new house with some land, especially not the 30+ acre plots we were looking at.
What we found as we went from place to place was an amazingly inconsistent amount and quality of data in the listings. Before all the IT guys that work in real estate come after me, I'm not blaming the applications, the developers, etc. This is really a data quality issue.
As we've researched places and looked at the information online, we've often encountered conflicting information between what we'll actually see in the listings and what the property looks like. Or more often, we don't see the same information in each listings. We tend to look for acreage, and it's amazing how many listings leave off the acreage. Or leave off the garage spaces. It's usual in Colorado to have 3 spaces and it seems that unless the house has more, the count is often left off.
My Mom is in real estate and so I've been around agents my whole life, so I've seen the issues first hand. Each agent writes up their own listing, usually using forms that are preprinted, but most seem to still work on paper, which means transcribing the data into the computer. Which means the chance for lots of mistakes since the human factor is involved. I don't think it's laziness or lack of effort, it's more that we all just make mistakes. And the more of us involved, the more chances it will occur. Just think of how many times you mistype something in email.
I think this business could get a lot better, especially with more standardization and more IT tools in use, especially PDA-type applications or Java powered phone apps that could take listings in real time where the owner could double check things and ensure all the data is accurate.
This isn't limited to real estate, as many industries and processes suffer from data quality problems. There isn't much that DBAs and other data professionals can do about the quality of the data we get; we can only ensure that the quality and integrity remains the same.
But we sure get the blame when it's not accurate.
Steve Jones
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It seems to me standardisation is the key. I hate to turn real-world discussions into something techie but this is a techie site so...
This is a real benefit that XML has delivered - an emphasis on standardisation. For example, would we have blogging without the onset of XML and the opportunity that it has provided for a standard format for RSS. There has been alot of discussion about the use of XML as a data interchange format and I for one am not an advocate at all but as a means toward standardisation then it has been really useful.
Sorry for the digression on only the second post of this thread...
Regarding Steve's post...standardisation is a real business enabler though we all know the problems with standards - there's just so god damned many of them!!
-Jamie
Jamie Thomson
http://sqlblog.com/blogs/jamie_thomson -
You can emphasise standards as much as you like with regard to XML but this is a data entry issue.
If you have required fields on a form within an application then if the user doesn't want to fill them in they will find a way not to do it.
Users ALWAYS find the holes in an application
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I just left three years of work in the real estate industry. Most of the last year involved working with a local MLS service, taking their paper documents, converting them to on-line PDF forms where the form data was stored in a database, sharing common data among forms for a given listing, and linking the form data back to the MLS database.
I understand completely what you are talking about regarding data consistency and integrity.
Unfortunately, it still comes down to the people filling in the forms, whether on paper or through a system. There is a lot of "valid", garbage data that can still be entered.
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There's also the issue of disclosure. Sometimes agents try to "deemphasize" some point that might take away potential buyers. They're hoping that once someone sees the house they may overlook some point that would have stopped them from coming.
I'm not sure there's a good way to fix this other than have a neutral party like an appraisal service come and writeup the information about houses.
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Here's another insight....I did a paper for one of my college courses where I had to interview someone from another career that I might be interested in. I interviewed a couple of real estate agents.
Why are the listings so different and usually 1) not accurate or 2) missing information?
Answer....an agent will leave off information that might keep a prosective buyer from looking. For example....you are listing a home that has 2 acres. But the majority of homes in that area have 4 acres. The agent might leave off the acreage (don't want to lie about it). A prospective buyer might look at it and end up buying it even though the acreage isn't the same as other lots. The home might have more going for it than other homes with more land. (A swimming pool where others don't have one...3 car garage where others have a 1 car garage, etc.)
-SQLBill
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In the UK estate agents have their own dialect of English.
Agent: A property with a sea view.
English: Its on a crumbling cliff top that recedes at 6ft per year.
Agent: An area with enormous character.
English: His name is Wayne and he is a Hell's Angel with a passion for real ale.
Agent: Needs some attention
English: It needs demolishing and rebuilding from scratch.
Agent: Friendly neighbourhood.
English: Nosey neighbours.
Agent: Lively and vibrant area
English: If you are a hyperactive deaf insomniac this is the place for you.
Agent: Traditional
English: Has dry rot and rising damp
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