FilterWise

How emails are processed and analyzed

When you forward a property alert email to your FilterWise address, a multi-step process kicks in automatically. Understanding this process helps you troubleshoot issues and set realistic expectations for processing times.

The Email Processing Steps

Every email goes through these stages in order:

Stage 1: Reception and Validation

When an email arrives at your FilterWise address, the system first validates it:

  • Sender verification: The system confirms the email matches a configured filter
  • Duplicate check: If an email with the same subject and similar content was received recently, it's marked as a duplicate and skipped
  • Account status check: If your filter is on hold or your daily limit has been reached, the email is logged but not processed
  • Configuration check: The system verifies that your filter has both a filter instructions and an output email configured

If all checks pass, the email enters the processing queue.

Stage 2: URL Extraction

FilterWise parses the email's HTML content to find property listing URLs. The system:

  • Strips HTML formatting and identifies all hyperlinks
  • Filters out non-listing URLs (navigation links, unsubscribe links, social media icons)
  • Recognizes URLs from hundreds of real estate portals
  • Deduplicates URLs that appear multiple times in the same email
  • Matches URLs against listings you've already seen to avoid redundant analysis

A single email from a portal like SeLoger might contain 5-20 listing URLs. Each becomes a separate listing in your dashboard.

Stage 3: Page Scanning

For each extracted URL, FilterWise fetches the actual property listing page. This is critical because email alerts typically contain only a snippet — the full listing page has much more data:

  • Complete property description
  • All photos and their captions
  • Detailed specifications (surface area, rooms, floor, orientation, etc.)
  • Energy performance ratings
  • Agency information and fees
  • Location details

The scraper handles various page formats, JavaScript-rendered content, and cookie consent dialogs automatically. If a page fails to load (timeout, 404, anti-bot block), the AI still analyzes the listing based on the email snippet alone, but with less data available.

Stage 4: AI Analysis

This is the core step. The AI receives:

  • Your filter instructions (the criteria you've defined)
  • The full scanned listing data
  • The original email snippet
  • The "include when unsure" setting

The AI evaluates each criterion in your instructions against the listing data. For each criterion, it determines:

  • The extracted value (e.g., "price per m² = €6,200")
  • Whether it matches (yes, no, or uncertain)
  • Its reasoning (why it made that determination)

The overall verdict is then calculated: if all required criteria match (respecting AND/OR logic), the listing is marked as a match.

Stage 5: Notification

Based on your how to receive matches:

  • Immediately: Matched listings are immediately forwarded to your output email as a formatted HTML message containing the listing details, a link to the original listing, and a summary of the AI's analysis
  • Daily recap: Matched listings are queued and sent in a single summary email at 10 PM (your local time)
  • None: Listings appear in your dashboard only — no email is sent

Timing Expectations

Typical processing times:

  • Email reception to queue: < 5 seconds
  • URL extraction: < 2 seconds
  • Page scanning: 5-30 seconds per listing (depends on the site's response time)
  • AI analysis: 3-10 seconds per listing
  • Email forwarding: < 5 seconds

Total end-to-end time for a single-listing email: Usually under 1 minute. Multi-listing emails (e.g., 10 listings): 2-5 minutes total, as listings are processed sequentially.

What Happens on Errors

FilterWise is designed to be resilient:

  • Scanning failure: If a listing page can't be fetched, the AI analyzes using only the email snippet. The listing is still processed, just with less data. You may see less confident results.
  • AI analysis failure: Rare, but if the AI service is temporarily unavailable, the email is re-queued and retried automatically.
  • Forwarding failure: If the output email bounces, the listing is still stored in your dashboard with its analysis results.

You can always see the status of every email and listing in your dashboard, and retry any that failed.

Data Access and the AI's Knowledge

The AI has access to everything extracted from the listing, including:

  • Property title and description (in the original language)
  • Price, surface area, number of rooms/bedrooms
  • Location (city, neighborhood, address if available)
  • Floor level, orientation, building age
  • Energy performance certificate (DPE) ratings
  • Any other details mentioned in the listing text
  • Photo captions (but not the images themselves)

This is why your filter instructionss can reference virtually any property characteristic — if it's mentioned in the listing, the AI can evaluate it.

Monitoring Processing

You can monitor email processing in real time from your dashboard:

  1. Go to Emails in the sidebar
  2. New emails appear at the top of the list
  3. Status changes from "Queued" → "Processing" → "Processed"
  4. Click any email to see extracted listings and their analysis results

Related articles: Understanding email statuses · Retrying failed emails · Redirecting emails to FilterWise