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SmartZip says inventory shortages driving growth

SmartZip Analytics Inc. says inventory shortages are helping drive growth, as more agents recognize that the company’s analytics-powered predictive marketing platform, SmartTargeting, can help them identify likely sellers.

“The ongoing inventory shortage has challenged real estate agents, many of who have several buyers but hardly any inventory to help them,” said Avi Gupta, president and CEO of SmartZip Analytics Inc. “As a result, we find that agents are turning their focus to the sell-side, and desperately seeking better ways to identify and reach potential home sellers.”

SmartZip says 1,000 agents are now using the company’s SmartTargeting platform to grow listings, boosting revenue generated by the tool by 300 percent during the first quarter from a year ago. Clients pay on average $6,000 to more than $10,000 for an annual subscription, which includes fees for analytics and marketing campaigns, Gupta said.

Gupta said he is “extremely excited about the growth potential ahead, especially under the current housing market conditions.” To his knowledge, he said, SmartZip is the “only sell-side demand generation solution in the industry.”

SmartZip says SmartTargeting’s predictive engines crunch thousands of historical and current data points across each home and homeowner in a territory to pinpoint the top 20 percent of seller prospects. The company claims that prospects identified by SmartTargeting are more than twice as likely to sell their home.

Gupta said that on average, SmartZip’s clients license an exclusive custom territory of about 2,000 to 2,500 homes — a total of about 3 million homes in 39 states.

By targeting prospects identified by SmartTargeting, Gupta thinks the company’s current clients could drum up nearly $30 billion in additional sales a year, generating $1 billion in commissions in the process.

Based in Pleasanton, Calif., SmartZip is a privately held corporation, backed by Intel Capital.