Brand EditorialElite AgentInsightsTECH + SOCIAL

Big Data beyond Australia

THE GLOBAL REAL ESTATE market is just beginning to tap into the power of predictive analytics and other data-driven technology. Overseas markets such as the US are working through the available use cases and expanding into many types of niche solutions. These too provide valuable insights for real estate agencies looking for a new way to get an edge in their markets.

In the USA alone, according to venture capital database CB Insights, private real estate tech startups raised $2.6 billion in funding last year across 235 deals, up from $1.9 billion a year earlier and $221 million in 2012. The tools under construction fall into three main categories: Lead prediction, artificial intelligence and investor tools.

1. LEAD PREDICTION AND MARKETING AUTOMATION PROBABILITY TO LIST
Offrs predicts those homeowners who want to put their houses on the market before they start looking around. The service uses predictive analytics to identify these leads, with 70 per cent of the properties ending up sold within a year.

SmartZip provides a predictive analytics and automated marketing platform to give agencies an all-in-one solution for their real estate prospecting. Like Offrs and SmartList, SmartZip works to find potential home-sellers, so the real estate agency using it gets first in line on the listing. The automated marketing features let them take a hands-off approach to lead generation from these potential properties so that they can allocate more time and resources to other real estate activities.

This service also helps agencies optimise their operations by taking care of other duties like mailer design and marketing collateral. The SmartZip App adds the prospect follow-up process once they do make a connection with homeowners who want to sell. Agencies also receive a daily list of essential tasks to prevent leads from falling through the cracks.

REMARKETING
Adwerx is coming to Australia, and uses ‘remarketing’ to target consumers who have previously visited a website or facebook page, or if that person has shown interest in your products and services on other websites. Your ads appear on other popular websites the consumer may visit, including major news or sports websites.

Because of the high interest within the targeted visitors, the click-through rate of remarketing campaigns is generally high. This allows agents to benefit from reasonable cost, high conversion rate marketing either property or their agency to potential buyers, sellers and investors.

2. BOTS, ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE AND BUSINESS AUTOMATION PREDICTING YOUR BUSINESS GROWTH
BoomTown is an all-in-one solution that uses predictive technology to help real estate agencies scale sustainably. This customer relationship management tool examines many facets of customer behaviour, showing the real estate agency the opportunities most likely to turn into a profitable relationship. They also have the chance to nurture leads that arenโ€™t quite ready to list their property or look for a new home.

SEARCHING FOR PROPERTY AND SERVICE PROVIDERS
Currently in Beta, DOSS say they are the worldโ€™s first voice activated digital real estate personal assistant. With your natural voice, DOSS empowers users to ask any question about any property to get easy, instant answers.

DOSS pulls data from sources around the USA, leveraging artificial intelligence, machine learning, predictive analytics, and image recognition. Also, like Uber, but for home repair, Doss has service providers that can be at your home in minutes to give you a fair quote for repairs and maintenance.

AUTOMATING REPETITIVE TASKS
There is a new generation of virtual assistants that can be connected to your CRM system and other data sources that can carry out automated tasks to make you more productive. Aiva is one of those that can put together market reports, update your client CRM records, schedule meetings and more.

3. INVESTOR TOOLS PROPERTY REVENUE POTENTIAL
Mashvisor is designed for real estate investors and the agencies working with them. This solution uses multiple data sources to determine the revenue potential for specific properties. Predictive analytics technology helps investors stay on top of local and national market trends so they can improve their reaction times when faced with changing conditions. One unique feature offered by this service is that it also calculates a propertyโ€™s suitability as an Airbnb property, rather than just looking at traditional tenants.

COMMERCIAL INVESTMENTS
Enodo Score puts its focus on the commercial real estate industry by using predictive analytics to identify multi-family properties with significant investment potential. The foundation of Enodo Scoreโ€™s data comes from public and private sources that it analyses for a comprehensive insight into the market.

There are many more services than we have mentioned here, and more popping up all the time. Watch this space.

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Samantha McLean

Samantha McLean is the Co-Founder and Managing Editor of Elite Agent and Host of the Elevate Podcast.