There is a ton of data driving every decision made in the real estate market. Every second, the market evolves and provides fresh insights to stakeholders. In the holistic view, it’s that data that helps contribute to a healthy real estate market as decision makers can glean insights and avoid disruptions. CoreLogic, a company with services that provide the underpinning for just about every touchpoint in the real estate market, wants to change how companies and people in the real estate sector view and understand data with its new Dallas-based “Discovery Center” research and development center.
John Rogers, Chief Innovation Officer and head of R&D at CoreLogic, says “we are the backbone” of the $35 trillion residential property market. Speaking to the home buying experience, Rogers notes CoreLogic data helps realtors, lending banks, and insurance companies – often disparate parties in the home buying experience – quickly and accurately provide end-users (home buyers) with the right homes, best rates, and suitable insurance plans. “When you buy a house you’re actually dealing with us, too,” Rogers says.
Going Beyond The Numbers
It’s not just about buying and selling homes, though. Rogers says the company’s data “absolutely” assists with buying and selling homes, as well as going far beyond that experience. Real estate insurance professionals use CoreLogic data to influence payout decisions in the wake of a natural disaster, for instance. Utilizing satellite imagery, CoreLogic is able to provide clients with an overview of damage to a neighborhood, city, or county.
That’s just one example – there are seemingly endless ways CoreLogic helps clients, which is why its new R&D facility exists in the first place. Returning valuable data is one thing; serving it up in consumable ways is another, more difficult – but interesting – challenge for Rogers and his team.
In this video, Clare Donley chats with John Rogers, the Chief Innovation Officer at CoreLogic. He shares the cutting edge R&D work CoreLogic has be doing, explains how the Discovery Center helps our clients and reveals how innovation is helping solve industry-wide challenges like the affordable housing crisis. Access more videos on their Youtube Channel
“Did you ever see ‘Minority Report’?” Rogers asked, pointing to the augmented reality overlays in the movie as an example of how CoreLogic aims to surface data to clients. The company’s goal is to provide sleek, reliable data that makes immediate sense, allowing decision makers to make fast, accurate choices.
The company wants to do everything from helping companies find available land to build low-income housing to performing risk assessment for areas most vulnerable to events related to climate change, which is a fascinating problem to tackle. Rogers says the company wants to help predict how future events may frame home ownership and the home-buying experience, all the way down to insuring a home, in a time when a rapidly changing market and climate change can cause incredible disruption.
Growing To Meet Demand
Rogers’ team is hiring, too. CoreLogic is looking for Software Engineers, UX Designers, Product Managers, and Data Scientists for Discovery. When we probed Rogers on just what he was looking for, he came back to one singular trait: the desire and will to solve problems.
The team at CoreLogic begins with a problem, then finds the best solutions for that problem, Rogers says. It’s reminiscent of Google X or Microsoft Garage, which do very similar things without a narrow focus. CoreLogic is aiming to solve problems associated with real estate and other sectors like the oil and gas and restaurants. Rogers pointed out that one major restaurant chain uses CoreLogic data to map likely tornado paths within 15 minutes of a tornado forming, which helps the chain understand when a restaurant should close to avoid harm to staff.
Finding The Right Solutions
Right now, Rogers and his team are working hard to help solve the housing gap crisis and addressing how climate change will affect the real estate market. They’re “massive issues,” says Rogers, who understands finding the best solution is more critical than coming up with a quick fix. CoreLogic data already drives a thriving ecosystem and solving important issues that will affect us all in the very near future seems like the logical step forward. Rogers wants a team come up with solutions however they can. CoreLogic’s industry is regulated, so there are checks and balances, but Rogers seems more interested in using that to focus energy, not prohibit positive momentum.
What CoreLogic built in Dallas with its Discovery Center sounds a lot more like Microsoft’s Garage or Google X (just without the space elevators). For technologists, seeing the issues you solve actually go to market is rewarding, and Rogers underscored that CoreLogic has a massive network and customer base eager to see results.
Learn More About CoreLogic and search for R&D roles at www.corelogic.com/culture
