Real Estate IT

Great use of Silverlight PivotViewer for residential listings

What a coincidence, the same week as a debate started on the blog Future of Real Estate Marketing (an Inman company) why (or if) 'the map based search was dead' an absolute stunning new search tool was launched on the Swedish market called BostadsPivot ('RealEstatePivot').

The service 

A software developer named Magnus Ohlsson has used the Silverlight control PivotViewer combined with listings data from the Booli API (a Swedish residential listing service) to create this tool. 

Hard to explain the tool in one picture but each photo represents one listing the different columns are in this case the representing different price intervals. 

Try it

It's for sure worth trying. And for all non Swedish speaking here is the short manual.  

 In the panel to the left one decides how to limit the search. In the drop down menu in the upper right corner one choose how to 'group' the listings. And finally there are two icons (upper right corner) for how to view the result.

Read more about the tool at the developers blog (in English). Where you also find more information about the PivotViewer, including a great TED presentation on the topic.

My thoughts

First of all, the PivotViewer technology is impressive and this example for sure takes advantage of it. It gives a new way to browse the listings. The downside is to make it as user friendly as needed for the average user. Furthermore, the integration of a map could be better. However, the use of technology is brilliant. Other listing services will hopefully be inspired by this.

 

Datscha launches in Finland

(Full disclosure: This post is a shameless self-promotion when I'm the Product Manager at Datscha. I try to stay clear from writing about Datscha on this blog, but this is to good to be left out.)

Datscha, the Swedish SaaS solution for the commercial property market, launched last week it's services in Finland by adding data on 140 000 properties and market information for 7 municipalities (to be 50 soon).

Property data

The data to be found on all commercial properties in Finland includes  id, owner, type code, land area and total size of the building. 

Below is the rather useless, but all so cool view of all the 510 000 (!) commercial properties in Sweden and Finland. 

Makes much more sense when zooming in.

On a detailed level the user is able to do a 'mouse over' on any property icon and see the id, owner and type code. There is also a link for more details.  

Market data

As in Sweden, market data from a consulting firm is available in order for the user to getting a better understanding of what office sub markets that exist and their rent-, vacancy- and yield-levels.

More information

Is found at www.datscha.com and through the press release (in English). 

My thoughts

Very proud indeed.  ;-) 

 

Time to start marketing the standards

One of the great (small) challenges in business life is all the silos of data within an organisation. For example, the property information in the property management software that could be useful to have in your CRM system and through the growth of standards there may be a solution in sight. 
 

The hard work

However, standards don't just pop-up. They are the result of some serious hard work and timeless efforts to put them in place. A standard is an agreement between maybe 100s of counterparts that first of all not may be aware why they need it (!) or want it (software suppliers making it harder to switch supplier). That's a tough starting point. The second is that everyone is doing their business in an unique way making it hard just to have a common understanding of 'what is included in the rent?' or 'what type of area is it?". 
  

The organisations

Luckily for the property industry there are organisations driving the work of standardisation. The largest effort internationally is run by OSCRE, which is a merge between an US based organisation (OSCRE) and a UK one (PISCES) a few years back. Their effort is nowadays not limited to any particular country. See some of there larger projects listed here. A great interview with Stephen Spooner, the Executive Chairman of OSCRE, is found at crePodcast.    
 
In Sweden the equivalent effort is run by the fi2, which has been successful in the construction phases. (OSCRE has been more focusing on the investment & valuation phase.) 
  

Real solutions

Some examples on the benefits of standards.  
   
Case: Lease data
A great examples is from the large commercial real estate consulting firm JLL described in a PISCES case paper.
Jones Lang LaSalle has devised a lease administration system to manage its clients’ portfolios. Originally information was transferred to this system from lawyers using paper-based systems. This traditional approach required specialist staff to extract the data, was monotonous for those involved, and therefore prone to error.
      
In contrast, when the PISCES Lease Standard was developed it became possible to take lease data direct from law firms straight into the lease administration system. Using PISCES, ambiguities are minimised and the responsibility for data is more clearly defined. Definitions are often unclear with paper leases but with PISCES there is more precision, because the data standard defines that if a data field is populated in a particular way it carries a precise meaning.  
  
Case: Underwriting process
Found a video showing how standards are used in the underwriting process.  
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Case: Making the data in CAD drawings searchable (In Swedish)
The fi2 has created a PDF with existing solutions at companies like ABB Fastigheter and Regionfastigheter.  

Next step

Why not sign up at www.OSCREiForum.org (hosted by CREOpoint) and join the discussion?  
   

My thoughts

The different standards have today reached the point when the main problem is not to make them work, but to convince firms to start using them (or demand suppliers to put them in place). This is a challenge of marketing and selling.
 
I believe the only way is to SHOW existing real time solutions (like the video above). Then also to focus the 'sales' towards the large investors & banks who then will show the benefits for (/put the pressure on) all other parties in the industry. Cause like always, money talks. 
 
Finally, to all you people out there working within the area; keep up the great work. 
 

