Page 42 - REALCOMM EDGE-Fall 2017-FINAL

Business SOLUTIONS

Becoming Data Driven: The Case for Real

Estate Portfolio Owners & Managers

Mark Sigal
Chief Product Officer
Datex Property Solutions

ne of the great paradoxes of the
real estate business is that it’s
O simultaneously an industry that
generates enormous amounts of data, and
one where very few of the stakeholders
have predictable, meaningful and action-
able access to that same data.
This is mind-boggling when one consid-
ers the rate of technology adoption in other
segments, such as finance, manufacturing,
entertainment and electronic commerce;
coupled with the fact that at $200 trillion of
cumulative value, real estate dwarfs every
asset class on the planet.
But the process of systematically harness-
ing the wealth of data generated within a real estate portfolio—a tremendous insight about tenants, residents, vendors, properties,
methodology known as Real Estate Business Intelligence—is portfolios, lines of business and market sectors, including:
neither unusually complex nor prohibitively expensive. Rather, it’s 1. Which of my property managers are best or worst at rent
within reach. collections?
More fundamentally, the ‘WIN’ that real estate enterprises can 2. Which of my tenants are at risk of default, and which are not
achieve by reconciling this paradox, and becoming Data Driven paying enough rent?
is three-fold: 3. Which of my retail categories are experiencing the most
1. Making smarter decisions individually and collectively as an growth, and which are at the greatest risk of getting
organization Amazoned?
2. Getting reporting activities out of ‘Excel Hell’ 4. What does it cost me to ‘turn a unit’ in terms of direct costs,
3. Automating recurring tasks that too often fall through the and what is the ROI associated with different types of im-
cracks provements by unit type?
5. Which of my marketing strategies are most effective in
You Manage What You MEASURE generating leads, appointments and applications to my
Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis once observed that, “Light apartments?
is the best disinfectant.” By that, he meant that the very act of 6. Which of my leasing agents are peak performers, and which
bringing prolonged attention to specific problems becomes a are laggards?
catalyst for improving the situation at hand. 7. Which of my residents are the most demanding in terms of
In the real estate business, this notion can be expressed in service requests, and how does that correlate to the amount
terms of data; namely, the idea that you Manage what you of rent they pay?
MEASURE. 8. Which of my properties are at greatest risk of major tenant
Why? Because what is systematically measured can be upheaval at the very time when the loans on the property
tracked over time, and what is tracked provides visibility to are coming due?
Emerging Trends, Rates of Variance from historical norms, and
Benchmarked Performance relative to like types. Needless to say, when armed with this data, you can take the
Such seemingly simple frames of reference can provide appropriate, measured actions to proactively manage your way

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