Hi all — I’d really value some honest feedback before I keep ploughing time into this.
I built a small property-search site called BelowMarket because I kept getting annoyed by listings described as “modernised throughout” or “ready to move into”, only to view them and find an 80s kitchen, damp in the bathroom, or a roof that clearly needed attention.
It felt like I was wasting weekends looking at properties that weren’t what the description suggested — and still somehow missing the actual hidden gems.
So over the past few months I’ve been building this:
It’s free at the moment while I figure out whether it’s actually useful to people.
The main things it does differently from Rightmove / Zoopla:
1. AI photo grading
Every new listing gets its photos checked by AI for visible condition: refurb level, kitchen state, bathroom state, damp/cracks/render damage, garden condition, etc.
So if a listing says “modernised throughout” but the photos show a very dated kitchen, it should flag that and adjust the deal score.
Honest caveat: I’ve only just shipped this bit, so it’s currently grading new listings as they come in. The full back catalogue will take a couple of weeks to catch up.
2. Plain-English search
You can type things like:
“bargains under £200k in Kendal”
“fixer-uppers with modern kitchens”
“distressed properties in LA9”
“auction properties with no chain”
…and it filters the listings live. There are normal filters too, but I wanted something that didn’t feel like fighting six dropdowns and a price slider.
3. It reads the listing descriptions
The site tries to pull out hidden value signals from the description — things like probate, no chain, motivated seller, refurb potential, planning consent, short lease, “must sell quickly”, etc.
Basically the stuff you’d notice yourself if you had time to read hundreds of listings properly.
4. More honest deal scoring
If something looks 30% below nearby comparables but the photos suggest it needs £30k of work, the score softens. A cheap house that needs gutting isn’t really as cheap as it first looks.
A few honest notes:
It currently pulls from a bunch of UK property sources, including the big portals and auction sites. Refreshes are every few hours because scraping costs money. There are about 16k active listings in there at the moment.
There is also a “Pro” bit with off-market-style leads — probate notices, fresh EPCs, Bona Vacantia / Treasury Solicitor stuff — but that’s more for sourcers and patient people who like chasing weird leads. For normal buyers, the bit I’m most interested in feedback on is the AI photo grading and search.
What I’d genuinely love feedback on:
Is the photo grading actually useful, or does it feel gimmicky?
Is plain-English search better than normal filters, or is it just trendy?
What’s missing that would make you use it regularly?
Would you ever pay for something like this? If so, what would feel fair?
Is anything confusing, broken, annoying, or pointless?
No signup needed to browse:
https://belowmarket.uk/area/manchester
You can also replace “manchester” with another UK town in the URL. The dashboard needs a free account because it’s personalised, but most of the basic browsing is open.
Brutal honesty very welcome. I’ll read every comment.