The real estate industry was transformed by the arrival of the internet and disrupted by the digital era. However, there has been one constant throughout the technological advancements—the value of data.
Fifty years ago, only investors with access to the top real estate brokers could make the best investment decisions because only expert brokers knew the economics of the local property markets. Today, through real estate websites and data providers, investors have access to extensive, nationwide property data, which means they can make better investment decisions.
Read on to learn about ATTOM’s latest data solution that transcends existing platform innovations and serves tomorrow’s investor.
Real Estate Investing—The Good Old Days
Pre-internet, and in the days before the Multiple Listing Service, property investment involved networking and lots of legwork. First, investors needed a broker, preferably one knowledgeable in their local market. Next, investors would connect with that broker and explain what they were looking for. The broker might have listings that fit the criteria, or they would reach out to their own, exclusive network of brokers. Reliable market information was only accessible through a broker and, even then, the insights were hyper local. There was no access to data at the national level.
Fast forward to 2023 and sites such as Zillow and Trulia list nationwide property that anyone can access from a desktop or mobile phone. For specialized clients, data companies like ATTOM provide comprehensive and extensive property data customizable and targeted to the needs of the investor. Today, data is now in the hands of the consumer, not shielded by brokers and their networks.
This access to data empowers investors with detailed property insights, accurate risk and market analyses, and the ability to make quick business decisions.
Real Estate Investing—The Era of Digital Data
ATTOM’s latest data product, Property Navigator, is geared toward real estate agents, investors, appraisers, and enterprise organizations. The solution enables search and access to residential and commercial property data for over 155 million properties nationwide. It delivers detailed property reports, downloadable records, and accurate market analysis and reviews.
Find Properties According to Your Criteria with Property Navigator
Property Navigator offers powerful real estate search tools and filters to help you narrow down your investment opportunities and focus on the best property deals. Property Navigator is used for three main reasons: to research properties, find comparables for valuations, and to create lists.
Users can search by a specific address, owner name, distressed properties, listings, or mortgages. Search for recent sales, occupancy status, or vacant properties.
Users can search using maps by neighborhood, school district, or custom-drawn areas for micro-accuracy.
The screenshot below shows a screen shot of the results for a distressed property search for pre-foreclosures in Miami Dade County, Florida.
If desired, the user can click on an individual listing to get detailed individual property information.
Property information includes an embedded map, flood zone information, lot size, ownership, building details, interior details (square footage and room counts), soundscores (how loud local transportation is at the property), telephone numbers, tax and assessment history, sales and mortgage history, foreclosure activity, recently sold comparables, and automated valuation tools.
The automated valuation models are computed by ATTOM, and the data in Property Navigator also give rental value estimates for properties.
For any property, users can easily pull up a list of comparables and sort the list according to any of the criteria, such as subdivision or school district.
All of the reports that users create on Property Navigator can be downloaded, printed, and shared with others, such as the users’ clients who may not have access to ATTOM’s Property Navigator. The screenshot below shows a market analysis for a property with a side-by-side comparison to the comps.
Users can save lists of properties created from the solution for use in Excel or as mailing labels.
Lastly, all of the searches can be done in maps, which gives users a list of the properties plus the software will drop pins on a map to show the property locations.
In the screenshot below, each pin on the map represents a property in foreclosure in Miami-Dade County. Hovering over the pins reveals the address of the property, and clicking on the pin will take you directly to the property report.
ATTOM’s Property Navigator is the best tool for investors because the data’s range and granularity open up broader investment opportunities. Property Navigator is the best tool for real estate agents and brokers because of the depth of research it facilitates, and the ease with which it creates immediate and accurate print-ready reports. Lastly, appraisers and lenders can be confident that the automated valuation models are accurate and based on valid comparables, while marketers can build targeted lists for lead generation.
Let ATTOM’s Data Solutions Drive Your Property Dealings
Whether it is 1990 or 2023, profitable real estate investing relies on access to data. That access used to be limited to knowledgeable brokers who knew their own backyards and kept a tight hold on valuable information such as new listings, potential foreclosures, mortgage, and sales data. Today, wise investors, real estate agents, appraisers, and enterprise organizations do not turn to brokers but to digital data providers.
ATTOM’s Property Navigator is preparing property and investment professionals for the next technological advancements. It’s not clear where artificial intelligence and virtual innovations will take the industry; however, one thing is clear, the foundation will always be data.
Watch this video for an overview of ATTOM’s Property Navigator.