The team behind a Tampa real estate startup initially envisioned a tech company with a Netflix-like algorithm that could help new residents find a neighborhood that fit their preferences. But developers Ishaan Ambegaokar and Shree Kulkarni, along with data scientist Apratim Biswas, soon saw a different gap in the marketplace that their approach to real estate data could fill.
The result is Realty Dynamics, a real estate data program that launched four months ago. According to Ambegaokar, it addresses a need in the real estate market for a more comprehensive, user-friendly solution for accessing and capitalizing on publicly available information.
“As we delved deeper into the market, we realized there was a substantial need for a more robust tool for real estate data aggregation and analysis,” Kulkarni said.
Ambegaokar said their program caters to many clients, including developers, real estate brokers, land use attorneys, property appraisers, civil engineers and architects. (Kulkarni and Ambegaokar are behind Tampa development firm Serenity Capital Management.)
“As real estate developers, there’s a lot of elements we look for, from parcel data to zoning information to future land use data,” Ambegaokar said. “The entire premise of [the platform] was to aggregate all publicly available data into a one-stop shop. If we could use this data to make things that take maybe hours to form into minutes — there’s a lot of other folks out there who could benefit from the same software.”
The platform consolidates public data across all 67 counties in Florida into one interface, offering over 150 data layers. From flood zones to land use data to school scores, Kulkarni said the program is “light years ahead” of anybody in the space — including CoStar, the dominant data firm for those in the real estate industry.
“In terms of the number of layers we offer, the quality of information we offer, the AI tools that we offer — for current customers, they can’t get enough of this, and they’re getting a ton of value,” Kulkarni said.
The data is updated once a month, which Ambegaokar said is a game-changer for professionals who require up-to-date, comprehensive data to make informed decisions.
The startup’s AI-powered tool, LandBuddy, created by Biswas, is another draw.
“There’s just so many AI tools out there today, right? And you don’t get value out of them because you cannot trust them,” Biswas said. “But with ours, what happens is you get references for each section, and you can go directly to the source [documents] and check it.”
Kulkarni said two to three additional iterations are coming in the next few months to expand on LandBuddy’s capabilities.
“Our eventual goal is to be so targeted for our clients that we’re able to pinpoint specific parcels that they’re looking for,” Kulkarni said. “And so, our goal is to make [LandBuddy] so user friendly that people now can just go into this chatbot, type-specific questions and search them within seconds.”
As for challenges?
“We’re a small team that just started, and we have so much data, so many different types of data that come from so many different sources,” Biswas said. “All the data you see, other than the school score, everything else is ours. So, because of that, it’s the biggest challenge.”
The platform has been funded internally, with no external capital raised so far.
However, according to Kulkarni, the platform is growing, with over 70 clients and increasing monthly. The team plans to expand the platform based on client feedback, continuously improving and adding new features.
“We are the future. And you can push against the grain, you can try to push the storm back ... but eventually, this will be the expectation,” Kulkarni said. “Then you don’t want to be the one who’s using outdated tools and information to make data-driven decisions in this world. “
