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Chris Lexmond, president and CTO of REscour, is our guest on today’s All About Real Estate edition of Atlanta Real Estate Forum Radio. Chris joins us to discuss how REscour is helping to change the way real estate is managed in Atlanta and beyond.
Chris has always had a passion for real estate and though his degree is in Biomedical Engineering, he was motivated to use his experience in software design to explore the way Atlanta was developing. Chris created a program called Devmap, which tracked projects being developed and those under construction in the city. The program also utilized crowd sourcing and allowed people to provide information on projects they knew about to expand the application of the software. Chris found his business partner Jake through the process of developing their respective applications; at the time, Jake was exploring a better way to source listings. Through this partnership, REscour was born.
REscour seeks to answer questions about commercial real estate before they are asked. This is accomplished through collection of a large amount of commercial real estate data such as news, listings, demographics, recent sales and more. That data is then processed to provide insight into what to buy, when to buy, what properties are going up in value and more.
REscour’s main customer base at the moment is brokers and investors. An example of how the service works is as follows: if an investor approaches the company with a portfolio of ten properties, REscour will be able to tell that investor about other real estate-related events happening within 10 miles of those properties. This provides valuable information for the investor and prevents them from having to do extensive legwork to uncover information about the community surrounding their property. Information provided can even include local listings and recent transactions in the area.
The service is doubly beneficial for brokers as it enables them to have insightful and meaningful conversations with potential clients and can allow them to efficiently market a property in an area they may not be familiar with. Chris explains, “One of the common examples is if a new Whole Foods comes to an area. In a certain market that’s great, that’s going to drive rents up and will make that property easier to market. If a property owner is not aware of that, or if it’s buried in the Atlanta Business Chronicle somewhere, they are not going to know it. Generally, they are relying on a research team finding that information or hearing it from a friend. We make sure they get that information every day.”
In order to make sure that it is providing the most up-to-date information day by day, REscour collects the data it uses to create news in a variety of ways. More than 1,000 sources are used, and all news is geolocated and can be seen on a map. News is also categorized so that users can see if something is a future development, under construction, an expansion of a headquarters and much more.
REscour is currently a web platform and an app version of the service is in the works. Now, users are updated daily via a news digest on any changes and new information based on the addresses they’ve provided the company. For a more detailed look at the information provided daily, users can access a map that displays all of the data collected for their submitted addresses.
REscour is also preparing to launch a new feed and email digest product. In order to let users know what is happening in a specific area before they ask, the company is working to target information more specific to each user by using information provided upon initial setup. Daily emails will be sent and will allow users to favorite and save relevant information for reference at a later time.
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Atlanta Real Estate Forum Radio’s “All About Real Estate” segment airs on Fridays and highlights the movers and shakers in the Atlanta real estate industry – the home builders, developers, Realtors and suppliers working to provide the American dream for Atlantans. For more information on how you can be featured as a guest, contact 770-383-3360 or via the contact form on this site.
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