Real Estate Marketing & Beyond
Wouldn’t it be great if you could predict the resale value of a home before you bought it? Well, a new startup going by the name of HouseCanary is using big data to do exactly that.
HouseCanary reckons it’s algorithms are able to crunch data and forecast a sale price within just 2.5 percent of its actual value. The company’s CEO Jeremy Sicklick said that this has led to interest from high-profile investors including Google Chairman Eric Schmidt and NBA basketball star Kobe Bryant, among others. Sicklick told TechCrunch that those investors are betting on the startup’s potential to help real estate investors maximize their profits.
The company has just announced a $31 million Series B funding round. PSP Growth, an investment firm founded by former Commerce Secretary Penny Pritzker, led the round, which follows a $33 million Series A round earlier this year.
Sicklick told TechCrunch that he estimates the U.S. residential real estate market to be worth $30 trillion. He said HouseCanary’s platform is designed chiefly for property appraisers and real estate investors.
The platform can forecast and understand price movements in real estate at a hyperlocal level, the CEO added. “We understand how prices are changing across 4 million blocks,” he said.
Pritzker said she was interested in HouseCanary because it helps solve the problem of a lack of “quality information” about housing that’s necessary for accurate forecasting. She said that many investors miss out on opportunities because they’re unable to identify them without any data.
HouseCanary said it will use the new funds to invest in research and development, and hire more sales and marketing staff.
