The value in sticking to a purpose-driven mission

The real estate technology sector has remained red hot and companies are rapidly entering the space with the goal of improving the lives of real estate professionals everywhere. While the real estate industry has widely been considered a lagging adopter of technology; today, innovative real estate technology solutions are rushing to market to help real estate professionals become more informed, more efficient, and more visible. Those real estate technology firms that have identified a customer need and stayed true to their mission have been successful. Real estate has always offered real estate professionals the potential for a lucrative business, and those professionals have, in turn, served as a large market for goods and service providers supporting the real estate industry. As a reference, the current U.S. residential real estate market is estimated to be $25 trillion according to Zillow. The N.Y.C. market is projected at $914.8 billion for fiscal year 2014. Moreover, the National Association of Realtors (NAR) has estimated that N.Y.'s real estate industry accounted for $199 million or 16.7% of the gross state product in 2012. However, until recently, the process of transacting on residential, commercial, and retail properties has stayed stagnant and mostly unchanged by technology. Looking to innovate and provide their customers efficiencies, real estate technology start-ups are jumping into the market, vying for a place in the industry and also looking to gain their slice of the pie. The current real estate technology landscape is, therefore, changing. Companies succeeding in increased user-bases have been able to implement cutting-edge applications on existing technologies. New players are entering the market on a daily basis. These real estate 'newbies' are chipping away at the proverbial pie by carving out their own niche - be it increased transparency, more accurate data, lower costs or a personalized touch (ahem...trust). While acquisitions have helped investors and advertisers, has this helped real estate professionals? At Agorafy, we believe that creating an open platform to share real estate information in N.Y. will support real estate professionals during this changing environment. By sticking to this purpose, we believe value will be created for the N.Y. real estate community. Learning from the recent acquisitions of StreetEasy and Apartments.com StreetEasy built a loyal customer base of residential buyers and renters by introducing an interface that works like google maps. Not only is the website fun, they pull data from real-estate companies and fill in the gaps with a robust community of users that crowd sources an almost 'real-time listings' database. Because StreetEasy stuck to their purpose, "N.Y.C.'s go-to source for the most accurate residential real estate information available," publicly traded company Zillow, who had been successful at rural markets and struggled to enter N.Y.C., purchased the start-up for $50 million in 2013. Similarly, CoStar recently purchased Apartments.com ($585 million) known for their rental and sales property listings, particular in the multifamily area. Both companies stuck to their purpose and carved out a niche. How Agorafy fits into the current landscape At Agorafy, our mission is to create an open platform to share real estate information in N.Y. to support real estate professionals. Agorafy focuses on streamlining the process of providing commercial and retail information all in one place. More recently, we have started featuring residential properties as there is no "one-stop shop" for real estate. We believe you should be able to look at the details of a building from the ground up. Whether the ground floor has retail and upper floors are commercial or residential co-ops or condos. Our objective is to collect data and provide it to our users in an organized manner. As Agorafy grows its data collecting efforts, the benefits will prove to be an asset in the N.Y.C. real estate community. Richard Du is the founder and CEO of Agorafy, New York, N.Y.