News Feature | August 21, 2015

Is Big Data And Real Estate A Potential Market For VARs?

Christine Kern

By Christine Kern, contributing writer

Is Big Data And Real Estate A Potential Market For VARs?

Big Data is coming to real estate, one of the latest industries turning to technology to help perform essential tasks more efficiently and accurately.

Data analysis can assist with assessing storm damage, to designing building layouts, or responding to prospective buyer’s concerns about properties. “Big Data is making the commercial real estate industry more transparent,” Ely Razin, CEO of CrediFi, a Big Data platform for the commercial real estate finance market, told CNBC.

Mashable reported some of the ways that Big Data impacts real estate:

  • Democratizing data for consumers. Zillow is one example of how Big Data analytics can mean actionable insight for customers. Companies like Zillow use census information, consumer survey results, listings of homes for sale or rent, geographic information systems, and other sources to create information about the potential value of a property and home-value trends.
  • Aiding in community planning. Big Data also helps fuel community planning and organization. For example, by tracking data such as air quality, traffic, energy use, and other factors, communities can see the impacts of these factors have on health or energy efficiency.
  • Valuing foreclosures and short-sales. Big Data can also help banks and investors determine what a foreclosure or short sale is really worth — or to help with investment decisions in general by providing information on the building’s structure or financial details such as the building’s loan platform.
  • Boosting pitches. Some real estate agents are leveraging Big Data to see which potential buyers are looking at properties online and what they are doing when they search real estate online.

A Realty Today article also points out data platforms are making sales easier — allowing owners to have feedback on the prices they’ve set and to speed the negotiating process. Internet of Things sensors can provide data on needed repairs and reduce expenses and wait times.

These applications — and others — present an opportunity for IT solutions providers to provide data analytics solutions tailored to real estate agents’ needs.