Commercial real estate data services include a broad set of offerings, and there are now many competitors in the space, ranging from CBRE to AppFolio to Cherre. Many groups are trying to solve a very hard problem.
Having participated in this industry for years, the problem ultimately comes down to owners and operators wanting to focus on the fundamentals: raising capital, deploying that capital, and then operating or managing properties.
In most scenarios, asset managers push day-to-day operations down to property managers. Property management requires significant skill and headcount, which can feel like noise or distraction to a pure-play owner who does not want to be an owner-operator.
So owners push much of the operational heavy lifting to property management companies that specialize in managing properties efficiently.
The Gap This Creates
This approach creates a new problem. Property data is now stored and managed by third parties, outside of the owner’s direct control. Traditionally, the only way this information bubbles back up to asset managers is through monthly reporting packages, often delivered as PDFs.
By outsourcing operations, owners trade one challenge for another. Asset management and portfolio teams still need accurate, timely data to monitor property health, performance, and risk.
The Pain of Manual Data Collection
Historically, bridging this gap meant manually collecting monthly PDFs or Excel files and re-entering that data into shared spreadsheets or centralized workbooks.
This process is extremely painful. It takes time, introduces errors, and does not scale.
Compounding the issue, some data points are not owned by property managers at all—items like parking counts, ownership dates, or disposition details. Owners must maintain this data internally and merge it with third-party property data to produce complete asset management and investor reporting.
Two Challenges That Make This Even Harder
The data collection problem has plagued commercial real estate for years, largely due to two factors.
Fragmented Systems
Depending on when a property was acquired, owners often inherit the existing property manager and their systems. As a result, data may come from Yardi, Entrata, MRI, AppFolio, RealPage, or other platforms. While most of these systems provide ways to export data, consolidating it across portfolios remains difficult.
Varying Technical Maturity
Some property management firms are highly experienced with automation and data feeds. Others—particularly smaller or regional managers—lack the technical maturity to configure these tools without guidance, even when the systems support it.
How We Solve This Problem
At CREx Software, we built our commercial real estate data services around automation, data validation, and AI.
We set up automated feeds with third-party property managers so data can be delivered daily, weekly, or monthly. Whether you work with one property manager or fifty, we monitor the data, load it, and validate it for accuracy.
We handle not only data collection, but also anomaly detection, so issues are flagged early rather than discovered during reporting cycles. This allows owners to work more closely with property managers and gain more frequent insight into property operations.
For smaller property management firms with limited technical resources, our onboarding process typically takes about 15 minutes and does not require deep technical expertise.
Learn more about how we approach data automation at https://www.crexsoftware.com.
What Happens Once Your Data Is Flowing
Once data is loading automatically, owners have several options.
One option is to work directly in Excel, replacing manual spreadsheets with live, refreshed data.
Another option is to build reporting in Power BI, enabling enterprise-grade analytics with built-in sharing and security features.
Most owners, however, choose our full platform solution. CREx OS not only manages data collection, but also delivers standardized reporting and additional asset management functionality, including leasing, debt tracking, and value management.
Ready to Eliminate the Pain?
For more information on commercial real estate data services, how to get set up, and how to eliminate the friction of third-party data collection, reach out to CREx Software.