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What Amazon’s Brick-and-Mortar Mission Means For Retail

Virtually, Amazon is as daunting as the river it shares a name with: by total sales and market capitalization, it’s the largest Internet retailer in the world. Having begun its run in 1994 as a modest online bookstore, the tech giant has expanded rapidly to offer consumer electronics, apparel, furniture, cloud infrastructure, and even streaming services with original movies and TV.

Now, Amazon is expanding its raging waters from the online space into brick-and-mortar retail. After opening a bookstore in Seattle in 2015 and two more in San Diego and Portland, Amazon will reach the east coast later this year with a new store in Manhattan, NY. According to the Wall Street Journal, the 4,000 square-foot Midtown location will be located in the Shops at Columbus Circle just south of Central Park.

The company is also considering a location in the new Hudson Yards development, which would be slated to open in 2018. This is alongside other plans for Amazon Books locations in Chicago and Denham, Massachusetts.

It’s an interesting time for retail to be certain, especially since we’ve seen the mass closing of malls, department stores, and small businesses in recent years. What is it about Amazon that will succeed in a physical space, especially in a world where ecommerce is only slated to rise? And does their move into brick-and-mortar bode well for the world of retail, or signify its demise?

As always, we can only speculate about the answer to these questions. But one certainty about Amazon Books is that it has a future-forward approach to shopping. Instead of listing prices, shoppers use their phones to find the best price online and read reviews. This necessitates that shoppers download Amazon’s app, yes—but on the bright side, doing so gets you the best price possible, and unlocks reviews by real readers instead of just literary critics on the back cover.

Shoppers can check out and search the store for inventory virtually, and are even recognized for being Prime members. It’s the best of both worlds when it comes to book shopping: the convenience of tech plus the physical pleasure of rifling through pages (plus occasionally sniffing them for that classic new-book smell).

Amazon Books is also revolutionizing retail by basing their merchandise on online data culled from sales. According to National Real Estate Investor, “Books in the physical stores are stocked based on titles that have garnered the best sales, popularity on Goodreads, high customer ratings and many pre-orders, according to the company’s website.”

All of this is to say, Amazon’s retail is different than retail of the past, and this may just be the key to retail’s future. Luckily for Amazon, they don’t have to compete with ecommerce because they are ecommerce, but if other brick-and-mortar stores want to get in on the action they may need to take a leaf or two out of Amazon Books.

Integrating mobile devices into the physical shopping experience is one way other retail stores can recreate Amazon’s model, whether through apps or beacon technology. Stores might also consider using data to create a more user-friendly (and Internet-friendly) experience for shoppers. For retailers, embracing technology may be the only way to make Amazon’s presence less stifling, and truly run with the flow of innovation’s ever-moving stream.

By |2018-10-31T18:17:39+00:00May 16th, 2017|Culture, Technology, Urban Planning|
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Bodegas in New York City: Convenience for the Ages

It’s not completely a convenience store, not completely a deli, you know one when you see one, but they’re not a total cinch to define. Uniquely of and representative of New York City, the bodega is a place every New Yorker regularly visits for their day to day needs. Whether for a daily coffee and bagel or an emergency 2 AM cereal run, the local bodega is a neighborhood cornerstone.

But where exactly did these places emerge from? As with many traditions, a combination of various ethnic traditions led to what we know know as a bodega. In a city as richly diverse as New York, it comes as no great shock that our corner stores contain the legacies of several generations of immigrants.

For one, it would appear that the post-WWII influx of migrants from Puerto Rico established the foothold that allowed modern-day bodegas to multiply. Rooted in the Spanish word for “storeroom” or “wine cellar” (but eventually coming to mean “grocery store”), many of the early examples simply advertised themselves with that one word splashed across a sign out front. Their customers knew what they’d find inside.

Of course, the idea of a small corner store didn’t start exactly there. Earlier sandwich shops in Jewish enclaves held the same position as an indispensable neighborhood establishment. However, these shops and grocery stores in those days hadn’t evolved into the self-service stores we visit today. Most still were run by the “grocer” who would find your items for you, and many more were sit-down eateries. It took a few decades before things sped up to the satisfaction of all New Yorkers.

