Technology in the commercial real estate sector has been moving at an incredible pace in the last few years and a number of new tech startups are driving much of that innovation.

Streamlining the Real Estate Industry with Groundbreaking Technology

Among those startups is Compass. While the company was launched just 18 months ago, it has already generated an impressive amount of attention. The real estate listing app is available for both Android and iOS and is designed to eliminate many of the challenges that New York consumers experience in the process of trying to rent or buy property.
Having already raised approximately $73 million in two rounds of funding, Compass was named as the Mid-Sized Business of the Year by the Manhattan Chamber of Commerce. Since its initial launch, Compass has brought more than 200 brokers onboard. Users are able to benefit by eliminating the need to search through potentially phone online listings and instead search through verified listings. By pulling in data from a variety of different sources and compiling that data into a centralized database, Compass is providing a sense of clarity to the real estate industry that has previously been missing.

Yet another startup that is changing the face of the real estate industry is Tenant Turner. The Richmond-based company focuses on providing software for property managers to assist in screening tenants and scheduling showings. Initially, the company provided only services to assist property managers and landlords in screening tenants. After a healthy infusion of seed funding, Tenant Turner has since expanded to provide additional services, making it easier for property managers and tenants to manage their business operations in a more streamlined manner.

Real Estate Tech Startups Targeting Agents and Brokers

While many of the real estate tech startups today focus on the landlord/property manager sectors, other startups focus on assisting agents and brokers. Among them is SmartZip Analytics, a real estate tech startup providing predictive analytics to assist real estate agents in determining which property owners are most likely to sell. Agent Ace works as a type of matchmaking service utilizing historic home sales data to match sellers and buyers with the best agent. As a result, buyers and sellers no longer need to spend exhaustive amounts of time in research prospective agents and brokers.

Over the past decade, there has been a tremendous rise of real estate firms, which has made it easier for consumers to search for properties for sale and for investors to seek out and take advantage of investment opportunities. During the first three quarters of last year alone, venture capital firms funneled more than $118 million into real estate tech-related startups. As the real estate industry continues to clamor for technological breakthroughs, significant opportunities exist for the expansion of startups providing an array of services aimed at the real estate industry. With more and more real estate tech startups coming online at an increased frequency, the time is ripe for significant changes to occur in the industry.