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Realtor.com rolled out a new feature last week, a national map search experience.
The newest feature is made possible through an integration with a third party data visualization company called TopHap. The application delivers socioeconomic and environmental insights through a dynamic map interface, and a library of tools help agents deliver that data as marketable content.
“Available on desktop and mobile devices, homebuyers can access dynamic map layers by changing their home search view from list to map. After toggling the map, they can click the layer icon to see all of the data visualization options, which are color-coded from bright yellow to dark purple. The colors adjust as homebuyers zoom in or out on specific neighborhoods, giving buyers a bird’s eye view of the listings and market trends in their area,” Inman reported.
I first reviewed TopHap in 2019, recognizing right away its long-term value to the space. My primary concern about it at the time was that industry may not get it. I wrote at the top of the review:
TopHap’s adoption will come down to those who understand how much power resides in data beyond what the MLS provides.
It appears the team at Realtor.com understands how much power resides in the data beyond what the MLS provides. I hope at least, as TopHap and its industry colleagues can deliver a lot more critical information about place than DOM trends.
Realtor.com Chief Product and Technology Officer Mausam Bhatt told Inman that deep, map-delivered market data is now able to become a part of the buying decision matrix.
“We’re working on layers to help people think through their decision, like how will home prices evolve over the next kind of 10, 20 or 30 years,” he said. “When they’re making perhaps, one of the most important financial decisions of their lives, they’ll want to have some insight into that.”
“And then similarly, we’ve also been on the forefront of adding a lot of environmental risk factors and trends data,” he added. “So we’re going to add layers about that to our dynamic map layer technology.”
Might want to hurry with those updates, Mausam.
A number of southeastern real estate markets were severely damaged last weekend by Hurricane Helene. Now in damp, rotting ruin, Asheville, North Carolina, hasn’t experienced a flooding event of this magnitude since 1916, according to the Asheville Citizen Times, and Helene’s force unrepentantly drowned that year’s flood crest of 21 feet.
The industry can no longer afford to think specific environmental risks don’t impact their region. Freak snowstorms are no longer so freakish, wildfires are getting wilder and flood risk is coming faster.
If the issue du jour for the industry is how to provide more value, then everyone should start adding to their buyer services presentations the ability to deeply scan for the risks posed by the planet, and maybe stop worrying so much about high interest rates or a commission-phobic seller.
TopHap has a couple of colleagues in this category, one being Land id, which I reviewed a few weeks ago, and which is aiming to scale through brokerage website integrations and other industry marketing partnerships.
The industry’s leading data sources, such as ATTOM and Constellation1, provide a wide array environmental and disaster risk data in their respective deep libraries of services.
Reached via email, ATTOM’s Vice President of Product Management, Sean Mooney, said it’s critical for agents to stay on top of how weather trends change, and how those changes interact with their respective markets.
“Real estate agents should regularly review climate risk data, ideally on a monthly or quarterly basis, to stay informed about local risks,” Mooney said. “It’s especially crucial to stay current with changes in insurance requirements and regulations, which can affect property insurance costs for clients.”
“Understanding a client’s risk tolerance is key, allowing agents to guide them toward properties that align with their comfort level regarding climate risks,” he said.
To reiterate, agents have no reason to evade questions about climate-related risk to their clients because they lack the resources.
There are more than enough ways to access land data and put it to use in your everyday best practices. Climate risk data should have its own page in your next CMA or buyer services presentation. Integrations to your website via APIs are easier than ever before.
Agents in Florida know all too well about the importance of storm risk. The Wall Street Journal reported that a number of markets along the Gulf Coast are suffering as a result of spiking home insurance costs because of frequent major weather events. Florida’s insurance crisis is well known and Helene’s aftermath certainly won’t help right the ship.
“About half the homes listed for sale in Tampa experienced price reductions as of Sept. 9, the third highest share of all U.S. major metropolitan areas,” the Wall Street Journal said.
Helene’s remediation efforts throughout the Southeast are projected to total well over $100 billion, according to an October 1 Bloomberg report, making it one of the top five most financially ferocious storm events in history.
Countless homes now need to be replaced or somehow paid for. Commercial buildings need to be cleaned and repaired, their leases extended. No doubt tenants and landlords will argue about who should pay for what.
Streets, too, will need months of repaving and in many cases, structural augmentation — all factors that link directly to the health of a region’s real estate economy. Flood disclosures and all kinds of other structural concerns are going to soak countless transactions in closing delays for years. On top of the lingering property damage, lives, too, will be impacted long after the mud dries.
The problems connected to the environment are far from unique to the Southeast. Phoenix, Arizona, has long grappled with the balance between water supply and growth, an issue that three consecutive months of the thermometer surpassing 100 degrees are making more relevant with every foundation that gets poured. From its own water shortages to multi-county-searing infernos, California’s climate and environmental issues have long been known.
A house is legally considered an “improvement to the land.” This means that the land comes first and, as the saying goes, they’re not making any more of it.
The best agents understand this and help their clients ensure that as the land goes, so goes their relocation decision. They know more about a home and its community than its median sale price and what kind of pillow shams are en vogue. It’s absolutely vital to understand the role land plays, unimproved and otherwise, in determining commission volume. Ignore it at your peril.
Realtor.com’s decision to work with TopHap is a good one, and I hope finding map data partners becomes a new initiative for all the brokerages out there with outdated websites, flaccid listing pages and agents wanting to find ways to win over anxious buyers.
I lived in North Carolina years ago and helped real estate agents with blog content. I submitted a piece to one client about preparing for hurricane season. She promptly asked me to take it off of her website.
“I don’t want to scare anyone,” she said.
Email Craig Rowe
