Forem: AscendixTech

Optimizing Commercial Property Value with Effective Space Management and Planning

AscendixTech — Thu, 09 Mar 2023 16:43:06 +0000

This article was originally published at Ascendix Tech's Blog.

Soaring energy prices, labor shortage, and high property maintenance costs, all coupled with the pandemic continuation, put facility managers under pressure.

The good news is that proper facility planning and management can increase commercial property value by reducing rental and maintenance costs, saving energy, extending the life of the equipment, and boosting space utilization. They also increase employee satisfaction, resulting in productivity, hence business growth.

What is Facility Space Management and How It Helps Companies Grow

Facility management is a part of real estate management and includes practices focusing on the maintenance of real estate assets. It includes space planning and management, equipment maintenance, employee safety and property security, and vendor and contractor management.

Facility management contributes to the growth of a company by helping it utilize and operate the space efficiently, resulting in lower energy consumption, reduced lease costs, and proper resource allocation.

Functional equipment, decluttered spaces, safe, well-designed and comfortable surroundings all add to employee satisfaction, hence higher motivation, team collaboration, and productivity.

Who are Facility Managers?

Facility managers or also called space planners are professionals whose main activities encompass optimizing workspace efficiency and the use of physical assets like office equipment, ensuring the safety of the building and its maintenance, while also communicating with suppliers, property owners, contractors, and vendors.

Other than that, facility managers are responsible for implementing cost-effective measures related to space planning and equipment use, its maintenance and optimization.

Types of Commercial Property Facility Managers Operate

Real estate is everywhere, and so are space planning and management professionals. Hence, no wonder one will find facility managers in almost every industry or company that relies heavily on the use of space and complex hardware that requires constant maintenance.

Office. High utility bills, costly equipment, and HVAC system repairs are top challenges facility managers have to deal with in office spaces;
Retail. Big-scale repairs stemming from high foot floor traffic, high energy consumption, security issues, and cleaning are top problematic areas in retail;
Industrial. Maintenance of manufacturing equipment, hazardous materials and processes, environmental regulations, and waste disposal are core fields to be managed;
Multifamily properties. Income-generating residential complexes are a part of commercial real estate and are often associated with issues like the lack of energy efficiency, untimely service requests, and frequent repairs;
Special purpose commercial property. Amusement parks, theaters, medical offices, and hospitality fall under this category among others. Safety regulations, costly repairs of complex equipment, and the need for sustainable energy consumption are the main areas facility managers focus on.

Top Challenges in Facility Space Management

Labor Shortage and Low Pay Stemming from Economic Crisis

Both the inflation rate being 6.5 and the rental prices predicted to have grown to 8.4% in a few months discourage potential property buyers and renters from investing in real estate. No wonder some businesses have already stopped operating because of the increased costs, resulting in higher dismissal rates and frequent employee layoffs.

With everything aforesaid, low job security and lower pay emerge, resulting in a labor shortage. In real estate, labor shortage means that more properties are assigned to a facility manager instead of a company hiring more space planning specialists. This leads to more facility management tasks, hence burnout and poor organization. Needless to say, these challenges need a solution that automates project management and allows facility planners to track, process, and keep data in one place.

What labor shortage also means is the lack of other property specialists a facility manager must hire. For instance, hiring a team of technicians for a refurbishment session might take weeks instead of hours if the company you’re contacting has already dismissed a part of its staff. With less availability of property specialists comes a long wait time, hence the need for a solution that eliminates delays in services by automatically scheduling maintenance sessions and sending supply requests to vendors whose contacts are safely stored in one place and can be quickly accessed.

Hybrid Work Culture as a COVID-19 Aftermath

COVID-19 added new challenges to workplace space management for sure.

Most facility managers had to solve the pandemic conundrum by reconfiguring the entire floor plan while adding new seating arrangements with social distancing in mind and safe work surroundings.

Creating a safe work environment by sanitization commonly includes hiring cleaning teams and ensuring the janitorial schedule works, purchasing sanitizers for the office equipment and air systems for better air quality. All these solutions require extra costs, which not all companies have at their disposal.

Another new normal caused by COVID-19 is a ‘blended workforce.’ And providing the remote workers with the tech tools they need for telecommuting and ensuring tools like laptops are in good condition are tasks of a facility manager.

It is also a core responsibility of a facility manager to make sure that when an employee decides to come to the office, they have a free work desk and the necessary equipment – all can be done with a booking tool as an example where employees can see the occupancy and book a desk or hardware for work.

Increased Costs of Supplies, Maintenance, and Repairs Caused by Economic Crisis

Material shortages and supply chain delays all stem from soaring prices for materials and increased transportation costs. With everything considered, prices for maintenance and repair sessions have peaked as well.

Replacing a few floorboards or the leaking faucet in the bathroom might take twice the pre-crisis price. This is where challenges for facility managers start. Not only one has to find a team of technicians despite the labor shortage, but also make sure the suppliers deliver the materials for repairs in time. This is where a solution that allows you to track supply expenses and send automatic requests can save you time and costs.

Keeping contacts of a few suppliers or HVAC vendors stored in one place and managed with technology to make sure at least one is available when the need for repair arises turns into a bare necessity.

Inefficient Planning Resulting in Underused or Overused Space and Office Equipment

Have you ever seen a coworking space where no one occupies the table near the entrance or the kitchen zone? Such a small issue at first sight leads to underused space and equipment that results in high costs. Instead of the strain being evenly distributed to all computers, it is concentrated on a few equipment pieces, leading to their quick damage and expensive repair.

The same would happen to a hospital where diagnostic rooms are too far from the doctors’ offices, and the staff uses the equipment in one room instead of using it in other rooms as well.

Not impressed? Let’s check bigger numbers. What if the industrial property you operate, let’s say, a warehouse, has an empty room that other businesses can rent? What if your property has space that can be leased to parking lot companies? Seems like you might be losing an opportunity to make more money if you don’t know which space is underutilized.

On the contrary, businesses with proper space planning tools can increase commercial property value by envisioning the space whether in the form of floor or site plans with space variables like Location, Type, Occupancy, and Square Feet in plain sight.

Need for Sustainable Energy Consumption Caused by Global Energy Crisis

Electricity bills rose around 15% last year in the US, and gas bills went up to 33%. Considering that utility costs make up a third of property operating costs, the conundrum the space planners must solve is how to keep businesses going with cheap renewable electricity and any smart tech that maximizes its use. And sometimes switching to energy providers with lower-than-average pricing is not enough.

Sure, you might invest in energy-saving equipment and smart tech, but the key solution is to ensure the solutions you buy fit into the property space. Here, tools that envision the space with its variables and allow you to collect and manage data in the form of reports and statistics might be helpful.

How Effective Facility Space Management Can Increase Value of Commercial Property

Proper Facility Space Planning and Management Optimize the Use of the Office Equipment and Extend Its Life

It often happens that a company might have 10 printers with 8 of them being in good health and 2 in constant repair. Why does it happen? If there were no errors in the manufacturing process, then a good guess is that those 2 printers are used most often.

If the 8 printing machines are in different rooms, far from the employee space, then no wonder that employees use those two printers as they’re the closest. With the use of space planning tools that help you see the location of space objects on a screen, you can place them differently and maximize the use of all equipment.

Adding equipment inspections to the space management practices is a good idea as well. With the right tools, one can collect data on the equipment used (mostly from sensors) and predict whether there is a high chance of wear and tear long before it happens – repairing the equipment is less expensive than replacing it with the new one, right?

Other reasons for overused and underused equipment pieces might lie in the surroundings. If employees are reluctant to use the computers in spaces with bad lighting, drafts, and uncomfortable furniture, then no wonder that they overuse the equipment placed in well-lit locations with chairs that roll.

The good news is that management tools provide a facility manager with an opportunity to oversee the surroundings, collect data on space utilization, and gather feedback from the space users without getting stuck in costly repairs and the endless search for tech providers with clear warranty policies.

Reduced Rental Expenses Allow a Company to Allocate Money to Projects that Matter

Making business needs and space planning align with each other is the core idea of facility management. And to do so, one must know their space well.

For instance, do you really need the second floor which only 10 out of 100 employees use? If a tool that envisions your space shows low occupancy rates, you might want to relocate them to the area with higher occupancy rates, a decision that will save you rent costs.

When a facility manager knows their space and its variables, all conveniently organized by a reporting software and stored in one place, they can envision which parts of the office might benefit from hot desking and collaborative or multifunctional workspaces. Why not turn the conference room into a place which other employees can use if there are no meetings? Turning an open lounge area into a collaborative space where employees can meet and brainstorm on projects is also a good idea.

Seeing the storage spaces on floor plan drafts will also help you to check whether you can add vertical storage solutions like multiple shelves and maximize space efficiency. What if the space left after the shelf’s installation is enough to set up a desk and maximize the use of the computer or printing machine everyone has forgotten about?

Optimized Space Efficiency Leads to Employee Satisfaction, Resulting in Productivity and Business Growth

Happy employees don’t waste time on watercooler conversations – they generate ideas while staying motivated and productive. That’s why investing in comfortable and functional surroundings is a no-brainer.

Cluttered spaces are often associated with increased stress, and they certainly don’t contribute to great focus. In the end, the work performance suffers, and what can be done in an hour takes the whole day on average. Meanwhile, decluttering the spaces will result in high focus, hence productivity.

Designated workspaces lead to high satisfaction as well. When there is a separate room for calling a customer, an employee can use it instead of being stuck in a noisy area – they’ll be glad to perform their job responsibilities without being annoyed. With proper tools, you can gather feedback after implementing the changes and later track and measure them to conclude whether the change was effective. For instance, find out whether employee satisfaction increased or not like in the case above.

Open workspaces, shared desks, and collaboration areas will boost a sense of community. At the same time, employees will know that there is always a designated space for sharing ideas without getting distracted by external noise.

Effective Planning Leads to Sustainability and Alignment with Space Regulations

Being able to gather the data on the most used spaces allows a facility manager to implement measures that reduce utility bills and maximize the use of resources like water and energy.

For instance, the most used bathrooms have the highest probability of leaky faucets. Knowing which bathrooms are used most will allow the space manager to install automatic faucets, hence preventing leakage and reducing water bills.

The same goes for LED lighting or bulbs with motion sensors that not only draw less power but reduce the planner’s worries about employees forgetting to turn off the lights, resulting in high electricity bills.

Other than that, facility managers can invest in office energy-efficient equipment like monitors that need less power to operate in a sleep or off mode or printers with automatic shut-off modes. With proper space management, you can collect and manage the data on the equipment that is being used most often.

Hiring construction teams is a part of facility management as well. Here, effective space planning allows facility managers to ensure the construction workers follow building regulations, and energy use and waste disposal requirements, avoiding penalties and creating sustainable surroundings.

Proper Planning of Space Utilization Results in Reduced Property Maintenance Costs

In the long run, both proper planning and facility management in real estate lead to cost reduction in maintenance works.

When all parts of the space are utilized in a balanced way, the wear and tear of what would have been an overutilized space is prevented.

Let’s say, during one of the property inspections and equipment maintenance checks a facility manager collects data on the traffic and generates a report that helps them identify the highest traffic areas requiring durable flooring installation. With this knowledge and a proper tool, they can start a new project, contact suppliers from the database, set tasks, notifications, and deadline reminders to repair teams and vendors to ensure the project’s timely completion.

Having a software that helps a facility manager understand how the property is utilized and the costs associated with its utilization allows them to timely install energy-efficient lighting and HVAC systems to reduce costs on the maintenance of heating and cooling systems or directly communicate the need for sustainable heat-preserving materials to construction teams (again, lower electricity and gas costs).

Company Can Enhance Security and Safety of Employees and Property

An opportunity to foresee risks related to property and staff safety during the planning stage is exactly why proper space management is so important.

If a facility manager has a good grasp of the property zones and their characteristics, all provided by tools like floor plan software, they can identify potential high-risk zones like entrance areas and parking lots and install lighting and security cameras there. The same goes for access control systems and visitor management tools to prevent criminal activity or quickly find the culprit if such happens.

Understanding the property structure also contributes to emergency preparation – for instance, making sure everyone can access different exits to avoid crowding in case of fire.

Being able to gather data on the issues related to the use of office furniture and equipment also helps facility managers to replace the old furniture with ergonomic one to prevent employees’ injury.

How Technology and Automation Increase the Efficiency of Facility Space Management

Automation Increases Productivity of Facility Managers

In times of a heavy workload caused by labor shortage, automation will definitely save you time. Facility management tools that automate tasks are essential if there are a few properties to be managed simultaneously with multiple vendors, suppliers, and others involved.

Planning and management software can automate scheduling and task management, helping facility managers to set tasks and reminders faster, schedule repairs or inspections, and track the project progress with all data kept in one place.

Technology Helps Facility Managers Streamline Remote Communication

Tools like messaging apps and videoconferencing platforms add remote collaboration without the risk of getting exposed to the virus.

Project management tools help facility managers keep everything in control remotely by setting tasks with deadline reminders, allocating resources like equipment and personnel, and tracking the project progress, budget spending, and resource use.

Technology Reduces Costs Related to Property and Equipment Maintenance, Repairs, and Supplies

Condition monitoring sensors help facility managers gather data on the equipment health, while traffic and occupancy sensors allow space managers to identify underutilized and overused spaces.

Inventory-focused project management systems help companies control the orders and deliveries of supplies, ensuring a company doesn’t overstock and spend more than required. Other tools like asset tracking software helps facility managers determine the use of company’s assets and maximize space efficiency.

Technology Allows Facility Managers to Reduce Energy Consumption and Add Sustainability

Smart building automation technology assists facility managers in monitoring property’s health and collecting data on the use of energy in real-time. For example, such a tool can control the lighting system, automating when it switches on and off depending on the occupancy and amount of natural light.

Meanwhile, adding software that analyses and visualizes the data gathered on energy consumption in the form of charts and reports will help you make better decisions.

If you want to get more insights on the topic, check out the full blog post at Ascendix Tech's Blog.

A Case Study in Developing a Recruitment App: Creating an Applicant Tracking System

AscendixTech — Thu, 02 Mar 2023 15:17:07 +0000

Originally published at AscendixTech Blog

The lack of alignment in hiring processes may seriously obstruct the company’s growth and scale-up potential. However, a wrong talent management system may cripple the whole organization.

Having realized this, a client of ours has reached out to Ascendix Tech for help with custom recruitment app development.

In this post, I’ll walk you through how to build an applicant tracking system with real-life examples, how different it is from a talent management system, and why HRs abandon their tinned recruitment apps.

What is an Applicant Tracking System?

An Applicant Tracking System (ATS) is a recruitment app that streamlines the recruitment process by providing a central location for collecting, organizing, and monitoring job applicants. Sometimes called talent acquisition software or candidate management system, it simplifies the hiring process for recruiters by automating many of the time-consuming, repetitive tasks, like:

Applicant tracking: an ATS can automatically track the candidates’ progress in the hiring process, from the initial application to the final decision.
Job posting: It can automatically post job openings on various job boards, making it easier for recruiters to reach a wider pool of candidates.
Communication: It can automate communication with applicants, such as sending interview invitations and rejection emails, which saves recruiters time.
Resume screening: with a sprinkle of artificial intelligence, ATS is capable of scanning resumes and CVs for specific keywords and qualifications, making it easier to qualify candidates for a specific job.
Pre-qualification: if your ATS is linked to a talent management system (see below) with a pre-specified pool of assessments for different roles, recruiters can assign candidates to the required tests right from the ATS.
Reporting: once an applicant takes an assessment test, your recruitment app can generate reports using pre-specified recruiting metrics.

What Is a Talent Management System?

A Talent Management System (TMS) is an integrated platform designed to assist with the management of key talent processes within an organization, including but not limited to recruitment, employee onboarding, performance evaluations, training and skill development, management of compensation, and planning for future leadership roles.

Are Talent Management Systems and Applicant Tracking Software the Same?

They are not. While some of the features of ATS and TMS may overlap, talent management systems are much broader in their application and focus, as apart from recruitment automation, they include functionality for onboarding, learning and development, succession planning, and compensation management.

Development-wise, creating talent management systems involves slightly different development approaches than those to building your own ATS due to an apparently wider scope of functionality and processes covered by the talent management technology. So, make sure to run thorough research to understand what kind of software you need.

However, in this article, I use those terms almost interchangeably, meaning solely recruitment functionality in both.

Why Build Your Own ATS vs Getting a Packaged Solution?

In 2023, leading talent management technology providers are Workday, AG5 Skills Management, and Personio, according to Capterra (source). Each of these solutions does a great job when it comes to automating or streamlining talent management tasks I mentioned earlier.

However, a common problem with tinned talent management information systems is that they leave close to zero space for customization and scalability. By this I mean that however perfect packaged a recruitment app may look, employers can’t get away without augmenting it to match their niche and organizational needs.

Which is why many companies, just like our client further below, and other recruiters make a tough decision to switch their ATS providers or, even worse, to restore the old way of doing things through Excel sheets.

Other reasons for abandoning tinned talent management software are constant bugs and glitches, poor support service, unintuitive interface, and, obviously, price – any ready-made software will cost you a monthly or yearly subscription.

When creating your own ATS, on the other hand, you tick all these boxes off your list. The main benefits of building your own applicant tracking system include:

Customization: Building an ATS allows a company to tailor the system to their specific needs and processes, making it more efficient and effective for managing the recruitment process.
Integration: A custom ATS can be integrated with other internal systems, such as HR and payroll systems, providing a seamless flow of data and improved decision-making.
Cost: Although often considered as a rather costly option, building your own ATS is definitely more cost-effective in the long run, as there are no ongoing subscription fees.
Branding: A custom ATS can be branded to align with the company’s image and make the recruitment process more consistent with the company’s values and culture.
Owning the data: With a custom ATS, the company owns all the data and can use it as they see fit, unlike with a pre-built ATS where the data belongs to the provider.

How We Built a Custom Applicant Tracking System for an Enterprise Client

Last year, we were involved in the development of a tailored applicant tracking system (ATS) to meet the recruitment needs of our client’s company in the US. The client is a global enterprise with multiple offices and more than 50,000 employees to date – we were engaging with its North American brunch.

The challenge this client of ours was facing was that their previous system, ready-made recruitment app Cornerstone, couldn’t fully integrate the client’s corporate and external recruitment activities – which isn’t surprising at all as most ready-made recruitment apps are designated to be utilized by corporate HR-specialists exclusively.

So, the client turned to Ascendix Tech as a technology expert in workflow automation and creating talent management systems to build their own ATS that would flawlessly reflect their two-faceted hiring process.

In the initial requirements, the client raised several key points:

To create a custom corporate platform for applicant tracking that would align two divisions of the company’s hiring process: corporate recruitment and recruitment through external agencies. These two parties should have had different sets of rights and permissions within the system.
To integrate this ATS with the company’s existing solution for applicant assessments and thus automate filtering candidates. Note: we were familiar with the company’s existing software for candidate assessments as we were the ones who implemented an enhanced security model and rules for assessment calculations within that solution – more on this further below.
To implement vacancy opening functionality with multiple stages of candidate progress statuses.
To ensure basic branding and interface customization capabilities.

Applicant Tracking System Architecture & Functionality

Having carefully considered client’s requests, we’ve built a custom recruitment app that allows recruiters/HRs to sign in, register new candidates, invite them for new job positions, check statuses of invitations, assign assessments, and view the results of assessments taken.

