The Internet gold rush was in full swing in 1997. Early adopters invested the time to dig deep for valuable data online, and put that information to work. As time went on, the data became both larger and richer. When we formed Admiral Real Estate Services that year, it was clear the new connectivity to research data of all kinds would be as important as the traditional assets and skills of commercial real estate brokers.
Getting information is one thing. Identifying what to do with it is another – finding it, filtering it, applying it with the benefit of on-the-ground knowledge, and finally, harnessing it for use with both traditional and contemporary marketing tools.
Data-driven research yields serious advantages. But data alone is meaningless without application by people who are in the field every day.
The specialization-based brokerage structure we created in 1997 bridges the gap, building on the strengths of traditional marketing by integrating it with powerful research, analytics, and marketing support.
Closing in on our twentieth anniversary, there’s more data out there than we could have predicted when we opened our doors. Part of the challenge, fun and creativity in our business is using that data in conjunction with our contact base and local market knowledge to fill an empty space, find the right site, or sell a property. It will be fascinating to see what happens over the next twenty years.