Using business intelligence technology to grow your real estate business

Anne Ewasko Leave a comment

Realtors can benefit from using business intelligence technologies. Analytics and data visualization have emerged as winning strategies in a society where data is viewed as gold. 

Clients appreciate your ability to help them understand the status of the market by gathering datasets in real time to help them make informed decisions on their purchases or sales. These technologies can also support your business by keeping tabs on your output; tracking sales, leads and marketing campaigns; pinpointing development areas; and offering research that supports data-driven decision-making.

For agents, Tableau and Power BI are the two most popular business intelligence solutions.

What is Tableau?

Tableau is a well-known solution for business intelligence and data visualization. It enables users to build a variety of graphs, maps, dashboards and stories to represent and analyze data to support business decisions. Because of its straightforward forms, the data produced by Tableau is simple to interpret for professionals of all levels. To build a custom dashboard in Tableau, you don’t need to be exceptionally skilled. Tableau data processing happens quickly, and spreadsheets and dashboards are used to build the representations. 

Pros 

  • Tableau offers online resources, tutorials and training, as well as a forum.
  • It is simple to implement software upgrades in Tableau.
  • In a single step, the software is capable of producing several visuals.
  • Tableau can manage a lot of data.
  • Tableau allows for sophisticated table computations, including Python and R tables.

Cons

  • It is pricey. Tableau Creator is $70 per month, and a Tableau Pro subscription is more than $1,000 per year. 
  • Tableau lacks an automated option for reloading reports, so updating data on the back end requires more human work.
  • Because Tableau doesn’t offer version control, once reports and dashboards are published, you can’t go back to the prior level of data in a newer software version.
  • Users occasionally experience difficulties showing data for more extensive tables because Tableau can only display tables with a maximum of 16 columns.
  • Tableau contains static parameters that can only be used to pick a single value, and these parameters must be manually updated anytime the data is modified, rather than updating automatically.

What is Microsoft’s Power BI?

Power BI is a solution for data visualization and business intelligence that enables users to create interactive dashboards and BI reports from numerous data sources. It offers several software connectors and services so information may be conveyed using a variety of approaches and procedures in data analysis and visualization. Power BI integrates and organizes complex data while looking for underlying trends and patterns. 

Pros 

  • The basic version is free. However, you must pay $9.99 per user per month to share reports in the cloud. Power BI Pro is $13.70 a month, and Power BI Premium is $27.50 a month.
  • Utilization is simple. If you know Excel at an intermediate level, you can use this tool.
  • Microsoft updates Power BI monthly with new releases and upgrades, so you will always have the latest features.
  • You may repeatedly access data from several data sources anywhere and at any time.
  • Users can sort and emphasize features — and more — with just one click on interactive dashboards.
  • You can modify the data files before they are imported. 
  • Power BI offers rapid implementation in a secure setting. 
  • Power BI can also interact with the Python and R languages for employing visualizations. 

Cons

  • The desktop version of Power BI is incompatible with iOS.
  • Its design is cluttered with icons that might obscure reports and dashboards.
  • Power BI only takes files up to 1GB in size.
  • Processing bigger datasets with complex characteristics can occasionally become challenging because Power BI may crash in certain circumstances.

Tableau vs. Microsoft’s Power BI: main differences 

Because it offers more cloud-based and on-premise choices, Tableau takes the top spot regarding deployment flexibility. Tableau functions best when there is a lot of data in the cloud. Additionally, Power BI is only available on Azure’s cloud, despite having both on-premise and cloud versions. As a result, Power BI can only give so much freedom.

Compared to Power BI, Tableau handles enormous data sets more effectively. Power BI frequently fails to keep up with large amounts of data and may perform slowly.

Tableau outperforms Power BI in terms of integration capabilities. There is a slight difference between the third-party data sources that Tableau and Power Bi can integrate, despite the ease with which both tools integrate external data sources. Tableau successfully combines data from many dissimilar sources, including Hadoop databases, whereas Power BI only functions well with Google Analytics, Azure and Salesforce. Power Bi users cannot integrate Hadoop resources. Power Bi also does not automatically recognize resources, in contrast to Tableau.

Bottom line

Real estate professionals will benefit from investments in data infrastructure, networks and analytics for years to come. The more precise, up-to-date and detailed the data is, the more helpful it will be when you or your clients are making important decisions. 

Both Tableau and Power Bi offer unique characteristics. When deciding between these two options, the needs of who will be using the tool (agents versus brokerages), and the scale of data being employed, should be considered. 

Undoubtedly, there is significant overlap between each software, but ultimately both are valuable tools to grow your business. 

Anne Ewasko is a veteran Realtor in the Chicago area and a longtime techie. Visit her at anne.luxhomechicago.com.  

Price it right with three simple questions

Special Contributor Leave a comment

By Mike Pallin

You need a great pricing dialogue in this market. Relying on a stack of comps in a pretty binder doesn’t make much sense. Many agents will give prospects a price over the phone or send them comps. That doesn’t work either.

Instead, what if you added three simple questions to your pricing presentation that will help you get the home priced right when you are at the listing appointment?

First, a couple of quick pricing DO’s and DON’Ts.

Do your market research, but keep it in reserve unless you need it to answer a question or substantiate the price you suggest. Though you’ve invested time and effort in market research, too much detail will only create confusion and get your presentation off track.

Don’t talk specifics until you know first that they are sold on listing with you and your company. If they don’t believe you can get the job done, why would they believe your opinion on price? They need to know why so many people choose your company, what makes your marketing powerful and why you are the best agent for them. That has to happen before a discussion of price.

So, what are the three questions?

The first one is, “If we could agree on a price, would there be anything preventing you from letting me handle things for you?”

There is a sound psychological principle behind this question, whatever words you use. Asking for the listing, subject to agreeing on price, lets you know how well you have connected in the “like and trust” department. If the answer is “no” it’s time to talk price.

Chances are your prospects have heard all kinds of promises about a quick and easy sale outside of the traditional method among cooperating brokers. There is no shortage of information (and misinformation) about selling today. Real estate is no different from most products and services that can be had at the market price, or at a discounted price — and discounts almost always come with a cost.

So, start your pricing discussion by showing them what an investor would typically pay for a home like theirs. In almost any market, investors will pay 70% of market value. If your market is still “hot,” they may pay even more. Take the value you determined from your market analysis, and calculate what an investor in your area would probably pay.

Then tell them the full market price you determined from the comps. Just give them the number you think it will sell for — one number that represents full value. Describe it as “…and the retail price on your house would be $XXX.” All you’re doing is explaining the facts.

Then ask the second question: “May I show you how most successful sellers choose their price?” Explain the relationship between time and price. Everyone knows that discounted goods sell quicker than goods at full retail price. So, finding a buyer to pay wholesale might only take a day or two, while finding a buyer to pay full retail price will take longer. Next, estimate the average days on market for that area and price point. Add processing time between finding a buyer and closing. And show them a date when they might expect to close with a full retail buyer.

Now it’s time to ask the third question: “How soon do you want your money?”

They pick the time, you show them the price. If they want a different price, show them how long it will take.

Pricing isn’t an exact science, but it also isn’t a mystery. There is a direct relationship between the price they choose and the amount of time it takes to get it. It is our responsibility to explain that to our clients. Keep them informed as this new market evolves, and make sure to connect price with time.

Mike Pallin is president and head coach of The Floyd Wickman Team. The agents he personally coached in 2022 produced an average of 60 listings and sales each. He can be reached at 734-637-4030 or mike@floydwickman.com.