Whether conducting business on a cell phone or using a laptop while relaxing at the beach, mobile technology is becoming a vital tool for many individuals and organizations alike. And the real estate industry is no exception, although the adoption has been slow.
“Currently, mobile technology is not pervasive in the real estate industry,” says Scott Metro, director of the Real Estate Systems and Operations group at PricewaterhouseCoopers. “However, we are seeing heavier activity in the commercial real estate debt side. The construction management arena has also shown signs as an early adopter.”
Metro says mobile application vendors have begun launching real estate-specific applications over the past four to six months. “I expect the number of offerings to continue to increase and mature as these products are adopted,” Metro says.
The opportunities are endless in which real estate companies can leverage mobile technologies in addition to the existing applications already being utilized. According to Redmond Costello, managing director of the Real Estate Systems and Operations group at PricewaterhouseCoopers, some examples of the innovative possibilities for mobile technology available to the real estate industry include:
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Stone Age to Digital Age
“The real estate industry is sort of a dinosaur, not as sophisticated as other industries [in terms of technology]. Look at Domino’s Pizza for instance. They can track exactly how often a customer orders and what they like, and they can compare each outlet to the next, and track their business regionally and nationally. As an industry, we need to move in the direction of automation so we can serve our customers more efficiently and, once we do that, we can eventually see cost savings, too.”
—Charles Knight, president of AmeriVest Properties, Inc., discussing how the real estate industry has a lot of room for growth in terms of technology use.
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- A mobile property inspection system, which allows the inspector to tour the property with a handheld device containing an electronic inspection form.
- Service request systems, enabling maintenance technicians to receive work orders electronically on the spot through a handheld device.
- Handheld devices for property appraisers to navigate with an online map to locate properties as well as identify comparable sales data for a given property.
- Handheld devices for realtors and leasing brokers to access current inventory and recent sales information while away from their offices.
- Handheld devices for leasing agents to collect prospect information while touring the property, then run credit screening and criminal background checks while showing an apartment.
- Personal digital assistant (PDA) systems or cell phones for apartment residents to pay rent, with electronic funds transferred directly to the management company.
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Budget Issues REsolved
When it comes to quarterly budgeting and forecasting, commercial property owners will gladly take any help they can get to make the process easier and more efficient. Boston-based technology company REsolve Technology designed its REquest budgeting software so companies could save time by enabling them to compile all financial information into one easy-to-read report accessed via the Internet—regardless of whether the data resides in old, legacy computer systems, spreadsheets or other financial software applications.
Boston Properties, Inc. is one REquest customer that decided to rid itself of the cumbersome binders of paper that it usually distributes to principals in order to do quarterly budgeting and forecasting.
“The quality of work we are doing has changed since making the transition to REquest,” says Amy Grindel, vice president of budgeting and planning at Boston Properties. “Whereas we used to spend days and even weeks every quarter preparing the Excel spreadsheets and manually putting together the re-forecasted report for the year, we are now able to eliminate that step and review all that information right on the web. It’s been a tremendous tool in saving weeks of time for our department.”
Overall, Boston Properties estimates it has saved 60 days of employees’ time in the last year in preparing web-based reports instead of paper-based reports that must be routed and approved throughout its five office locations nationwide.
Don’t Be a Water Waster
Even though it may have gotten pushed to the back burner behind more newsworthy concerns like building security, terrorism insurance coverage and energy conservation, water conservation is an issue that has not gone away. However, tracking and monitoring water usage on a specific level had been an almost impossible task. But Wellspring Wireless Utility Services, the first provider of wireless, point-of-use water meters, is giving property owners a means to substantially decrease water consumption and accurately measure water expenses.
The company’s Aqura product is the size of a hand-held radio and is placed at the point of water use within an apartment, whether behind a showerhead, toilet or faucet. The wireless meters then transmit consumption data by radio three times daily to a Wellspring Wireless receiver. Wellspring reads and posts the data online, generates invoices, collects payments and identifies any leaks to the building service team.
Brian Brittsan, president and chief executive officer of Wellspring International, the parent company of Wellspring Wireless Utility Services, says Aqura pays for itself in about two years.
The apartment industry is a prime example of a group that has been utilizing the advanced wireless technology of Aqura to track each resident’s intake of cold and hot water. In the past, some property managers have absorbed the cost of water because of inefficient and nonexistent methods of charging residents for their water use. “Previously, owners were only able to submeter buildings which had single supply lines into each unit. These buildings are usually under three stories,” Brittsan says. “Anything over three stories tends to have common supply lines, and have not been able to be submetered until now.”
Archstone-Smith Communities, Inc. has seen the results of the Aqura metering system in many of its apartment properties. “We’re using this product in a number of units where another metering solution wouldn’t work. In this case, tenants pay for what they use and we feel more comfortable providing our tenants with this kind of ability to track and meter their own water usage,” says Dan Amedro, chief information officer of Archstone-Smith.
The benefits to making individuals accountable for their own water use may have a more significant impact than just on the real estate owner’s bottom line. The National Apartment Association and the National Multi Housing Council claim residents who have to pay for their own water consume 18 percent to 39 percent less water than those whose water costs are included in their rent.
