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Anjum48 t1_j40cts5 wrote

  1. do you have a dataset? 2) how accurate do each of these outputs need to be for the task they are going to be used for? (See Zillow)
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CuriousCesarr OP t1_j40f0i1 wrote

1). Not really. Data would have to be processed, but probably it can be introduced via a well structured form:

  • Nr. of rooms/ bathrooms/ etc.
  • Living space (square meters)
  • pictures (probably another ML to gauge how furnished and well maintained/ dilapidated the whole place is)
  • etc.

2). A great question! Zillow seems like a great example. As accurate as possible I guess. But a good starting point would be a price range.

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Anjum48 t1_j40gm5q wrote

Ah ok. On the first point I guess whoever you are looking for will need to spend a considerable amount of time building/finding a dataset to train a model.

On the second point, I might have incorrectly assumed you were familiar with the Zillow controversy around price prediction.

The TL;DR is that the ML team used a model to forecast prices using a tool made by Facebook called Prophet. The model was probably accurate enough for displaying a rough prediction on a website. Another team in Zillow started using these price predictions to flip houses and lost a whole bunch of money since the model was not designed to do this.

A lot of armchair data scientists quickly pointed the finger at Prophet for being a "bad" model. The reality is all models are bad if they are used for the wrong reason. In this case, the team flipping houses likely didn't listen to the data science team when they said the model shouldn't be used for that purpose.

This is why it's a good idea to know how the model outputs are going to be used. The obvious answer is always "as accurate as possible" but sometimes that might not be accurate enough...

Hope this helps!

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CuriousCesarr OP t1_j40hegs wrote

No, I'm European so I have no idea about the Zillow debacle sadly.

The outputs would probably be used as a price evaluator for the living space (my friend works as a registrar of new/ bought homes). Honestly I think the Zillow usecase might be desired ultimately.

Would you be interested? :)

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