ARGUS to partner with RCA to integrate data in solutions

The real estate software supplier ARGUS (Facebook page) and the global real estate data research firm Real Capital Analytics has announced an interesting partnership making the RCA data available within the software suite.   

From the press release; 

"Initially this partnership will provide access to data points including a quartile distribution of capitalization rates and prices per unit within our market leading analysis and asset management solutions," says Mark P. Kingston, president and CEO of ARGUS Software. "More importantly, however, this partnership marks the first step in the convergence of real market data with our solutions that will facilitate the next generation of efficiency and value at the desktop."

"This venture between RCA and ARGUS is a natural. To value a commercial property anywhere in the world, ARGUS has the leading software and RCA has the leading data," said Robert M. White, Jr., RCA's founder and president. "The cooperative efforts between the two firms will yield great value for our clients."

My thoughts

This is a great move. I strongly believe in making the research work much more efficient by merging data from different sources directly into, for example, a DCF software. (Full disclosure, I'm the product manager at Datscha which has done this successfully for 10 years in a web solution.)     

 

Hemnet integrates listings at Eniro

Hemnet (the largest Swedish residential listing service) has made an interesting strategic move; their listings are now integrated on Eniro, one of the largest yellow pages in Sweden. 

Benefits

The biggest benefit for the end user is that one could use a direct link http://kartor.eniro.se/ in order to quickly display all Hemnet listing on a map. No need to go through multiple drop-downs (for example choose municipality) at Hemnets site. 

The user is able to filter the listing displayed on type, price and size directly on Eniros site. In combination with aerial photos, street view and more.  

Furthermore, the user is able to display searches in the yellow pages database and display the result together with the listings on the map. For example, schools, restaurants and health care.  

Not a new relationship

Hemnet and Eniro has been in close co-operations for many, especially since mid 2009 when Hemnet integrated Eniro's mapping solution on Hemnet. most of the services now available on Eniro are also available on Hemnet. 

My thoughts

Great move in order to make the listing more available. However, when the listing now are more easily available on Eniro (one click to a large map) will the traffic go down on Hemnet?   

Additional reading

More to be read at Eniro's press release and blog (both in Swedish).

 

Loopnet moves beyond listing when adding property information

Loopnet, the US based listing service for commercial properties on sale or for lease (in the US) has moved beyond listings and started in late May to roll out a beta version of property information. 

Introduction to the service

A video from Loopnet's presentation at RECon last week in Las vegas. 

The information 

The property record (click here to see an example) includes data like:  

  • Owner & Tenant Details
  • Mortgage & Lender History
  • Tax Records & Assessed Values
  • Historical For Sale & Lease Information
  • Property Details & Photos
  • Asking Price & Asking Rent Trends
The database covers all commercial property types nationwide, including over 5 million properties. 

"We are very excited to deliver the LoopNet Property database of more than five million commercial properties to our clients. Delivering a 'high-quality, alternative source for commercial property information at an affordable price' is the number one request that we have heard from LoopNet clients for many years," said Thomas Byrne, LoopNet's President and Chief Operating Officer.

The service will be free for Premium users. 

My thoughts

For sure an bold strategy to move into the field 'owned by' CoStar (two companies that have a history together). Will be most interesting to follow.

Finally, I bet quite a few in the market will smile at LoopNet's slogan "Property information that opens your eyes, not your wallet". It's brilliant. 

Additional reading 

More is found at PropertyPortalWatch, The Journal record, Wikipedia, LoopNet's pressrelease and blog.   

 

Booli displays market share for brokers

In marketing, there is an unproportionally large number of 'market leaders' (normally never describing in what sense). The Swedish residential real estate search engine Booli has released a new functionality that will add some light on topic.


Direct link to the list above.  

The new service 'Broker guide'

Booli is able to, based on all the data crawled from the real estate brokers websites, to calculate the market share for each brokerage firm. 

The table shows:
   * name
   * number of listings & medium listing price in three property types:
          - single family houses
          - apartments 
          - other

Note! Development listings are excluded in the statistics.

Information per firm
The user is also able to click on the brokerage firms name in the list and see a summarization page for the broker per municipality (or county).

The graph displays 'apartment listing price per square meter' for the firm 'Örlogsstaden' (blue line) versus all listings in the county Blekinge. Direct link to the page.

Further reading

Additional reading in English is found at Paula Marttila. 

For the Swedish speaking crowd more insight is found at
   * Booli blog 
   * Jardenberg unedited
   * Martin Palacios 
  

My thoughts 

As a strong believer in a transparent market (and really tired of a market where the use of 'market leader' is used all the time) it's obvious that I like this service.

However, large is not equal to best.
But at least this data brings down the sales pitch to facts.

Also delighted to see that Booli push the development to create a great service for its customers.

 

Objektvision hires a new CEO with plans for expansion

Objektvision, one of the largest listing services for sale or lease of commercial real estate in Sweden, has hired a new CEO, Ulf Magnusson (press release in Swedish). 

Ulf will also be the CEO of Bovision (the first Swedish residential listing service). Former CEO Marianne Olseryd Engqvist will stay in the company as Product Manager.