Another example of such is the Dominican enclave of Washington Heights, where the old-country tradition of the colmado is an important part of the bodega’s local role. These convenient stores also function as a meeting place, where locals can meet up with neighbors and friends in a relaxed atmosphere. Groups of people chatting in folding chairs outside the store is a not very unusual sight. The same can be found not only in Washington Heights but in bodegas across the city. Their position as impromptu meeting points underscores the importance of bodegas to their communities.

More recently, a growing number of bodegas are operated by immigrants of Middle Eastern origin. As the latest set of arrivals to set down entrepreneurial roots in the city, these owners face the same challenges as those who came before them, along with a few unique ones. The idea of selling pork products or alcohol is for many Arab bodega owners a source of conflict, but many have assimilated and accept this practice without partaking in it themselves.  

No matter who they are owned by, bodegas survive by serving their community. More and more frequently this means offering healthy options alongside the usual snack cakes and sodas. New, so-called “organic bodegas” offer up kombucha and organic pasta to their customers looking for hip, nutritional fare in their neighborhoods. City leaders have gotten in on the act as well, with several initiatives aimed at improving access to healthy food in all communities.

Beloved by all New Yorkers for many years, it’s hard to imagine the city without these ultra-convenient quick-shopping stores. Whether you’ve been here all your life or are new to the city, it’s easy to understand the appeal of the neighborhood bodega.

By |2018-10-31T18:15:55+00:00May 16th, 2017|Culture, Urban Planning|
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What The New ‘Tactical Urbanism’ Design Guide Means for Cities

You may not know the term tactical urbanism, but you have probably seen evidence of this recent movement if you live in or near a city. Tactical urbanism can look like a parking space converted into a mini park; handmade pedestrian signs; manmade public spaces, reclaimed from the road; sidewalk gardens; and pop-up markets, to name a few examples. Tactical urbanism is essentially citizens taking city planning into their own hands through small-scale, transient projects meant to enhance their lives and their neighbors’ lives by improving their urban environment.

The movement fits into a pattern of citizen activism and limited civic funds, thanks to the recent economic downturn, while addressing the reality of aging infrastructure. City dwellers have responded by taking matters into their own hands, with the aim of improving matters short term, demonstrating proof of concept, and solidifying changes in the long term through official channels.

Tactical urbanism is iterative, like the agile development processes of many startups and tech companies. Projects are thrown up overnight (in some cases literally), and citizens see what sticks. The tactical urbanism handbook, published by the Street Plans Collaborative, is similarly adaptable. The first edition of the handbook Short-term Action for Long-term Change is credited with helping to popularize the movement by collecting and publishing tried-and-true techniques for other municipalities to replicate. The strategies outlined in the guide have been vetted on the ground, and this may be likelier to succeed long term. The tactics are also assessed through case studies focusing on different cities. While these reforms are scaleable in the sense that they can be replicated, they are by nature community-instigated, they don’t lose their grassroots.

The most recent edition of the DIY urban intervention manual focuses on materials. “The Tactical Urbanist’s Guide to Materials and Design dives into the details of pop-up urbanism: when to use tape or paint or chalk, how to choose the right materials for temporary barriers, and more.” Temporary materials are usually cheaper, and also often the better choice for the job. Tactical urbanism sometimes runs up existing regulations, like traffic lanes, for example. The project might be reversed immediately, so wasting money and effort on expensive permanent materials serves no purpose. Often these projects illustrate a desired improvement to city planners and government officials, who would be responsible for making it permanent.

Although tactical urbanism cannot solve larger issues like infrastructure, it can make cities more livable and comfortable in the immediate future. It also creates an open channel of communication between citizens and government officials, encouraging dialogue with residents about neighborhoods improvements. Some have expressed concern that tactical urbanism can exacerbate inequality: that only the privileged can dedicate time to such projects, and that engaging in activities that skirt the law is riskier for some. In the spirit of tactical urbanism, projects intended to benefit the community must be conceived as inclusive and accessible to all.

New York City is a hotbed of engaged citizens with good ideas, useful skill sets, and activist tendencies, all living in a sprawling urban jungle, where pedestrians constantly wage war against cars. Unsurprisingly, tactical urbanism has already been deployed here to good effect, and sometimes initiated by the city itself. The oasis in Time Square that reclaims street space for pedestrians is an example of a temporary measure becoming permanent after it was well received. Sidewalk gardens, pop-up markets, and other creative city hacks are already a commonplace sight around the five boroughs. Tactical urbanism will undoubtedly continue and thrive here, deepening the dialogue between an engaged citizenry and their local government.

By |2018-10-31T18:10:45+00:00April 5th, 2017|Culture, Urban Planning|
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Will Augmented Reality Take Real Estate By Storm?

Without a doubt, Pokemon Go was the surprise smash hit of summer 2016.

Not only did it earn millions of dollars in revenue in a matter of weeks, it also had 45 million users at its peak, approximately 50 times the amount anticipated by developer Niantic.

But beyond revenue for developers and advertisers, Pokemon Go also helped a host of local businesses, such as restaurants, bars, or bakeries, many of whom listed themselves as PokeStops, catering to hungry, thirsty, or tired gamers, and cashing in on this fad.

How augmented reality works

Pokemon Go is simple: the game uses GPS to juxtapose a lush, digital world of fantastic creatures and epic battles onto real-life streets and roads, blurring the fantastical and the physical. This is called augmented reality, which builds a digital world on top of the physical one–as opposed to virtual reality, which immerses users in a purely constructed, electronic world.  

But there are plenty of revenue-generating uses for AR beyond PokeStops or even gaming. Let’s take a look at the Pokemon Go’s model and how it can be applied to real estate, traditionally seen by people as hidebound and resistant to change.

Real Estate and Augmented Reality

Augmented reality is actually a logical, natural fit for real estate, and has seen a variety of apps and startups in its field. After all, who hasn’t driven or walked through a neighborhood and stopped to stare at beautiful, unique houses or apartments? Who hasn’t walked down the street, seen a lovely residence, and wondered if they would be able to afford to rent or buy it?

Well wonder no longer, because AR real estate apps are here to answer that exact question.  From an app that allows users to hunt for ghostly apartments to an app that can pull up real estate listings from geotagged pictures, AR is here to stay.

Homesnap: a modern answer to an old question

The best answer to the age-old question of “Can I afford that house?” comes from startup Homesnap, which may feature the simplest, most intuitive use of augmented reality since Pokemon Go. With this app, users simply take a picture of each property and access its details, such as price, amenities, and other features.

Recently, Homesnap also opened their app to real estate agents as well as buyers, allowing the two to communicate directly. In a classic example of disruption, Homesnap’s superior user interface and host of features have proven far more popular than more traditional multiple listing services (MLS) sites, which were long the mainstay of real estate agents and brokers.

But that’s not all: in a masterpiece of user experience and branding, Homesnap rolled out its Apple TV app, from which allows users to sync data from their phones to their televisions. More importantly, users can actually search other listings on Apple TV, share data with family and friends, and even browse contract and listing details, all in one click.

Spacious: Ghost stories and apartment discounts in Hong Kong

Founded in Hong Kong, a city with a rich tradition of ghosts and the supernatural, Spacious (not to be confused with the American startup of the same name) tracks residences with mystical, otherworldly pasts.

Using Spacious is simple and fun: players walk around with the app activated, and as they encounter haunted apartments, ghost icons will pop up on their screen.

Beyond simply appealing to seekers of the paranormal and occult, Spacious has a more practical use: helping users find cheap, if haunted, apartments. Given that Hong Kong is the most expensive city in the world, with the price of a luxury apartment equivalent to the cost of an Italian castle, affordable living is impossible unless users are willing to make some compromises.

Chief among these compromises are discounts for hauntings, murders, hangings, and many more. In one famous example, a luxury tower in the centrally-located Wan Chai district offered a 30% discount for an apartment that was the site of a notorious double-murder, whose perpetrator is on trial today.

Augmented reality and life-like modeling

But AR can go well beyond finding discount haunted apartments or geotagging properties. They can also spur new breakthroughs in design and planning, or even help would-be buyers and renters see their new property not as an empty shell, but as a fully-finished room.

Take the example of Augment, an AR software platform which can model anything from espresso machines to furnished rooms. With Augment, prospective clients can view a 2D floor plan or a bare, unfinished room through a tablet or smartphone–and envision the room in a final, decorated state. They can insert couches, tables, televisions, and many more into the physical space to allow for a full, vivid picture of their dream home.

Similar tools exist for modeling commercial properties. In much the same way, empty warehouses are transformed into bustling workspaces with AR, overlaying machinery, assembly lines, and packing containers on top of cavernous rooms, and enticing business owners and factory bosses with visions of a prosperous, vibrant future.

If it’s true that a picture is worth a thousand, then AR software like Augment may well be worth a thousand sales.

It’s easy to imagine that, in a few decades’ time, people will look back on our AR in 2016 and see it in much the same way as we remember Apple in the 1980s: as a time of great innovation and change, and a period when technology was just about to hit its stride. Clearly, Pokemon Go was a sign of times to come, an indication of a future where physical and digital blur together, seamlessly.

By |2022-04-12T19:26:04+00:00November 29th, 2016|Technology|
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Hudson Yards Development & The Future of Smart Cities

When the historic Hudson Yards project joined forces with Constantine Kontokosta and NYU’s Center for Urban Science and Progress (CUSP) in 2014, the topic of smart cities came to the fore. Hudson Yards is a real estate endeavor unprecedented in the modern era for many reasons: the land developed is west of Midtown West in Manhattan, home to the some of the hottest real estate on the market; the project spans many city blocks, essentially comprising its own neighborhood; and the complex will recycle organic waste, collect and reuse rainwater, and host a power generator onsite. Add the fact that Kontokosta and CUSP are outfitting the site with thousands of sensors, and you have a truly groundbreaking development, what many have termed a “smart city.” Smart cities powered by “user data” have the potential to be safer and certainly smarter, but the methods and application of data gathering deserve attention.

The myriad uses of this sensor system are still being explored, but certain essential energy efficiency and environmental factors will undoubtedly be addressed with the data gathered: air and noise pollution, for example. Hudson Yards’s emphasis on sustainability as well as “resiliency, redundancy, [and] future-proofing” is in part an answer to natural disasters like Hurricane Sandy and to energy initiatives launched by the mayor’s office. In 2009 Local Law 84 came into effect in New York, mandating that larger properties collect and submit information about buildings’ energy and water usage. Mayor Bill de Blasio wants to harness that data in the 80 x 50 effort, aiming to cut New York’s greenhouse gas emissions 80% by 2050.

For a developer’s perspective, the Observer spoke to David Brause, president of family-owned Brause Realty: “His firm is comfortable investing in green features that might take 20 years to pay off, because his company’s strategy is to buy and hold long-term. He’s honest though that beyond energy cost savings, the economics of green treatments have yet to be entirely proven. […] For existing buildings, even the economic case for updating systems can be tough to make for building owners who aren’t able to work on a 20-year time horizon like large owners can.” However, regulations like Local Law 84 and initiatives like 80 x 50 make it in developers’ best interests to retrofit their buildings with energy management systems and to design green buildings going forward, especially as New York is not the only city to enact such legislation, and more is likely to come down the pipe in coming years.

A open source project called Array of Things has set out to gather urban data similar to that collected at Hudson Yards. By deploying 500 nodes attached to traffic poles and streetlights throughout Chicago, this project will “initially measure temperature, barometric pressure, light, vibration, carbon monoxide, nitrogen dioxide, sulfur dioxide, ozone, ambient sound intensity, pedestrian and vehicle traffic, and surface temperature.” Data is transmitted to the Argonne National Laboratory, and measures have been taken to ensure the privacy of passersby.

This issue of privacy, along with security and equality, will need to be addressed in the creation of any smart city. The internet of things – the concept of a network of physical objects collecting data and contributing to a kind of matrix of physical information – is an easy connection to make when visualizing the thousands of sensors placed around Hudson Yards. CUSP brands this idea as a “quantifiable community,” but that raises the question of who can afford to live in the Hudson Yards community, and who may be left behind in the age of smart cities.

An urban neighborhood built from the ground-up, like Hudson Parks – complete with commercial and retail spaces, a school, and a hotel – is almost unheard of, especially in New York City. Most city neighborhoods are deeply rooted in culture and history, even those that undergo controversial growth spurts like gentrification. Even cities that underwent large scale reconstruction, like Chicago after the fire of 1871 or San Francisco after the 1906 earthquake, still grew organically, shaped by residents and experiences. Can smart cities be considered “cities” in the traditional sense if they are too engineered, and not by their own residents, but by management companies and city planners with a wealth of data at their command?

Kontokosta emphasizes that personal information about residents’ health and activities will only be gathered voluntarily. Such personalized data could be incredibly useful from a city planner’s perspective, but when does it become invasive or even Orwellian? And how is all the information gathered to be secured against cyber attacks? As Kontokosta admits in this Bisnow article, “There will be a lot of challenges dealing with the fire hose of data this is going to unleash, but we’re hoping this will eventually become a model for how cities think about this type of informatics infrastructure going forward.”

For more information, listen to WNYC’s summer 2016 segment: The Future of the Smart City. Find further reading in Anthony Townsend’s book Smart Cities and in Adam Greenfield’s shorter piece Against the Smart City.

By |2018-10-31T17:51:14+00:00October 24th, 2016|Technology, Urban Planning|
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Look Out: Drones Are Taking Off in the Real Estate Industry

Whether they’re used to show off the beautiful landscapes around a property or stunning home exteriors, flying cameras can help to produce compelling and dramatic shots for real estate marketing purposes. For this reasons, drones have already begun to impact the real estate industry in a big way.

Law enforcement and national security organizations have been using drones for commercial operations and to conduct scientific research for many years because drones, also known as unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), are capable of capturing high-quality bird’s eye view images of land and property, providing a wide-angle perspective of the target area.

Today, the real estate industry is starting to make use of drones to showcase homes with aerial views — the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) issued its first drone permit for the real estate sector in 2015, according to TIME Magazine.

Here are some ways drones are impacting the real estate industry:

Showcasing Properties with Aerial Photography

Aerial drone photography and even drone-captured videos provide high-quality images for marketing real estate properties. Agents can provide aerial views of the property to potential homebuyers and also map out key details such as area schools, restaurants, shops and parks so that the homebuyer gets a ‘flyover’ view of what it would be like to live in their new residence.

Real estate agents that want to provide a prospective buyer with property maps or create land surveys can do so with drone photography. Drones can also be used to provide flyover views of an entire neighborhood and community — ideal for buyers that may be new to the state or for those who are exploring options from overseas.

Creating Simulation Experiences

The purpose of a walk-through in person, with a real estate agent, is to simulate the experience of living in the home. Drone photography and videos can be used to create simulations by taking close up shots while ‘walking’ around the property and even flying close to the driveway all the way up to the front door or garage. These types of captures can help to create entire property tours that help a buyer visualize exactly what it’s like to live in the home or neighborhood.

Making Photography Affordable

Capturing birds eye views of a property is virtually impossible for most real estate agencies, though aerial photographs could be obtained via helicopter or even with a small airplane. Still, these can cost thousands of dollars to shoot and my not provide the level of detail needed to truly showcase a property for a potential buyer.

Drones, on the other hand, are an economical alternative to these methods and are easier to deploy and use on a regular basis. Instead of having to make arrangements for helicopter or airplane photography sessions for a set of properties at a time, the drone can be used to capture photos as needed, speeding up production time of any marketing materials while keeping costs down. For example, drones with a 20-minute flight time and built-in front sonar to prevent collisions are priced under $1,200 on Amazon.

Rules for Using Drones

Using unmanned aircraft for real estate photography requires compliance with FAA rules and regulations that outline how drones can be used for commercial purposes. Drone operators do not need to have an FAA-issued pilot license but do need to obtain remote pilot certification with a sUAS rating.

Drone operators need to be cautious about how and where they operate their drones for safety reasons and to avoid violating any FAA rules. The agent must obtain permission from the seller to capture drone footage of the property but might also takes steps to ensure neighbors and neighboring properties aren’t captured in the process. Some drones can be noisy so operators also need to be aware of causing interference at the ground level.

Drones are making a big impact in the real estate industry and many drones for commercial use can provide high-quality images at a low cost. Realtors and real estate agencies can make use of drone capabilities, such as flyovers and even fly-throughs of a property to entice, entertain and encourage buyers to move forward with the sale. Creating lifelike simulations using drone photography and videography can be a valuable addition to the sales and marketing process. It’s no surprise that it’s begun to take off.

By |2018-10-31T17:47:11+00:00September 7th, 2016|Technology|
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Dying Sustainably: What Greener Burials Mean For Big Cities

The world’s cities have a grave problem. With limited space and growing populations, the dead outnumber the living in packed cemeteries that occupy valuable real estate, cost families exorbitant fees, and strain the environment to boot.

While land is abundant in more rural areas to respectfully bury the deceased, in cities like London and New York City space is increasingly scarce. Because cemeteries aren’t inherently profitable — the dead do not pay rent, after all — existing sites must grapple with an influx of demand without much chance at horizontal expansion.

So what is the solution? Pushing bodies further underground? Building mausoleum towns? Creating floating cemeteries and skyscrapers? As radical as these ideas may seem, they have all been explored and implemented in cities attempting to make room for the dead.

With 50 million people passing away every year, afterlife accommodation is as much a real estate issue as it is an environmental one. Just as the real estate industry has moved toward a more ethically and environmentally conscious ethos,  the funeral business is doing the same for deceased tenants. Some say as many as one in four older Americans are likely to opt for sustainable burial options in the future, given the growth of environmental awareness.

Though challenges lie ahead, especially in cities, many sustainable and space-saving burial options exist. It may take an extra dose of creativity — and maybe even some cultural change — but new earth and community-friendly burial solutions could do the world a great good.

A costly problem

Even if they want to, many city residents can no longer bury their loved ones the traditional way. Inground plots in Manhattan are in the single digits with six-figure costs. Even a burial outside of cities can cost upwards of $10,000, considering the price of coffins and other funeral services.

In US cemeteries alone, 30 million feet of hardwood caskets are buried, along with 90,000 tons of steel caskets, 14,000 tons of steel vaults and over 2,500 tons of copper and bronze. That’s a huge wealth of trees and minerals buried beneath the earth, unable to be recycled or put to use. Embalming chemicals can also be incredibly toxic to humans, animals and wildlife. Even cremation takes its toll: it’s an energy-intensive process that emits mercury from burnt teeth fillings.

With baby boomers aging, 76 million Americans are projected to reach life expectancy between 2024 and 2042. To give each a standard burial, an area about the size of Las Vegas would be required. This won’t be an issue for the many people living in rural locations, but with city populations growing there will no doubt be problems among denser populations. In fact, there already are.

City residents and urban planners are in perhaps the perfect positions to pursue sustainable alternatives, for the sake of space, money and the planet.

The Green Burial Movement

The concept of green burials is not a new one — in fact, it was once the norm, with burials often occurring at home in wooden boxes. At the turn of the 19th century, when deaths moved from homes to hospitals and funeral parlors, the post-death rituals we practice today became widely adopted. Embalming began during the Civil War to help preserve the bodies of soldiers during their transport, and though not legally mandated continues to be the standard practice.

The green burial movement, which began in the early 90s, seeks to return to the style of natural burial. Biodegradable caskets made of bamboo, cardboard, or wicker are less expensive and easier on the earth; for those that want to go the cremation route without the detriments, an alternative method called resomation is less toxic and energy exhaustive.

Today, people who want green burials need only consult with the Green Burial Council (in North America) to find a certified green burial provider, the number of which has increased from just one in 2006 to over 300 today. Unlike other services bearing the “organic” label, green burials tend to be even cheaper than traditional ones.

The Green Burial Council estimates that about one-quarter of older Americans want green burials — an opportunity to take the trend from niche to mainstream. Because city residents face the biggest dilemma and tend toward progressive social leaning, it’s no surprise that New York City boasts great green options like Brooklyn’s Greenwood Heights Funeral & Cremation Services.

Saving space and memories

Just making the switch from steel to straw caskets won’t solve space issues, however green they may be. With the last open cemetery in Manhattan selling vaults for $350,000, it’s worth wondering if there’s a better way to die without shipping yourself to faraway fields a day-trip away from family.

Other cities have tackled this problem, some to great success. Countries like Belgium, Singapore and Germany practice grave recycling, through which families get a free public grave for the first 20 years or so, after which they can either pay for renewal or allow the cemetery to move the body to make space for another. Locations without this practice balk at the idea of disturbing the dead.

Some Asian cities have decided upon large, mechanized columbariums, which store thousands of urns that can be retrieved with an electronic card. Hong Kong has plans for a columbarium island called “Floating Eternity,” and other cities are considering vertical cemeteries. A Norwegian student won a design contest with his vision of such a skyscraper, which would house coffins, urns, and a computerized memorial wall.

As our virtual selves gain credence during life, digital memorializing has become more popular. A Japanese company offers virtual cemeteries for descendants to tour, while Hong Kong’s government created a virtual social network for families unable to.

Designing for the future

How do we negotiate respect for the dead with respect for the planet? And how do we negotiate these with cemetery real estate deficits and cost concerns? We don’t want to do away with cemeteries, after all. Like schools and hospitals, graveyards add a layer of emotional and cultural intelligence to neighborhoods. In cities, they are more akin to history museums and monuments — housing century-old skeletons instead of people more recently warm.

Moving forward, city residents will have to make tough choices, and urban planners will have to make smarter ones. As the number of people living in cities grows, the number of those dying there will too. Real estate developers may not be directly responsible for accommodating the dead, but one a larger scale urban planners may be wise to do so.

Grave as the situation may seem, so long as there are both private and public efforts to solve space and environmental issues, cities and their residents will grow to adopt the most efficient and green burial processes possible.

 

By |2018-10-31T16:13:37+00:00April 18th, 2016|Culture, Technology, Urban Planning|
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7 Ways Technology is Shaping the Real Estate Landscape

There isn’t an industry on earth, sea or sky that hasn’t been impacted by new technology over the last century, whether dramatically or slightly. On top of the disruption of industrial age factories, today we have high-speed computers, big data, social media, robotics and so much more to come to terms with. For real estate, the transformation has been slow but steady: as the technology improves, the field has morphed one gigabyte at a time.

New forms of technology change the real estate experience for buyers, renters, and industry insiders. The transformation has been ongoing; in today’s information age, it arguably began once listings were hosted online, since which time the process of buying and renting has become even more digitalized.

Here are seven distinct ways in which technology has begun, and will continue to shape the way real estate is marketed, rented, sold and managed.

1. Mobile technology is heating up

With the rising ubiquity of smartphones at hand, it’s little surprise that when searching for real estate, over 60 percent of renters use mobile devices to do their research. By allowing a huge audience of potential buyers and renters to browse remotely, sales are driven up and exposure amplified.

This means responsive websites, mobile apps, and quick communication via text and email is more important than ever for real estate industry insiders. Potential buyers are likely to be turned off if they can’t view a property on their device, or send inquiries digitally. The entire process needs to become at once easy, trustworthy, and quick — or else clients will move on to the next mobile-friendly listing.

2. Marketing has been digitalized

Marketing a piece of real estate is no longer as simple as listing your home in a local newspaper. While open houses are still fairly important, quality photographs, information and descriptions are perhaps the most vital in attracting potential buyers. This is because the Internet offers many digital outlets to advertise property on — and great photographs are the bare minimum that buyers look for.

Disseminating your advertising onto different digital platforms, complete with the information buyers and renters need, ensures that the listing isn’t overlooked. It also means that those browsing will have all the answers they want up front in terms of price and amenities, speeding up the process from first sight to lease-signing.

3. Startups are surging

Venture funding of real estate tech firms has been experiencing a surge: in 2015, it crossed the $1 billion mark, and is projected to surpass $1.5 billion in 2016 at its current rate. So, where is all this VC money going?

There are a range of tech startups that tackle all areas of the real estate industry, from listing and search, to investment, to brokerage platforms and lease management software. Some of the leading startups include Zillow and Trulia, both of which provide robust online real estate databases, Redfin, a web-based brokerage platform, and High Tower, which offers online tools for landlords.

The amount of companies occupying this space goes to show that the demand for digital real estate services is not only high, but increasingly essential.

4. Buyers and renters are more informed

With the Internet at their fingertips, buyers and renters have access to more information than ever before. There is no pulling the wool over the eyes of today’s informed buyers: with records of building’s history, neighborhood demographics, comparative listings, fees and reputation. Technology is so often synonymous with transparency, and it’s making buyers smarter.

Informed buyers and renters raise the demand for accountable and specialized real estate insiders that meet their needs. This demand drives better real estate practice in general — and it’s all thanks to communication and information technology.

Unsatisfied tenants may turn to the web to review or report issues they experience. Thus, good management is sought after via online research, and bad management is a digital stain difficult to remove.

5. Virtual tours are on the rise

Photographs are all but essential in real estate marketing, but the next step — virtual touring — is already upon us. For larger properties, such tours are all but expected to give potential buyers a 360 view of various spaces, not unlike Google Earth navigation.

There are emerging ways to enhance virtual tours. Video touring is one popular choice, along with the option of interactive floor plans. There’s also a tool called StyleDesigner by Obeo that lets real estate agents virtually upgrade bland spaces with decorations to show clients how far a little imagination can go. For a tour of the surrounding neighborhood, maps can be mashed up with Google or Mapbuilder to highlight local hotspots and attractions in proximity to the listing.

3D virtual tours are also well on their way. Microsoft recently announced its new Photosynth technology, which can take 2D photographs and render them in 3D for immersive digital tours. Add a whiff of new-home smell and hardwood floor texture, and you could have a 4D experience, too.

6. Online bidding, crowdfunding and transactions

In a day and age where most of individual wealth and information is stored digitally, physical checks and contracts are beginning to seem antiquated, as are the normal means of investing and paying. Nowadays, enterprise software can enable transactions between real estate agents and buyers — this way, documents and information can be shared and signed in seconds, with or without a physical handshake in tandem.

Online, a variety of transactions are becoming more communal, too. Prospective buyers can bid against each other, or pool their money to invest in properties. Homes auctioned virtually through Hubzu and Auction.com will sell properties to the highest bidder. Individuals can also get in on the investing game with a number of real estate crowdfunding options.

7. The sharing economy strikes

Lastly, the success of disruptive vacation rental models like Airbnb demonstrate that renters are interested in more flexible options — for life, work, and play — and are happy to do so without a middleman. This flies in the face of tradition, but is proving to be more than just a trend. There is already a UK startup called Yopa that allows peer-to-peer home selling, purported to save users thousands of dollars.

The jury is still out on whether the real estate industry is ripe for disruption by the sharing economy or any of these other technologies. Some argue that it simply does not apply, but I think the truth is somewhere in between.

In some ways, real estate does differ from the industries that have been shaken up by technological innovations — the basic business model is a generally stable and adaptable one. This said, real estate has, and must continue to take tech innovations into stride if it’s to remain profitable and modern. This way, it’s sure to be amplified and augmented by change rather than left shattered in its wake.

By |2022-04-12T19:27:26+00:00February 16th, 2016|Technology|
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