Property Data API Can Make Your Brokerage More Data Literate

A Property Data API is a necessity for any real estate firm that wants to compete in the 21st Century.

In case you haven’t noticed, we are living in the era of Big Data.

Multi-billion companies such as Google, Amazon, and Facebook have all become enormous entities in our lives because of data.

Google built a $136 billion behemoth with 97,000 employees based on their data gathering and analytic ability. “To Google” is an everyday part of our language.

Which begs the question?

How data literate are your agents?

How well are you incorporating data in your company’s offerings?

Are you providing all the data you can to your prospects and customers?

Research company Gartner says soon 80% of companies will have specific initiatives to overcome their employees’ data deficiencies by 2020.

Property Data API provides real estate market data

Now, when it comes to data, there are several varieties.

There is internal data that is gathered from your website visitors such as lead generation conversion rates, clicks, time on page, etc.

Then there is external data about your marketplace.

This is where a Property Data API comes in.

As we all know, a real estate agent is basically an information agent.

One very important aspect of their job is to know their marketplace.

Now, previously, a savvy agent might be able to recite some recent home sale prices or information about local schools.

But in this era of big data, is that enough?

With a Property Data API, supplied by national data aggregators such as Home Junction, a brokerage can tap into an enormous database of hyper-local real estate information.

They can parse that information down to not just real estate data by zip code, but by neighborhood or subdivision.

Data on home prices, number of sales, square footage, age of the property, school statistics, age and income of local residents, crime ratings, etc.

That information can then for packaged into charts showing trend lines.

Or formatted to show rankings. For example, one property might be in the top 20% in a neighborhood for square footage but in the bottom 30% for price per square foot and the middle 50% percentile for age of the property.

A Property Data API can be used to provide home value estimates, based on recent sales, MLS listings, and other relevant data. (As we all know, homeowners love to see reports on the estimated value of their property. Which as you also know, creates a great lead generation opportunity for a formal CMA request).

The key is communicating the data

There’s more to data than just numbers.

This is where data literacy comes in.

First of all, one skill involves finding data. And that involves finding data that is trustworthy, accurate, relevant and timely.

Fortunately, there are data aggregators such as Home Junction that already fulfill this role.

With a Property Data API, a brokerage can add a feed that will supply them with a warehouse of hyper-local real estate market data. On the brokerage’s website, where they can promote their brand, capture leads and make the phones ring.

Then, it’s not only important to provide data to customers. It’s also important to be able to communicate about what those numbers mean.

Interpret the data for home buyers or potential sellers. Explain the trends to them. Write about the data on your blogs, you email updates or in your social media posts.

Present actionable insights. Point out the opportunities.

Perhaps the data is showing that historically for this particular neighborhood, this is a great time to make an offer on a property.

Or perhaps, this is not the best time to put that home up for sale.

This data can be extremely influential on the decision-making process of consumers. The more in-depth data you can show a prospect, the easier it will be for them to make a decision.

In addition, the more in-depth data (and analysis) you provide to clients, the more convinced they will be that this brokerage firm is truly the company with the most local knowledge.

That perception can go very far for referrals and repeat business.

One expert said that Data Literacy in the 21st century is what Basic Literacy was in the past century.

To advance themselves, as they moved from farm-based economies to an industrialized society, humans had to learn to read and write.

Now that we live in an information age, where a phone in your pocket gives you access to a gazillion bits of data, data literacy will be an essential skill.

Don’t be left behind.

Add tools such as a Property Data API from a national, experienced data aggregator and be sure your staff has the data literacy skills to present, analyze and interpret all that data for the benefit of your customers.