Speaking of assessments, the client needed us to integrate the new ATS with their current talent assessment system so all aspects of assessment and learning would be happening there. The new ATS, on the other hand, would be picking up assessment statuses, managing vacancies, and handling communication with talents.

Here’s an outline of this synergy:

User Interface
The UI of our custom-built ATS web application has been developed with an easily maintainable and clean code approach, with all pages built with the help of visual components.

On the left side bar, users can choose between two view modes – “Candidates” and “Job Positions.” Corporate recruiters may access both entities while contractors can only add, edit, delete, assign, and track the progress of Candidates (and not modify Job Positions) if otherwise is not specified by their corporate colleagues (more on the rights division in the role-based security model section).

Vacancy opening
On the “Job Positions” screen corporate recruiters (but not contractors) can open vacancies by clicking a respective button and filling in the required information, like job title, business line, location, etc.

The important step here is to specify the correct language (should match the preferred language of candidates) and Assessment ID – the unique identification code for the relevant Assessment for this job opening. The assessment itself will be happening in the client’s existing learning environment.

Candidate creation
Candidate creation was created a very simple and straightforward process. For this a corporate / external recruiter would just need to input the name of the candidate, their preferred language, and reference ID.

Candidate invitation
Once a job position and a candidate have been created, corporate recruiters/contractors can assign vacancies to chosen applicants.

There are 2 ways to invite a Candidate for a Job Position:

from a Candidate’s perspective – the action ‘Invite For a Job Position’
from a Job Position’s perspective – the action ‘Invite Candidate’

In the first option, the recruiter/HR has to select a relevant Job Position that would match Candidate’s Preferred Language (if the language of the Job Position doesn’t match that of the Candidate, it simply won’t show up). The search for Job Positions works by the ‘Title’ and ‘Requisition Number’ fields.

In the second option, the recruiter/HR can select an existing Candidate (only Candidates with the same Preferred Language as specified in the current Job Position will show up). In this case, the search for Candidates works by ‘First Name’, ‘Last Name’, ‘Email’, and ‘Reference ID’ fields.

If the Open Date of the Job Position has already come, an invitation email will be sent to the Candidate within 1 hour after its creation. If the Open Date has not come yet, the invitation email will be sent on the Open Date.

Corporate/external recruiters can review invitations sent both from the “Job Positions” and “Candidates” view mode.

Invitation / candidate statuses
After the invitation was sent, recruiters can track the progress of the candidate in the assessment process through invitation statuses.

Statuses of the Invitation represent whether it was just created, sent to the Candidate, whether the Candidate has launched the associated assessment, already completed it, was reminded of it, the invitation expired or the invitation was deleted.

Invitations can be deleted at any of the statuses, and this will unavoidably disable the invitation link previously sent to a Candidate.

Here’s an outline of statuses in our custom-built ATS.

Technology Solutions

Role-based security model
To split the company’s hiring workflow between respective parties – corporate recruiters and contractors – we’ve implemented a role-based security model with 3 user types, each having different permissions and rights:

Corporate recruiters – professionals working within the client’s human resources (HR) department. Can add, view, edit and delete job positions and candidates, while also having authority to assign specific job positions to their third-party recruiting colleagues.
Contractor recruiters – third-party recruiting agencies offering recruitment services to the client. These users can only add, edit, delete and invite candidates (and not job positions). Access to job positions is authorized by corporate recruiters.
Organization administrators – a supportive role having the same rights as corporate recruiters but also having the managerial rights, e.g., to create users and assign roles, etc.

Here’s an illustration of the main user roles and their relations within our custom-built ATS:

The ultimate benefits of implementing role-based security model when building your own ATS include:

A more efficient and streamlined recruitment process, with different users able to focus on their specific responsibilities without interfering with the tasks of others;
Enhanced security, as sensitive information can be restricted to only those with the appropriate permissions;
Greater scalability: As the company grows, new roles and permissions can be added to the system to accommodate new employees and their responsibilities.
Better user experience: Role-based security ensures that users are presented with only the features and functionality that are relevant to them, reducing confusion and improving the overall user experience.

Multi-tenant architecture

Our custom-built ATS application is based using multi-tenant architecture – a software architecture model which means a server runs a single software instance for multiple tenants within a shared environment.

Each tenant has its own data access, permissions, privileges, and adjustments.

This architecture model is opposite to single tenancy which means that you need to run a separate infrastructure and software instance for each tenant. Here is why we opted for such architecture model:

Lower costs: By having a single instance of the software serve multiple tenants, the costs of hosting and maintaining the application can be shared among all tenants, resulting in lower costs for each tenant.

Scalability: The ability to easily add new tenants and scale the system as needed can be beneficial for a recruitment app, as the number of users and job postings can fluctuate.

Data isolation: Each tenant’s data is kept separate from other tenants’ data, ensuring that confidential information is not shared with other companies.

Easy upgrades: Upgrades and maintenance can be done on a single instance of the software, reducing downtime and minimizing disruptions for tenants.

However, multi-tenant architecture isn’t flawless, and it does have its shortcomings. So, before implementing it, make sure to consult with your technology partner on overcoming risks associated with multi-tenant architecture and the ways to overcome them.

If you want to get more insights on how to build an Applicant Tracking System, check the whole article on AscendixTech blog.

7 Solutions That Use Automation to Streamline Planning and Management in Construction

AscendixTech — Thu, 23 Feb 2023 16:51:31 +0000

Automation in construction is not only about robots or drones that help companies get the manual work done fast. Automation starts with the proper estimation of resources and human labor, team scheduling, and communication with suppliers, contractors, and other project members.

The good news is that construction management solutions are here to help you keep the data connected and stored in one place, your activities streamlined, and communication between teams flawless.

Top Benefits of Technology in Construction

Efficient Planning, Scheduling, and Estimation
Did you know that about 75% of construction firms postpone projects due to a poorly managed supply chain?

Creating and processing invoices, adding real-time updates, and making sure everything is stored in one place with no data getting lost is possible with construction management solutions.

With proper construction management software, you can collaborate with suppliers faster. With estimation and budgeting tools, your team will know the number of materials ordered, their price, and when to expect them. If a delay happens, you can warn your team and reschedule activities – all that can be done in one place.

Better Tracking of Activities
Most project management software for construction allows users to set deadlines for tasks and events and receive reminders when the deadline approaches. Other tools go hand in glove with GPS tracking – from now on, not only can you track your team’s activities and the time spent on-site but also the asset’s whereabouts.

Accurate Predictions
Technologies like building information modeling or BIM are irreplaceable helpers when it comes to reducing errors in design, creating the building’s digital twin, and testing it in a simulated environment that imitates real physical surroundings.

As for the planning and estimation stages, construction data analytics tools can perform a historical data analysis, presenting the results in dashboards and charts.

Enhanced Security and Safety
In construction, security is multifaceted and comes with both hardware and software solutions. You no longer need to worry about your laser scanners or robotics being lost or stolen – simply make GPS tracking technology a part of your jobsite management to prevent or recover stolen property, unauthorized uses, and reduce downtime.

What about cybersecurity? Yes, it is there too. When entered, data is encrypted in construction management tools that often come with cloud protection mechanisms, data loss prevention, and end point protection.

Main Areas of Tech Development for Construction Industry

Autonomous Construction Robots
In the future, more robots will work side by side with humans. It shouldn’t come as a surprise, since robotic technologies have pioneered automation in construction by reducing repetitive time-consuming tasks and material waste.

From excavation and welding robots to machines that screw, mill, sand, and paint (like Baubot and Okibo robots), the variety is huge. Other machines are brick-layers (can lay more than 3 thousand bricks a day compared to the 1000 a human can do) and on-site drafters.

3D Printing
3D printers reduce time and material waste by up to 70% and help construction companies solve the shortage of bricklayers.

Some communities (like non-profit organizations in Austin, Texas) are already using 3D printers to deal with homelessness, since 3D printers make half-price and half-time building possible.

No, there is no paper involved in the process if that was your first thought. A typical 3D printer often has a nozzle for the ‘paste’ extrusion that layers the soft material like cement in complex geometric shapes according to the algorithm the machine has been infused with.

Drone Technologies
A drone is an aerial vehicle often coming with a ground-based controller and a communications system.

In construction, drones are used for spatial inspection and process monitoring, allowing construction teams to obtain visual data fast and from the most hard-to-reach places while ensuring construction site safety.

The collected data can be further used for 3D model creation.

Construction Planning and Management Tools
That’s all well and good, but no one can turn a construction project into reality without proper planning and management.

This is where construction planning and management solutions come to save a day.

Apart from streamlining the entire project management lifecycle, these tools assist with budgeting, estimating and bidding, integrate with third-party solutions (not all of them – keep in mind that and ask a provider before purchasing a tool), analyze historical data, and improve forecasting.

Most construction management solutions are cloud-based and offer a subscription model. This means that all data is stored in the cloud, and anyone can access it with authorized access on any device. All you need is a web browser and a good Internet connection. The perk of opting for a cloud-based solution is that it is upgraded and maintained by the provider.

The opposite of a cloud-based project management tool is on-premises. These tools require hardware and servers for data storage. All upgrades and maintenance work are done by the company’s IT team. An on-premises solution comes with a one-off payment but with less convenience compared to a cloud-based one.

7 Examples of Solutions that Automate Planning and Management in Construction

Construction CRMs
You can stop wasting hours on extracting data from multiple places like legacy systems, document folders, and Excel spreadsheets.

Client relationship management or CRM is a complex data management solution that enables users to store their contacts (clients, partners, contractors and subcontractors, and insurance adjusters) in one place.

With CRM, pieces like company name, location, ID, website, company’s representatives, and the Account owner (the person who has created the company’s Account and modifies it) don’t get lost.

Everyone can benefit from CRM. Construction developers can record details for Consultants and Contractors, add comments to their work and store them in CRM so other teams that are the next to take over the project can access them.

Consultants can classify contractors based on the job types they provide, rate them, and make better decisions.

With custom CRM, estimators can create accounts for the suppliers, upload quotations and leave their feedback, so if the next time there is a need to hire a contractor, estimators can make a better decision based on the feedback they left in the CRM notes.

Meanwhile, contractors will surely benefit from the team scheduling, reporting, and contract and quote management. If you’ve got a sales team as a subcontractor, CRM will help them determine the most prospective leads to follow up with and book the jobs for you faster.

Construction Estimation and Bidding Software
Tools like On-Screen Takeoff and Heavy Bid help construction companies estimate the project and manage the bids, analyze subcontractor and supplier quotes, and assign quantity values to estimate assemblies.

With the help of construction estimating solutions, contractors can send bidding invitations to subcontractors, save and compare bids, and determine the total project costs, deadlines, milestones, and resources required for project completion.

Some come with pre-built construction estimate templates, including fields like Design, Permits, and Zoning. Others might offer construction scheduling templates, proposal generators, and digital signature functionality for contract management.

Construction Budgeting Software
Unlike traditional accounting software, construction budgeting tools consider all players in the construction field, allow users to track expenses, estimate job costs, and timely proceed with bank transactions.

With access to contract documents and billing, you’ll never forget to pay your contractors or suppliers on time.

A construction budgeting tool can be both as a stand-alone product or embedded into construction estimation and bidding tools for ensuring precise estimation of direct and indirect costs like payments for materials and contractors services

With this software, users can see project value, project cost and gross profit and compare what they’ve planned and how they’re spending.

The user can put their expenses into different categories to get insight into which parts of the project are the most expensive. They can manage financial data by assigning pieces of data to each client they’re working with.

Most construction budgeting tools have interactive financial charts, dashboards, and reporting features that analyze your data, all conveniently stored in one place.

Construction Architecture and Design Software
The vastest category of all, these tools contribute to the automation in construction by reducing design errors and storing the drafts and ready 2D and 3D models of buildings in one place, which external and internal stakeholders can access during on-site building.

Architecture and design software like building information modeling or BIM (tools like Autodesk BIM 360, SketchUp, and Vectorworks Architect) help construction companies identify any potential design and construction issues and revise building plans.

One can create virtual models of future buildings, view the model from multiple angles, and manipulate the components like doors, floors, roofs, and others to ensure future safety.

Tools like IDEA Architecture allow users to compose 2D and 3D models, animation, and export designs that once integrated with VR solutions, allow contractors to improve their walkthroughs, ensure building accuracy, and determine construction risks.

Simultaneously, other members can extract still images and use them as a visualization for their on-site activities.

Floor plan management software is perfect for renovation teams, space interior designers, and real estate agents. Basically, it’s a draft that visualizes the location of the property elements like doors, windows, and rooms among others. You might see how the garage relates to the hall and whether the house needs an additional entry to access the kitchen.

Want to power up your construction design team with more visualization? Then use site plan software. Tools like SmartDraw come with pre-built templates and elements one can drag and drop for building an interactive site map.

Construction Project Management Software
The backbone of any project, construction project management software helps both residential and commercial players avoid delays and cost overruns by offering a 360-degree overview of the project when it comes to communication, document and cost management.

Most project management solutions allow users to coordinate budgeting, procurement, keep project regulations and expectations at the user’s fingertips, assign tasks, and manage workflows.

A standard project management tool provides control and visibility of task progress with deadline reminders and notifications.

A company can manage a few construction projects and communicate with clients, partners, suppliers, and contractors in one place.

Building often involves a few teams of contractors. With project management tools, no time is wasted. Let’s say, the concreting team can’t complete their task because of the material delay. With a proper management tool, you can edit the scheduling, reach out to the carpentry team that’s supposed to take over the project after the concrete work is done, inform them about the issue, and contact the supplier. All this can be performed in minutes with construction automation.

Jobsite Management Software
A top-notch jobsite management tool is not only about field collaboration but safety and real-time project assessment as well. It provides a bird’s eye view of the site activities, on-site team collaboration, and improves communication between the back office and the construction site.

Jobsite management tools come in all shapes and sizes. Tools like CompanyCam are photo-based solutions for contractors that allow users to annotate photos with comments and voice notes, keep them in the form of reports and galleries, and later share them with others.

Other tools like Busybusy suggest GPS time tracking for contractors, hence easy monitoring of labor, resources, and equipment.

Most jobsite management solutions allow the user to work offline without disrupting the connection between foremen and a project manager, which is vital if the construction site is out of the Internet coverage.

On-site management tools usually go hand in hand with the project management software. With proper integration (that is often a separate service to pay for, but totally worth it), construction project managers can receive automated on-site updates.

Let’s say an incident happened. The user can fill in an accident report that will land on the manager’s desk in a minute, so the manager can take timely measures. The same goes for inspection reports and forensic delay analysis.

Construction Data Analytics Software
One of the costliest construction management solutions, data analytics helps companies utilize their data to the fullest. As an example, tools like Autodesk and Procore are powered by machine learning that scans data and identifies project areas associated with high risk.

With 95% of the data being unused in engineering and construction, companies lose an opportunity to reap the benefits of forecasting.

A construction data analytics tool performs historical data analysis and helps users identify patterns with data visualization and report templates: for example, predict the amount of material and the total funding for the project based on historical data.

With proper integration with other tools, one can view data delivered by drones and VR/AR and collect data from other apps.

Digital Transformation Roadmap for Legacy Real Estate Systems

AscendixTech — Thu, 26 Jan 2023 13:20:58 +0000

Real estate legacy systems are among the core barriers for RE companies, property management firms, and commercial and residential landlords to drive digital transformation. Outdated or no longer supported solutions decrease efficiency, skyrocket costs, and reduce competitive opportunities.

More than that, outdated products cause frustration among team members, lead to increased resource consumption and hold real estate companies back from growth.

This is why many forward-thinking proptech companies update and revamp their legacy systems and, by doing so, cut down costs, optimize productivity, grow sales, future-proof business agility, and succeed with digital transformation. In this blog post, we’ll explore the challenges and benefits of revamping real estate legacy systems and share battle-tested tips from Ascendix’ vetted proptech experts on how to modernize outdated real estate solutions in a cost-compressed and scalable manner.

Real Estate Legacy Systems: A Barrier to Success in PropTech

Real estate legacy systems are outdated or no longer-supported digital products that are still in use in a real estate business despite their incapability to keep up with the demands of a fast-paced proptech business.

Here are at least three ways how real estate legacy systems hold your proptech business back from growth and scalability.

Increased Maintenance & Support Costs

As proptech businesses grow and evolve, they face the ongoing challenge of maintaining and updating their technology systems. While legacy products may have served a valuable purpose in the past, they now become a burden for most real estate-related companies. Outdated systems limit proptech companies from integrating with new technologies, scaling products with brand-new features, and shifting to the cloud computing infrastructure. All these roadblocks lead to increased costs for support and maintenance to keep existing outdated solutions operating and profitable.

This means real estate companies with legacy systems need to waste resources to support their products instead of growing them for a higher ROI, increased sales, and market growth. The longer real estate companies support their outdated solutions, the more opportunities they lose compared to forward-looking competitors.

Zero Competition & Growth Opportunities

The above-mentioned barrier is linked with another: real estate companies utilizing legacy systems lose many growth points and are often edged out by the market competition. For example, your outdated system may not allow integration with modern third-party technologies related to payment gateways, search functionality, email services, etc. This means end-users will most likely prefer feature-rich competitors’ products as they provide way more customer-centered approach.

As a result, your retention rates and sales will drop while product maintenance and marketing costs will plateau at best or climb up in a less positive scenario. This directly impacts your competitiveness and leaves few opportunities to survive in the market.

Low Compatibility with Modern Technologies

The fast-paced real estate industry requires proptech vendors to integrate with modern and innovation-driven technologies and services to win customers. Brand-new features for tenants and landlords, AI-driven capabilities, advanced analytics, and streamlined search experiences are among the core real estate technology trends 2023.

Most of the above are only available if your system has high compatibility with modern tools and integrations. If it is not, you are left behind with a limited number of outdated technologies that usually do not add up much value to the existing functionality within your legacy software.

Overall, real estate legacy systems limit real estate companies from embracing digitalization and keeping a competitive edge in an increasingly digitalized proptech world.

Unlock Your Real Estate Potential: The Benefits of Upgrading Your Legacy Systems

Before we proceed to the core steps of revamping real estate legacy systems, here are up-to-date statistics that prove the high efficiency and profitability of proptech digital transformation for your business.

87% of real estate professionals credited technology for improved efficiency within their proptech business (National Association of Realtors).
78% of proptech experts experienced streamlined productivity with tech adoption (National Association of Realtors).
77% of real estate C-level executives believe tech-fueled innovation drives enhanced real estate customer service (National Association of Realtors).
66% of home builders stated they see improved competition capacities with real estate tech adoption (National Association of Home Builders).
78% of real estate vendors experienced revenue growth by adopting tech-fueled proptech solutions.

Here are the top-10 battle-tested benefits of real estate legacy system modernization for your proptech business.

Maximized Real Estate Efficiency

Revamping legacy systems and transforming them into cloud-based and up-to-date products helps real estate brokers automate daily real estate workflows, avoid human factor risks, skyrocket business efficiency, and streamline any real estate activity, from loan origination and underwriting to document management and investment-related operations.

Embracing New Technologies with Integrations

Integration opportunities also enable real estate companies to bring tech-fueled innovation and digital tools into day-to-day proptech workflows. Embracing brand-new technologies and modern third-party integrations helps adopt must-have AI-driven technologies for data-driven prediction and enhanced decision making, handpick and implement tailor-made CRM systems for streamlined customer relationship operations, and integrate other industry-related infrastructure required for growth and scalability.

