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• In this latest podcast, Alaviya Rizvi, Entrepreneur in Residence, PropTechBuzz discusses how AI is redefining PropTech with Doug Newell, CEO, Swarmalytics Inc., an AI company that integrates data from properties across the U.S. and generates actionable insights for the real estate industry.Â
• Predictive AI can help real estate developers companies search and find land for development and existing properties, understand market competition, and most importantly, arrive at the perfect pricing for their properties.Â
• Swarmalytics has developed tools and metrics to score properties across the U.S. Developers can receive the data and scores about these buildings based on a number of criteria to search and buy the best properties that can be developed and sold in the future.
• Swarmalytics is training its AI model using information about every property in the United States based on 12,000 variables. Every month, the team analyzes data for 115 million houses and predicts which of those will be sold, rented, or ‘flipped’ in the next 90 days.
In this latest podcast, Alaviya Rizvi, Entrepreneur in Residence, PropTechBuzz discusses how AI is redefining PropTech with Doug Newell, CEO, Swarmalytics Inc. Doug Newell is a seasoned professional with a proven track record of driving organizational success through expertise in leadership, operation management, and business administration. While pursuing his Master’s degree in Economics, Doug Newell became known as the ‘statman’ due to his expertise in quantitative analysis and unconventional approach to data. While working with Cadbury, he calculated how many candy bars should ideally be made in the U.S. As a serial entrepreneur, all the seven companies he founded or co-founded have used data analysis to drive business growth for their clients. His latest venture, Swarmalytics is an AI company that integrates data from properties across the U.S. and generates actionable insights for the real estate industry. Before Swarmalytics, Doug Newell applied AI to diverse sectors such as healthcare and advertising.Â
Doug Newell and his team at Swarmalytics are pioneering the concept of ‘swarm intelligence’ in AI and PropTech. Swarm Intelligence is used to approach a problem from multiple directions in order to arrive at the best solution. Swarmalytics applies the principles of swarm intelligence in its Predictive AI tools and models customized for real estate. The company is focused on applying artificial intelligence to the American real estate market. The $ 7 trillion big U.S. real estate market is full of exciting possibilities. So far, only a tiny percentage of the market has adopted cutting-edge technologies like AI and data analytics leaving enough room for companies like Swarmalytics to grow.
According to Doug Newell, data in the U.S. real estate is highly fragmented. Each of the 2600 different builders in the United States stores their information in a personal database. To train an AI model capable of making accurate predictions related to the U.S. real estate industry, all this data will have to be brought together and fed to the model. The Swarmalytics model currently invites companies to share their data anonymously so that data is no longer isolated and can be used to train AI models that are beneficial for the industry.
Predictive AI can help real estate developers be more intuitive in several aspects of their business. AI can provide insights that can be leveraged by companies to search and find land for development and existing properties, understand market competition, and most importantly, arrive at the perfect pricing for their properties. Currently, most developers use the cost-plus method to calculate pricing for their properties. Builders simply calculate their expenditure on a property and add a 20-30% profit over it to calculate the final price. According to Doug Newell, who is trained in Economics, it is a terrible practice. Property prices depend on a variety of factors including location, amenities, and market growth. For example, prices of properties in Austin, Texas cannot be calculated in such a simple way when various market factors like the entry of big corporates like Tesla is driving up the rates there. Using AI, builders can decide the perfect price for their properties based on the latest market trends and optimize their sales and profits.
Swarmalytics has also developed tools and metrics to score properties across the U.S. that have the potential to be turned into residential blocks or apartment complexes. Developers can receive the data and scores about these buildings based on a number of criteria. The AI also shows a satellite map of the properties, helping builders zero in and buy the best properties that can be developed and sold in the future.
26 years ago, when Doug Newell and his team started to work on AI, the technology was still nascent. Today, the technology is booming in terms of innovations and market demand. Compared to the past, the cost of storage of data has reduced considerably. This has increased the productivity and efficiency of the Swarmalytics team to a great extent. Doug Newell and his team can train their model using information about every property in the United States based on 12,000 variables. Every month, the team analyzes data for 115 million houses and predicts which of those will be sold, rented, or ‘flipped’ in the next 90 days. Swarmalytics functions as a predictive engine with its own data center performing trillions of calculations every month to gather actionable insights for the U.S. real estate market.Â
AI can be leveraged to generate insights on practically every aspect of real estate construction, marketing, sales, investments, and customer relationships. Data keeps revealing new insights at every stage of analysis. For instance, Doug Newell and his team have found roof materials, or kitchen materials used in houses can affect property prices differently. AI can also be used to manage housing finance and insurance efficiently.
Currently, the company is employing novel strategies like swarm intelligence and parallelism to stay ahead of the curve. Doug Newell believes that advanced technologies like AI can be developed more economically. Instead of relying on supercomputers, simply increasing the number of computers involved in a process can be a faster alternative. With decades of experience in AI, business development, and data, Doug Newell and his team at Swarmalytics are encouraging U.S. real estate companies to participate in this new phase of technological transformation and adopt AI in their operations.
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By Proptechbuzz
By Ravi Kumar
