While the term “big data” captures the imagination, it is poorly understood outside of the realm of data science and those instances where it exists. Real estate investors typically do not have big data but — unless they have already addressed it — most certainly do have a data opportunity or “dark data”. There is value to be found in addressing the data opportunity — in finding the dark data and putting it to work.

What is “big data”?

According to research firm Gartner, big data “is high-volume, high-velocity and high-variety information assets that demand cost-effective, innovative forms of information processing for enhanced insight and decision-making.”

What does that mean? It means that the term “big data” describes a dataset that is so vast that it taxes the ability of anything but specifically designed database management tools to effectively store, manage, operate and support analytics. Examples of big datasets