Budget-Friendly Spending In Real Estate

Modernizing real estate legacy systems unlocks budget-friendly resource management through transforming non-optimized and no-longer-supported on-premises software into cloud-based, easy-to-scale, and pay-as-you-go modern solutions.

Real estate businesses no longer need to spend fortunes on software maintenance and support along with costly functionality releases and time-consuming deployment. Having revamped your system, you can utilize allocated resources for strategic initiatives like launching the product to new markets, upgrading it with brand-new customer-centric features, and conducting successful product marketing strategies to boost awareness and grow sales.

Productivity Boost to Maximize Output

Upgrading legacy systems in real estate helps property firms skyrocket the productivity of the product team members. Up-to-date, easy-to-adopt, and feature-rich digital solutions streamline and automate daily operations for brokers, minimize the task completion time, and free up extra hours for dealing with value-added activities that maximize the output for your real estate business.

Superior Real Estate Service

Customer service also becomes a growth point while upgrading your legacy software as streamlined workflows, automated sales pipelines, and enhanced promotion capabilities help companies bring customer service to the next level. Proptech firms can boost response rates, increase retention, grow customer loyalty, enhance brand credibility, and thus uplift ROI, revenue, and sales.

Data-Driven Approach to Unlock Growth Potential

Upgrading legacy platforms also helps real estate startups, brokerages, venture capitals, and operators leverage data-driven insights, predictions, and trends to boost performance. Multiple insight-fueled technologies and tools enable proptech businesses to make more informed, data-driven, and business-customer balanced decisions thus leading to improved resource allocation.

Real Estate Collaboration Synergy

Internal collaboration shortcomings are no longer a challenge for real estate companies leveraging up-to-date and optimized proptech products. Modern systems help facilitate internal communication, improve data sharing, and enhance collaboration synergy that help improve the decision-making process and boost productivity and efficiency across all departments.

Power of Greater Agility

Outdated and no-longer-supported systems leave no space for real estate vendors to drive agility and adaptability. Shifting from legacy systems to modernized and scalable tech-fueled products help providers respond to ever-changing market conditions in a lightning-fast manner while catering to customer expectations. This provides you with an additional competitive edge and enables you to outperform competitors down the road.

Real Estate Security Upgrade

Sensitive data sharing and leakage risks become a headache for most outdated legacy system owners as these platforms are error-prone and give a lot of room for hackers to attack. Revamped real estate digital products help anticipate and minimize security-centric shortcomings as they provide powerful data encryption protocols and are fully compliant with most regulations for efficient operation in the proptech landscape.

Who Benefits from Hiring Real Estate Legacy Systems Experts

Real Estate Companies

Real estate vendors are among the core audiences to benefit from hiring real estate legacy system experts. Multiple vendors are still utilizing outdated software that has been effective in the past, but now barriers inovation and growth.

Vetted experts with solid background in revamping real estate legacy systems help companies identify outdated product parts, assess their needs, and migrate from on-premises to cloud-based solutions. This leads to enhanced efficiency, reduced costs, and enables real estate vendors to return their market-leading positions with customer-centric and engaging proptech products.

Property Management Firms

Providers dealing with portfolio and property management can also benefit from hiring domain-based experts to renovate their products. Property management vendors mostly rely on complex systems designed to manage properties and large data bundles while outdated systems often lead to stability errors, performance gaps, and low data accuracy.

For example, a property management company might hire a tech-savvy software modernization expert to help them either migrate outdated software to cloud-based infrastructure or implement a brand-new platform for efficient tenant and lease management, streamlined repair management, automated record keeping, and superior property marketing activities.

Commercial and Residential Landlords

Revamping legacy systems also benefits commercial and residential landlords. First, they can transform offline-only property management into digitally-enabled remote-powered administration and monitoring of properties. This allows them toallocate more time for value-added real estate activities.

Second, real estate software modernization experts help enhance financial management through automated rent collection and expense tracking that eliminates potential human factor risks and prevents landlords from spending extra time and money on financial management.

Third, upgrading legacy software helps landlords bring property marketing and leasing efforts to the next level by utilizing multiple listing solutions that help outreach to a wider audience and connect with potential vendors efficiently.

Real Estate Brokerages

Real estate brokerage businesses hardly rely on tech solutions to manage their daily operations and serve clients effectively. However, outdated and hard-to-scale legacy software brings multiple roadblocks to efficient buying, selling, leasing, and renting of properties.

First, real estate brokerages can benefit from software modernization by leveraging automated workflows to eliminate most manual-only tasks and human factor risks.

Second, companies can leverage enhanced data management to store, organize, and access data more easily and efficiently. This upgrade benefits the entire real estate brokerage process from internal data management to enhanced customer service.

Third, upgrading legacy systems can help real estate brokerages enhance security. Error-prone legacy systems with data leakage risks minimize client retention rates as tenants value their data privacy and carefully choose the vendor to cooperate with. This way, renovated real estate products help brokerages protect sensitive data from cyber threats and ensure full compliance with the required regulations.

Updating Legacy Systems: Tips & Best Practices from PropTech Experts for Real Estate Professionals

Here are the battle-tested tips and best practices from Ascendix’ vetted proptech experts for real estate professionals willing to digitize and renovate their legacy systems.

Thorough Assessment-Based Approach

Before turning to renovating your real estate legacy software, audit the current product architecture and processes you need to modernize. This will help you create a project roadmap and identify more bottlenecks and growth points to consider while updating the system.

For example, if you need to upgrade legacy software for streamlined customer service and automated real estate workflows, software assessment can help you identify analytics gaps and low marketing potential. This helps expand the project roadmap and embed more scalability for unlimited growth of your proptech business in the future.

Full Engagement with Stakeholders & Influencers

Revamping real estate legacy systems is likelt to have a large impact on the entire real estate business so engaging product stakeholders is a must. Before software modernization, conduct group-based and peer-to-peer interview sessions to deliver a shared vision of product deliverables that will impact the modernization plan.

As a result, engagement with stakeholders and internal product influencers helps sharpen either the migration steps or the from-scratch implementation of your real estate product.

Scalability-Driven Approach: Focus on Grow-Ready Solutions

Before renovating your real estate legacy software, consider the required scalability level you’ll need in the upcoming years. The real estate world is a fast-paced industry with ever-evolving market trends and challenges that require having highly-scalable products for lightning-fast adaption down the road.

This means you should focus on grow-ready solutions and services your revamped product will need to compete in a barrier-free way with your forward-thinking rivals.

Calculate TCO: Follow A Smart Real Estate Investment Model

When it comes to renovating your real estate legacy systems, Ascendix’ proptech experts recommend focusing on the total cost of ownership along with the basic upfront costs. The entire TCO includes ongoing maintenance, support, training, migration, and integration costs associated with your brand-new product.

Case Study: How Ascendix Helped JLL Increase User Adoption by 6 Times

Ascendix has over 16 years of hands-on experience in real estate, from proptech software development to legacy software modernization, migration, and automation. Trusted by market-leading proptech players like JLL and Colliers, our real estate tech experts have solid expertise in helping early-stage startups, SMEs, and enterprise-level corporations increase CRM adoption by 6 times, boost web sign-in rates by 200%, and double the service delivery speed.

Here’s a success story on how we helped JLL, a best-in-class and global property and investment management company, modernize its real estate legacy system and migrate it to the cloud.

Initial Requests

Jones Lang LaSalle contacted Ascendix in 2010 to help them streamline CRM data usage processes and integrate real estate information into their system to track properties, leases, sales, and other proptech-related objects in a lightnng-fast and cost-compressed manner

Challenges & Pitfalls

Overall complexity of custom software development and cloud migration process
Other vendors were unable to provide a full software development cycle
Struggled with finding battle-tested tech talents with real estate expertise
Poor communication level between JLL and a dedicated software development team.

Solutions

Custom CRM App on Top of Dynamics 365. We helped JLL address the different needs of multiple locations and built a custom CRM app —SmartClient—on top of Dynamics 365. Our UI application provides all the needed functionality for commercial real estate brokers and different configurations for each location making it a super cost-and time-efficient solution for hundreds of corporate offices and dozens of countries where JLL operates.
Duplication Detection Tool. We developed a powerful tool that automatically monitors the centralized database for similar records when users create a new contact, company, property, availability, etc. This functionality is a real-time wizard that compares the filled-in data with the existing records in the database. If there’s an exact match, the system will flag it to the user. In such a way, our duplication detection tool provides brokers with a flawless user experience and helps them speed up their daily workflow.
Lightning-Fast Brochure Generation Tool. We implemented a report generation tool which allows brokers and clients to create a visually-appealing and detailed PDF brochure or tour guide by pulling information right from the CRM database. End-users can choose whether to download a PDF file or send it via email to clients and prospects within a few clicks. Besides, the tool provides multiple built-in templates with general information and map view for multiple property types that brokers can reuse in the future for a faster generation of eye-catching brochures.
Powerful Opportunity Management Application. We have solved the company’s challenge of ineffective creating, analyzing, and managing opportunities in their CRM system. We built an easy-to-use opportunity management tool that simplifies this process and provides even more flexibility.

Results

JLL increased user adoption by 6 times
Created custom tools for automating business processes within commercial real estate
Advanced customization abilities for hundreds of JLL offices worldwide
White-glove concierge, 24/7 support, and operations teams
Helped the company to migrate its data from on-premises hardware to cloud hosting on Amazon.

Final Words

Real estate legacy systems can be a major hindrance to digital transformation in the proptech domain. Outdated systems often lack the functionality and flexibility needed to keep up with the fast-paced and constantly evolving nature of the real estate market.

However, revamping legacy software and embracing digital renovation of current proptech software helps solving multiple shortcomings down the road and provides great perks: cost reduction, enhanced productivity and efficiency, maximized ROI, growth points and competition opportunities, and real estate business agility.

Building a Rental Marketplace: Meeting the Increasing Demand for Online Rentals

AscendixTech — Fri, 20 Jan 2023 14:17:40 +0000

The coming year will offer many lucrative opportunities for those aiming to create a rental website, while digital solutions around buying and selling real estate might experience a tectonic drop. Here is why and how to create a rental website in 2023.

What is a Rental Marketplace Platform?

A rental marketplace platform is an online rental marketplace where individuals or companies list the vacant property for rentals. The most popular online rental platforms are AirBnb (best for vacation rentals), Rent.com (best for first-time renters), Zillow (one of the best overall), etc.

Why Are Property Marketplaces Poised to Success in 2023?

The popularity of marketplace rental homes is set to rise in 2023 and 2024 as more and more people are holding off on buying a house in light of recent economic fallouts:

Loss of work and unsecured financial future. As of writing this, about 873 tech companies have laid off about 140,000 employees in 2022 (source). As the prospect of further job cuts looms, potential homebuyers are putting brakes on their home purchasing plans in favor of home rentals.
Soaring mortgage rates. At the start of December, interest rates were around 7% for a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage in the US, with a similar situation across most European countries. This inevitably adds up to the aggregate sense of financial uncertainty and is likely to keep demand for real estate marketplace platforms strong.
The age of first-time buyers is climbing up. If a decade earlier, an average 29-year-old would have been able to afford a home, today, this age is edging ever closer to 40 years old. By that time, most people end up renting and do so through house rental platforms.

All of the above has contributed to the recent surge in rents across Western real estate markets – the average asking price climbed to above 10% on average, with the US taking the lead at 10% only to be followed by the UK at 6% (source 1, 2).

Opportunities Behind Home Rental Platforms for Agencies, Tech Startups, and Investors

The surge in demand for rentals creates a perfect storm of opportunities for those looking to create a rental website. In particular:

Forward-thinking agents can leverage rental demand to provide rental property owners and tenants with value-added services through branded rental marketplace platforms and other proptech solutions, e.g., marketplace homes property management, matching tenants with landlords, screening applicants, managing showings, processing applications, and closing the initial rental transaction. A particular focus is going to be on emerging proptech fintech technologies.
Tech companies and startups may cater to those initiatives by creating property marketplaces and other proptech SaaS platforms that would cover the needs of tenants, landlords, and agents within a single website/application. Software companies with existing home buying or mortgage solutions will have to recalibrate their vision toward marketplace homes rentals if they want to keep their property business afloat.
According to Elena Ruiz, Global Investor & Corporate Innovation Manager at Plug and Play, Investors will find wealth in investments in emerging startups that focus on real estate marketplace rentals – as long as they analyze the market, use reliable data, and reach out to real estate tech experts to audit the source code of portfolio apps before making the actual investment.

In fact, 9 out of 25 top Proptech companies 2023 in the US are in some way or another focusing on marketplace rental homes, with a clear indication for further growth of this trend.

How to Create a Rental Website?

1.Decide on a Business Model for Your Home Rental Marketplace Platform

To create a rental website, you should decide on the type of your would-be online rental platform, your target audience, and the needs your real estate solution will solve. We allocate the following classifications of online rental marketplaces:

By asset type: Residential and Commercial Real Estate Rental Marketplace Platforms

Residential marketplace homes rentals like Zillow and Trulia are online rental platforms that aim to provide a hassle-free apartment and single-home search experience by matching prospective buyers/tenants with landlords and real estate agencies. The mission of such online mediums is to make all aspects of moving easier, from search to closing, by providing multiple additional services like mortgage calculations, virtual tours, neighborhood information, visual breakdowns of the monthly costs for a property, etc.
Commercial real estate (CRE) rental marketplace platforms employ CRE technology to facilitate renting commercial properties like offices, storages, and multi-family buildings. Perhaps the best-known example of such online rental platforms is WeWork – a space-as-a-service rental marketplace that is focused on office space rentals. Another notable example is Stowga – a warehouse marketplace that aims to accommodate businesses and individuals with secure storage options across the globe.

By the length of stay: Short-Term and Long-Term Home Rental Platform

Short-term, sometimes called vacation home rental marketplaces, like Airbnb, provide furnished self-contained apartments or houses that are rented for short periods of time.
Long-term marketplace rental homes are focused on leasing out a residential property to tenants upon signing a rental contract of over 6 months or a year. As a rule, residential rent will be much lower than tourist accommodation. However, due to the increased effort required and greater expenses of a short-term let, residential rentals appear much safer and still provide a profitable income [source].

By purpose: Brokerage-Specific and Generic

For marketing properties available within ONE brokerage (Century 21, Savills, Keller Williams Realty), i.e., branded marketplaces. The ultimate goal behind such websites is to generate an agent commission upon closing a deal.
For matching buyers with sellers by displaying property listings from different brokerages (Zillow, Trulia, LoopNet, Redfin, CREXi, etc.). These online rental platforms make money by selling subscriptions and targeted advertising to mortgage lenders, homebuilders, and rental property management companies.

2. Think of the Monetization Model

Before creating a rental website, think about how you are going to make money with it. There are at least three actionable models of monetizing a rental marketplace platform.

1) By receiving commissions
A commission is a percentage/fixed flat fee for each transaction made on a platform. If your real estate marketplace software is going to list properties within a single real estate agency, such percentage/fee is called agent commission and usually goes to a person that closed a deal.

For generic marketplace homes rentals like Airbnb that provide a venue for listing properties from a wider brokerage community this percentage/fee is generated upon each transaction that takes place on the platform and charged to landlords or tenants.

The advantage of such a rental marketplace monetization model is that it is relatively easy to implement and does not require the involvement of any third party, like advertisers.

However, an ultimate drawback is that the total revenue is dependent on the number of transactions completed on the platform. So, this monetization model is likely to generate the most revenue if applied to short-term market place rentals like Airbnb and Homestay with a shorter home-staying cycle and more transactions as opposed to long-term rentals.

However, if there’re few visitors to your rental marketplace platform, you’ll not generate much revenue anyway.

2) By selling subscriptions

The subscription revenue model means that a property marketplace charges a monthly fee for access to the platform or particular functionality. Rightmove, for example, sells an advanced subscription called Rightmove Plus that, apart from basic features, offers brokers:

Property Promotion Products (Featured Property & Premium Listing)
Branding Products (Local Homepage, Agent Microsite within the Rightmove platform, Sold By Me view to show all properties sold by an agent, Featured Agent to include a personalized agent banner on each listing)
Branded E-Marketing Products (E-Leaflets to include in automatic email campaigns, Property Alert Sponsor to include a banner advert in email alerts)
Valuation Generation Products (Local Valuation Alert to be listed among local agencies, Rightmove Discover to easily launch proactive, behavior-driven targeting)

Rightmove is very secretive about its premium membership, as different agencies are charged differently based on their size and location. But it has been numerously reported that the rough monthly cost is £1000+ (1200+ USD).

The ultimate advantage of such a model is that your rental marketplace doesn’t have to support payments to charge users a commission fee upon each transaction. Instead, you can and should focus on other value propositions in terms of functionality to draw more visitors to your rental marketplace platform. As a result, your revenue will be much more predictable than within the commission-based model.

3) By advertising featured listings (Zillow, Appartments.com)

This monetization model means that agents can pay a fee to get listed on the top of the search and get more visibility on the online rental platform. Just as an illustration, Craigslist charges anywhere between $3 to $75 for adding a listing.

This revenue model is attractive for one-branch brokerages that don’t post listings on a regular basis and thus can spend less than when buying a subscription.

However, the drawback of this revenue model is very similar to that of commission-based monetization – it is not easy to turn free users into those who are ready to pay a fee. The only way to deal with this is to offer sufficient value to your users.

3. Build from scratch or use a ready-made solution

Generally, there are two main ways to create a rental website:

Developing it from scratch
Utilizing pre-existing software/platforms or no-code solutions.

1) Creating a rental marketplace from scratch

Creating your rental marketplace from the ground up can be a viable option if you require advanced features or significant customization. This approach requires a significant amount of time and resources, but the advantages you get in the end are simply incomparable.

The key benefits of custom development include the following:

Unlimited customization and personalization capabilities, meaning that at any point in time, you can amend the software’s source code to add required functionality, e.g., your own payment gateway.
The ability to seamlessly integrate any third-party services, tools, and APIs, meaning that your custom-made rental marketplace will be perfectly scalable
Increased security as you can select your own security measures and apply industry best practices
Flexibility in design and functionality with a dedicated development team that can create a simple or complex platform based on your needs.

If you feel overwhelmed by technical jargon, integrations, and compatibility concerns, consider partnering with a technology company with experience in the real estate industry to guide you through the process.

By assembling a team of skilled professionals, including UI/UX designers and engineers, you can ensure a smooth launch and ongoing support for your product.

2) Using a pre-existing solution or building on a no-code platform

Utilizing a pre-existing solution can be a great option for small to medium-sized businesses that don’t have the resources or desire to make large initial investments or implement significant customizations.

With a no-code rental marketplace tool, businesses can quickly launch their ideas without a tech team, which is a significant advantage over costly custom development. These tools typically include pre-built features such as payment gateway, listing management, and user accounts.

However, as your business grows and expands, the need for additional functionality may arise, and no-code tools may not have the technical capabilities to accommodate these needs due to limited customization options.

Even if they do, the final costs may be even higher than building a custom solution from scratch, as these simple, non-technical platforms do not allow for any amends in the application’s source code.

What is the Cost of Developing the Online Rental Marketplace from scratch?

Developing an online rental marketplace from scratch will take a lot more time and money than getting a ready-made solution.

An average of $10,000 to $25,000 (with $40 per hour as the service charge) will cost to develop an online rental marketplace from scratch. These numbers will largely depend on the complexity of your project and the development rates of your tech team, so it makes sense to consider all development options, including outsourcing and offshoring, to optimize your costs.

