Get to Know These Essential Real Estate Investment Software

Business across all industries and sectors in the 21st century is driven by sophisticated software, and real estate is no exception. Professionals working in real estate use software to assess risk, strategize investments, monitor key financial data, maintain client relationships, and otherwise plan for success. If you're considering a career in real estate investment, software proficiency is an essential skill set you should strive to develop.

Keep reading to learn more about seven key real estate investment software platforms you should be familiar with if you want to thrive in this dynamic field.

As one of the most widely utilized software platforms across the field of commercial real estate, ARGUS® manages the flow, categorization, and visualization of the complex sets of data with which all real estate professionals must work.¹ ARGUS® is such an industry mainstay that top master’s degree programs in real estate make sure to incorporate it in their coursework in order to familiarize their students with a product that they very likely will encounter early and often in their professional lives.

ARGUS® is available at four different tiers to suit the individual needs of a wide array of real estate investment professionals. ARGUS® Enterprise is the most widely used of these, and it offers powerful solutions for transaction analysis, cash flow and valuation visualization, budgeting, and forecasting. They also offer a specialized version of their software for developers to aid in project tracking and feasibility calculation, a cloud-based platform, and the ARGUS® EstateMaster product, designed to track a real estate project’s entire life cycle.

CBRE is one of the most renowned names in real estate, a mainstay in the arena of investments and services for over 100 years. Their deep experience doesn’t mean they’ve fallen behind other, trendier start-ups in terms of technological fluency, though. They offer one of the leading real estate investment software packages available to real estate professionals with applications to every facet of the planning and decision-making involved in completing a complex real estate deal.

CBRE Vantage is a suite of enablement technologies that can be used for everything from 3D modeling and location assessment to market research, financial forecasting, portfolio management and transaction tracking.² It is built on CBRE’s wealth of proprietary data and maintained by their deeply experienced support professionals. Some of the tools in the CBRE Vantage suite can even be used for free in an introductory capacity through their website.

One of the most recognized leaders in the area of commercial mortgage-backed securities (CMBS) is Trepp, producer of software used every day across the industry by traders, portfolio managers, analysts, brokers, dealers and institutional investors. Their TreppCMBS suite provides up-to-the-minute data that can be used for market surveillance, bid management, securities analysis, scenario simulation, and much more.³

Included in this package is access to the powerful Trepp Deal Library, the largest commercially available database of CMBS information. It contains valuable data on North American, European and Asian deals, loans and properties totaling over $800 billion and dating back 15 years, and it has been used to great effect by asset managers, banks, insurance companies, ratings agencies, hedge funds, and many other organizations who operate in the commercial real estate space.

RealData is not a single piece of real estate investment software, but rather a producer of a suite of related platforms tailored to specific roles and goals within the industry. Whether you are a real estate investor, a developer, or an income property holder, there is likely a solution that meets your needs within the RealData family of software products.⁴

Even within those categories, there are multiple products available from RealData at different tiers to match your level of expertise and your commitment to working in the field. If you’re just starting out, you could choose the REIA Express platform, which is designed for residential and small commercial investors, as well as rehabbers and flippers. The Professional level of the same software, conversely, is designed for more experienced professionals with more expansive portfolios of property, who are comfortable with larger investments. Each of these pieces of software is Excel-based and available for either a Windows or Mac operating system.

Successful businesses today—even relatively small ones—recognize the importance of utilizing customer relationship management (CRM) software to effectively set up and structure email campaigns and other communication touchpoints. The real estate industry is no exception, and the specificities of client interactions and marketing within this field make it essential to utilize CRM software that is specifically designed for the task.

REIPro fills this need expertly for real estate professionals today. It allows real estate investors to easily manage a portfolio of buyers, agents, and other contacts, and it streamlines the process of orchestrating effective marketing campaigns.⁵ It even features support for the direct mail campaigns that continue to retain significance within real estate marketing, allowing users to easily manage lists of addresses and run regular checks for errors or recent changes.

While it may seem like a narrow specialization within the greater field of business, real estate itself is a complex arena in which success demands different tools and strategies depending on which specific sector you work in. TheAnalyst Pro is a robust software platform specifically designed for commercial real estate investments and development. It bills itself as an all-in-one solution, combining investment analysis, modeling, data visualization and report generation, and marketing support.⁶ Professionals across a wide spectrum of roles within commercial real estate find this platform useful, including brokers, property owners, investors, asset managers, and mortgage lenders.

Real estate investment is a profession that demands a fair amount of mobility, and the most effective pieces of real estate investment software allow you to stay connected and access your valuable data dynamically, on the go. For this reason, TheAnalyst Pro is a cloud-based platform, ensuring you can call up the information you need on your phone, tablet or any connected device in order to seal the deal wherever you may be.

The real estate investment software we’ve covered to this point might seem overwhelmingly complex to someone looking to take their first step into the industry. But if you’re in the process of contemplating your first investment or beginning to plan your career pivot, you’ll be happy to know that software exists that has been designed with your needs in mind.

Property Evaluator is a free iOS-based investment management platform with a streamlined, user-friendly interface to help up-and-coming real estate professionals be as informed as possible as they make their first major decisions.⁷ The free version can be used to evaluate one property at a time, with maps, photos, estimated mortgage payments and 30-year ROI projections accessible with the slide of your finger. Premium and Pro versions are also available for more experienced real estate professionals who want to manage entire portfolios and evaluate complex scenarios involving more than one property.

The Online MS in Real Estate program from the Sy Syms School of Business equips you with an up-to-the-minute skill set in the technical tools that drive the real estate industry today and the business savvy to make smart, successful decisions. Explore our curriculum for more information about the program’s courses and its culminating hands-on practicum experience, and check out upcoming admissions deadlines if you’re interested in applying.