"Just five years ago, I was amazed to see people using paper maps," says Adam Manesh, who started working in real estate in late-2013. "People would print county appraisal maps and then a FEMA map. I'd watch them put them on top of each other and shine a light under to see if the property was in a flood zone."
That's when he came to the conclusion that someone needed to update the technology for commercial real estate. The result is Komreal, a GIS-formatted, all-in-one data source.
"I wanted to create an easy way to access all pertinent data about a property. Basically, a brokerage in a box," Manesh explains. "No one made it easy to access all this data, so I wanted to put it in a platform where anyone can open it and have all the tools at their fingertips."
To fully understand his motivation to launch Komreal, you have to go back to Manesh's introduction to the industry. In August 2013, he called a friend and expressed interest in learning more. That friend brought him on board, but didn't offer much in the way of training.
"He told me, 'There's your desk. Good luck.' I asked what I should do next. He said, 'Go get some listings. Do something. Sell stuff,'" remembers Manesh. "I was sitting there, scratching my head, trying to figure out my first step."
He had to learn everything the hard way. He drove around town, cold-calling people to figure out who owned certain property.
"Say we wanted to contact all the owners in a four-mile radius. We would actually pull them one at a time from the Harris County Appraisal District, then hire a person who'd come in and prepare letters to be sent out by hand, one at a time. It'd take weeks to get all that information and contact each one," Manesh says. "We're talking about 2013, not 1975. I kept asking myself, 'Why are we doing it this way?'"
That was the easy part, though, because once he got his first listing he had even more questions, such as what to do with the property, to whom he should market it and how to market it.
"It was a painful process, just trying to figure out the basics of how to do this job," Manesh says. "That's when the light went off: what if somebody else like me comes in and asks how to do this? How do they learn all of it?"
Komreal was his answer. It's loaded with three different applications: site assessment and mapping, prospecting and listing.
The site assessment and mapping tool provides easy access to information such as who owns a property, is the property in a flood zone, how many vehicles drive by it, what its demographics are and which retailers are nearby.
"In the past, you would have to go to several different platforms. We've made it all accessible in one stop. We've streamlined the process and we've put it at everyone's fingertips," says Manesh. "Komreal is easy to use and not at all cumbersome. You don't have to be a data scientist to figure out how it works. If you want something, you look on the right-hand side of the screen, click on the data layer you want, and it'll pop up."
The site's prospecting application uses integrated County appraisal data, tax rolls, and registered Secretary of State information, to help subscribers pierce the corporate veil and find the true owner of a property. Users can research a single property or an entire area by property type with just a few clicks.
Manesh offers the example of a broker interested in learning who owns properties surrounding a particular intersection.
"That broker can just zoom into that area on our map, drop down a radius ring and tell the app to find the owners, put their info in a spreadsheet and send it to me," he explains.
The final application is for listing and property marketing, allowing subscribers to advertise their properties.
"It automatically sends out email blast. It does everything," boasts Manesh. "Everything that you would need as a commercial real estate professional, all in one place."
He says feedback so far has been overwhelmingly positive.
"We've heard words like 'concise,' 'easy to use,' 'fluid' and 'refreshing,'" Manesh says. "Most people say, 'Wow, this is really neat!'"
Signing up is just as easy as using Komreal. Visit Komreal.com and click on the 'Register' button. From there, you'll be asked at which level you'd like to enroll: free, standard, plus or premium. Each offers a variety of services, though with the premium option, Komreal subscribers can upload unlimited listings and feature 15 of them, search the entire database and access all Komreal's expertise in lead generation, email campaigns, listing brochures and site assessment, and prospecting application.
"Some companies require every single person in an office to become a member. If one signs up, everybody has to sign up. We don't do that. We ask people, 'How many subscriptions would you like?' We work with people," says Manesh.
He knows, even in this industry that thrives on change, breaking from tradition can be difficult, even when it offers more ease and simplicity.
"It's our job to open their eyes and let them know, 'Hey, there's a new way to do this. Forget about the way you used to do this. You don't have to Scotch tape paper maps together,'" Manesh adds.
There's one generation he thinks he won't have to convince: millennials.
"They're coming into the business wondering why they can't get all this information on their iPhone. Now they can," he says.
For more information about Komreal, visit Komreal.com.
Contact:
Adam Manesh
(832) 493-8696
adam@komreal.com
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SOURCE Komreal
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