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rightmove_search: default sort surfaces premium stock, buries lower-priced subject properties #3

Description

@paulieb89

Problem

rightmove_search with default sort returns results ordered by Rightmove's own prominence/featured algorithm, which heavily favours premium-priced listings. This means a subject property at the lower end of the local price range may not appear at all in the default 25-result page.

Real example

Searching near DE73 8AU (Breedon on the Hill) with radius=2 and no price filter returned 25 listings ranging from £190,000 to £1,750,000 — with the majority between £600k–£1.1M. The subject property (9 Hollow Road, £290,000) was not in the results despite being an active listing at the same postcode.

It only appeared when re-running with max_price=350000 and radius=0.5.

Impact

When using rightmove_search to find a specific subject property (Lane A in the property-report skill), the default sort is unreliable. An LLM following the skill workflow may conclude the property isn't listed when it simply wasn't ranked into the top 25.

Suggested fix

Either:

  1. Default sort_by to price_low so lower-priced properties appear first in mixed-stock areas
  2. Add a find_listing(address, postcode) helper that searches specifically for a named address rather than relying on rank
  3. Document clearly that the default sort is Rightmove prominence and recommend sort_by=price_low when searching for a specific subject property

Option 2 would be the most robust — a direct address lookup rather than relying on search ranking.

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