4. Create an MVP for your rental website

A Minimum Viable Product (MVP) is the initial version of your product that has enough features to appeal to early adopters and validate your idea but does not include any unnecessary functions.

Creating an MVP for your real estate marketplace platform can assist you in:

Verifying if your product is of interest to your target audience
Identifying if the core functionality is appropriate
Discovering which features are most valuable and popular
Building a base of potential customers and early adopters for your product
Identifying potential issues and addressing them in the early stages of development.

Is an MVP so different from a fully featured product?

There is a significant difference between an MVP and a fully-featured real estate marketplace. An MVP focuses on validating the target audience, while a fully-featured product is designed to serve a specific target group.

The cost of an MVP is lower compared to a fully-featured product, but it should not be considered a raw or poorly-made product. An effective MVP should be a high-quality application, containing only the most essential features that can address the users’ most critical problems.

Having a successful MVP can reduce the time and cost required to create a rental website with a full set of features. It also allows you to present the app to a validated, loyal audience.

Marketplace Homes Rental Requirements: What Features to Include

For renters:

Registration
A sign-up or login feature is necessary for all users, including the platform owner, end users, and product/property owners, to access the platform’s features and functionalities.

Search
An advanced search feature with filters to narrow down the results and help users find the right products or properties.

GPS Integration
A map integration feature that uses Google Maps for accurate location-based searches. You can also add an advanced version of map search like that in the Rightmove Plus subscription that allows users to search by drawing a circle on the map.

Favorites
A feature that allows users to save their preferred products or properties in a wishlist or cart.

In-App Text/Call
A feature that enables users to communicate with the product or rental service providers for any issues or concerns.

Booking
Users can quickly book and confirm rental products or properties, with the details reflected in the “order history” feature.

Rent Order History
A feature that keeps track of past rental orders, including information on the product/property rented, rental dates, payment method, and amount.

Payment Integration
An essential feature that provides multiple payment options for users, including credit/debit cards, UPI, PayPal, and cash.

Push Notifications
Users receive notifications regarding their rental orders.

Reviews & Rating
Users have the ability to rate and review the rental services they received at the end of their rental period.

For property owners:

Seasonal Pricing Calendar
This feature allows service providers to set different pricing for their goods based on the season. They can increase prices during high demand and lower them during low demand periods.

Instant Book & Request to Book
This feature allows rental owners to label their listings as “Instant book” or “Request to book”. With the instant booking option, end-users can book without needing to request the service provider. The request to book option sends a booking request to the provider before the booking can be confirmed.

For admins of the platform:

User Messages Auditing
The platform owner can audit the messages that go between the providers and the end-user. This feature helps the owners to know what has happened to understand the dispute.

CRM Software Behind the Platform
Having a Custom Relationship System helps administrators route and execute communications with multiple clients that left a request on your real estate marketplace platform in a centralized way.

Content Management System (CMS)
The platform owner can add a new page or change the existing content on the website by using a content management system.

Report and Brochure Generating Tool
Brochures and property reports are vital in any rental business but may be time-consuming if you need to create each one manually upon a client’s request. With an integrated report generation tool, admins can generate eye-pleasing brochures by pulling information directly from your rental website / CRM system behind it.

User Reviews Auditing
The platform owner can delete or edit the reviews given by the user and provider on the platform. This feature helps in minimizing the untrue reviews posted by the users.

Multi-Currency & Multi-Language
You can integrate multi-currency and multi-language to make your real estate marketplace platform reach beyond the local community.

Rental Marketplace Startups to Learn From

Bilt Rewards

Headquarters: New York, New York, United States
Founded Date: 2021
Funding Round: Series B
Total Funding: 213.3M USD
Status: Unicorn

Bilt Rewards is a fresh proptech startup that has disrupted the home rental market with unique rewards programs that allow renters to earn points simply by paying their rent. Bilt’s points can be redeemed for a variety of rewards through 12 different loyalty programs. These include major airlines, hotels, travel, fitness classes, Amazon.com purchases, and even credit toward rent or a future down payment.

Bilt also unveiled a new initiative called Bilt Homes, which aims to assist renters in achieving homeownership. The program compares the member’s monthly rent payments against mortgage rates in the area to identify homes that they could afford to purchase with that same payment. This takes into account real-time interest rates, taxes, income, credit profile, and other personal data to calculate mortgage eligibility.

Bilt’s is officially one of the most quick-growing market place rental startups as just in a year its total valuation skyrocketed from 350 million USD to 1.5 billion USD, which gives the company unicorn status.

Proplar

Headquarters: San Francisco Bay Area, Silicon Valley, West Coast
Founded Date: 2014
Funding Round: Series Unknown
Total Funding: 3.5M USD
Status: Unicorn

Poplar Homes, co-founded in 2014 by Toschi, Chuck Hattemer, and Rico Mok, is an online marketplace platform that primarily operates in the single-family home rental market. Its target audience is private individuals with only one or a few properties, who are estimated to control 90% of the market.

The company manages leasing, maintenance, legal, and accounting matters for owners and also aims to make the process more convenient for renters by providing an online platform for touring properties, getting approvals, and paying rent.

SquareFoot

Headquarters: New York, New York, United States
Founded Date: 2011
Funding Round: Series B
Total Funding: 29.4M USD
Status: Unicorn

SquareFoot is a modern real estate marketplace software that caters to companies searching for their next office space. The software prioritizes providing a stress-free and transparent experience for companies that require flexible leasing options.

The platform offers a seamless process supported by user-friendly technology and a dedicated team of real estate experts who match clients’ unique needs with the current market’s offerings.

Residently

Headquarters: London, England, United Kingdom
Founded Date: 2017
Funding Round: Series Unknown
Total Funding: 16M USD
Status: Unicorn

Residently is a real estate marketplace software that enables renters to schedule viewings, take virtual tours, make offers, pay deposits, and extend or renew their leases. The platform also supports realtors, property managers, and institutional landlords in managing their tenants, reducing costs and void periods.

By digitizing the renter’s experience, both agents and property managers can streamline operations, saving £400 per property per year and doubling the landlord’s Net Operating Income through void reduction.

The company was established in 2017 and is based in London, England.

Month2Month

Headquarters: London, England, United Kingdom
Founded Date: 2017
Funding Round: Series A
Total Funding: 15M USD
Status: Unicorn

Month2Month is a company that aims to transform the rental industry by creating a rental website that features beautifully furnished housing on flexible rental terms. Month2Month.com provides thousands of fully furnished, ready-to-move-in homes in various states such as California, Florida, Texas, Nevada, Oregon, and more, for families and working professionals to enjoy.

The company has an innovative culture and is staffed by a diverse group of vibrant, energetic employees dedicated to providing excellent customer service.

Final Thoughts

Building and launching a rental marketplace platform seems to be a daunting task. But only until you have the right knowledge and technology partner along with you.

Ascendix is a proptech development expert with almost two decades of practice-based experience in real estate.

The world’s biggest real estate services corporations like JLL, Hanna CRE, and Colliers trust us because:

As product owners ourselves, we nurture an extensive solution portfolio of as many as 17 real estate tech products and do know all the nuances of bringing innovative ideas to life from scratch.
Anchored in Dallas, the US but having 4 more offices worldwide, we combine our local, national, and international experience to deliver disruptive proptech solutions at reasonable rates and around the clock.
We offer flexible engagement models to give you absolute freedom of how close you want to be involved in the development process

Tell us more about your project, and we’ll make sure to provide you with the knowledge and resources to make innovation happen for you and your business.

Ranking of the Leading Proptech Firms and Startups in the United States for 2023

AscendixTech — Fri, 13 Jan 2023 13:56:23 +0000

As an industry, real estate has been immune to tech development, but with automation no longer being a whim but a pure necessity, things are changing. Now think of this number – $86 billion. This is the market cap of General Electric, Porche, and LG Energy Solution separately or the one of Foxconn and Shopify combined.

It’s as big as Bill Gates’s net worth in 2016. But $86 billion is also the point to which the proptech market value is forecasted to have grown by 2032. The proptech companies will acquire in a year what took Gates a lifetime. Pretty impressive, right?

What is a proptech company? Proptech companies operate at the intersection of real estate as an industry and software development. The best proptech companies see the pains of the real estate players, analyze them, and provide perfectly tailored solutions whether in the design or functionality of a product.

So, let’s check the list of the most valuable proptech companies to learn from and the best proptech startups to invest in.

Top 7 Proptech Companies to Follow in 2023

WeWork;
Airbnb;
Opendoor;
Compass;
Homelight;
VTS;
Redfin.

Top Proptech Companies in Real Estate

WeWork

Type of Solution: Commercial office space solutions
Founded: 2010
Funding: $22 billion

WeWork is a unicorn company that’s focused on reimagining the future of office work. One of the biggest proptech companies, it provides flexible office spaces or move-in ready offices all over the world.

The range of space types is vast: dedicated desks, private offices, office suites, full-floor offices, and event spaces.

From now on, WeWork’s clients don’t have to worry about leases that break their budget. With a flexible pricing system, modern businesses can decentralize offices or create collaboration hubs with top technology like private VLAN and Wi-Fi.

Depending on team size and location, one can always find the perfect office with WeWork. As one of the top proptech public companies, WeWork boasts 151 million square feet in 151 cities and 700+ prime locations globally. Also, more than half of the Fortune 100 companies are WeWork’s clients.

Airbnb

Type of Solution: Global short-rentals marketplace
Founded: 2008
Funding: $6.4 billion

Airbnb is fairly one of the largest publicly traded proptech companies in the entire world. Airbnb functions as a short-rentals platform for travelers and homeowners. Travelers can easily book and manage their trips while enjoying a secure payment system, hosts’ verified profiles and listings, and 24/7 support.

Depending on the trip goals, users can choose Airbnb Experiences, Airbnb Adventures, and Airbnb for Work.

Airbnb is a great example of how ubiquitous things take creators to new beginnings. In the best tradition of peer-to-peer economy, the company connects travelers and homeowners in exchange for a tiny service fee.

In fact, the biggest chunk of the money that Airbnb gets comes from 14.2% and 3% nonrefundable service fees charged to guests and hosts respectively.

The company boasts 7 million listings in more than 200 countries.

OpenDoor

Type of Solution: Residential marketplace / iBuyer
Founded: 2014
Funding: $1.9 billion

OpenDoor specializes in selling and buying residential property in a simple perfectly streamlined way. One of the most funded proptech companies among American public proptech companies OpenDoor offers one to sell their property for top dollar at a 5-14% service charge depending on the sales deadline.

The best part is, unlike other top real estate tech companies, OpenDoor offers you a virtual property assessment in a matter of hours. All you need is a quick video walkthrough. All paperwork happens online, so you don’t have to leave the comfort of your home.

After the property assessment, you can opt for an all-cash offer and sell your house to the company directly or hire a real estate agent.

You can avoid double mortgages if you decide to both sell your old house and buy a new one with OpenDoor. All you have to do is install the company’s app to unlock the door and tour OpenDoor houses without setting a special appointment from 6 am to 9 pm.

With fewer intermediaries and digital-first experiences, OpenDoor is a godsend to everyone who wants to minimize their expenses and save time.

Compass

Type of Solution: Brokerage technology
Founded: 2012
Funding: $1.6 billion

Compass is one of the most funded real estate tech companies with unicorn status. The company functions as a marketplace platform that connects buyers with sellers by offering brokerage services.

Compass has gathered a huge team of professionals in real estate, marketing, design, business, and engineering – a team that will help you refurbish your house without any additional fees and sell it for top dollar in the shortest possible time.

Compass boasts 25+ thousand top real estate agents and 67 real estate markets.

With a top-notch analytical proptech stack and other data-generating tools, Compass knows how to sell properties fast. Another great feature is exclusive listings with a ‘coming soon’ tag – even without being the company’s direct client, one can check the listings and find whether the company’s offer is a good fit for them.

Homelight

Type of Solution: Rental marketplace
Funding: $742.5 million
Founded: 2012

One of the biggest fast-growing proptech platforms, Homelight provides house buyers with personalized agent recommendations and connects its clients with property owners. On the company’s site, you can find out your home value and browse through the listings before becoming Homelight’s client.

The company boasts 28 thousand real estate agents and more than $1 billion in transactions annually.

The company promotes housing equality and fights against racial bias. Like Orchard, Homelight helps homeowners buy a new house before selling their old one. With Homelight services, one can easily secure a mortgage and choose their dream house with the help of a top real estate agent.

VTS

Type of Solution: Commercial real estate software
Founded: 2012
Funding: $462 million to date

One of the biggest proptech companies globally and one of the top unicorn proptech startups in the past, VTS boasts a few commercial real estate products that help landlords and brokers to manage their property, market vacant units, lease deals, and have flawless communication with tenants.

Nowadays, the company manages more than 12 billion square feet globally and has 45+ thousand clients. The company’s reports claim that the VTS platform allows clients to turn leads into leases 41% faster while making data-driven decisions.

The aim of VTS is to develop an inclusive leasing and asset management platform that is easy-to-navigate and covers all real estate processes.

Redfin

Type of Solution: Rental software
Founded: 2002
Funding: $319.6 million

One of the most valuable proptech companies, Redfin provides real estate services in insurance, lending, brokerage, and rentals in the US and Canada.

Reaching out to Redfin is a moneywise decision, since Redfin’s technology is fee-reducing and cost-saving. All you need to pay is a 1% listing fee. As the company states, an average buyer saves $7 thousand when choosing Redfin.

Considered the #1 national brokerage site in the US, this proptech solution company allows one to request house tours and order renovation sessions to maximize profit. Meanwhile, getting new offers, communicating with the real estate agent, and sharing your favorite units with the family is possible with the company’s mobile app.

Zumper

Type of Solution: Rental marketplace
Founded: 2011
Funding: $180.2 million

Among other proptech companies, Zumper mostly specializes in multifamily complexes and functions as a platform connecting property owners with renters. It allows renters to submit rental applications online and get real-time alerts on the best property offers.

As for the property owners, the latter can perform a screening session on Zumper’s platform, request TransUnion credit reports and background checks, and collect their rent securely.

One of the youngest and best real estate tech companies, Zumper boasts around 180 million visits and 13 million renters.

When it comes to inclusivity, Zumper ticks all items on the list. The company offers rental options for every taste and budget: short-term rentals, pet-friendly accommodations, cheap apartments, luxury properties, standard houses, and apartments.

Qualia

Type of Solution: Digital closing platform
Founded: 2015
Funding: $160 million

Qualia is one of the biggest proptech companies nowadays – the top digital closing platform in real estate that has already helped over 500 thousand clients to close millions of home ownership deals.

The company turns home closings into digital transactions and reduces workload by 75%, offering its users an anxiety-free home closing and refinance experience.

Qualia’a products are designed for lenders, vendors, settlement agents, title insurers, and real estate agents. The user’s FedEx shipments, emails, and documents are all stored in one place – the user has the data all at their fingertips. Qualia’s products smoothly integrate with other tools like Simplifile and provide transparency to accounting and document prep operations.

Additionally, among all proptech companies, Qualia is the first to join the Coalition to Stop Real Estate Wire Fraud.

Reonomy

Type of Solution: AI-powered commercial database platform
Founded: 2012
Funding: 128.4 million

Reonomy is truly one of the most innovative proptech companies in USA in the realm of proptech innovation. The company offers a commercial database platform that helps investors, brokers, agents, and mortgage lenders make smarter data-driven investment decisions due to predictive analytics.

Reonomy suggests two core features to its users, Web Application and Data Solution. While the former helps Reonomy’s clients track US-based available commercial properties to invest in, the latter customizes property searches according to company’s needs.

Reonomy’s proptech solution includes data extraction from various sources (mostly public and crowdsourced data) and the further development of market intelligence which can be later used by investors. The pricing is flexible overall, depending on the features one uses. Demo requests and free trials are possible.

Hover

Type of Solution: 3D visualization
Founded: 2011
Funding: $127.3 million

Hover is another proptech solution company that has combined the top trends in design, construction, and technology. By turning photos of the user’s home captured by smartphone technology into realistic interactive 3D models, the company has reshaped home improvements.

One can get accurate measurements of their property to organize both construction and maintenance processes efficiently. Before you start the project, you already know the costs to expect and the contractors to collaborate with. Hover helps you get accurate estimates and order the exact amount of building materials in one place – the app.

The best part is that you can get your first 3D visualization model and find whether you’re happy with the results without paying a cent.

RealPage

Type of Solution: Commercial and residential prop management tools
Founded: 1998
Funding: $105 million
One of the oldest proptech companies, RealPage assists managers of more than 19 million units worldwide by providing proptech SaaS products, compliance, vendor, and billing services among others. RealPage products are cloud-based, but also available on the web and mobile devices.

RealPage has fairly gained a spot among the best real estate tech companies due to a variety of high-quality proptech services. RealPage offers you cutting-edge tools to fully automate your leasing, listing, tenant screening, billing, and management processes.

RealPage is also a rent-setting software. Without violating antitrust laws, the RealPage tool automatically prices your unit depending on the market dynamics. With RealPage, you can lease your property for a top dollar each day.

Zillow

Type of Solution: Real estate marketplace
Founded: 2006
Funding: $96.6 million to date

Like RealPage, Zillow is one of the largest proptech companies, all about variety when it comes to buying, selling, and renting property. Zillow connects renters, buyers, and sellers to help everyone move to their new dream house.

The company helps homeowners to get pre-approved financing for the next home purchase, find the most suitable mortgage providers, and choose their future home. Meanwhile, the Zestimate tool allows sellers to check the future profit and help the client decide whether they want to hire a Zillow Premier Agent for sell-and-buy consultation.

The company’s platform is also open to renters. With Zillow Rentals, one can search for a new space to be rented, send applications, get background checks, and pay their monthly rent.

CoreLogic

Type of Solution: AI-powered data analytics software
Founded: 2010
Funding: $74.7 million

One of the biggest proptech companies in AI-powered housing data and analytics, CoreLogic offers innovative data modelling to help mortgage brokers, insurers, valuers, and other industry players to finesse their decision making.

The company’s automated valuation models (AVMs) as a part of current and predictive analytics when it comes to price trends and other industry changes. For instance, one of the company’s products is the Mapping the Market Tool which allows users to check the median property value and annual value changes.

CoreLogic boasts 4.5 billion records and 7 thousand data sources. The data provided by one of the biggest proptech companies covers up to 98% of the property market.

With 9 locations and 5 thousand people worldwide, CoreLogic remains one of the most trusted sources by government agencies and financial institutions when it comes to real estate.

Loopnet

Type of Solution: Commercial real estate listing platform
Founded: 1995
Funding: $50 million

Around 85% of commercial real estate decisions happen online. For that reason, Loopnet is one of the biggest proptech platforms, a listing service for commercial real estate in particular.

Powered by customizable search filters, the platform contains 50 thousand listings for commercial properties to auction, buy, or lease. One can find everything from offices and industrial buildings to land and shopping centers.

The more features you want to add to the functionality, the higher the fees. On Loopnet’s platform, one can push their property to the top of the list save searches, share listings, access property details, and contact agents.

In the end, Loopnet is a great networking platform for finding top brokers and a value-added tool for getting top commercial properties.

Top 5 Proptech Startups to Follow in 2023

EquipmentShare;
Pacaso;
Orchard;
Side;
OpenSpace.

