Is More Information Better?
I've been building a free web app that provides demographic information for any address in the U.S. where you can easily see the 1, 3 and 5 mile radius data, see it on Google Maps and Street View and easily download an Excel file with all of the information. It was really nothing more than an interesting project where I could practicing some new technologies that I find interesting for data analysis (e.g. machine learning, D3.js, AngularJS, etc.). I've had a lot of fun doing it and everyone I've shown it to has been impressed.

BUT, I'm not convinced that commercial real estate investors really find data that important. Nearly everyone pays data lip-service but it doesn't seem as though anyone uses data to make decisions.

Do you think that middle-market, commercial investors/developers actually pay attention to demographic data?

Is it worth me spending more time on it?
[{"id": "cmntdhd", "text": "Yes. It's mostly useful for retail though since people care about how many people live within the radius of the mall and how much those people earn.", "replies": [{"id": "cmnunfc", "text": "Thank you, I appreciate the feedback. Most of my time has been spent around retail focused investors. So, I guess that is why I even think to ask the question.\n\nWhat do you think people look at primarily for office and industrial? Is it entirely data relevant to the property itself (i.e. NOI, occupancy, etc.)?\n\nThinking of office related data really stumps me...I can't think of what indicators/data people would even look for. Unemployment rate? Population growth?", "replies": [{"id": "cmp3078", "text": "First, I am a CRE generalist from the finance side, so I have a rather broad view of things.  \n\nFor office, you have 2 markets: big corporate real estate where a company is managing multiple offices vs smaller users. Big corporate real estate has many factors, including any deals related to big office moves, new corporate HQ etc. These types of deals will lead to a major change in a local office market as the supporting business will all want to be in close proximity to the business units they are supporting.  \nFor smaller companies, it can be as simple as the CEO of the company moved to the other side of town and doesn't want such a long commute. What space makes the economic sense for the company? New development is a matter of supply and demand, and although I'm not a development guy, it's strongly influenced by rental and vacancy rates.    \nIndustrial is much more limited with zoning in most places, and is highly dependent on logistics - road, highway, or rail - depending on the type of user it is intended to support. I know nothing about industrial development. ", "replies": [], "depth": 3}], "depth": 2}], "depth": 1}, {"id": "cmovbvm", "text": "We already pay for it....\n\nhttp://stdb.com/home/Index ", "replies": [], "depth": 1}, {"id": "cn3mhgn", "text": "My name is Robert McLaws, and I am the CTO of AdvancedREI. We combine property-specific financial analysis with market research into a single app. One of our core tenets is that more information is not better, but the right information delivered in the right context trumps all.\n\nI'd love to chat with you more, and maybe see what you've come up with. Maybe there are some opportunities that we could explore.\n\nJust use the email address at the bottom of our website (AdvancedREI.com) to get in touch.\n\nHope to speak with you soon, and Merry Christmas \ud83d\ude0a\n\n-Robert McLaws\nCTO, AdvancedREI.com", "replies": [], "depth": 1}]