Increasingly, real estate investors are using technology to guide their decision-making surrounding selecting properties and property management. Real estate is swiftly technologizing, whether it be through decentralization, the sale of virtual property or trading in online property marketplaces; there are a variety of great tech tools available to investors today. Technological advancements in real estate have brought efficiency, convenience and other benefits to the industry, and are radically changing how we deal with property.
These are five technology tools that can help real estate investors make more money:
DealMachine
DealMachine is a real estate tool that allows investors to find off–the-market deals and therefore often better-priced properties. Experienced investors know the value of finding a property that has yet to be listed, and DealMachine is sharing those opportunities with investors. This tool makes finding owner information and contact details easy by opening a direct channel for discussion between the interested investor and property owner. Another great feature DealMachine offers is that investors can take photos of a property they’re interested in and get sent the property’s details by mobile within a few seconds.
DealMachine is a valuable property-finding tool and is great for managing leads. The application has been lauded by users for being easy-to-use but highly effective.
Roofstock
Roofstock is an online marketplace created specifically to facilitate the buying and selling of single-family rental residences. Along with this, Roofstock offers investors access to neighborhood-based research and analytics to make the best decision buying or selling decision they can. All the properties found on the marketplace are independently certified for value. Roofstock is essentially a real estate investment that works more similarly to how a stock portfolio does. In these cases, emphasis is put on the asset allocation rather than property management which is done by Roofstock itself.
Roofstock vets all the properties in-house first, ensuring that the homes have good investment profiles before putting them on the marketplace. The properties which are approved are then occupied by tenants, who can remain on site without any interference or upset while the property transactions take place.
Zillow
Zillow is a well-established and familiar real estate and rental marketplace which connects investors to crucial investing data. The Zillow database contains over 100 million properties throughout the US that are available for sale or rent, and some which aren’t even on the market yet. They also provide valuable estimates on property values, suggested rental prices and other relevant information for real estate investors. Zillow offers tons of features; users can see changes in properties under development through the aerial view and the subsequent increase or decrease in value. Similarly, Zillow can also give estimates of a property’s size, including the number of rooms.
Recently, Zillow started offering a new Rental Manager tool which allows renters to settle their rent payments directly through the app, making property management a faster and easier process.
New Silver Deal Analyzer
The New Silver Deal Analyzer is a fully online calculator created to assist real estate investors with the calculation of the potential returns on their fix and flip projects. The calculator is free and easy to use. Investors simply input their property information, the deal information, financing costs and other details to receive an estimated net profit and ROI snapshot within minutes by email. An accurate ROI estimation is particularly important for real estate investors as this number prevents them from making a higher-than-necessary offer or choosing a property that won’t be profitable.
This tool should be used prior to making an offer on any type of property. The calculator was specially built by experienced real estate professionals for real estate investors as a freely-available resource.
Bigger Pockets
BiggerPockets is a popular real estate education resource and specialized social network for individuals who actively work in the real estate industry. They also create useful real estate calculation and analysis tools, and have a popular informative real estate podcast which features off-the-cuff interviews with investors of various backgrounds, niches, and experience levels. Membership to the BiggerPockets site is completely free, and their forums are a great resource for networking with other investors and connecting with real estate service providers.
Investors can also find property leads through the site and get notifications for listings with their chosen filters such as pricing, location and more.
The internet and technological developments in real estate have brought about the creation of multiple, incredible profit-maximizing tools and resources. These tools are also readily available and easy to use to investors of all backgrounds, making real estate investing more accessible than ever before. Real estate investors gain a great advantage by using these tools and resources, from finding properties with a smartphone to analyzing ROI online, and the potential for efficiency and ease is endless.