When It Comes to Property Data, ‘Everyone in the Pool’

Technology, virtual reality and data pooling are taking over the process of screening and choosing real estate and buyers and sellers are better for it, according to a panel at this week’s CREW Network annual conference in Chicago.

Eric Frank, CEO, LightBox; Courtney Ettus, chief marketing officer, Crexi; Michelle Sipics, director, technology innovation, Accenture; spoke Sept. 22. Mandi Wedin, founder & CEO, FEROCE Real Estate Advisors, was moderator.

Sipics said that virtual reality (VR) is so much more than people looking silly and falling down while wearing oversized goggles.

“It’s impacted real estate right now in meaningful ways, such as enabling potential buyers to look at a space without physically being there,” she said.

Ettus said buyers today “can come from anywhere. It used to be if you wanted to sell your property, all you had to do is stand on the roof and scream and the only five people who might be interested could hear you.

“Now, there is so much data available that potential buyers can screen for property type, location, demographics, population and local resident profiles, find a match, and buy it right there.

“They are able to make more informed decisions and faster. You don’t have to copy down an agent’s phone number from a sign.”

Companies Should ‘Unlock’ and ‘Pool’ Their Data

Frank said not long ago it took six months for an agent to do the full research. “Vendors are rising up now to make this more efficient,” he said.

“Our industry has collected tons of information, but a lot of it is locked inside these companies’ systems and they aren’t fully sure on how to interpret it. But having it is something they’ve always done – they need to move on from their historical ways. There’s tech that can enable them to do that.”

Frank pointed out that there were not many appraisers attending the CREW Network Conference because they are mostly “60-year-old white guys” whose jobs were to “see who could be better at getting the right data about a property.”

He said today, artificial intelligence (AI), smart technology and data pooling makes that job easier.

Data-Driven? With Whose Data?

Said Sipics, “companies say they are data-driven, but that means it’s based on the data they have. Better would be to be able to pool data from multiple sources to get better insights. With technology now, you can even pool data from multiple sets that aren’t yours and it can help your company in its decision-making.

“Instead of asking how this ‘big, new tech thing’ is going to wreck my business, ask, ‘How will it help me? Do I want to be doing things the way I’m doing them, as I have the past 20 years?’ Sipics said.

“People who [balk at new technology] will never ‘get ahead’ in their industry. Take off the blinders that have been beaten onto you over all this time. If you do, you’ll get out front and no one will catch you.”

Sipics said the leading futuristic technology is better uses for 3-D printing, and quantum computing.