Who: Alain Pinel Realtors, Saratoga, Calif.
Paul L. Hulme, president, founder and CEO of APR

When: Using DataQuick PropertyFinder® 2G to assist potential buyers and solicit new business

What:
Alain Pinel Realtors (APR), the premier purveyor of luxury homes in the Bay Area, successfully implemented, trained its agents on and utilizes day-to-day DataQuick’s PropertyFinder 2G to accurately relay current property information to its agents in order to provide quality reports on properties to potential buyers and attract new business.

Challenge:
Saratoga, Calif.-based APR has established itself as a prominent luxury real estate company with a proven record of professionalism and outstanding client service. To better serve the high-profile clientele that requires special attention, APR needed a tool that would provide its agents with current and accurate property information in a visually-pleasing format.

“Arming our agents with the most up-to-date and comprehensive property information enables them to provide sellers and buyers with customizable, high-quality reports about any property in the region,” said Paul L. Hulme, president of APR. “Access to this information permits APR to attract buyers and sellers of the most highly valued homes in the Bay Area.”

Solution:
DataQuick’s PropertyFinder 2G provides real estate agents with a real-time nationwide database of property and ownership information that details property ownership history and property value. The system also includes ZIP code, county, demographics information and nearby schools and businesses. PropertyFinder 2G also enables agents to direct buyers into beneficial and appropriate sales prices or offers with customizable property packages for clients by utilizing the products Property Profile, Comparable Sales and Transaction History reports.

APR educates agents through a series of webinars and on-site training sessions on how to accurately and efficiently utilize PropertyFinder 2G. The system is co-branded throughout the website and reports are customized with the APR logo and can be accessed by each agent via a link on the firm's Intranet.

“All of these reports help our agents direct their customers into an offer that best represents that particular client,” said Hulme. “With adequate training and proper tutorial on effective usage, the system becomes instrumental in helping agents solicit new business.”

APR agents are able to utilize PropertyFinder 2G to research comprehensive property and ownership information from an array of search options like inputting an address or range of addresses, parcel number or search using an interactive map. The distressed property flag feature of the system alerts agents to properties in default, foreclosure, a recent short sale or bank repossession.

Result:
PropertyFinder 2G saves APR and its agents time and money. For example, agents no longer need to contact title companies for property information. Instead, they can turn to DataQuick’s solution to customizable property reports. As a result, agents dedicate more of their time to overwhelmingly satisfying the company’s high profile clientele, leading to an increase in recommendations and revenue for the company overall.

Since implementing PropertyFinder 2G, APR’s nearly 1,400 agents have served many valued customers. APR has also experienced a benefit they were not expecting…agent retention and a recruiting incentive. By making helpful technology available to its agents, APR has a recruiting advantage over its competitors.

“We have found that by providing resources like PropertyFinder 2G, we are better enabled to recruit high-performing agents,” said Hulme. “With top performing agents providing quality reports and excellent client service, we can continue to build on our 20 years of success in the real estate industry and increase our standings among the industry’s top companies.”

Who: Costa Mesa, Calif.-based DePasquale, Kelley & Company (DKC), a property tax assessment provider for commercial properties

When: DKC has been an MDA DataQuick customer since 1995 and implemented PropertyFinder 2G in September 2010

What:
DKC evaluates customer property tax assessments and offers full service property tax administration. DKC selected MDA DataQuick’s PropertyFinder 2G to improve accessibility and accuracy of property information across various industries. Using the information received from PropertyFinder 2G, DKC has improved accuracy and strengthened compliance with applicable regulations.

Challenge:
DKC prides itself in delivering the highest quality services in the property tax assessment industry. Working across various industries such as hospitality, healthcare, retail, office and industrial, multi-family and special use properties, DKC realized that each industry has different issues that affect the assessment process. These differences make it difficult to ensure absolute accuracy for every client.

“With the downturn in the economy and increase in the amount of properties in default or facing foreclosure and short sale, tracking valuation information has been a significant challenge,” said James DePasquale, executive vice president of DKC. “It is important to make sure the information is completely accurate for every client and every industry we serve.”

Additionally, the company needed to ensure that all assessments were supported and justified with proper documentation. Therefore, they needed a tool that could easily provide back-up appraisal information in an organized, timely manner.

Solution:
DKC, a long time customer of MDA DataQuick for other data services, turned to the company’s PropertyFinder 2G to give them access to a real-time nationwide database of property and ownership information. The program assists DKC in assessments by flagging distressed properties in search results, enabling users to instantly locate recent short sales and foreclosures.

“PropertyFinder 2G makes researching property tax assessments and related data nearly effortless,” DePasquale said. “The real-time database ensures me that I am gathering the most accurate information available, for every type of property.”

DKC chose MDA DataQuick’s PropertyFinder 2G because it provides quick and easy access to property profiles, history and comparables. They can adjust, re-rank, or edit comparable properties with ease. The user-friendly interface is easy to navigate and the “find as you type” technology enables the company to quickly search by address or parcel. Comprehensive reports are also useful for the company to keep as a reference or send to clients as an Excel spreadsheet or PDF.