Top Proptech Startups in Real Estate

EquipmentShare

Type of Solution: Construction rental services (marketplace)
Founded: 2015
Funding: $1.6 billion

One of the most funded proptech companies, EquipmentShare is a leader in construction automation. The company allows contractors to rent construction equipment with installed GPS trackers from other contractors by paying a small fee to the rental company which EquipmentShare is.

The company covers the protection plans itself, saving its clients up to 20% of total expenses.

EquipmentShare brought innovation by adding connectivity to one of the most secluded sectors in real estate. To enhance productivity, the company has created a construction management platform – a cloud-based solution that provides maximum visibility to construction processes, eliminates bottlenecks like wrong alerts or inaccurate reports, and completely digitizes traditionally manual processes.

With the construction industry predicted to rise from $6.4 trillion in 2020 to $14.4 trillion in 2030, it’s clear as a day that EquipmentShare has already mapped out the industry trends for future startups to follow.

Pacaso

Type of Solution: Second home investment
Founded: 2020
Funding: $1.5 billion

What the former executives at Zillow and now Pacaso innovators did was make the idea of second home ownership affordable to everyone.

How does it work? Let’s say you already own a house but have to move to a neighboring state for a few months or a year. Instead of renting a flat and dealing with hassling homeownership, you can have your share of a second home (pun intended) on favorable terms like 12% of the home’s purchase price. If boredom strikes, you can resell your share or swap it for a different Pacaso house.

One of the world-known real estate unicorns, Pacaso has fairly taken the place among the most valuable proptech companies in less than a year. Currently, the company is focusing more on luxury second home sales, since this type of second home purchase has increased by 25% during the second quarter of 2022.

Orchard

Type of Solution: Real estate marketplace
Founded: 2017
Funding: $472 million

Unlike traditional homebuying companies and agents that won’t allow you to buy a new property before selling your old one, Orchard does both. You get a licensed real estate agent that does free home valuation, organizes expert home prep at no additional cost, and sells your old home for top dollar.

Orchard is a great example of proptech firms that haven’t revolutionized the market but made the oldest ideas work for them with a tiny reshaping. You can window shop at the company’s site to find out whether the units are worth it. Orchard can skip the house shows, delegating the whole selling-and-buying process to the company’s professionals.

Side

Type of Solution: Brokerage platform
Founded: 2014
Funding: $313.5 million

Side is a real estate brokerage platform that has disrupted the traditional brokerage models by supporting agents in legal matters, auditing, advertising, and other aspects commonly associated with the brokerage realm.

By delegating the brokerage matters to Side, you, as an agent, can focus directly on the precious agent-and-client communication. This proptech solution company promises 44% growth in a year if you reach out to them.

When working with one of the best proptech firms, Side’s client has full ownership of their business, which they can sell or transform later – a thing that is not possible if the brokerage owns the business.

One of the rarest unicorn companies, Side is a true gem in our list of proptech companies. Valued over $1 billion, the company has made it to the list of the top successful ventures in real estate as well.

OpenSpace

Type of Solution: Construction space management
Founded: 2016
Funding: $200.4 million

OpenSpace is one of the proptech companies in USA that have maximized the value of artificial intelligence (AI) in the real estate industry.

The company provides its customers with products like OpenSpace Track to document their site in detail. Let a phone be your eyes: walk and record the environment with a 360-degree camera to check every nook and cranny later while being far from the site.

Upload the results of your building information modeling (BIM) to the app and compare it with your real-life site to detect construction-related hazards in time.

The best part? OpenSpace is all about risk prevention – when it comes to money as well. That’s why you can approach a company with a pennywise attitude and request a demo.

VergeSense

Type of Solution: Office analytics technology
Founded: 2017
Funding: $82 million

Thirty countries and forty million feet – that’s the measure of the office space monitored by VergeSense.

One of the most innovative real estate companies, VergeSense has combined sensor hardware and a cloud platform that allows businesses to track physical office usage remotely. Infrared sensors (both wired and wireless) coupled with AI algorithms spot objects and detect motion, and later transfer data to other systems.

Employees’ sensitive data is secure with VergeSense since the data detected by sensors is translated into low-resolution imagery. By adopting VergeSense AI technology, businesses can upgrade office utilization, monitor workplace attendance, decrease vacancy rates and building costs, and make smarter decisions when it comes to office technology.

Doorvest

Type of Solution: Rental property investment
Founded: 2019
Funding: $50 million

A newbie among proptech startups, Doorvest is a rental property investment company that helps landlords-to-be to successfully invest in single-family homes with Houston (TX) location.

Doorvest streamlines selling-and-buying processes, organizes maintenance sessions, and screens your tenants. If you’ve never had property management experience, put your worries aside – the company will manage your property for the first year with a 15% fee of the total rent.

Apart from that, Doorvest offers a one-year renovation guarantee and a one-year rental income guarantee. If your tenant breaks the lease or refuses to pay, you’ll still get a stable income. The minimum investment is $35 thousand and can go higher depending on your investment goals and budget.

DoorLoop

Type of Solution: Rental management software
Funded: 2019
Funding: $30 million

One of the top rental proptech startups, DoorLoop has developed a product that, simple at first sight, automates the most daunting tasks in property management like rent collection, portfolio management, lease signing, and maintenance requests processing.

Founded only a few years ago, the company has already managed to conquer more than 100 countries with a snap of a finger as a part of the proptech industry. Why so? Well, DoorLoop founders could really see things through when the lack of affordable and easy-to-customize rental management software became a problem.

The best part of a DoorLoop product? The software integrates smoothly with other tools, and before you invest in it, you can request a demo without losing a single penny to check whether you’re happy with the functionality.

RentRedi

Type of Solution: All-in-one property management software
Founded: 2016
Funding: $17 million

RentRedi is an all-in-one property management tool designed and developed specially for landlords managing their property with the help of smartphones while on the go.

One of the best proptech startups, RentRedi has brought on-time payments to a new level. If you’ve got 10 tenants, 7 of them are more likely to pay their rent in time if they use RentRedi.

Other features are tenant screening (you get access to all eviction, criminal, and credit reports), maintenance requests and listings management, and easy to sign and store lease agreements.

If math has never been your strong suit, RentRedi is REI Hub’s partner and can offer you landlord accounting software. Keep your management and financial reporting ‘fee-less’ and fearless with RentRedi!

TurboTenant

Type of Solution: All-in-one prop management platform
Founded: 2015
Funding: $10.2 million

TurboTenant is a no-trial (again, it’s free) all-in-one tool for DIY landlords. You can build your listing page with no assistance from a real estate agent, use the auto-pay option and auto-late fees, and customizable lease agreements (which landlords and tenants can sign remotely).

You can even play a big boss and compare the income reported by the applicant to the TransUnion data. But play fair! Learn the rules with the help of resources containing landlord-tenant laws and state-specific legal forms right on the TurboTenant platform.

At the core, TurboTenant streamlines move-in and move-out processes like most proptech companies on the global proptech market map.

So, what’s the zest of the deal? The name says it all. The company assists you at every step of the rent-and-manage process at a turbo speed. Oh, and that all happens without breaking your budget – it’s free.

Building a Successful Proptech SaaS: An Inside Look at Real Estate Software Development

AscendixTech — Thu, 05 Jan 2023 16:26:26 +0000

With more and more real estate companies turning to software to automate processes and streamline operations, Proptech SaaS companies like Buildout and Zillow are gaining momentum.

And if in some industries you will not surprise anybody with a cloud-based app delivered over the Internet, in real estate – untouched by technological innovation for decades – the full potential of SaaS Proptech is yet to be unveiled.

Having operated at the juncture of proptech and SaaS for more than a decade, we have authored 17 real estate SaaS products and overseen numerous custom SaaS development projects and are ready to provide you with some key takeaways and lessons learned on how to successfully develop SaaS for real estate.

What is SaaS?

SaaS is an acronym for Software-as-a-Service – a subscription-based software distribution model in which a cloud provider delivers a ready-to-use solution to its customers via browser or mobile app with no installation needed.

To assess the service, users simply pay a fixed “rent” fee usually monthly or annually according to a chosen subscription plan, while software updates and system maintenance is a sole responsibility of the SaaS provider. All customer data and the software itself are stored remotely on a provider’s servers, commonly referred to as “cloud.”

In a nutshell, SaaS is software you don’t own but simply use for a time, pretty much like Uber for ordering a taxi or Canva for designing visual content.

How Does SaaS Work?

Multi tenancy model. The provider delivers one software instance to multiple customers (tenants) at a time, allowing them to customize some parts of the application, such as the color of the user interface (UI) or business rules but not the application’s code.

Cloud computing. The provider delivers the software over the Internet at the flat rate / per user / per storage / pay as you go pricing (see below). So, instead of buying, owning, and maintaining physical data centers and servers, customers can just pay a “rent” fee and access technology services when they need them.

Pricing model. The most common monetization model for all SaaS products and proptech SaaS in particular is flat rate pricing, when users pay a fixed fee for a defined set of features, but there are more pricing options out there:

Per-Storage Model – charge fees depend on the amount of storage space users need. Among the top SaaS per-storage model companies are Sync, Google Drive, and OneDrive.
Per-User Model – customers are charged depending on how many people are going to use the app (Slack).
Pay as You Go – also known as usage-based pricing, pay as you go model means that the more customers use, the higher the charges (Chargify, ConvertKit, and SendGrid).

Is SaaS Going to Displace On-Premises Software?

Oh yes. For better or worse, the world hasn’t seen a single on-premises software company founded since 2007 (source), so, you might well call traditional systems that live exclusively on our hardware nearly extinct species.

And just looking at the staggering numbers of SaaS companies flooding the technology market, one thing is crystal clear: SaaS is the new normal of software development and distribution, and it doesn’t go anywhere soon.

But don’t just take my word for it. The graph below shows that companies are slowly but surely drifting to the cloud, more and more often relying on Software-as-a-Service solutions as their core technology choice.

Today the number of firms using SaaS stands at 78%, but considering the dizzying pace of how quickly cloud computing penetrated the major business spheres, it will be a small surprise if this estimate will reach 100% in several years.

The Benefits of SaaS for Real Estate vs On-Premises Software

The real estate industry has long been known for its loyalty to legacy systems and primitive productivity tools like Excel and Outlook, dating back to the first wave of CRE technology innovations.

This outdated technology has not only hindered the digital transformation of real estate for years but also is costly to maintain, upgrade, and scale. Unfortunately, this list only goes on.

A few viable options for the industry would be to migrate old systems to the cloud or abandon them completely and seek salvation in proptech SaaS solutions.

Either way presents a myriad of benefits and fresh opportunities for key stakeholders of a brand-new SaaS proptech app.

Speed of Implementation
Part of the beauty of software as a service is that it’s easy to get started. Since proptech SaaS solutions are already installed and configured, customers just choose a subscription plan they like, and they are good to go, with no system downtime or expensive technology setup.

No Excessive Upfront Payments
Whether it be a flat rate or “pay as you go” usage fees, customers have much more freedom in terms of how they spend their money. They can buy a subscription for a period and functionality they need and cancel it when they no longer need the service.

Cost, just like the speed of implementation, are the most lucrative benefits proptech SaaS companies market to real estate agencies as the latter tend to be cautious about making big upfront payments and would rather pay less for a partial improvement than making a huge one-time investment and suffering major system downtime.

Effortless Maintenance and Upgrades
Another advantage of real estate SaaS products highly valued by real estate agencies, which typically don’t have in-house IT personnel, is that they don’t have to worry about technical matters as seamless upgrades and system maintenance are already included in their ongoing subscription charge. On top of that, in case of any performance issues, the SaaS proptech provider will be there to help, again, at no extra charge.

Elastic Scaling Up and Scaling Down
The multi-tenant architectures most real estate SaaS software is built on can scale elastically to meet customer demands. You can add as many users as you want and expand your feature set to keep up with your business growth – and you only pay for what you use.

Examples of Real Estate SaaS Products

Accounting for $33.6 trillion in the US alone, real estate is the biggest industry globally with multiple facets like construction, brokerage services, real estate transactions, each having domain-specific issues and headaches. Multiply this by the number of real estate stakeholders (buyers, sellers, renters, landlords, etc.), and you’ll arrive at an estimate of how many real estate SaaS companies and solutions could be there.

The good news is they are not there yet. So, there is a lot of low-hanging fruit for those who decide to embark on efforts to build a disruptive proptech SaaS solution.

To start with, there may be commercial real estate SaaS software addressing the needs of the main CRE players (investors, renters, appraisers, real estate agents, etc.) revolving around commercial real estate (office spaces, industrial properties, multi-family, etc.); and residential proptech SaaS solutions for residential property stakeholders (renters, landlords, real estate agents, etc.) buying, selling, representing, and managing residential physical spaces (single-family houses, apartments, townhouses, etc.).

Real estate agent Saas, property management SaaS, and planning & construction SaaS can cater to both domains – residential and commercial.

Proptech SaaS CRM Systems
CRM stands for Customer Relationship Management platforms that are designed to integrate all business processes, from prospecting to deal closing, into one system, thus improving team collaboration and the company’s data aggregation. The best real estate SaaS CRM systems are Apto, Buildout, and AscendixRE, all built on Salesforce – the world’s biggest CRM SaaS provider.

Listing Management Tools
These tools help real estate agents to create and maintain property records and listing websites. Listing Management solutions easily integrate with the existing CRM system to automatically pull the minutest details, such as property type, property address details, a property built year, property interior and exterior features, and amenities of the property.

Construction Management Systems
These are cloud-based real estate SaaS platforms that seamlessly connect builders, designers, developers, engineers, and tradespeople throughout a construction project, ensuring adherence to budgets, sustainability principles, and performance requirements (Built, Procore, Buildertrend).

What We’ve Learned When Building Proptech SaaS

Real Estate SaaS Lives and Dies on User Experience
While this is true for almost all SaaS applications, real estate SaaS users may be especially picky toward the solution they’re going to invest a huge amount of money in. And don’t be tricked by the fact that real estate customers have long been underserved by technology – they will still want their applications to look pretty and straightforward. This is mainly because:

Real estate professionals often don’t have large budgets for technology upgrades, so each penny they spend should be worth it.
SaaS real estate, whether it be CRM systems or simple productivity tools, is going to be something that your target users will constantly use. And considering how hectic real estate workflows may get, your real estate SaaS product should be ready to ease those tasks with a simple and straightforward user experience.

Security First
As your end-users are going to work with sensitive information, like credit bank details, transactions, etc., your proptech SaaS solution should comply with the below SaaS-specific security requirements (source):

Access Management. The SaaS proptech provider must provide a unified framework to manage user authentication through business rules that determine appropriate user access based on organizational role, the system accessed, the data requirements, and workflow assignments, independently of the device used.
Network Control. Security groups control who can access specific instances of the real estate SaaS product across the network. For more granular control, this can also include jump servers and network access control lists (NACL).
Perimeter Network Control. Perimeter defense has traditionally been about controlling traffic flowing into and out of a data center network. The primary technology that underpins perimeter protection is a firewall, which filters out potentially dangerous or unknown traffic that might constitute a threat based on a set of rules about the types of traffic and permitted source/destination addresses on the network. Most SaaS providers for real estate also deploy further levels of perimeter protection such as intrusion detection and prevention systems (IDS/IPS), which look for suspicious traffic after it has passed through the firewall.
VM Management. Ensuring your proptech SaaS infrastructure is secure requires frequent updates directly to your virtual machine. Staying up to date requires a significant investment in ways to identify the latest threats and patches available in the market. A SaaS provider continuously performs these tasks on standardized VM images, and third parties used in its software. Therefore, the time between a breach and the resulting patch is reduced.
Data Protection. The most important practice of all is the SaaS real estate provider’s methodology for preventing a data breach, primarily by using various methods for data encryption both at rest and in transit. Best practice solutions offer customers the option to control their encryption keys so that cloud operations staff cannot decrypt customer data. They also deploy encryption technology for data at rest, which provides options for building a hierarchy of client-side and server-side encryption for a high level of security, with separation of duty at the various levels of the hierarchy, customer control, and full audit trails. All this becomes more important with the stringent safeguards required for personally identifiable information (PII).
Governance and Incident Management. Certain types of incidents must be captured, reported, and tracked to closure, and there must be procedures in place for investigating any potential security breaches.
Scalability & Reliability. One of the biggest features of the cloud is the ability to increase capacity of existing hardware or software by adding resources as and when needed. Vertical scaling is limited by only being able to get as large as the size of the server. Horizontal scaling means the ability to connect multiple hardware or software entities, such as servers, so that they work as a single logical unit. This kind of scale, however, cannot be implemented at a moment’s notice, so a proptech SaaS solution vendor must build a considerable amount of horizontal redundancy into the infrastructure to ensure continuity of service. Finally, there must be a disaster recovery (DR) plan in place for replicating data and services in the event of a natural or human-induced regional disaster.

Tech Trends for Real Estate Industry in 2023

AscendixTech — Fri, 30 Dec 2022 09:36:52 +0000

The long-awaited change in real estate has finally happened: this highly regulated brick-and-mortar industry is welcoming disruptive real estate technology, like Artificial Intelligence (AI), Big Data, Virtual Reality (VR), Internet of Things (IoT), to name a few.

While feared by some, these real estate technology trends bring an array of opportunities for real estate agents and customers alike, from immersive “wayfinding” to help people navigate their physical space to automated rental and purchasing property platforms. And those who don’t catch up with incredibly dynamic property technology, unfortunately, risk being left behind.

As a seasoned technology real estate expert with a 16-year-long history in the industry, we have been at the forefront of real estate innovation and are here to share our predictions on the real estate technology trends that are going to stay with us in the years ahead.

Real Estate Industry Overview & Predictions

Real estate today
With almost USD 9 trillion in global assets, commercial real estate is the largest industry in the world. Add to that the residential real estate market, which has much greater value, and you are talking about the world’s biggest asset class that over the years created much wealth and investment opportunities. In 2018, investment in real estate peaked at €311 billion, according to CBRE.

The value of the real estate market in years to come
According to the Business Research Company, the real estate industry will reach a value of nearly $7227.13 billion by the end of 2022 (source). In the US alone, real estate takes up around 13% of the country’s annual GDP and is the fastest-growing sector of the economy (source).

A warning concern that looms over real estate
Starting from 2019, the real estate economy has been pulled in all directions by inflation, skyrocketing gas prices, and Covid-19, to name a few. And although deal-making rebounded sharply in 2021, reaching a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 3.2%, real estate lags behind other industries in terms of efficiency and transparency of financing and operating.

These problems are being addressed by the growing number of AI real estate companies and other innovators collectively known as proptech or real estate technology. As Brendan Wallace well noted, proptech trends are going to consume more and more total enterprise value year after year in the next few decades, edging out traditional real estate companies (source).

What is real estate technology?
Real estate technology refers to proptech software, tools, apps, and other kinds of technology for real estate agents, customers, architects, and property managers that improve efficiency and facilitate real estate activities, from buying, selling, renting (Rightmove & Airbnb), and managing to marketing and investing (OpenSignal).

Which technology real estate startups will receive more funding?
AI analytics and data aggregation will be increasingly popular with real estate technology startups; thus, AI real estate companies will likely receive more funding. Commercial lending and financial platforms will also offer a ripe prospect for tech real estate startups.

An example feature is bundling and aggregating rental contracts to offer tenants the opportunity to leave their agreement before the contract expires by matching them with new applicants.

