How RE is Gaining a Competitive Edge With New Data

Data from taxis and Citi Bikes can give real estate investors the advantage of “quantifying the qualitative,” according to Will Silverman of Hodges Ward Elliot.

Historically, real estate has been behind the times when it comes to using data. Brokerage firm Hodges Ward Elliot is trying to “help people quantify the qualitative,” managing director Will Silverman tells PrivcapRE in an exclusive interview.

Rather than relying on historical leasing and sales comps, swaths of open data from Citi Bike and yellow taxicabs are available for investors to make more insightful decisions on real estate investments—if they remember to use it.

According to Silverman, by analyzing the data, for example, of yellow cab drop-offs and pick-ups in south and east Williamsburg, Brooklyn late at night, one can see a correlation: “Over the last five years, the average drop-off time on Saturday nights in front of the buildings that we’re looking at moved from 3 a.m. to 1 a.m.,” he says. While he can’t exactly pinpoint the correlation, Silverman says he’s comfortable suggesting that this person “is a little bit older, a little bit further along in their career than the person who goes out until 3 a.m.” But they’re still going out, which means they have excess money to spend, he adds.

So after looking at data like this, investors can actually prove—rather than hypothesize—to their committee that the tenancy of a certain neighborhood is changing.

You can view a clip here:

Watch the full video or download the transcript here, in which Silverman also discusses the need for commercial real estate brokers to visit foreign buyers in their home countries to pitch U.S. deals.