Used internally, DKC most often utilizes the research tool to track property profiles, history and comparables. The company can then modify and re-run comparables if necessary, save the reports in PDF format and compare information to the county assessor’s tax value for the property.

Result:
Implementing MDA DataQuick’s PropertyFinder 2G saves DKC time and money. The easy access and centralized information allows the company to spend less time searching for property information and more time taking on new tasks and clients, increasing productivity. The real-time database provides the most up-to-date information, enabling them to better meet compliance demands; thereby reducing the cost of fines associated with inaccurate information, as well as reducing time spent correcting information.

“MDA DataQuick’s service is among the best of any service provider I use,” DePasquale said. “In order to identify property value inequities, it’s imperative to obtain the most updated sales data in the quickest amount of time. PropertyFinder 2G enables us to do so nationally.”

With the support of PropertyFinder 2G, the company can provide clients with comprehensive reports mapping out everything they need to know about their property, no matter what industry. Better justifications, ease of access and accurate information substantially reduce turnaround time and costs, which results in more satisfied customers.

“Increasingly, property tax assessment appeals are subject to strict guidelines,” said DePasquale said. “PropertyFinder 2G enables us to confirm assessment records, property data, and sales history, and thus we are better prepared to discuss physical aspects of a property with assessors. In turn, we utilize the extensive property information and customizable report as a way to compare information with our client’s data. The result is accurate information and knowledge about properties optimizing tax savings for our clients.”

Who: Nancy Fletcher, vice president of Marketing
Orange, Calif.-based Western Resources Title

When: 2001 to present

What:
As a regional firm, Western Resources Title, which provides title insurance and escrow services to real estate and lending professionals throughout southern California, could not match the marketing budgets of larger competitors. The company opted to rely on outstanding customer service, namely through providing accurate, up-to-date real estate information, to maintain its existing client base and attract new prospects. Dissatisfied with other data products, Western Resources Title turned to MDA DataQuick for decision-making and operational performance solutions

Challenge:
In a crowded southern California housing market, regional, privately held Western Resources Title decided the best plan to expand its market share would be to differentiate itself through superior customer service. One of Western Resources Title's strategies is centered on supplying its real estate agent and lender customers with the most updated, reliable and accurate real estate data regarding the local market, title and mortgage industries and overall financial climate.

After extensively researching a number of data providers Western Resources Title selected MDA DataQuick data tools.

“Given our position in the market, we understood that we had to change our business model to focus more on our clients' needs,” said Nancy Fletcher, vice president of Marketing for Western Resources Title. “It became clear that the easiest way to build trust with our clients was to provide thorough property data that, in turn, would help them generate business. We tried several database software products, but were not comfortable with the low quality or bulky format of their reports.”

Solution:
MDA DataQuick's intelligent owner and property research tool PropertyFinder and Property Pro CD maintain data on more than 87 million properties, enabling mortgage and real estate professionals to research housing market conditions. Detailed, real-time reports are available 24/7 and include property profiles, property history reports and FARM by radius. PropertyFinder and Property Pro CD reduce time, costs and risks involved in real estate transactions. Western Resources Title also tapped DQNews.com for access to real estate news and customized data.

“Our search for a data provider centered on two areas – accuracy and currency – and we found MDA DataQuick offered both better than competitors,” said Fletcher. “Just as our customers depend on us, we wanted to be able to depend on a vendor who has a proven reputation in software and service.”

Result:
Implementing MDA DataQuick has enabled Western Resources Title to differentiate its service from that of competitors and expand market share. The software has accelerated the data search process through setting very specific search criteria as well as saving searches for faster turnarounds on future requests. Western Resources Title has been able to save anywhere from 30 minutes to two hours on search requests.

“We regularly compare the results we receive from MDA DataQuick to other products in the market, and no other system comes close to providing such quality data,” said Fletcher. “The program is easy-to-use and flexible to our situational needs. When we need sales comparables quickly, MDA DataQuick accurately reports only those that fit the subject property. Our customers can rest assured that they are receiving the all-encompassing information they need to carry out transactions.”

The title company and its clients can access property lists in groups, as defined by search criteria, instead of reviewing them individually. They can also produce sales comparables that make sense for each property. As Western Resources Title has grown – claiming over an additional 50 percent increase in business in five months – MDA DataQuick and its accurate data tools have helped employees not only meet an increasing number of needs, but surpass customer expectations. From October 2008 to March 2009, Western Title Resources experienced a 221 percent increase in title orders and 61 percent growth in title sales.

“This may not sound like an obvious differentiator, but MDA DataQuick's ability to produce printable and professional profiles and formats also helps us to maintain our image and reputation with clients,” said Fletcher. “We like that the profiles are available online and look professionally formatted.”

Western Resources Title recently expanded its use of MDA products to include MDA DataQuick's real estate news and customized data Web site, DQNews.com, to formulate demographic charts and tables.

“DQNews.com is a great resource for Western Resources Title,” said Fletcher. “We can quickly pull information, data and trends, which I easily turn into graphs through Excel.”