One Tool Real Estate Developers Need to be Successful
The Experts Behind Spark Part 1: CEO Simeon Garratt
In many major cities in North America, real estate has been on the upswing for several years. In New York, Vancouver, LA, it seems like there is a crane on every block; a new tower every few weeks.
But it isn’t always this way — think of the economic crisis of 2008 — and it isn’t this way everywhere.
Real estate development companies thrive when the demand for new housing is there. But during times of downturn, it can become difficult to do business.
At Spark, our goal is to empower developers and allow them to streamline your processes. This means that we want to make it easy for you to manage an effective pre-sale campaign and close deals — and as an extension of that, vitally boost your company’s ability to thrive during economic downturn.
We spoke to one of the experts behind Spark, CEO and real estate marketing expert Simeon Garratt, about how developers can improve their sales and marketing efforts and sell homes all year round.
He revealed that the secret is in your database.
Simeon Garratt and the Problem with Real Estate
One of the founders and CEO of Spark RE Technology, Simeon Garratt has been a long-time stand-out in the real estate industry. He worked as a real estate marketer for several years before recognizing an unfilled technological niche in the industry. That’s the reason why he and co-founder Cody Curley created Spark in the first place.
Traditionally, technology in real estate has been very barebones: patchwork solutions stacked together to create the necessary functionality. It was either that or manual — pen and paper, and Excel spreadsheets.
“That’s just what most developers are using,” Garratt explained, “I was one of them. It was frustrating, and that’s what led me to try to solve that problem [with Spark], because I knew I wasn’t the only one. It sounds cheesy, but I knew there had to be a better way.”
Spark was developed to streamline the sales and marketing processes done daily by developers and real estate project marketers. By combining the different aspects of the work into one robust platform, Garratt and his cohorts wanted to transform the real estate industry and bring the entire process into the digital realm.
And while this does a lot for efficiency and management capability, the most valuable long-term advantage of the platform is not the inventory tracking or RSVP — it’s the database.
Using Tech to Hone a Competitive Edge
The lack of technology traditionally used in real estate has created a weakness: developers are unusually beholden to shifts in market balance.
In the Toronto real estate market, for example, supply is quickly outstripping demand; it can be difficult to sell new development homes in an oversaturated market. Our experts at Spark have seen this over and over. But is there anything developers can do to ensure a healthy business during these times?
The best way for developers to succeed in this type of market environment, Garratt said, is to get to work building the foundation — historical data, contact lists, outreach workflow procedures — that they need to navigate a rocky marketplace.
“Developers often can’t complete with project marketing groups and brokerages during market downturn because they don’t have the resources,” Garratt said, “They have little to no prospect base to email, and no historical data to draw from.”
With an integrated sales, marketing, and analytics platform like Spark, developers can create databases during flush periods, as a by-product of their regular sales and marketing activities. The database will naturally grow during presale lead qualification and outreach, and become robust throughout the process of contract negotiation and sales close.
Even outside of flush periods, investing in a system like Spark will help developers start to create that database and then begin building the pipeline they need to move forward. Especially when developers find their businesses being negatively affected by market circumstance, it’s better to get on-board with the technology sooner rather than later — ultimately, the database provides an essential support system.
“This database lets developers get the leads they need to win sales during times of industry downturn,” Garratt said, “Through Spark, developers have the resources to create and hone that competitive advantage.”
Learning Your Database
Once the database is established, it’s vital for developers and project marketers to know how to use the information.
“We find that a lot of clients don’t know what is in their databases,” Garratt said. “There’s a lot of value, not only in the features, but in how they use the information.”
At Spark, we’ve recognized that this isn’t always easy. That’s why our team is full of real estate development experts to help us build a platform well suited for the day to day work of the industry. Our Customer Success team is a big part of the process; they allow us to communicate with our clients, and facilitates how we share our technology expertise with developers and project marketers.
Since implementing this, we’ve noticed clients starting to use the platform in new and creative ways. For example, in Spark, the “Compare Projects” option gives users the ability to look at historical data, including information on what types of units were sold, for what price, and how many touch points it took until contract close. This, paired with custom lead ratings and specific qualifying questions, has established a more integrated use of the Spark platform which creates more specific and useful information for each client.
As Garratt points out, this is the sort of data that developers want to see filling up their databases. It lends development companies the competitive edge that allows them to make informed decisions using historical activity and analytics. They are empowered with the ability to focus their energies on proven methods and replicate their success regardless of market status at the time.
Empowering Developers Through Technology
The value of technology for real estate marketers and developers goes further than the efficiencies created through digitization and streamlined processes. By using a robust system that incorporates the tools of real estate sales and marketing, developers in growing markets can seamlessly create the database they will need to succeed in times of downturn.
Spark’s team of experts is ideally positioned to help developers at any stage of this process. Our expertise in both technology and real estate give us the experience to provide valuable input and allows us to stand as the industry leader in real estate software. With Spark, developers can create a database and technology ecosystem that provides a competitive advantage to bolster their business.
At Spark, we’re #RealEstateNerds. Behind the scenes, we’re a team of industry experts like CEO Simeon Garratt, using our expertise in real estate and technology to change the game — helping developers win deals, get data, and make good business.
Up next on The Experts Behind Spark, we’ll be speaking with real estate marketing guru and Spark’s Sales and Marketing Director Jessica Radziszewska about why it’s important to have industry experts behind your software.
To learn more about how Spark’s sales and marketing platform can empower your organization to succeed in all types of market situations, sign up for a demo at spark.re/signup!
As always, feel free to reach out at info@spark.re.