Real Estate Technology Trends That Disrupt the Industry

With over 9,000 proptech startups in the world to date (source), new real estate technology trends like AI, drones, IoT, and Virtual Reality are reshaping the real estate landscape. And for a good reason.

Today, the value of the property is not defined solely by the space and its location but by the blend of real estate information technology and superior tenant / buyer experience, says Deloitte (source).

And if before the pandemic, it was still possible to maintain the status quo with close-to-zero technology and bricks-and-mortar customer service despite the ongoing digitalization of other industries like finance or insurance, these days, however, the luxury of lagging behind real estate innovation is about to disappear.

Those who see the inevitability of change are already taking action toward automation and better digital experiences: real estate has witnessed a 10.3% increase in tech budgets across the industry (source).

Real estate firms split their investments between the following real estate technology trends: cloud computing, blockchain, process automation, AI, and data analytics, according to Deloitte (source).

McKinsey also mentions such proptech trends as the increased demand for enhanced construction technologies (smart buildings / IoT and low-emission construction), drones, and integrated platforms that enable visibility into the management of business or operations processes from a single place, like Customer Relationship Management systems, or CRM for short (see in the section about technology for real estate agents).

To get a panoramic view of real estate tech trends and what dividends those can bring to industry professionals, let’s take a closer look into each of these real estate innovations.

Cloud Computing and Storage
According to the above-mentioned Deloitte research, migrating to the cloud is the top real estate technology trend implemented by 36% of real estate respondents across the globe.

The whole idea behind the cloud is to let companies store their data, say client or property details, online without having to manage onsite data centers or organize paperwork. This means you no longer need to worry about data security and accessibility, system maintenance, and room for document storage.

For real estate agents / dealers / brokers migration to the cloud mainly comes in the form of subscription-based applications like property management CRMs, transportation management software, or simply cloud data storage.

And although cloud computing has been around for at least a decade, widely adopted in other industries (just think of fintech), it took it a while to find its way into real estate, which so far has been known as an offline first industry. Among the most important benefits of cloud computing for real estate are:

Flexibility
As all data resides in the cloud, real estate professionals can access information from anywhere. That makes them more productive, collaborative, and satisfied in their jobs.
Scalability
Depending on how fast your real estate business grows, cloud-based platforms can scale up or down respectively. You don’t need to set up anything from scratch – just choose a more suitable subscription plan.
Security
Since all the data resides in the cloud away from your often unsecured network at home or work or worse than that on paper files on your desk, you can rest assured that no system breaches will happen.
Paperless
Operation in the cloud enables real estate firms to cut down the use of paper, thus ensuring more control over documents, better data security, and instant backups.

Blockchain
Such real estate technology trends like blockchain, tokenization, and cryptocurrency are increasingly more often on the real estate agenda, with 29% of respondents investing in it.

Blockchain technology is favored by real estate developers for construction projects and by agents for making secure payments. Investors can benefit from this real estate tech trend for fractional property investment, while landlords can use it to sell portions of their stake in a given holding.

For buyers, this means being able to track the history of a property and its ownership.

Even though the popularity of blockchain technology in real estate has not peaked yet, and will not at least until larger players start to invest in the infrastructure, blockchain is certainly one of the most promising real estate technology trends in the years to come.

Robotic Process Automation (RPA)
With so much going on behind the scenes in the accounting departments, robotic process automation of workflows is yet another disruptive technology in real estate, with 26% of respondents supporting it.

RPA is a general notion for any software that automates manual, repetitive, and rule-based processes and tasks. As such, it can come in an array of different forms: from a simple solution to withdraw information from MS Excel to email programs and vice versa to a mature CRM system that routes tasks from multiple departments to a single user interface.

The most obvious area of application of this disruptive technology is the real estate back-office, e.g., the generation of brochures and invoices, management of payments, renewals and credit applications, multi-tenancy risk control, and more.

The general potential of RPA as one of the most crucial real estate tech trends is illustrated in the following graph:

Artificial Intelligence (AI)
Another disruptive technology in real estate is Artificial Intelligence, or AI for short. This real estate tech trend emerged out of the need to get greater value from increasingly enormous data sets, which have long since outgrown human abilities to make sense of them.

As such, AI complements RPA technology, turning “following the rules” into judgment-based processes and predictive decisions called cognitive automation.

Given the dynamic intensification of real estate and technology collaboration, it is highly likely that intelligent real estate systems will be able to not only produce structured suggestions and prioritize alternatives but also perform direct decision-making in the future.

Data Analytics
If just a decade ago, real estate firms made decisions based on professional experience and non-actionable historical records stored in Excel spreadsheets, today, real estate analytics powered by big data make it possible to paint more vivid pictures of future risks and opportunities.

This notion is supported by 70% of Deilotte respondents who firmly believe that real estate firms should provide advanced forecasting and scenario planning, among other services, which is only possible with mature data management software like Salesforce.

Given the soaring number of Salesforce success stories, the platform is one of the best real estate technologies for advanced data analytics, pulling information from all aspects of business and packing it into insightful dashboards right at your fingertips.

Before migrating data to Salesforce, though, real estate professionals should make sure their data is groomed and formatted; otherwise, even such a proven data analytics system as Salesforce won’t be able to extract accurate insights.

Smart Buildings / IoT
Modern people are living a fast-paced life, so our houses and apartments should adapt. The dynamic expectations of tenants and buyers are met with always-connected IoT homes of mart mirrors, robot vacuum cleaners, and wireless kitchen appliances interacting with each other and quickly reacting to people’s needs.

The real estate trend of smart buildings powered by the Internet of Things has been on the real estate agenda back from the early 2000s, but today they are obviously much more affordable and, therefore, viable technology real estate for consumers.

There are three defining features of this real estate tech trend:

Smart amenities like automatic lights that turn on 1 hour after sunset and turn off 1 hour before sunrise.
Connectivity. All smart amenities and gadgets communicate with each other through Wi-Fi, smart sensors, and intelligent access controls.
Remote performance access. IoT sensors (smoke, CO2, motion, leak, gas, etc.) and smart meters collect the data about consumption remotely and send reports to the tenant / owner / property manager’s laptop or phone.

Green Building Technology
With the increased demand for digital systems to track and improve energy use, manufacturers and installers increasingly adopt efficiency-enhancing building materials and systems. One way to do this is to install low-carbon heating and cooling systems, such as heat pumps and energy-efficient A/C.

If wisely paired with the above-mentioned real estate technology trend of smart homes, green buildings can significantly decrease the carbon footprint of construction projects.

And the first enthusiasts who embrace green engineering and performance-management tools that support retrofitting are likely to see big gains.

New Trends in Real Estate Agents Technology

As the collaboration between real estate and technology accelerates, real estate agents should keep up with the change. New technology for real estate agents includes customer relationship management systems, real estate marketing technology, and report generation tools.

In fact, these real estate tech trends strive at the intersection of all other above-mentioned real estate technologies, like AI, cloud computing, or data analytics.

Obviously, transitioning from offline to online will not be simple for real estate brokers and realtors, but it is nearly a requirement in today’s atmosphere. Here are two of the key reasons why digital real estate innovation is crucial for real estate agents:

Customer expectations around the property are shifting. If just a decade ago tenants would seek real estate services on-site, today many choose to use mobile or web searches. In addition, tenants and buyers want higher levels of personalization, which requires having all past communications in one place and being able to access them from anywhere. As a result, not having a strong online presence and keeping data in Excel actually takes away real estate deals.
Brokers can also increase their operational efficiencies by implementing recent real estate innovation ideas such as salesforce automation.

Customer Relationship Management Systems (CRM)
Your data is the lifeblood of your CRM system, and the CRM system makes sure you’re using your data to the fullest.

A customer Relationship Management System, or CRM for short, is an all-in-one platform for managing/tracking a company’s relationships and interactions with existing and potential customers. It aggregates all aspects of business and makes the collaboration between sales, marketing, and administration easier than ever before.

There is generic CRM software like Sugar CRM, Salesforce, and MS Dynamics, which works fine for most industries but does not always match highly specific business needs like those in real estate. On the other hand, there are specialized CRM platforms tailored to real estate processes – AscendixRE, Buildout CRM, or RealNex.

Common functionality of real estate CRM systems includes:

Cloud operation / online access from a desktop or mobile phone
Smart prospecting tools to mine targeted lists of contacts
Workflow automation to assign tasks, get reminded about upcoming events, and skyrocket real estate agent efficiency
Visualization tools and advanced data analytics
Automated commission calculation, stacking planning, and more.

Real Estate Marketing Technology
With the pandemic-induced shift to online, word of mouth or direct mail is no longer enough to win prospective clients. Today, having an online presence is crucial.

To strengthen the brand and client experience, real estate agents more and more often opt for marketing realtor technology, like listing portals that let you publish and update your listings right from your CRM (MarketSpace) or automated marketing campaign tools to send personalized journeys to clients (additional service in RealNex and Buildout).

On the whole, marketing realtor technology is commonly associated with the following functionality:

Personalized email campaigns
Third-party listing site integration
Lead generation, qualification, and nourishment
Advanced stacking planning
Integration with CRM, and more.

Ascendix MarketSpace goes beyond this. Apart from the basic features listed above, the platform includes collaborative project workspaces, a document signing program, and secure deal rooms, all within one core solution AscendixRE CRM (Unlimited plan only for $129/mo).

Report Generation Tools
Brochure generation still has its place under the sun, but a bit in a different form: clients more and more often request marketing collateral online. And if every real estate agent can generate more or less decent collateral in amateur tools like Canva or Photoshop, the key differentiator here is how quickly they can do it.

With marketing automation software like Ascendix Composer or Buildout, on the other hand, you’ll be able to generate digestible, meaningful, and professional documents in a matter of 5 clicks as all property data, photos, and client records will be pulled out from your CRM system or another database, so you won’t need to fill in all fields manually.

The beauty of Ascendix Composer is that, unlike Buildout or other solutions, you do not need to invest in yet another stand-alone solution, as Composer is already included in your subscription.

Will Real Estate Agents Be Replaced?
Contrary to what many people feared, the rise of AI and other real estate technologies hasn’t led to a surge of jobs being replaced by intelligent machines, and neither is it likely to in the foreseeable future.

While current technology in real estate will continue to expand and help us derive greater value from client interactions, it can never replace the nuanced regional knowledge and skill in negotiating in a very emotional environment, which so far has been a luxury only available to humans.

Both sellers and buyers can be very emotional during a transaction, which by far is one of the most important milestones in most people’s lives, and I can barely imagine sending clients to a chatbot-type app asking them to “press five” to reach a representative in some far-flung office.

So, until property technology is able to behave “emotionally,” it is very unlikely that real estate agents will be replaced by some realtor technology in the near future.

How to Build a Property Management Software

AscendixTech — Thu, 22 Dec 2022 13:23:26 +0000

Despite a huge blast of information presented on Google, property management software development is a complex topic worth talking about more and more. Why? Because property management remains an industry with a moderate level of technology adoption. To speed up the process of technology adoption within the property management industry, we decided to dig deeper into software development.

This article breaks down the myths about the high cost of software development and walks you through the process of building software for your property business.

Common Issues Custom Property Management Software Solves

Property management software (PMS) encompasses all digital solutions for property managers, landlords and real estate companies helping them organize the workflows around their rental and owned properties, including accounts, leases, documents, ticketing, maintenance and financials management.

But what problems exactly does property management software help to solve?

Replaces Outdated Tools

Just imagine, you control 20-100 business centers using tools that don’t necessarily cover all your business needs. As a result, some tasks like collecting statistics, monitoring and tracking the buildings’ performance fall on your shoulders. And as an investor/broker/owner, you can’t get away until you conquer those chores manually, often spending more time than you can actually afford. Sounds pretty daunting, doesn’t it?

By implementing customized property management software, you get a solution that automates ALL processes within your organization. No manual work required.

Prevents Switching Between Various Systems

The property management industry isn’t about steadfast routines. Every day is different. For example, your company manages houses, duplexes, and large multiunit buildings. Suddenly, you get 7 insurance claims coming in at once, for 7 different owners, with 7 different insurance companies. You could be elbows deep in spreadsheets, switching between various systems to deal with those claims OR you could simply rely on a centralized property management system that would prevent you from messing up with paperwork and automate all types of requests

Simplifies the Integration Process

Here we mean integration with your existing software. For example, in large companies, the top management team doesn’t see the full picture because each department uses different software that isn’t necessarily synchronized. The best solution here is to integrate new software with existing ones to put puzzle pieces together.

Due to the differences in functionality and features, your new software might not be easily paired with your existing software (because the latter lacks support, could be outdated, etc). In this case integration is a painful and costly process.

However, the gaps between disintegrated tools within your organization may be bridged bybuilding a custom property management system, which would consolidate existing software and ease the future integrations.

Benefits of Custom Property Management Software

Speaking about property management systems, it is necessary to mention that the main value they can bring to the real estate industry is an overall optimization and automation of administrative and business processes.

Other benefits of property management software development are:

Secure storage for all data and documentation;
Scalability of software functionality;
Secure data storage;
Custom set of features tailored to your company’s needs;
Personalized client service and engagement;
And more!

Let’s walk through each benefit more specifically.

Overall Optimization and Automation

Automation is the best friend to the property management industry. It helps companies to optimize the following tasks:

Lease renewals and expirations
Asset management
Package and delivery management
Rent payments
Facilitating apartment tours
Staff recruitment
Maintenance request management (requests for cleaning, elevators maintenance, etc.)
Granting property access to residents and guests
Tenant screening.

When all the mentioned above tasks are automated, you optimize the workflow and create opportunities for focusing on finding new tenants, lead generation, etc. Plus, you reduce the risk of making a mistake, since the property management system will take care of everything for you.

Data Protection

As a property manager you operate tons of data every day. The biggest part is personal info about tenants and their financials. Such sensitive data requires a high level of protection. Otherwise, in case of data leakage, you’ll be the one legally responsible.

The best way to meet all security standards is building property management software from scratch. Automated property management software allows you to store all data in one place using encryption and other security measures.

Scalability of Software Functionality

A scalable property management system is a solution with functionality that extends as your business grows. The more properties you manage, the more likely you are to expand the system. Custom property management system scales quickly and seamlessly.

Custom Set of Features

By building custom property management software, you are the one to decide what features need to be included. As a result, you get a solution tailored specifically to your business, not a black box supported by third parties.

Personalized Client Service and Engagement

Custom property management system empowers you to analyze the history of your interaction with clients to offer more personalized service. For example, you can add AI-based functionality that will offer clients properties according to their behavior on the website.

Types of Property Management Software

Commercial Property Management Software

As commercial leases are much more complex compared to residential ones, your property management software must include tailor-made features that reflect your unique commercial real estate workflows.

Commercial property management software requires capabilities for tracking additional workflows such as property taxes, insurance, stacking plans, maintenance fees, and among a few.

Residential Property Management for Houses, Apartments, & Multi-unit Buildings

This software assists owners, leasing companies or landlords in multiple property management, scheduling maintenance work, and handling numerous leases. Tenants can also use these solutions for online rent payment and signing digital contracts.

Industrial Property Management Software

When you manage an industrial property, you are responsible for maintaining and inspecting it, ensuring that it complies with building codes and regulations, coordinating real estate tax reviews, bidding for vendor services, and managing staff.

The features set for this type of software focus on covering the tasks mentioned above easily and effectively.

Special-Purpose Property Management Software

A special-purpose property is designed for specific use (e.g., theaters, sports arenas, resorts, senior care facilities, schools and universities, and places of worship). Managing this type of property requires specialized software.

Property Management Software Features

When developing customized property management software, you should consider who will use the software. Despite standard features set required in any property management system (e.g., dashboards, tenant portals, multi-calendars, document sharing, in-app messaging, etc.), the final functionality depends on the goals and expectations end-users place on it.

Below, we list approximate features property management software should have according to the type of its end user.

Custom vs Ready-Made Property Management Solutions

What’s better: to implement a ready-made solution or build a custom one? That’s a tricky question. Everything depends on your business goals and the company’s size.

We’d say that small and middle-sized companies can successfully use ready-made solutions. But for mid-to-large-sized property management organizations, those solutions may not be enough.

Around 40-50% of ready-made solutions lack customization capabilities, have limitations when it comes to integrations, and cannot be easily scaled up. Additionally, you need to consider the cost of licenses per user, which might not be cost-efficient for a big company with many employees who will need to use the software. In this case, by building and implementing custom-made PMS, you’ll save great amounts of money in the future. Moreover, you invest in a solution that can be tailored to fit your business and altered exactly how you need it.

How to Develop Property Management Software for Real Estate?

When you decide to develop property management software, you need to clearly understand the software development lifecycle (where to start, what to include, timing and cost). Here’s a roadmap to follow when planning property management software development:

Research & Discovery phase. This is where you discuss your project requirements with the software development company you decided to partner with. During the discovery phase, you closely communicate with business analysts, product owners, and project managers (if needed). The discovery stage aims to set up a scope of work, an initial project roadmap, and use cases to define the best property management software solution for your business.
Skillset Assessment and Proposal. You and your software development partner discuss and define the tech stack, project scope, timelines, budget, and engagement models for your project.
Wireframing/Prototyping. At this stage, you get clickable screen prototypes and wireframes for your future property management software to test out user stories and finalize your ideas.
UI/UX design. When you agree on prototypes and finalize ideas, the project moves to the UI/UX design stage. Here you can see the final design and test the usability of the features you’ve requested during the discovery phase. Based on your feedback, the team finalizes the tech stack selection and determines the total project estimate.
Development. During this stage, the development team delivers mobile and/or web applications and implements the front-end and back-end functionality you require during previous stages.
Release and ongoing support. The final step of property management software development but not the last in the software lifecycle. During this stage, the team tests, releases, and implements the software into your business. You may also sign a long-term support contract for ongoing platform updates and maintenance.

As a result of this process, you get property management software tailored to your property management business goals.

Development of Fintech in Real Estate: Difference between PropTech and FinTech

AscendixTech — Thu, 15 Dec 2022 15:18:42 +0000

Fintech and proptech may seem to have equally revolutionized financial and real estate services over the past decade. But this is barely true.

While the former has undergone a significant behavioral shift toward seamless user experience and lean operational structures, the latter is still dominated by slow processes and dated systems. This means, however, that real estate fintech is an untapped area of technological innovation. And those who catch up with it first will take the market lead for years to come.

Proptech & Fintech Defined

Two fancy terms coined no later than a decade ago, both proptech and fintech have their roots in “technology.” The former stands for “property technology” and refers to all disruptive real estate startups and their technological solutions aimed at redefining how the property is sold, managed, and invested in, whereas the latter describes how new technology is used to improve and automate the delivery and use of financial services.

At its most basic, proptech includes three technological movements that are increasingly intertwined:

Smart real estate, which refers to technology-enabled approaches to building homes and managing them through the smart ecosystem of interconnected sensors and gadgets.
Construction technology, which encompasses all technological solutions that enhance productivity during the construction phase.
Shared economy, which entails technology-based platforms facilitating the use of real estate assets, both in the residential (AirBnB) and commercial (WeWork) markets.

Fintech, on the other hand, is often associated with money transfer apps such as Venmo and PayPal, crowdfunding solutions such as GoFundMe, and peer-to-peer lending such as Funding Circle.

Both triggered by acute issues such as the lack of transparency into processes, poor data management, and slow decision-making in finance and real estate, fintech and proptech have naturally entered into a significant crossover referred to as real estate fintech, facilitating the transactions of real estate assets.

