Investor Interest
On the other hand, institutional clients say up-to-date information is crucial to making informed decisions. “Is there a risk of information overload? Absolutely. But for me, as an investment manager in the real estate world to say I’m not going to look at something that’s available to me is ridiculous,” says one large institutional asset manager who owns more than 30,000 units nationally, but requested anonymity to speak to the issue for this article. “I would criticize software vendors for not being more open to transferring data in and out of their systems without major root canal work.”
Smaller investors agree. “For me personally, there’s a lot of appeal in having a stock-ticker-type view of my real estate portfolio,” says Allison Atsiknoudas, CEO of Belmont, Mass.-based Investment Instruments Corp., a start-up property management software firm aimed at helping individual owners manage portfolios of 50 properties or less.
Founded by Atsiknoudas and two other partners who met while attending the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Investment Instruments’ goal is to provide real-time portfolio information to those investors who want it. “I want that information not because I’m going to change my investment on a daily basis, but because I enjoy seeing my progress, even though that progress may be long-term.”
