Today is an important day. Today, TouchCMA and INRIX released an important real estate industry first: TouchCMA with INRIX Drive Time.
For the first time, real estate professionals can create fantastic client presentations that far exceed the expectations of their data-rich and savvy audience. Specifically, now agents can take the guess work out of drive time to work – something that 73% of home buyers consider a “key” decision criterion. To state the obvious, home buyers first pick a neighborhood and then choose a home inside of that neighborhood. Often the drivability of that neighborhood is equally as important as other criteria like number of bedrooms and school district. Agents and home buyers can now quickly and easily prioritize properties based on typical roadway traffic conditions. Property presentations can include the commute time between home, office, day care, hospitals, parks, family members, or other frequently visited locations.
INRIX just released their annual Traffic Scorecard measuring the 100 worst cities for traffic congestion, which underscores how important drive time has become for people considering a home purchase. The INRIX Traffic Scorecard shows the that average U.S. driver unnecessarily wastes 12.1 hours per year stuck in traffic, up 6% over the prior year. Some cities are even worse, with San Diego commuters wasting 24.3 hours per year, Houston commuters wasting 26.7 hours per year and Orlando commuters wasting 18.2 hours per year.
York Baur, CEO of Windermere Solutions, and the maker of TouchCMA, has this to say about the release, “When agents present homes and neighborhoods, buyers want to know as much as possible about drive times. With INRIX Drive Time, our clients now have unique and incredibly valuable information to assist home-buyers in the home-finding process. This insight gives them a competitive edge, and helps them better serve as trusted advisors to their customers.
INRIX Senior Vice President of Sales and Product, Rafay Khan, has this to say: “Few people like sitting in traffic. Smart applications of traffic data help drivers save time on their existing commute. When buying a home, this same drive-time data provides valuable information to both the agent and the homebuyer. Using INRIX Drive Time, presentations created with TouchCMA will answer the important question of drive time for the neighborhoods and homes reviewed.”
INRIX Drive Time is powered by traffic information sourced from the INRIX Traffic Intelligence Platform, which analyzes data from various public and private sources,
ranging from government road sensors, official crashes and incident reports, to real-time traffic speeds crowd-sourced from a community of approximately 100 million vehicles and devices. The INRIX Traffic Intelligence Platform accounts for common traffic-impacting factors, such as, day of week, season, local holidays, current and forecasted weather, crashes and road construction to help drivers save time, fuel and avoid frustration every day.
TouchCMA serves three out of four of the largest independent brokerages in the country and over 20,000 real estate agents. Hundreds of thousands of buyers will now use INRIX, the leading international provider of traffic information and driver services, as part of their home-buying process.
Enjoy and remember to take the guesswork out of choosing a neighborhood.