NYU’s Schack Institute: Big data can turn real estate industry on its head

As my CRE data visualization soap box theme continues, at an NYU Schack Institute of Real Estate Sustainable Real Estate Conference, several panelists made some great observations. The growing volume of data generated within cities presents an unprecedented opportunity for the real estate industry to better segment markets and products, target policies and investment, and capture value clouded by information asymmetries. When coupled with an understanding of human behavior and evidence-based dec…

Reach Gmail Zen

Inbox Zero Now that you have that shinny new Google Apps Gmail inbox set up for your corporate address, it’s now time to learn how to manage it properly. I doubt any of you leave unread (snail)mail in your mailbox because it would fill quickly and your post office couldn’t deliver any new mail. What you actually do is quickly sort through your mail – toss the junk mail right away, immediately open what seems to be important and put less important letters into bins or designated piles to be revi…

Another disruptive site for the commercial real estate industry

Data, data and more data

The Next Frontier: CRE Data Visualization

In my 2013 CRE tech predictions, I suggested that CRE Data Visualization would made major advancements in 2013. So, of course, I am going to point out examples to make myself look smart…. One of the best examples of this HUGE opportunity is 2nd City Zoning. From NextCity.org: In essence, the map allows residents to answer the question, “what can I build on this property?” Punch in an address to discover how a building is zoned, and see a human-readable description (written by us!) of what tha…

CompStak 500 Startups Demo Day Video and Slides

CompStak just made their final presentation at 500 Startups’ Demo Day. Here is the video. Their demo starts at 42:30. And here is their slide deck: [slideshare id=16370368&doc=compstak-130205173951-phpapp02] The RealDeal recently reported that “Compstak has also secured more than $1.1 million in funding from 26 investors including Expansion VC, the venture-capital arm of the Melohn family; Ryan Slack, co-founder of PropertyShark; and Berman Venture Capital, a wholly owned subsidiary of Rockvil…

Use these 7 steps to leverage technology and lease vacant retail space

With the butt kicking many retailers have taken over the last 5 years, many are cautious to expand or open new locations. Deals take longer as tenants underwrite the market with antiquated techniques, such as pulling demographics reports and traffic counts. Motionloft has done an incredible job of pushing innovation in this space by introducing new ways to measure pedestrian and vehicle traffic in real-time.  But, if you don’t have the money fund the installation of a MotionLoft sensor, here is…

Gmail in the Office

Remember life before Gmail? Exchange servers, outlook, thunderbird, *IT* departments, IMAP, POP3, SMTP… *ugh*. Then don’t be evil Google came along with a beta project called Gmail in 2004 which changed the way we did email. Its ease of use and powerful features won most of us over for our personal accounts. But what about our work email? What many don’t know is that you can set up your corporate CRE email with Google Apps Gmail so you can ditch that rusty old email software. Check out this …

New to LeaseMatrix: Rotating Street Views

LeaseMatrix recently updated their Property Level lease analysis reports to include a rotating Street View image. The question is: being that this is really a financial analysis report, id this feature beneficial, or is it just a distraction? Check it out for yourself  by clicking the “Street View” button in the upper right hand side of the navigation bar, as circled in the photo above. Then, let us know what you think in the comments below. *Several contributors to CRE Apps are also members of…

Technology and real estate… at the tipping point or tip toeing at the bottom?