Why technology is an ally in the hunt for investment opportunities

Investor “choosiness” and a tighter regulatory climate are putting pressure on fund managers to find, evaluate and capitalise on good deals, says Robert Teel, Yardi’s senior vice president of global solutions.

“While investment capital is readily available, real estate investors are working harder and finding fewer high-return opportunities than ever before.”

Teel says one “dampening factor” is the extra due diligence and “thickened” regulatory environment post-Global Financial Crisis.

“But the main problem today is that the marketplace, with its abundance of capital, is chasing relatively few investment opportunities.”

Teel says technology can be an “ally” in “unearthing opportunities that investors wouldn’t normally consider, or even know about”.

How do they do that?

“By having all decision-making tools within a single system that exceeds what’s possible with spreadsheets and separate databases,” he explains.

“Managers dealing with hundreds of combined funds, entities, properties and investors are happy to be free of manually uploading data, relying on cumbersome spreadsheets and mining data from separate systems.”

Getting a complete picture helps investors to decide on an acquisition strategy, and the optimal times for renovation and sales.

Teel says this “underscores the importance of automating the assembly of information”including loan abstracts, asset ratings, sales data, and valuation tracking and occupancy trends”from all market sources”.

A business platform that compiles loan maturity dates also allows investors to identify property owners who might want to sell in the face of rising interests rates.

“It can also shed light on a property’s potential net operating income and help investors evaluate the likely impact of renovation or other value-add work, determine whether the market can bear rent increases, and evaluate other considerations that might lead to generation of a pro forma statement.”

The bottom line?

“An integrated system like Yardi’s Voyager can make the investment experience much more positive.

“And when used to its full extent, Yardi’s platforms can help investment managers uncover profitable deals, hit compliance targets and satisfy investors,” Teel concludes.

Learn about Yardi’s solution for driving investor value by automating the real estate investment management lifecycle. Visit www.yardi.com.au