More than ever real estate professionals and their clients have access to a wealth of data to guide them in making their decisions. This is coupled with a host of new technology and hardware which makes retrieving and sharing information faster and easier than ever.
Clearly this is a benefit to the health and efficiency of the overall market, however it does raise some important questions; How does this change the competitive landscape of the market? What data sources, technology, and tools should real estate professionals use? And how can professionals ensure they are using them properly to achieve their goals?
The Competitive Landscape
Real estate professionals including property owners have more information at their disposal than ever before. This has the positive effect of lowering the barriers to entry for professionals and producing more knowledgeable brokers and agents. Real estate professionals can stay on top of market pricing and trends easily, while transparency is increasing every day for consumers.
Increased access to market data raises the bar for professionals and increases the expectations from both clients and consumers. For real estate professionals the need to be highly informed in order to compete is greater than ever, and to gain a competitive edge is no longer enough just to have access to information, it's using the best resources in the most efficient way to service their clients that can set them apart.
Clients in the marketplace are also more informed than they have been in the past, through various sources they have access to much of the data that real estate professionals do. This has a positive effect on the deal making process by fostering more informed discussions and crystalizing expectations. However better informed clients can be a double edged sword, expecting more than just data from their representatives, and real estate professionals will need to adapt in order to compete.
The Value Proposition
In an industry where clients are more informed than ever, pricing information and access to listings cannot be real estate professionals only method of providing value for their clients. Clients will be looking for deeper insights and access to non-public information from their agents in order to build trust and commit to working together.
With data and research so readily available, clients will expect expertise in a given segment of the market, whether it's negotiating an office lease or a condominium sale. Clients expect a deeper understanding of a particular borough or trends shaping certain neighborhoods. Property owners in particular won't look to their agents to price available listings, but to properly market and evaluate potential interest on the way to a completed deal.
Beyond information, clients will look to work with real estate professionals that have a proven track record of successfully negotiating transactions, and getting deals done. Access to accurate market data and even non-public knowledge is useless if you don't act on it, and real estate professionals that understand how to leverage their expertise for their client's benefit will find long term success.
The Right Data
It's not enough to just have a lot of data; it's having the right data that matters. With the proliferation of listing and research providers for both commercial and residential listings, real estate professionals and their clients also have more choice than ever on where they get their information. The decision needs to be made on what service to subscribe to, or which research to incorporate when pricing a potential exclusive. Real estate professionals know that if they are working with incorrect or outdated information they may mis-price an opportunity.
Likewise, active buyers or potential renters need to be able to trust the information they use to find opportunities or that they will be basing their decisions on. Outdated listings can make them one step too late, incorrect asking prices may skew their expectations, and missing listings can lead to lost opportunity.
At Agorafy we understand how the amount of information and increased transparency is changing the competitive landscape, and we are building our platform with this in mind.
We understand that the timeliness of information is a differentiating factor both for data providers and real estate professionals, this is the reason we continuously verify our data, even when others are sleeping. We know that the completeness of information and aggregating multiple streams of data into one location gives real estate professionals an edge and allows them to retrieve information quickly.
We believe that increased transparency is a great thing for the real estate market, and that Agorafy will help real estate professionals service their client's needs at a time where the competitive landscape is changing.
Richard Du is the founder and CEO of Agorafy, New York, N.Y. Tags: