Clearing up consumer confusion

The data-driven approach to urban planning isn’t restricted to demographic shifts in Chicago. Miami-based Gridics collects data sets that combine public records, zoning allowances, geographical data and MLS listings into one platform.

Gridics emphasizes hyperlocal data that can give agents a more complete picture of a property’s true worth and assist consumers in making informed decisions. The company also works to help builders and municipalities navigate zoning regulations with its pioneering Zonar.City app.

Rolled out in partnership with the City of Miami, Zonar.City seeks to speed up compliance reviews. Its interactive modeling shows how zoning changes will impact new construction—and how proposed new buildings will look under existing regulations.

“I think of it more from the policy side as we [tackle] how to create strategies around different kinds of neighborhoods, and work to understand other important characteristics beyond housing piece,” Smith says. “Pulling that together and aggregating it across the region or county would be useful from a policy perspective.”

The bounty of public data gives home buyers new advantages. They can approach their search with more confidence and a better idea of what to expect in terms of neighborhoods and pricing. Yet it can also feed a skewed perspective that’s either hyperfocused or overly broad.

“Some people may think that they know everything that’s going on in the market, but they really don’t,” says Nancy Karp, an agent with @properties. “Either they’re looking at a microcosm … of this one house in this one area, or they’re listening to the news when they talk about what’s going on nationally.’

Ultimately, that’s misleading. “Real estate is very local,” Karp notes. “Consumers don’t have all the tools to analyze even a suburb or a part of a city. I think they can be more confused with more information.”

Karp contrasts the homebuying process to purchasing a new car. Car shoppers can research prices, features and other important details of a specific make, model and year. But just reading about a home can’t give a buyer a complete picture.

“A car is pretty generic,” Karp says. “With a house, you can see what it sold for—but you weren’t inside it. Pictures aren’t always representative. You don’t know what it felt like, what it smelled like or what it looked like inside.”