How Real Estate Fintech Companies Reinvent Transactions in Real Estate

Real estate transactions can be divided into three large buckets: 1) renting / buying / selling, 2) lending and 3) investing. Each of these candidly massive chunks of real estate has been suffering from inefficient, opaque systems and processes, making a physical space a frustratingly illiquid asset in terms of speed of sale, probability of sale, and costs associated with that sale.

But not anymore. Or rather not with pioneering real estate fintech companies gradually testing the waters of the change-resilient real estate industry and slowly but surely injecting innovation ideas throughout the whole transaction cycle.

Considering the recent movements in residential and CRE technology, the most probable fintech real estate map looks as follows:

Renting / Selling / Buying

Three major milestones of our life, leasing / selling / buying involves much research and back and forth communication, eventually creating loads of data that one person wouldn’t be able to get a grip of. On the other side of the coin, these opaque processes create a lot of low-hanging opportunities for the below-listed real estate fintech companies and their solutions.

Real Estate Fintech Marketplaces

For a renter, looking for a property can turn into an endless nightmare unless you bring all property information along with photos, price, and neighborhood descriptions in one, preferably, online place.

Partnering with agents and owners, online real estate marketplaces transformed the consumer real estate research experience by creating a standardized place for various firms to display their sale or lease listings and for renters and buyers to search for a desired property. There are two types of such solutions:

Single family home (SFH) marketplaces like Zillow and Trulia, late so-called PropTech 1.0 firms that came to dominate the US market in the 2000s, offering a simpler and more convenient alternative to a traditional home search experience with greater peace of mind.
Commercial real estate fintech platforms like LoopNet and Crexi simplifying the search for multifamily and office properties.

At the core of these fintech proptech websites usually lie enhanced data aggregation that captures client’s data provided though chatbots, forms, and face-to-face communication, and Artificial Intelligence that analyses clients’ digital behavior and comes up with smart suggestions that cater to their needs and preferences.

Real Estate Fintech iBuyers and Automated Valuation Platforms

For the prospective homebuyer and seller wanting to upsize or downsize, looking for properties is just as troublesome. The concerns are doubled due to the tremendous uncertainty throughout the valuation process: sellers, when they take an offer, are often hesitant about whether they have asked for the best price, whereas buyers always want to make sure they’re not paying too much.

The fog around the sensitive price question is easily cleared by iBuyers, or “instant buyers” – fintech real estate companies that use algorithms and technology to buy and resell homes quickly.

By leveraging big data and AI to fuel automated valuation models (AVMs) which take hundreds of different factors into account, iBuyers like Opendoor and Offerpad can make a quick and well-informed offer on a house in a matter of seconds.

Incorporating LegalTech such as smart contracts, these outlets eliminate middlemen from the arduous transaction chain, thus dramatically reducing fees for buyers and sellers alike. Considering the tremendous potential of AVM in the home valuation process, the fintech proptech model of iBuyers can be just as helpful for appraisers as they are for home buyers and sellers.

Key features of iBuyers

Quick, secure way to sell/ buy a home
Home values are calculated by Automated Valuation Models that instantly process large amounts of data about a home to arrive at an offer price
No middlemen in transactions thus no extra fees and commissions.

Brokerage Enablement Tools

Brokers are the luckiest stakeholders in the marriage of fintech and proptech, as they can leverage both the above-mentioned solutions (marketspaces for listing marketing and iBuyers for property valuation) and numerous other brokerage enablement tools like CRM systems (AscendixRE, Salesforce, Dynamics 365), marketing collateral generation tools (Composer, Buildout), and secure deal and collaboration rooms (MarketSpace).

However, with the recent real estate shift toward platformization (source), it makes sense to have all these solutions interconnected in one ecosystem rather than leveraging them one by one. This is what Ascendix has done for 26 years and is still doing today.

We have partnered with the big names in the real estate industry like JLL and Colliers and developed custom solutions for their brokerages on top of our core products AscendixRE and Marketspace, as well as Dynamics 365.

If a marketing tool like Marketspace is connected to a Customer Relationship Management system, it can benefit from form fill technology and e-Signature capabilities to prepopulate forms and documents with the data already existing in the form thus dramatically improving broker efficiency.

Lending

In real estate fintech, lending services revolve around mortgages – loans issued by banks or other financial institutions to help a borrower purchase a property. Traditionally, there are at least 3 distinct steps in the mortgage loan process, each taking weeks:

Application – the first application of the borrower when they are asked to provide, usually as a hard copy, documentation showing their income, savings, debts and any other information that may pertain to your finances – this step takes about a week.
Underwriting – the most tedious process of assessing the financial risk of lending money to the borrower and evaluating the property – from a week to a few months if additional information is required
*Closing *– the final step when the borrower receives a Closing Disclosure discussing the final details of the loan, including the loan amount, interest rate, estimated monthly payment, etc. – from 3 days to a week.

Overall, from when the lender receives a mortgage application to the time the loan is disbursed may well pass 52 days, according to Ellie Mae.

However, with the infinite potential of fintech in real estate, a traditional outdated procedure where people still have to fill in hard copy forms and are being asked to provide physical copies of their bank statements can be easily flipped to a completely digital experience where lenders can check your information digitally and approve you for a home loan in less than an hour:

This becomes possible with the following real estate fintech solutions:

Credit Reporting Platforms

Credit risk real estate fintech platforms aim to automate the very first step in the loan origination process – credit reporting. These solutions usually partner with credit reporting bureaus like TransUnion or Equifax to help lenders gain a complete understanding of their client’s credit background before moving forward with negotiations.

To come up with precise analytics, credit risk fintech real estate apps leverage custom credit scoring formulas, risk alert features, and in-depth and predictive analytics programming.

A good illustration of how credit reporting data may be supplied to lenders is Hazu – a quick data provisioning solution that integrates with the lender’s on-site system through a custom-built end interface in order to allow every type of user to easily access, subset, and export the exact data they needed.

It is also imperative that such credit real estate fintech platforms have robust visualization capabilities like those we built in the custom Salesforce CRM for Source Energy Partners.

Key features of Credit Reporting Platforms:

Integration with reliable credit data providers like TransUnion or Equifax
Real-time data provisioning through a built-in interface or separate solution
Enhanced data management and analytics
Data visualization capabilities

Loan Origination Systems

Developed either for quick loans for retail customers, through mortgage origination processes, or complex business loans for SMEs or corporations, these comprehensive fintech real estate tools will run all stages of the lending process starting from data collection all the way to deal closing – automating all the steps in between.

The main benefit of such proptech fintech platforms is not just collecting applications but automating processes that are normally done by office staff. For example, loan origination tools like a US-based startup Cloudvirga can perform complex calculations at the point of sale to create underwriter-ready loans, while others like Lender Price provide real-time analytics to manage pricing for conforming, non-conforming, qualified and non-qualified mortgages, portfolio, and specialty loans. Thereby these real estate fintech platforms significantly reduce the time to close loans and provide a better customer experience.

Considering the emerging proptech trends around SaaS and data accessibility, it is also vital that the loan origination system is connected to the cloud and integrated with other disparate systems existing within the organization, thus allowing lenders, appraisers, and underwriters to collaboratively work on a loan and access needed data from anywhere anytime.

This is what Ascendix did for a few lending companies on our portfolio who used to struggle with chaotic systems and databases not having a single view of the customer, right until we designed and implemented custom loan origination platforms for them, leveraging cutting-edge cloud and analytics technologies.

Key points of Loan Origination Systems:

The complete end-to-end loan solution automating all steps in the lending process
Automated workflows where tasks are routed to responsible parties: lenders, appraisers, and underwriters
Integration with 3-rd party systems
Cloud-based solution to allow all parties to operate online
Digital document processing and e-Signature capabilities like those we custom-built in MarketSpace
These real estate fintech platforms should also have a mobile solution providing a convenient loan application experience for your customers.

Automated Underwriting Systems (AUS)

Unlike loan generation systems automating all steps in the loan processing cycle, these fintech real estate platforms focus exclusively on underwriting. They utilize machine learning and AI, as well as business rules manually defined by the underwriter, to analyze a client’s financials (such as credit score and income) in addition to the overall value of the property they are looking to purchase (usually determined by an appraiser). From there, the system decides whether to approve a loan application or refer it to a manual underwriter.

Key points of Automated Underwriting Systems:

Extract data and process documents
Leverage AI and machine learning to compare borrower information against employment and credit score databases
Flag any inconsistencies and refer them to a manual underwriter
Generate property valuations without the need for official appraisals
Reduce fraud incidents

Investing

The third multi-trillion-dollar bucket of real estate, investing is a complex, multi-step process often obscured by the legacy systems’ inefficiencies. Here are several real estate innovation ideas for those considering addressing these imperfections with the marriage of proptech and fintech.

Online Real Estate Fintech Platforms for Crowdfunding

Real estate fintech crowdfunding is a relatively new way to invest in commercial or residential real estate which gave rise to real estate crowdfunding platforms (aka crowdfunding websites like CrowdStreet and DiversyFund).

The whole beauty about these online real estate fintechs is that they expose everyday investors to assets traditionally reserved for the wealthy by pairing individual investors with developers. This still requires investing capital, although less than what’s required to purchase real estate outright and without the hassles of owning, financing, and managing properties.

Since online fintech real estate crowdfunding platforms are mainly aimed at the individual investor, they should have a user-friendly interface, easy navigation, investment tracking, ID verification, Know-Your-Customer modules, as well as machine-learning-powered chatbots and mobile applications. It is also important to implement document management, reporting, and e-Signature modules, like Composer, one of the main real estate solutions in the Ascendix product family.

Main features of Crowdfunding Platforms:

Big target audience as crowdfunding offers much more affordable investment opportunities than purchasing a property
Customer-friendly interface and functionality: investment tracking, ID verification, Know-Your-Customer modules, and machine-learning-powered chatbots
Document management, reporting, and e-Signature modules.

Real Estate Capital Markets CRM

Another untapped area for the proptech fintech innovation is real estate capital market management. For capital markets firms sourcing investment opportunities and matching those with suitable investors involves multiple chains of communication, both past and present, and loads of data usually unequally spread within the organization’s systems.

To manage such an intricate infrastructure, capital market firms need a core system that would unite all workflows and disparate processes under one hood. And aspiring fintech real estate companies are well positioned to do this by incorporating an all-in-1 Customer Relationship System specifically tailored to the real estate investing transactions.

Here are examples of features we implemented in our AscendixRE CRM for Capital Markets and derivative custom solutions for our clients:

Detailed profiling of lending preferences: the client’s needs, asset type, occupancy, etc.
Detailed profiles of Capital Sources and their categorization by Capital type, Property type, Debt/Equity type, equity investment size, geographies, and your custom fields.
A 360-degree view of the client across multiple asset classes and geographies
Salesforce-powered data visualization dashboards.

Depending on the capital markets firm nature, additional modules for advanced search (Ascendix Search), document management, or team collaboration may be required.

Why Real Estate Fintech is the Emerging Source of Wealth and Opportunity

Although proptech and fintech have both been the hot topics on the business agenda for the last decade, it would be fair to say that proptech disruption was much inspired by the advancement in the financial services industry, which was once prone to slow, manual workstreams and grounded by physical infrastructure, just as real estate still is today.

This tremendous gap in advancement between proptech and fintech is clearly reflected in the venture capital funding: in the year 2015 when real estate tech was just starting, proptech companies received only $2.21 billion of funding while investments in financial technology totaled $46.7 billion.

And although investments in proptech companies hit $32 billion last year, real estate remains one of the most technologically underserved industries, largely because of highly fragmented infrastructure, frequent compliance checks, and vast stakeholder ecosystem.

At the same time, it is one of the most transaction-heavy asset classes. In 2021 alone, $3.6 trillion was exchanged in the US from the acquisition and sale of real estate.

The undertechnologized nature of real estate coupled with tremendous transaction volume creates vast opportunities for real estate fintech companies to address significant, unsolved pain points devouring transactional efficiency in real estate for decades. Specifically, the application of fintech in real estate means:

Faster payment cycles. By leveraging proptech trends such as blockchain and tokenization, fintech real estate companies can dramatically speed up the transaction periods, so that something like mortgage deposit processing that used to take 3 working days can now be nailed down in a matter of seconds.
Fraud-resilient transactions. Real estate fintech companies like Zepto provide account-to-account payment platforms that don’t need to connect to a sponsoring bank nor use a 3-rd middleman to process a payment, thus eliminating any data breaches and fraud activity.
Data-enabled underwriting and servicing. As the integrated fintech in real estate expands, inducing new technologies like Big Data and Artificial Intelligence, real estate owners and investors will leverage data better to improve their underwriting and servicing models.
Accurate credit risk checks. With enhanced client data aggregation, landlords are always equipped with information about the client’s financials to be sure whether they can afford the rent, just as lending banks can estimate if the borrower can afford the loan.
Improved customer experience. With the generational shift in homebuying toward millennials (source), the modern, digitally native homebuyers, armed with mobile devices, now expect a seamless, digital experience for their banking needs. This is something that real estate fintech companies need to catch up on with their elder counterparts fintechs.

How to Develop a Disruptive Proptech Fintech Solution?

Although there are clear signs of positive disruptions in real estate transactions, many pain points remain unsolved. Buyers and sellers still struggle to navigate the fragmented landscape of physical space, relying on offline and insecure payment systems, while banks, appraisers, investors, and brokers are torn between merciless workstreams.

As I have already pointed out earlier, these inefficiencies actually play into the hands of fintech real estate innovators wanting to inject new lean operational structures and new value propositions into how real estate transactions are managed. Without real estate expertise not technical background, however, this would be barely possible.

Having operated in the real estate business for 16 years as a software developer and technology consultant, Ascendix took time to get smart about the pain points in the traditional transaction management and the ways to tackle them with cutting-edge proptech and fintech solutions. If you don’t have internal resources or real estate knowledge but have a revolutionary proptech fintech idea in mind, it is worth considering partnering with us because:

As real estate product developers ourselves, we have an extensive solution portfolio and do know all the nuances of bringing innovative ideas to life from scratch
Headquartered in Dallas, the US but having 3 more offices worldwide, we combine our local, national and international experience to deliver disruptive real estate fintech software at reasonable rates and around the clock
We are honored to have partnered with real estate titans like JLL and Colliers
We have distinctive experience building innovative Cloud Applications that deliver exceptional agility, performance, and interoperability to real estate fintech firms.

What are the Essential Proptech Solutions for Real Estate Companies

AscendixTech — Thu, 08 Dec 2022 16:18:37 +0000

Originally published on Ascendix Tech's blog.

Proptech solutions have taken the real estate market by storm and reportedly raised around 32$B in investments. Even though many real estate companies are still watching and waiting, it seems like proptech has become a huge differentiator. Especially for those who have just come to the customer-centric mentality that proptech enables.

In this article, you will overview property tech solutions that allow different real estate players to work smarter, invest time better and concentrate on profit-generating activities instead of routine tasks.

Proptech Solutions in Real Estate: Market Insights

The real estate market is one of the fastest-growing industries on the planet. It is notably due to the rapid increase in population, geopolitical crises, and climate changes that eventually cause worldwide migrations. PwC’s Real Estate 2020 Report predicts that by 2050, urban population will increase by 75% to 6.3 billion, from 3.6 billion in 2010.

In this regard, the new generation of people will need:

50% more energy
40% more water
35% more food
and, of course, places to live

The challenge of quick search and rapid selling of houses is about to mark the following decade. In 2025, the planet will host 37 megacities, 12 of them in emerging markets. In the future, these cities can become huge hubs of opportunities for investors and developers.

The only ‘but’ is environmental sustainability, which is the first to be considered when compiling construction plans in the future. Enabled by technology, such real estate trends redefine the centuries-old approaches to building, selling, renting, and investing in physical space and become the key factors of value in the market. The phenomenon that marks the introduction of real estate innovation is called proptech.

Proptech is a set of technologies accelerating the processes of renting, buying, selling, and management of buildings. Proptech examples include solutions that operate on big data, artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning, virtual reality (VR), augmented reality (AR), Internet of Things (IoT), 5G, and blockchain.

The 2022 Global Real Estate Council Chair says big tech invests approximately $600 million into commercial real estate proptech weekly (source). Startups, in the meantime, have more chances to get funding if they leverage technologies like AI and ML, according to Forbes.

Proptech innovation covers two sides of real estate operations: management and transactions. Although more than 50% of proptech companies focus on sales and leasing, transactional tasks are considered the most overwhelming and laborious when buying or selling property.

Accordingly, these processes need the most automation. Proptech technologies cover all aspects of the real estate lifecycle in a holistic way, providing the workspace for strategic and management activities on both sides.

Proptech Ecosystem: Key Market Players

In an interview for Real Estate Capital Europe, Annerie Vreugdenhil, former head of real estate finance, said: “Every large real estate player is looking at different proptech, either to serve and optimize their portfolios or to help their customers.”

Like any other industry, real estate has several key players: owners, developers, investors, brokers, tenants, property managers, and lenders. Most of them are Gen X (median age around 49 years old). Technology has disrupted their way of working, making them embrace technology more profoundly.

Mastering online platforms at the beginning of the covid-19 pandemic may have been a harder pill to swallow, but as soon as real estate professionals got used to it, they saw multiple opportunities for their business. Regardless of the player, digitalization might be discomforting as the main problem is not to figure out the technology itself but to realize in what ways proptech solutions and apps might impact the workplace. The solutions driven by artificial intelligence technology have the power to renovate how services in real estate are delivered, leveraging machine learning, virtual (VR), and augmented reality (AR) as one of the ingredients for smart prediction and replication of a physical experience for a customer.

Owners

Owners are the first to win with the introduction of investment management solutions powered by blockchain technology in real estate. This technology facilitates the decentralization of monopolies and the elimination of middle links (servers) that are traditional bottlenecks in terms of secure buying and selling of a property. Blockchain brings transparency to the process of buying property, as it helps owners own their data. This way, transactions are completed faster and with no intermediaries or involved. The entire process is encrypted, so there are no chances that anyone can step in and disrupt it. Many businesses take a keen interest in this idea as it means a radical reduction in time and resources for daily operations.

Developers

The acceleration of digital initiatives has brought real estate into a place where machines give the possibility to extract large volumes of information. Thus, for developers, counting just on superficial metrics and years of accumulated experience is like swimming in shallow waters. With relevant data highlighting the process of construction and subsequent exploitation of the building, developers can create more reliable, well-maintained, and energy-efficient buildings. Various construction software, AI, 3D printing, and robotics technologies drastically accelerate the construction process. Having this data at the early stages ensures a higher return on investment later.

Investors

Using traditional analytical methodologies, investors should keep a major focus on collecting and analyzing data. This may take years of market analysis and the loss of the best opportunities.

Investment management software provides tools to give investors a better idea of their real estate portfolio and allows them to keep a finger on the pulse of real estate and investment risks. They can use their functionality to collect data and documents, and control them in one place. This provides additional transparency in investment and enables control according to investors’ business needs.

The data that can be obtained in investment management solutions, investment portals, equity platforms, and even social media channels empowers investors to increase the profitability of the building and build effective and more targeted relationships with the target audience.

Brokers and Tenants

Brokers, traditionally, balance multiple operations at a time including lead generation and countless negotiations, email campaigns, etc. That’s why 35% of real estate agencies consider automation in their processes while 61% are already relying on it in their routine work.

