According to NAR, nearly 6.5 million existing and newly-built homes were sold in 2020, despite the complications and challenges of a global pandemic. 2021 is lining up to easily outpace that number. We sat down with Peter Krause, Co-Founder of Terradatum, to find out why being equipped with accurate analytics is more important than ever for the real estate industry.
Would you agree that it’s more important than ever for agents to have access to market data?
Peter Krause
We founded Terradatum because we have always believed that access to accurate data is essential to the real estate industry. The almost unprecedented growth the industry has experienced over the past year makes it even more vital that brokers and agents are informed about their market activity. Many depend on a monthly market report to stay informed, but activity is moving so quickly from day to day that a market report simply cannot keep up with the relevant metrics. Market trends need to be readily available to help brokers and agents answer questions.
Additionally, it is not just about having access to market data. On the exterior, market trends can seem straightforward. But can you ensure that your data is accurate? Look for companies that can provide an audit trail in their analytics back to the actual transactions that were sourced to produce each metric.
So what do they do with the data all once they have it?
Brokers and agents should consider their relationship with their data as a conversation. A personal tenet when creating tools for Terradatum comes from the technology innovator Stephen Few: “Signals always point to something…a signal is not a thing but a relationship. Data becomes useful knowledge of something that matters when it builds a bridge between a question and an answer. This connection is the signal.” The tools at Terradatum were created to be a conversation between the user and the data. This conversation offers the user an opportunity to ask varied questions about the market and gain a deeper understanding of activity.
People don’t know what they don’t know. Most real estate professionals are familiar with the question, “How’s the market?” They probably get asked this question by their neighbors, at the grocery store, at the doctor’s office, etc. While they could easily respond anecdotally about how busy things are, this is also a larger opportunity at hand. An educated broker or agent could answer with tangible data about inventory supply or the average days on market for a property in their area. This kind of knowledge frames them as a true market professional, and the knowledge only comes from someone who knows how to interpret the market data.
Is interpreting the data a complicated process?
It doesn’t have to be. At Terradatum, it is our mission to simplify data to enable real estate professionals to make better decisions for their business. We partner with nearly 300 MLS systems nationwide, which allows our users access to the most accurate data available, and the analytics are presented in easily-digestible formats.
Home pricing is a key topic for real estate agents, and an accurate picture of the market is vital for their CMA and pricing discussion. Brokers can benefit from having factual insights on agent activity for recruiting and retention. Having an understanding of nearby market activity may allow them to consider expanding their reach.
We give each person who uses our products the tools to interpret the data to help them gain a deep knowledge and understanding of their market activity. An informed real estate professional is an empowered one.
Terradatum was founded in 1989 on the principal that MLS data is the key to unlocking the market for real estate professionals. Since that time, it’s been the company’s mission to deliver MLS-backed real estate analytics to brokers and agents across any available platform. Terradatum partners with nearly 300 MLSs nationwide, and their leading product, BrokerMetrics®, is used by more than 13,000 real estate offices in North America.