How to Identify and Replicate Success with Data
In the property sector, a lot of information is transacted at every decision point, from initial search stage to final purchasing. To that end, data is changing the way real estate does business as it aims to reign in control over so much data.
The good news is that companies are now able to better analyze habits and make better business decisions because of the meaning they are able to extract from data with the help of tech-based solutions. It’s the reason why CRMs are now a staple for even the sole digital agent. It’s also the reason why real estate firms are becoming ever more familiar with the powers of AI adoption.
Because the sector has such a wide reach, real estate is affected by many social, political and economic factors - all of which contribute to a vast amount of complex data. More and more companies realize it makes sense to invest in tech that is able to handle that data, analyze it, understand what it’s saying about homebuyers and related parties. It also means being able to replicate past wins and successes.
Understanding Customer Behaviour
Data science being partnered with AI capabilities has also allowed more real estate professionals to maximize opportunities. Gaining a better understanding of customer behaviour and consumer interests even at the micro-scale, coupled with the ability to understand vats of information surrounding the condition of a particular apartment block, for example, is an incredibly powerful asset to have as a realtor. The Internet of Things (IoT) is becoming more prevalent in the industry, as sensors adopted in buildings and housing complexes are able to give incredible detail about living conditions and overall state of things, from temperature to air quality, meaning agents are armed with all the more inside knowledge when it comes to pairing up a client with truly the perfect home fit.
The Power of Automation
The ability to use data to identify and replicate success in this way is made possible simply because of the way things are analyzed, recorded, compared, and made sense of: it’s practically all automated. Which means once there is a system in place, the process can be repeated over and over again, with all the different combinations and variations of variables making allowance for different outcomes every time. It makes a direct impact on what an agent can say a particular place has to offer, to meet particular client needs at any given time.
That being said, it’s still early days. At the larger scale, the KPMG Global PropTech Survey 2019 stated that 80% of firms do not have ‘most or all’ of their decision-making led by data, and only 5% of real estate firms have transformation efforts led by someone with a real data analytics background. From powerful data crunchers that are able to model property price indices, to being able to assess geographic information systems (GIS), the potential of what data can do for real estate is huge and only beginning. The everyday digital agent may already have a heads up when it comes to smaller tools: drones, VR, sensors etc which all collect data for them with valuable results. But there is still a lot of room for professionals in real estate and proptech to develop what will only continue to be an incredibly desirable skill set, because the more familiar they reveal themselves to be with these new technologies, the more they will attain great competitive advantage.