@shorty707 Please also take a look at this thread where this was also discussed: https://community.openhab.org/t/oh2-read-property-of-a-thing-in-rule
There i mentioned a method to get the properties using an http request to the json interface. I currently use this method to get the zwave_lastwakeup date. I use this to check if my Fibaro smoke sensor are still working because they loose the connection regularly for some reason. (I never found a solution for this) And because they are battery powered the status stays online for a long time.