With the introduction of automated solutions for lead generation and management, brokers have drastically enhanced their operations and reportedly improved the level of satisfaction among their customers. Tech-powered brokers can improve the process of:

lead generation
lead categorization
email marketing
negotiations
market analysis
sales prediction

Digital solutions bring trust and awareness into the relationship of brokers and tenants and help them to measure the pulse of one another. Custom CRM solutions, virtual experience software, and other property tech solutions ensure more effective property listing for brokers. Meanwhile, tenants can leverage these tools to foster document sharing and tenant interactions, as well as manage contract and renewal cycles.

Property Managers

Every day, buyers strive to improve the quality of their life and live in energy-efficient buildings that will allow them to spend less money on some obvious things. Property managers, meanwhile, want to manage their assets with greater efficiency and less spending. In this regard, property management solutions provide access control, energy, and visitor management and unlock new exciting possibilities to reduce utility costs based on weather conditions, market price, and many other indicators. With the help of digital measuring equipment, sensors, and controllers, AI can capture and record power consumption and voltage level data in the building.

Lenders

Financial and insurance systems are probably the most under technologized institutions. As a result, lenders oftentimes should use outdated solutions that don’t provide efficient financial planning. The introduction of fintech software entails a quick analysis of the borrower’s creditworthiness and fosters faster loan issues. Moreover, proptech solutions give lenders various opportunities for better calculations of property data. Even if real estate finance just has settled into the dawn of innovation, there are already successful examples of digital debt platforms that leverage intelligent dashboards and automated workflow tools to improve lenders’ experience.

Examples of proptech solutions: Use cases

Property Search

Listing and Brokerage Solutions
Property listing platforms like Zillow operate on big data and AVM (Automated Valuation Models) that can estimate the value of real estate with high accuracy. This platform contains millions of ads and is highly trusted by almost every major real estate company. Sellers use it to make smarter offers that are more likely to bring positive returns.

Another popular example is Trulia, a platform that provides rapid search, rent, and selling of the property with the possibility to get neighborhood insights and reviews of the real residents. In addition, the platform contains the functionality to check mortgage rates and make calculations on the loan property.

On their side, brokers may track the deal and listing process with the help of different brokerage solutions like iBroker. The solution includes rich cloud-based functionality that is easy to use and mobile-friendly and includes advanced features for billing, calculations, listings inventory management, transaction tracking, and many others. In addition, iBroker offers a set of powerful integrations with DocuSign, transaction rooms, iFranchise, and other platforms that streamline the everyday activities of the broker.

Another noteworthy example is brokerWOLF – back office and accounting software solutions that improve brokers’ workflow with the functionality of automated commissions, accessibility of transaction data, and real-time reporting. This solution is tailored specifically for the real estate industry being user-friendly to brokers regardless of their scores.

Broker CRM and Marketing
Both tenants and brokers should follow the repetitive sales and marketing cycles in everyday work. Automated digital solutions such as AscendixRE include features to simplify the daily operations of real estate brokers, such as automatic report generation, listing, and keeping all customer histories online. The platform features powerful commercial real estate functionality powered by Salesforce technologies, meaning it can be easily adapted to your business needs.

Social media, websites, and emails are among the most effective tools to reach out to the audience. Real estate brokers take advantage of the bond between people and the phone and slowly introduce email and social media practices into their work. For example, they launch email campaigns and newsletters to invite potential customers to see the property or even share a video tour through email. Outboundengine is the proptech solution example that introduces real estate agents to a powerful marketing functionality for email campaigns and provides a vibrant social media and website presence. Among various features, agents use this tool to promote their events, drive traffic, and get insights and reviews from the network of their contacts in a single dashboard.

Viewing and Imagery
Even a queue for t-shirts today sounds archaic – a physical meeting with a real estate agent even more so. Therefore, 3*D drawings or video tours and staging* get wide recognition. Their possibility to view and evaluate the condition of a property before a physical visit eliminates the time-consuming coordination of schedules with a realtor or leasing agent. iStaging and Shapespark are 3D/AR/VR property tech solutions that allow users to live out the experience when assessing the property by organizing showrooms and creating real estate projects to enhance marketing and sales communication for brands and businesses. Zillow once again proves its multifunctionality, being a good fit for this category with its powerful functionality for virtual home tours.

Evaluation and Financial Management
Despite being digitized, even a simple transaction or contract process in our world may result in a long chain of bureaucratic procedures and paperwork collection.

ChromaWay makes a fundamental shift in how we manage digital assets in real estate. With its partner, the Swedish telecommunications giant Telia, they combined efforts to leverage blockchain technology to quickly and seamlessly digitize sales contracts and property mortgages. The blockchain capabilities make the process of land register more secure, eliminating the possibility of mistakes with advanced verification features.

A worth mentioning example of debt platforms is Walton Street which reportedly invested and managed over $11.5 billion in debt opportunities. The platform introduces a smooth deal flow process: from origination and execution to underwriting and deal closing.

Speaking of equity investments, risks are always high. Therefore, various crowdfunding and equity platforms exist to connect developers and investors and help to avoid the risk of loss during real estate investment. CityVest and Crowdstreet are solutions that have high returns but work only for accredited investors. But even non-accredited investors have the possibility to build a strong portfolio of assets with minimum investment.

Diversyfund works for both types of investors and offers favorable terms with a minimum investment of just 500$. The clear, user-friendly functionality and availability of a mobile app guide investors through the acquisition, management, and other phases of the portfolio and helps protect it from volatility in the stock market. The other platforms with a minimum investment are Fundrise and Groundfloor.

Property Management
The combination of IoT and automation in real estate unlocks new exciting possibilities for property managers and buyers to reduce costs on utilities. OhmConnect generates regular reports so you can decide how to reduce your electricity consumption. OhmConnect uses energy market integration and smart meter analytics to improve energy management. The property management software helps determine which devices consume more energy in a homestead. The app also rewards users for their energy-saving efforts.

The solutions for property management, however, not only provide control over the property maintenance but also allow tracking leases, residents, and tasks maintenance.

Leasing and asset management platforms like DoorLoop act as multifunctional cloud-based software and includes powerful functionalities for different types of properties and various market players. The platform includes a set of integrations with other proptech apps and marketplaces and enables maintenance requests online. Addressing the common property management challenges and automating the manual task of bookkeeping and maintenance requests, the platform also introduces advanced fintech options for online payment and much more.

Asset Utilization
The real estate market is full of coworking, event spaces, and other propositions for retail and industrial utilization. The digitized renting process enables requests and bookings online. This way, similar solutions belong to proptech innovation in real estate.

MinNow is a new word in food storage spaces in multifamily properties, office buildings, or restaurants. The solution consists of physical pickup pods that store the delivery and special software enabling users to receive their orders with no app installation.

As people in urban cities pay more attention to health and quality of life, private space solutions in the real estate area also come forward. Sanctuary offers private recreation spaces with the desired temperature, scent, and music tuned with your mindset. The rental process is digitized and stress-free thanks to the Sanctuary App or online option of booking and scheduling.

Missing accurate, reliable, and accessible data, a retailer and manufacturer cannot adequately monitor or analyze the performance of their locations. Thus, the availability of data on retail lease locations is crucial in this sector. Technology reimagines the rent, lease, and sale of retail and industrial spaces, making the process less expensive and time-consuming. Lease Eagle is a retail lease management software that provides occupancy analysis and helps to monitor lease dates. The solution provides visibility and control over the rented space.

Property Building
Construction technology marks the progress of the industry towards a smart construction process. Planning and coordination tools like Structionsite leverage AI to capture 360 images of construction and automatically organize them according to the date of the floor plan. While BeamUp brings automation into planning and designing, providing rapid updates with the help of AI and digital-twin technology.

3D-planning tools like Homebyme provide a detailed virtual plan of the house before purchase or renovation allowing customers to make an informed decision. Meanwhile, various construction tools that make use of drones, sensor networks, and robotic technologies make a contraction a much safer place to work.

An all-in-one solution proving an advanced overview of the construction is Viewpoint – software to manage projects, people, and processes in one place. Viewpoint makes it possible to comply with BIM standards and have control over the whole project life cycle with complete information of plans and drawings in one place.

Custom Proptech Software Solutions Development

There are plenty of ready-packed proptech solutions on the market. Real estate leaders, however, pick customized tools that provide the desired flexibility and the ability to invest precisely in what they need. With 16 years of experience in the real estate market, Ascendix provides custom proptech solution software development to acknowledged real estate market players like JLL and Colliers. Here is what you get by picking Ascendix:

custom development partner with niche knowledge of the local real estate market (headquarters is in Dallas, USA)
with 3 offshore offices in Europe, we offer reasonable development rates and round-the-clock delivery
as a product company we have several real estate-oriented authoring solutions
deep understanding of industry-specific peculiarities – at Ascendix, we speak real estate
flexible engagement models: on-demand, dedicated, offshore or blended teams
a team of professionals with extensive experience in SaaS development
optimal tech stack and architecture
the benefits of using Agile best practices for fast and efficient development

Ascendix offers rich expertise in proptech software development and flexible engagement models. Contact us to improve and enrich your software with some new features to pivot fast in an ever-changing real estate market.

If you want to find more insights on Proptech Solutions for Key Real Estate Players, check out the whole article.

How many Proptech companies are there in the world?

AscendixTech — Mon, 28 Nov 2022 16:03:07 +0000

Originally published at Ascendix Tech blog.

Over the last few years, the proptech market map has turned into a whole universe with a huge number of proptech companies that reportedly equals 10,000. To navigate this complex field with different domains and technological trends of different strategic orientations, now one certainly needs a map.

In this article, we would like to measure the pulse of the current state of the real estate market and define the most successful proptech companies and areas that attract the heaviest investment. Moreover, we will answer the most frequent questions regarding the highest value proptech unicorns and the state of the European proptech market.

How much is the Proptech market worth?

According to Future Market Insights, the proptech market is expected to grow from US$ 18.2 billion in 2022 to US$ 86.5 billion in 2032 with a significant CAGR of 16.8% during the period 2022-2032. (source)

The rapid expansion of the proptech market was surged by COVID that broke through the industry’s centuries-long reluctance to adopt tech and finally put the RE market in the innovation train. The size of the global proptech investment market has grown and in 2021, it peaked at $24.3B. (source).

At the moment, proptech is a huge market that, together with its sub-markets, makes up a large part of the global economy. The market size of proptech equals $22.2T. Its submarkets and adjacent markets add another $7T to its market size. (source)

How Many Proptech Companies are There?

The total size of startups and more established proptech companies equals over 10 000 vendors. The number of proptech startups revolves around 6000 – all of them make an impact increasing the flux of investments to USD 3.4 billion in H1 2022. (source 1, source 2)

Globally, the United States holds the largest number of PropTech companies, with 59.7% of the world’s total, followed by Europe (27.2%) and Asia (3.5%). (source)

The United States also leads in terms of investments with $1,079B in total. Besides being the global leader in raising investment funds, the USA is also the top destination country for attracting foreign investment in the PropTech sector.

However, Europe is quickly catching up with the US with businesses scaling just as fast. Europe is also seeing significantly larger funding rounds and increased interest in the market from investors and international venture capitalists. According to Crunchbase, European investors led 77% of seed fundings in Europe, 68% of early-stage fundings, and 49% of late-stage fundings.

What are the Biggest Proptech Companies in the USA?

According to Annual Barometer, three American proptech companies better.com ($700 M), Service Titan ($500 M), Hippo Insurance ($500 M) were leaders in terms of investment in 2021.

In the United States, the PropTech market is estimated to have a CAGR of 16% through 2032 (source). Thus, despite the slow economic growth expected in the US over the next few years, the US is probably the destination where the term ‘proptech’ is the most sound.

The US market hosts the largest number of proptech companies – 59.7% of the world’s total (source). According to Unissu, in 2021, the total number of tech companies in this destination equals 2234. (source).

What are the Top Proptech Countries in Europe?

According to Statista, the leading proptech country in Europe in 2022 is Spain with $2,500 million investments. Among the leading Spanish companies is Glovo and Idealista which successfully attracted $649 million and $304 million of investment funds in 2021 (source). The major focus of Spanish companies is on the housing sector and the technologies that can be used there.

Despite the period of uncertainty caused by Brexit, the UK is still among the leading proptech markets in Europe with the largest number of companies (709) and $2,300 million investments. In 2021, only the UK’s LendInvest got $700 million in investment funds, according to the Annual Barometer. The PropTech market in the UK is expected to have a CAGR of 17.1% through 2032. (source) Germany closes the top three with $ 2,100 millions of investments and the expected size of US$ 444.39 million by 2028. The market also is estimated to grow at a CAGR of 10.4% from 2021 to 2028. (source)

Why is Proptech in Europe so Dynamic?

The introduction of brand-new practices in sustainable asset development and climate control makes the EU proptech market more compliant, predictable, and risk protected.

Europe is becoming the capital of proptech events in the world – standardizing the defragmented EU market together. Also, compared to other markets, the European market is still largely undigitalized. Meanwhile, industry challenges, from climate change regulation to urban development and population growth, require new technological solutions to ease the pressure on profits and efficiency.

Another point is the investment influx in the EU proptech which according to PWC is expected to reach $69 trillion by 2033, showing a strong indicator for the future. (source)
European proptech leaders in terms of deals in 2021 include: (source)

McMakler with US$ 94M raised; Location: Berlin, Germany
Bien’ici: €33 Million raised; Location: Paris, France
rent with US$ 5.5M raised; Location: London, England

How Many New Proptech Startups are Founded In Europe?

Between 2010 and 2022, more than 330 new proptech companies were founded in Europe. The UK, Germany, and France comprise 201 of the totals. (source).

Is Proptech a Lucrative Place for Investment?

According to Statista, 31% of commercial real estate investors are planning to invest in proptech companies. This in turn creates a lot of competition among venture investors. On the graph below, Statista demonstrates investment volume in proptech companies worldwide from 2010 to the 1st quarter of 2022, by subsector. Having a glimpse, one can understand they need to be inventive today to thrive in the market tomorrow.

In 2021, the European PropTech market registered a record year in 2021, reaching approximately 20% of global investment, including over 200 venture capital investments totaling €3.8 billion (representing a growth of 350% compared to 2020). (source)

The top EU destinations for investments raised between 2020-2021 are Spain ($974B), UK ($909B), Germany ($245B).

That’s impressive, considering that for a long time the European proptech giants were ‘locked’ in their national market. Due to different industry standards, legislation, and processes. As a result, the very prospective markets in Europe couldn’t cross the borders of their own country. Unlike the American or Asian market, the European proptech market is not standardized. Instead, it is extremely defragmented, consisting of separate ecosystems in different countries.

Despite that, according to PitchBook, now the EU proptech market is growing even faster than it is in North America.

What are the Most Valuable Proptech Companies?

In between 2022 and 2021, the most valuable proptech companies were The We Company ($1,100B), Better.com ($700B), Lendinvest ($682B), Glovo($649B), Loft ($525), etc.

Speaking of categories, the heavier investment receive property management and construction tech solutions with $17.1B in 1.2K+ companies and $28.1B in 1.4K+ companies accordingly. (source 1, source 2) In terms of the proptech market growth, the most competitive companies focus on production and generation of revenue to increase the proptech market share (source).

Why is Proptech Important?

Companies and real estate users can benefit from the introduction of proptech primarily through automation. The latter is changing the way RE does business with visible results. Reportedly, automation software can increase leads flow by 77% (source). Secondly, technologies behind proptech make a difference making the industry simpler to navigate and ultimately more financially rewarding. Proptech and tech innovation are important, above all, because they change the way people buy and sell a home by:

digitizing traditional workflows and modernizing the closing process
bringing more transparency and control over the property and tenant life cycle
generating and analyzing valuable insights on property maintenance, sales, and sustainability
fostering better communication between tenant and landlord

In the end, proptech makes real estate a lucrative area for investors, while thousands of tools improve the customer journeys of real estate customers and industry professionals. According to Statista, a total of $12.05 billion was invested in proptech in 2021. All of this in the complex improves tenants’ experience and makes the industry more attractive for profit generation.

What Technologies does Proptech Use?

Advances in technology in real estate are changing global consumption patterns, transforming our perception of property building, management, selling, and renting. It gives the green light to companies, especially startups, to innovate products and change the real estate market.

The technologies behind proptech include big data, artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning, virtual reality (VR), augmented reality (AR), the internet of things (IoT), 5G, and blockchain. AI (26%), AR, and VR (12%) are the top three technologies making the most significant impact on real estate. Big data and IoT are just a few percent behind them. (source)

What’s in the Proptech Market Map?

The real estate market consists of different market players and each of them looks at different proptech. Maybe that’s the reason why at the moment, there is no single view on the real estate market. However, the first beginnings are starting to crystallize with the help of innovative proptech companies and communities all over the world.

In 2021, Catalyst Investors, an equity capital firm investing in high-growth technology companies, presented its overview of the proptech market in the form of a full-fledged map of the proptech network. This is a very practical categorization since more than 50% of proptech companies focus on sales and leasing, but transactional tasks are considered the most overwhelming and laborious when buying or selling property. The map introduces companies from both commercial and residential real estate markets.

Proptech companies on the map are classified according to their type of operations: listing, broker tools, financial/capital market, underwriting, leasing and lease management, property management, building automation, and tenant experience. Each category represents the top real estate proptech companies, their solutions, and how they improve real estate operations at each point of the real estate customer journey. Among these names are the most acknowledged and well-funded solutions according to Crunchbase like Airbnb ($6.4B), Zumper ($180.2M.) – one of the largest marketplaces in real estate, Buildout ($8.4M), VTS ($462.4M), Sharry ($3.4M) – advanced visitor management and tenant engagement software, Density ($217.2M), Appfolio ($30M), etc.
Detailed characteristics of the companies mentioned above can be found in our list of the most innovative proptech solutions for commercial real estate.

Is Airbnb a Proptech Company?

Airbnb is a vivid example of a proptech online real estate marketplace. Today, the market valuation of this shared economy platform is $30 billion (source). The success of the Airbnb model has inspired many other platforms. As a result, there are now many new real estate marketplace platforms in Europe, which have their own niche, but essentially work in the same way. Good examples are Spotahome, 9flats and Homaway (now Vrbo) – European rental platforms.

The platform provides users with access to various apartments, rooms, or even houses in 191 countries around the world in a flexible home-sharing format. On Airbnb, people can easily list, search and book accommodation online with the help of their mobile phones.

Looking for a Proptech Software Development Company?

Implementing innovation shoulder-to-shoulder with major industry players, like JLL, Hanna Commercial Real Estate, Cresa, and others for 26 years, Ascendix invested its best practices and industry expertise in the development of innovative proptech solutions for the real estate market.
Regardless of the niche you want to take on the real estate proptech market map, Ascendix may contribute to your growth by:

providing access to the latest real estate technology innovations: custom-made & feature-rich software tailored to real estate
make use of authoring solutions that have been tailored specifically for real estate professionals
speeding up back-office processes and offloading your real estate workflow
access to seasoned real estate consultants: understand how current and upcoming IT trends can impact your business
straightening your existing technology team with real estate technology experts
reduce costs and equip your team with up-to-date tools to make more deals with less stress and manual input

Ascendix builds effective digital real estate for different niches, domains, and various real estate players. Once you’re looking to create a prospect app or improve the existing one – contact us – we have a proven tech record to meet your requirements.

If you're curious to get more info on this topic, check out the whole article Proptech Market Map: How Many Proptech Companies are There?