The commercial real estate industry is notoriously slow at adopting new technologies and using them to drive net operating income. This can put your firm at an unbelievable advantage. While other CRE groups are relying on historical information and "gut feel," your team will be leveraging data to beat the market in terms of decision making.
We understand that implementing data as an invaluable tool within your organization can be intimidating and, that often times, CRE leaders don't know where to start. We outlined the three primary steps you should take to start using your data to drive operational efficiencies within your portfolio.
Choose the right data to focus on
CRE companies create a lot of data each day, from property data to online reviews to financials. This data rests in many places ranging from Excel spreadsheets to property management systems (as well as everything in between). Don't worry; we aren't suggesting that you rummage through all of it to get started. Instead, we suggest strategically choosing which data sets you should focus on first. For starters, you should ensure that the data you use for analysis is up to date. Outdated data can give you a false representation of what is going on in your portfolio and actually do more harm than good. One of the best ways to identify which pieces of data to focus on is to ask yourself what decisions you would want to make faster and more accurately through the use of data. Answering this question will help you to identify the information and data sets that will be most important to you in the beginning.
Optimize for strategic portfolio outcomes
Once you determine what data to focus on, you'll need to actually start using your data for decision making. The best way to do this is by implementing a commercial real estate data management and analytics system. Having all of your data organized and in one place is crucial, but without a way to analyze it, that data is like a sports car with no fuel. Implementing a system that makes your data easy to understand by people outside of the tech department allows you to use it for revenue-boosting activities.
While implementing a new system may seem daunting, a platform like Lobby CRE doesn't require a lot of manual work or updating. The key is finding a platform that can be integrating or improve your team's processes and automate manual collecting and reporting of data.
Take action to transform the portfolio's operational capabilities
As a team of CRE professionals that designs software around our own portfolio needs, we get it. We understand that many CRE executives let their intuition and experience drive decision making. And while your industry experience is an undeniable asset, not leveraging the data that is at your fingertips opens your firm up to risk and could prevent you from finding the best opportunities.
While it's true that CRE executives tend to make decisions using gut feel, they are also a numbers-driven group. Many of the industry's largest players see this and have built out costly in-house data teams in an attempt to beat the market and gain 21st Century visibility into their portfolios. For smaller to mid-sized shops, employing a large data team can be incredibly costly, time-consuming, and a challenge to build. By purchasing a commercial real estate data management and visualization system like Lobby CRE, you can skip the expense and the challenge of building out a data team while reaping the benefits of the data your team creates day in and day out.
Speaking of efficiencies, want to see how your data can help boost NOI?