5 Real Estate Technologies You Can't Live Without

Drones
The FAA prohibited the use of drones for real estate marketing (and other commercial) purposes this summer, but brokers still see potential in the unmanned flying objects, particularly when it comes to capturing aerial shots of palatial homes and a skyscraper’s price-enhancing views. Look for this tactic to continue generating controversy and intense interest within the industry.

Crowdfunding
Web-based real estate financing by pools of investors has spread like wildfire since legislation loosened restrictions two years ago. Some old-line developers insist that the digital realm will never compete with boardroom or golf course hobnobbing when it comes to securing financing. But with major players like Related and Forest City getting in on the action, online investor pools should sustain their dizzying rise.

Omni-channel retailing
As digital shopping continues to strike fear in the hearts of many traditional retailers, others have rushed to adapt to modernity and integrate e-commerce and mobile payment options into their physical stores with customized and “immersive” shopping platforms. The goal is to have shoppers spend their money at the store—rather than Amazon and its ilk—even if the transaction occurs online.

Digital marketing and 3-D visualization
Two-dimensional models on platforms like 42 Floors and View the Space are still gaining traction and efficiently modernizing the way developers promote space.  But sites liked Floored have already upped the ante by offering 3-D visualizations of prime spaces (including Hudson Yards properties) and promising to do for building interiors what Google Maps did for exteriors. The major upshot is that potential tenants can understand a layout before it’s been completed and toy around with interior design in advance.

Big Data
Whether streamlining reams of commercial real estate intel (10Gen, 42Floors), allowing for cloud-based portfolio management (Hightower, which does away with bottomless stacks of spreadsheets and allows commercial real estate pros to track their leasing progress on a smartphone), or connecting developers to architects and engineers (Honest Buildings), a bumper crop of apps and web platforms have finally helped the industry overcome its tech phobia.