Unlock the potential of real estate data and stay ahead of the game! In this guide, we'll explore three expert tips for using real estate data, how to collect it efficiently, and why it's crucial for your property management agency.

Plus, we'll spotlight how :Different is helping agencies thrive with data-driven strategies. So, get ready to revolutionise your approach and maximize your returns.

Whether you’re an experienced property manager or new to the industry, there’s plenty of insight to be gained from tracking real estate data.  For agencies that are scaling, keeping tabs on the big picture is just as important as knowing exactly what’s happening with each individual property you manage.

With the right system in place to track your agency’s real estate metrics, you can:

• Make data-driven decisions:  Real estate metrics give you the hard facts you need to make informed decisions about your rent roll, from hiring your next property manager and scaling your business to assessing which type of properties you should be taking on.
  
  
• Proactively spot important trends: Are your response times too long? Do you have unpaid rental fees piling up? Tracking the right real estate analytics can help you spot potential problems before they become unmanageable. 

Digitising your agency’s processes is the first step to gathering accurate property data about your rent roll. Manually tracking rental payments and occupancy rates is an arduous task that will slow down your team and can make it difficult to quickly assess the health and performance of your rent roll.

By using a streamlined, digitised system to manage your workflows, you can easily access real-time data about your properties under management. 

:Different for Agencies is a great example of streamlined digitised systems at work. Our partners have instant access to live dashboards with transparent data about how their portfolio is tracking month-to-month.

From financial insights to customer service response times, it’s really easy to jump in and review up-to-date analytics about your property management business - zero number crunching required.

The best, (and most useful!) real estate data is found right inside your own organization. Automated tracking systems provide a powerhouse of data collection across your departments and can enable you to make better decisions more quickly.

But if you want to keep up to date with what's happening on a wider scale, tap into some industry sources for the latest market data. Stay on top of the game and you'll be able to deliver premium service to your customers.

• Real estate websites: For quick, real-time snapshots of suburbs across Australia, head to websites like Realestate.com.au or Domain.com.au. Here, you can track changes in suburb sale prices and even assess the average rental prices of similar properties.
  
  
• RP data (Rich Property Data):  This data source is collected and distributed by the property research team at CoreLogic. Bringing together decades of research and historical sales data for real estate, CoreLogic’s RP data helps you track property trends, suburb price changes and even conduct more accurate property valuations.
  
  
• SQM Research:  Here, data analysts release real-time graphs and reports that can help you track changes in rental and sales markets. Their residential vacancy rates tracker is a handy resource to help you identify when your local area is experiencing rising or slowing demand. 
  
  

By using a combination of internal and external real estate data, your agency can get an accurate reflection of how it is performing in context of the market. With data by your side, you can advise owners on how to set the right rental price and even help your investors make informed decisions about when to sell their assets.

When it comes to optimising property management with data, gathering, storing, and analysing real estate data  is key. This helps to make better decisions and improve operational and managerial efficiency.

Here are three practical ways to get the most out of your real estate data.

There is no shortage of metrics that can be measured in real estate, but setting your agency up for success means being selective about what metrics you should track and why.

If rent roll performance is your priority, here are three key stats to keep an eye on:

• Percentage of rental properties in arrears: A high rate of late payments can indicate that your team doesn’t have an effective system in place for chasing up (and preventing) rental arrears.
  
  
• Average response times to maintenance requests: The longer it takes your team to respond to repair requests, the unhappier your tenants will become (and the more expensive these repairs are likely to be for your owners).
  
  
• Number of vacant properties: High levels of vacancy can mean you’re experiencing high rent roll churn. If lease renewals are low, it could be an indication of issues with your customer service delivery.

Tech is a smart way to streamline your operations as a property management team. But using too many tools that don’t work together can make it difficult to get a single view of how your rent roll is performing. 

Using a centralised dashboard and real-time data reporting to get data on properties under management can help you identify trends and get instant insights into your rent roll - freeing up your team to focus on improving performance!

To draw insights and apply learnings from real estate data, you need to analyse the data, identify the drivers, test hypotheses, and apply your learnings to make informed decisions.

• Analyse the data: Once you have identified the key metrics, you can start to analyse the data to identify patterns and trends. This may involve creating visualizations and conducting statistical analysis.
  
  
• Identify the drivers: To gain a deeper understanding of the data, you need to identify the drivers behind the trends you observe. For example, if you notice that rental yields are higher in certain neighbourhoods, you may want to investigate factors like population growth, employment rates, or the availability of public transportation that may be driving demand for rental properties in those areas.
  
  
• Test hypotheses: As you analyse the data, you can develop hypotheses about what is driving the trends you observe. To test these hypotheses, you can use techniques like A/B testing to see how changes in certain variables affect your key metrics.
  
  
• Apply learnings: Once you’ve drawn insights from the data and tested your hypothesis, you can apply your learnings to make informed decisions about your property management strategies. For example, you can decide to focus on properties in certain neighbourhoods based on your analysis of the data.

We understand the importance of keeping track of your property management portfolio. It’s why we developed real-time reporting functionality into :Different for Agencies. 

With a centralised dashboard where you can easily understand the current value of your rent roll, you can plan for future growth and be fully backed by data!

Our focus isn't just on producing reports; we also offer a dedicated account manager to help you interpret the data and provide tailored recommendations. Our goal is to help property management teams streamline their operations and scale with ease.

While real estate has been relatively slow to embrace the digital revolution, things are changing.  Sophisticated data science, artificial intelligence and big data have already made their mark in the industry, helping agencies proactively identify new prospects and make predictions about how owners, tenants, buyers and sellers will behave. 

Customers are also looking for a higher level of service than before, and are expecting interactions to be easy and happen online - whether that’s signing a lease, booking an inspection or looking for assistance after normal working hours. 

If you want to gain market share and grow your business, you need to make sure you’ve got the best tech by your side. With the right insights, tools and people powering your operations, you’ll be able to grow your rent roll and ensure it’s working as hard as you do for years to come.

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