By: George Denman
Across the board in the modern professional world, technology is a huge influencer. Without fail, 2018 is proving to be another year where the lines between the commercial real estate world and technological advances continue to blur.
And as our world continues to favor the technological advances of the world, we at Oxford Appraisal Management Company have been keeping an eye on the biggest technological trends that have been shaping and reshaping the commercial real estate sector. Without further ado, let’s take a look at some of the technologies that the experts at Oxford have been tracking. We’ll break down what we see changing in terms of how you occupy, lease, use, manage and interact with the commercial real estate industry.
Top Tech Trends Impacting Commercial Real Estate
Advanced Automation
Intelligent automation has been creating a significant opportunity for real estate appraisal companies over the past few years, and will continue onward in the years ahead.
Historically, the real estate industry has proven to be a “late bloomer” in the tech world with many manual operations continuing to thwart productivity. In fact, many firms still use spreadsheets for recording, collating, and analyzing data, despite the availability of more sophisticated and automated analytics and visualization tools. What’s more, many documents—lease agreements, deeds, contracts, tax assessments—are still maintained in a physical format.
While much of the industry continues to rely on human involvement, the probability of fraud and error increases.
Making the switch to automated processing is a game changer for the commercial real estate appraising industry that will help companies in reducing errors and increasing operational efficiency by replicating human actions and judgment with tremendous speed, scale, and quality.
At Oxford, we’ve already implemented such technology via our easily-accessible online portal.
Big Data and the Internet of Things
The 2017 year saw significant advances in the robustness of the technology underlying the Internet of Things (IoT). The transition into 2018 thus far has then created a space where more commercial real estate owners and users have been able to integrate the IoT into their management systems.
As the IoT becomes more prevalent, it should bring increased building efficiency, better maintenance, and improved tenant experiences to the world of commercial appraisal.
Even more, the power of the IoT comes not from the sensors, but from the ability to collect and analyze the data that they generate. While Big Data mining and analysis tools have been around for a while, they have already proven to be gaining further use along with IoT adoption in the commercial appraisal world throughout the first half of this year. Professionals in the commercial appraisal world can together utilize IoT and Big Data to increase industry efficiency and client experience.
Blockchain Recording
Within the tech world, a blockchain refers to a secure digital record of transactions. In the commercial real estate appraisal world, blockchain can be implemented in regard to any and all appraisal management process documents.
For example, within Oxford, all documents are available online to our clients for five years, and those clients have access to those records through login credentials. We operate from a high-availability secure system architecture that is fully customizable for the access and security levels you require. You will also have access to quarterly reports showing client and market/industry data. This marks a form of blockchain that is already being tested as a replacement for real estate title systems.
2018 could be mark the year that blockchain goes from being a tested technology throughout the commercial appraisal world and to an actual new way for commercial real estate to be owned and transferred.
Virtual and Augmented Reality
Sure, the idea of virtual reality (VR) – or augmented reality (AR) – may not necessarily be a new thing, but the technology is finally starting to advance to a point where it is entering and impacting the mainstream business world.
In general, VR is impacting office design and business travel as some companies continue to make the move to virtual meeting scenarios that actually work as opposed to a physical meeting.
The process of marketing spaces for lease and purchase is being streamlined by advanced VR tools that let prospective tenants or purchasers experience spaces in various configurations in a virtual walk through.
Furthermore, while augmented reality is still finding its way in the business world, it has the potential to revolutionize building management and maintenance by enabling techs to see the status of systems as they walk through buildings.
Could the commercial appraisal management industry soon turn to VR and AR experiences to assess and manage client properties? We don’t see why not…
Working Through Digital Disruption
There’re always two sides to a coin, and this situation is no different. Technological innovation has affected many asset classes of real estate world, including workspaces, retail shopping centers, distribution centers, offices and more.
With an increasing amount of work and consumer purchases being performed from anywhere on mobile and digital devices, employees and consumers are transforming the way they do their jobs, purchase goods and services, and live. Retail stores are reorganizing their traditional infrastructure from a decade ago to better compete with e-commerce giants such as Amazon and Walmart.
Because of the amount of information consumers are able to access without even leaving their homes, change is taking place in the commercial real estate industry. Consumers are no longer taking a back seat.
Nowadays, the road to a purchase includes both traditional store and online channels. Consumers are investigating and learning all there is to know about the product well before going into a physical location — if they ever do. It’s a sector of the commercial real estate world and industry – especially in the retail sector – that we do not want to overlook. The bottom line here is that avenues are changing, and although we do not predict brick and mortal stores going extinct, there are certain industry trends that we at Oxford keep our eyes on to better provide for our clients at a more complete level.
Still, digital disruption can turn out to be a positive thing that brings about progressive change for the disrupted industry. Commercial real estate appraisal management companies who are open to new methods and who evolve with the latest disruptive technologies, such as your friends at Oxford, have the ability to remain market leaders – and to lead their clients down the same path.
The same goes for all technology and how it impacts the commercial appraisal world. Innovation will often produce very good results if you and your trusted appraisal management company are willing to embrace it. If not, there’s a potential that you could left behind.
Now’s not the time to take a back seat to technology. Instead, it’s time to embrace it. Get in touch with the experts at Oxford Appraisal Management Company today. We’d love to talk about how we keep you – and your regulators – happy and technologically ahead of the game.