• Ludicrous0251@piefed.zip
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      2
      arrow-down
      1
      ·
      14 days ago

      Of course not, that would be a privacy violation. They only share floor plans with square meterage. It’s more private because the scraping tools don’t like unit conversions.

    • MultiplexerOP
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      2
      arrow-down
      2
      ·
      14 days ago

      Do real estate listings not include square footage on them?

      Well, yes (but square meters, naturally), but not the address.
      So scraping would also be pointless.

      Are real estate listings in the US published with the address visible?

      • CorneliusTalmadge@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        16
        ·
        14 days ago

        Well, yes (but square meters, naturally), but not the address.

        Maybe a dumb question, how do you post a house for sale without the address. How would potential buyers know where it was located?

        Also just to add to the conversation, in the US at least all properties are registered with the government for tax purposes. And all that information is public.

        So you don’t even need to scrap real estate listing. You can just get it from the county for free.

        • MultiplexerOP
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          2
          arrow-down
          3
          ·
          14 days ago

          How would potential buyers know where it was located?

          Well, an advert would e.g. be like:
          “Nice, quite home located in Friedrichshain district, contact for details and to schedule a viewing”

          in the US at least all properties are registered with the government for tax purposes.

          Same at least here in Germany.
          important difference is, this real estate tax information is not publicly available.
          And only the tax office of the local government has access, even other branches of the government don’t.

          • CorneliusTalmadge@lemmy.world
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            10
            ·
            14 days ago

            So in the US this information is available for transparency.

            If the government is charging you x dollars a year for your property taxes you can confirm that other similar properties are paying the same/similar rates.

            Also for home buying you can confirm the tax rate on the property with the government before buying.

            I’m guessing your system is either less prone to manipulation from the government or you all are just more trusting.

            Even with this transparency I personally know multiple people who have been able to prove the government was over charging them on their property taxes.

            • MultiplexerOP
              link
              fedilink
              English
              arrow-up
              2
              arrow-down
              1
              ·
              14 days ago

              Here the formula used to calculate the real estate taxes is public instead (I take it from your comment that in the US it isn’t?), so you don’t have to reengineer it looking at other sample values.

              And when buying you just ask the seller, they have to provide such kind of information.

              • astutemural@midwest.social
                link
                fedilink
                English
                arrow-up
                3
                ·
                14 days ago

                The concern isn’t with the formula, more just straight up corruption/bigotry. E.g. a house in a minority neighborhood being charged more. Property tax is levied by local governments in the USA, so they’re more vulnerable to that sort of thing.

                • MultiplexerOP
                  link
                  fedilink
                  English
                  arrow-up
                  1
                  arrow-down
                  3
                  ·
                  14 days ago

                  Ok… Still don’t get how that helps with the erroneous tax charge, though.

                  I mean, if you put your estate data into the formula and get another value than the local government is charging you, you already have your absolute proof.

                  Why would you need more than that?