Background

Ulf has a solid Internet background with 14 years of experience from mainly Eniro (Swedish yellow pages) and Passagen (Swedish b2c portal).

On LinkedIn Ulf describe himself as:

I've  been working in different management positions with Internet services since 1996 - with search services such as Internet yellow pages, International B2B-services, residential directories, real estate services as well as portals, start pages and community services. The main task has always been to, in a profitable way, balance the needs of users and advertisers.

My thoughts

First of all. Ulf, welcome to the industry.
Delighted to see companies pushing their online presence.

I'm looking forward to see how Objektvision will "expand and create new brands" (as mentioned in the press release). For example, how to take on the newly released Hemnet Kommersiella (coverage here).  

 

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Mark your calender for the "Fastighets IT 2010" event

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The annual IT event focusing on the real estate industry, FastighetsIT 2010, is this year to be held on the 17th of March in Stockholm. (Unfortunately, then colliding with the MIPIM event in Cannes, France.)

The event is organised by SeminarDesign with the programme (PDF).

Focus

Being a one day event covering the topic "IT" for an entire industry one has to realise that the topics of the presentations are (unfortunately) to be all over the place. This event will cover everything from social media and "the cloud" to the status of the standardisation efforts regarding property data and property automation.

See coverage from the event previous years 2007, 2008 and 2009.

Speakers

The list of speakers includes;

Two business consultants; Rikard Lindberg (LinkedIn) from Meta Fastighetsadministration and Timo Murberger (LinkedIn) from Computence.

A famous trendforecaster in Bengt Wahlström (LinkedIn) from Trender.net.

Representatives from property companies in Johan Thorberg (LinkedIn) from Jernhusen and Alf Pettersson (LinkedIn) from Uppsalahem.

Solution providers in Peter Löfgren (LinkedIn, Twitter, blog) from Redpill Linpro, Anders Moberg  (LinkedIn) from CAD-Q Fastighet and Stefan Ledenstam from High Performance Systems.

Finally, Mårten Lindström (LinkedIn) from the standard initaitiv OpenBIM.

My thoughts

I'm delighted to see that there is interest enough in the market from both customers, suppliers, thought leaders and organisers to run an event like this. Hopefully, the event will have a positive energy (like last year).

IT in the real estate industry has a tendency to quickly focusing on property systems and automation. Sometimes I would like to also see focus on topics like marketing (trends in website creation & newsletters), sales (CRM) or just plain normal 'office IT' (mobile solutions, wiki and so on).

Unfortunately, I'll miss this years event since I will be down in Cannes focusing on the marketing side of the business. 

 

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A CEO's guide to Social Media in Commercial Property

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The RICS has published a great paper on Social Media in Commercial Property. It's written by my friends Andrew Waller (top) and Bob Thompson at REMIT Consulting. (RICS is 'Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors')

Benefits of reading

The primary reason to read this paper is not to start using Social Media, but to better understand it. A big step since the word 'Social Media" has been described as “I have rarely come across a word that has more negative connotations to managers in enterprise organizations”, read more.

Whats great with this report is that it doesn't advise everyone to start a fan page at Facebook or start using Twitter. On the other hand, it shows examples of where social media is (and can be) used in the industry.

Andrew and Bob writes "This report seeks to steer a middle path between these two extremes, recognising the intense individuality of social media while keeping an open mind about the opportunities it presents for the company, pointing out the threats that it may pose and suggesting strategies for dealing with both".

The outline of the report

The report of 26 pages consist of chapters like:

  • What is social media?
  • Real estate opportunities
  • Why must real estate engage with social media
  • Where next? - First steps

The authors go through the different aspect for agency, professional services, development, property management and marketing.

Social media at work

There are many aspects of social media and one is how to handle the use of social media within an organisation. A not uncommon solution is to make it impossible to use sites like Facebook or Twitter.

My opinion in this is ok if you also remove coffee breaks, lunches with your colleagues, make it forbidden to use the phone and email for private use! Those are also ways of communicating. (Not saying that it is ok to spent 2 hours a day on Facebook, but you don't ban all mobile phones just because someone is calling way to many private calls...)

Or as the Andrew and Bob puts it "In much of the world of property, status is measured by the ability to attract work and successful projects from a network of contacts. We, as an industry, encourage graduates to “get out into the market” to make contacts because we know that improving their personal brand will enhance the chances of them earning revenue for the firm. We then set up our computer systems to stop them accessing Facebook, mySpace and Twitter – the methods they have been using at college to network."

My thoughts

The use and possibilities of social media is interesting. But it's a challenging area to move into, especially if you're in the area of B2B.

I believe companies should focus on:

  1. Understand what is Social Media (read this report)
  2. Reflect over the internal use among employees and set guidelines (not ban!). Thing about LinkedIN, CREOpoint, Facebook and so on.
  3. Could we use the techniques in social media internal? To improve the Intranet, make it easier to connect within the firm, an internal wiki...
  4. Could it improve the way we communicate with the outside world? Could a blog be used to position us as thought leader? 

Please, do not start a blog or fan page on Facebook just because your PR/advertising/web firm thinks that is a great idea... That will never work!