The power of data: Finding growth opportunities for your agency

Is your business feeling the heat from recent changes in the real estate market? Whether it’s rising interest rates, declining property value or decreased supply, market fluctuations can make it challenging for agencies to maintain a view towards growth. When prospects are no longer knocking at the door using data to inform decision-making is more crucial than ever to identify growth opportunities, optimise operational efficiencies and continue to thrive. In this article, we explore how to harness the full potential of your data to achieve your business objectives and drive growth in a tough market. 

Your real estate database:

It all starts with your CRM database, the most valuable business intelligence and marketing asset you own. For real estate and property management businesses, this refers to all the information you collect related to your owners, tenants, and properties. By adopting a strong CRM data strategy, real estate business owners and executives can gain access to vital insights that can inform critical business decisions and unlock fresh avenues for growth. This could involve identifying new customer acquisition opportunities or streamlining operations for better efficiency

Collecting the right data:

Data-driven decision-making requires detailed, informative and trustworthy data. The value of the data you collect depends on the quality of the questions you ask and how diligently you're recording them. The more you put in, the more value you get out. 

Start building out your data collection practices by following these steps:

1. Define your data needs: Start by identifying the data points that are relevant to your business, your customers and your growth goals. This will typically include details such as contact information, past interactions, interests, requirements, buying power, and any other relevant data points.
2. Determine data sources: Identify where the data you need is going to come from and how you’re going to collect it. This could include online forms, calls logs, email, open homes and inspection notes. You may also need to gather information from third-party sources such as public property records.
3. Leverage technology: Implementing customer relationship management (CRM) and property management software is critical to managing your data. Choosing software that allows you to easily record and track all of your interactions with each contact will help you identify the signals when someone is ready to move, buy or sell and turn these into new opportunities.
4. Regularly review and update data: Regularly review and update the data in your CRM system. This will help to ensure that the information is accurate and up-to-date, and that you have a detailed picture of each contact in your real estate database.

Putting your data to work:

Now that you’ve optimised your data collection practices, you can start surfacing more property management opportunities from your real estate database. Here are a few ways you can use your hard-earned data to drive more business decisions:

1. Identify your property trends: Use your data to identify trends in your business, such as which properties are generating the most revenue, which tenants are most likely to renew their leases, and which maintenance issues are most common across your portfolio.
2. Turn sales contacts into property management opportunities and vice versa: Say an investor enquires about a property but doesn’t end up buying through your agency, then there’s an opportunity to cross-sell rental services to them. On the flipside, one of your landlords may be looking to expand their portfolio. Keeping an eye out for these signals through regular communication will allow you to turn them into a buyer.
3. Optimise your pricing strategy: Use data to determine the optimal rental price for your properties based on market conditions, tenant demand, and other factors.
4. Improve tenant retention: Good tenants are worth holding onto, additionally, tenants often turn into buyers and eventually sellers. Use your data to understand tenant needs and improve retention. Look for signals that they’re looking to move or buy to see how you can extend your services and continue providing value.
5. Reduce maintenance costs: Analyse your data to identify the most common maintenance issues across your portfolio and develop strategies to reduce maintenance costs.
6. Improve customer service: by tracking and responding to tenant requests and complaints promptly. This can help build a positive reputation, increase tenant satisfaction and retention rates, and ultimately boost revenue.
7. Adapt to changing market conditions: By tracking rental rates, vacancy rates, and demand for specific property types, managers can adjust their pricing, marketing, and leasing strategies to remain competitive.

Final thoughts:

To thrive in property management, effective data collection and a strong data strategy are essential. By pinpointing the right information, harnessing technology, and regularly analysing your data, you'll gain valuable insights to make informed decisions that drive efficiency, boost revenue, and keep you ahead of the game in an ever-evolving property market.