I have seen too many real estate decisions driven by instinct alone, but that approach won’t survive 2026.

Real estate is just capturing demographic moves. If you don’t understand how people actually respond to housing prices, mortgage rates, or their investment future, you’ve already missed what matters.

It’s always been possible to guess where the market is headed.

What wasn’t possible – until recently – was doing the work to make that guess economically. The human hours required made a deeper analysis impractical.

Now, technology does what humans couldn’t do at scale, making in-depth analysis both possible and economically viable.

That’s why, at LANDCO NEXA, we’re investing heavily in predictive analytics and technology-aided approaches. That’s how we uncover value trapped in assets getting overlooked because people don’t see their potential.

We’re developing proprietary tools internally to support highest and best use analysis, to help partners make better decisions, and to understand where markets are actually moving – not where we hope they’ll go. (Some of that work will be announced this year.)

Gut instinct is still a great skill in our industry. But firms that rely on instinct alone will lose to firms that combine experience with data, judgment with measurement, and insight with execution.

Staying competitive means staying out in front. That’s where we intend to be.

Mark Lester, Principal, LANDCO NEXA