Leveraging real estate tech to boost profits
The Tech 200 highlights a range of products from 138 companies, with a focus on increasing productivity — and revenue — in a tight market.
Key points:
- The tech companies and products on T3 Sixty's annual list were chosen using eight criteria, including "depth, breadth and reliability."
- The "single hottest trend"? Artificial intelligence — and it's expected to have staying power.
- The list "puts tech in context” to help real estate leaders make smart choices rather than "buy tech just to buy tech."
Brokerage companies are spending big on technology these days. Tech seems to be the key to success in today's rapidly evolving real estate market, with firms trying to keep up with advancements in AI and woo agents with streamlined tools.
But many real estate leaders find that choosing the right technology for their business is tougher than it seems.
That's why T3 Sixty, a real estate management consulting and intelligence firm, curated its 2024 Tech 200 list, which identifies some of the leading products in the real estate tech landscape.
On May 1, T3 Sixty SVP of Technology Consulting Michael Phalen and EVP of Enterprise Solutions Travis Saxton shared insights into the selection process. (Note: T3 Sixty and Real Estate News share a founder, Stefan Swanepoel).
More companies represented, and a 'surge in AI'
This year's list includes 203 products from 138 companies — up from 78 companies in 2023 — chosen from more than 1,500 offerings, said Phelan.
The products are organized into 42 groupings ranging from content marketing to lead generation and revenue forecasting solutions. About one-quarter of the companies featured on the list leverage AI in their products, which Phelan said speaks to the growing demand for the technology in real estate.
"AI is the single hottest trend in real estate tech," said Phelan. "While we've witnessed countless trends ebb and flow, the current surge in AI innovation is unprecedented."
Apart from being the shiny new thing in tech, AI is popular because "it's a really effective way to speed up the process of implementing new technology," Phelan said.
Using tech to boost revenue
The Tech 200 list was released at a time when the real estate landscape is shifting amid a flurry of lawsuits and a market that continues to defy expectations. To that end, technology that creates more efficient, streamlined processes to increase productivity — in an environment where profit margins have slid — was top of mind when compiling the list.
The products were selected using eight criteria, which Saxton summed up as an analysis of the "depth, breadth and reliability" of each product. That process included looking at customer interviews, reviewing a product's market share, and evaluating year-over-year growth, he added.
There were two categories that Saxton and Phelan called attention to: website solutions and platforms. Saxton mentioned enterprise-level products Lofty and Rechat as noteworthy products that are "doing pretty creative things with AI and experience management."
Phelan pointed to Local Logic's NeighborhoodIntel product as an example of a website enhancement that other brokerages should look at adopting. Neighborhood Intel makes it easier for brokerages to dig through voluminous datasets about local markets, which could help agents provide better service to their clients and identify emerging trends, Phelan said.
"I hate seeing brokers buy tech just to buy tech," Phelan said. "So, we tried to put tech in context."