By David Mandell, Co-Founder and CEO of PivotDesk
Despite the fact that commercial real estate is an industry driven by out-of-the-box thinkers, it remains behind the technology curve. Considering the emphasis on one-to-one relationships on the sales front, the industry requires a human touch. But for those who are open to it, embracing tech solves for the increasing need for differentiation. Here’s a look at five ways in which we can expect to see tech integrated throughout the industry in 2015:
1. If there’s a given in real estate, its the need to remain mobile. From the broker perspective, they are quite literally always on the go and require access to documents, CRMs and email at all times in all locations. Separately, Millennials (ages 18-34) are joining the commercial industry, as both consumers and agents, in droves — and their inherent need to access information on command demands mobile adoption. The Deloitte 2015 Commercial Real Estate Outlook report finds that leveraging technologies such as mobile will be increasingly important to drive operational efficiency and improve tenant, customer, and employee engagement and loyalty.
2. CRE will start to close the social gap. Consumers have adopted social in all aspects of their lives. When it comes to their engagement with real estate specifically, Sprout Social Index rates the industry as #2 for most inbound engagement. Interestingly, agents are slow to support inbound social engagement… receiving 13th in overall responsiveness on social channels. Agents who adopt a social prospecting practice in 2015 can expect to find a lot of pre-qualified interest. Offline, we’re seeing tech specific conferences capture the CRE space including DisruptCRE, RealTech, and CRE//Tech Intersect. Don’t get me wrong, we still make deals with a handshake, but those handshakes are happening here.
3. Big data is more than a buzzword. It is a term used to describe various data sets that can be accessed quickly and efficiently — for example, market comps, census data or demographic information. New technologies are empowering players to make real time decisions based on business intelligence and analytics. Though many brokers are still spending a significant amount of time collating and managing information regarding prospects and properties on paper, times are a-changing. The latest innovations to the commercial real estate industry have now made it possible to discard these processes and instead leverage online resources for analyzing data. According to JLL’s 2013 Global CRE trends report, 78 percent of companies have improved their ability to extract corporate real estate metrics since 2010. This means brokers will spend less time looking at listings and comps and more time finding the right clients. Leveraging big data is an opportunity for brokers to make 2015 the year of big deals.
4. You can’t talk about mobile and big data without looking at the Cloud. According to Market Research Media, the global cloud computing market is expected to grow and additional 30 percent each year from 2015 – 2020 eventually reaching $270 billion. At this point, the Cloud feels like an afterthought for most of us. We access everything at the click of a button… comps, presentations, photographs… you name it. It’s how we function. For brokers, leveraging the cloud means managing efficiency. Leveraging content to push buyers down the funnel is key and the Cloud ensures accessibility.
5. CRE technology startups will not only disrupt the industry in 2015 – they will lead it. According to a new report from real estate consulting firm RE:Tech, investors funneled $743.7 million globally into commercial real estate tech startups between the second quarter of 2012 and the second quarter of 2014. These new companies such as Honest Buildings, View the Space, and Compstak are filling in the technology gaps for brokers who are ready to adopt new processes, and for property owners who are looking for a better way to manage space. They are building software to analyze market trends and they are helping entrepreneurs find flexible office space for their growing businesses.
Though the commercial real estate industry has had a late start, there’s no denying the industry’s need to adapt to the tech evolution. As startups build for the CRE space, we’ll start to see tech work its way into broker workflows ultimately freeing up resources and increasing close rates.
