Technology has revolutionized almost every industry, and real estate is no different. Real estate development is never easy, but technological innovation has made certain aspects of the job much more efficient. Here is a look at five technological time-savers that have massive potential for real estate developers.
Online Listing Sites
Online listing sites like Zillow and Trulia have made it easy to research properties. Before the internet, developers would have to scout each location in person, which can be impractical and time-consuming. Today, you can easily do the leg work from your office using a computer.
There are sites for residential and commercial properties that offer a wealth of information about the building, lot, and surrounding area. Plus, these online listing sites can decrease your dependence on a real estate agent to do your scouting. Information on these websites isn’t always accurate, so you’ll still need to do your due diligence. However, they offer great resources for brainstorming and doing preliminary research.
Drones
Drones are another innovation that can help developers in numerous ways. Before drones came around, it could be challenging to get accurate images of large, remote plots of land. Suppose you were a developer scouting raw land in an area that wasn’t easily accessible to the public. Under those circumstances, it could be challenging to get the images and information you need.
Even if you could access the land, traditional photography often falls flat when capturing large commercial properties or parcels of land. Drones make it easy to capture breathtaking images that can be used to survey undeveloped land and commercial sites. The aerial capabilities of the technology make it easy to fly over remote areas that humans can’t easily access and collect high-quality photographs. Drones can save tons of time and energy compared to scouting it on foot with a traditional camera or flying overhead in a helicopter.
The Cloud
Gone are the days when you need to fax important documents or deliver them in person. Real estate developers can easily exchange documents with partners and service providers using the cloud. Apps like DropBox make it simple to upload important files and share them with collaborators quickly and securely.
Perhaps you're collaborating with an architect on the final design of a building. Rather than emailing sketches and ideas back and forth, you can upload them to a secure folder in the cloud that can be reviewed and archived for a later date.
Plus, cloud-based e-signature platforms like DocuSign also help developers and property managers save time and energy by reducing the need to sign documents manually.
Rendering Software
Rendering software is another trend revolutionizing property development. Building information modeling or BIM is a 3-D model-based technology that helps engineers, architects, and construction professionals plan, design, and manage buildings.
Rather than relying on 2D images and photographs of a building, developers and other team members can create lifelike, digital 3D models of the proposed structure to help flush out ideas and map the execution. Plus, once the building is complete, BIM can also be used to plan systems to manage the facilities.
Maps APIs
Map APIs are another fantastic innovation that allows developers to easily create location-based apps and programs. One potential benefit of a Map API for real estate developers could be to create a program that quickly scans neighborhoods for signs of neglected properties, such as abandoned pools and overgrown yards.
Creating an app that can view large swathes of land for available properties is surprisingly easy, thanks to improved image resolutions and improvements in mapping APIs. Location data, if sourced well, can come in resolutions as high as 60-30cm/pixel. This gives developers an incredible resource when building apps to look for image patterns that would correspond to, say, a green yard with patches of gray and black that would indicate cars.
Interestingly, insurance companies are already capitalizing on mapping APIs to analyze thousands of miles of location data for insights into land development and quality of life. Likewise, real estate agents use point of interest location data regarding how close a home is to shopping and schools as a major selling point. Sophisticated deep learning and AI-assisted mapping can be used to automate time-intensive tasks like tracing building footprints to identifying certain map features like construction activity. The most visible application of this technology can be seen in the area of humanitarian efforts, where this building data is being used to deliver crucial disaster response services.
So with the help of a skilled team of tech professionals behind them, real estate developers can easily create cutting-edge apps using Map APIs to identify distressed properties and make informed decisions from miles away.
Top comments (2)
I love this Maps APIs
Great post! It's also important to plan things ahead, and I've been using task management software to help me plan my day. I use tools like Trello or quire.io/. Using the right tool is not only a time-saver but also makes it easier to manage my work and collaborate.