Real Estate Research & Data Specialist

Online Research | Data Verification | Opportunity Research

I am a Houston, Texas REALTOR® seeking a highly organized, accurate, resourceful, and detail-oriented Real Estate Research & Data Specialist to support the research and information needs of my real estate business.

This position is primarily focused on online research, data gathering, verification, monitoring, spreadsheet management, and maintaining useful business information.

I am looking for someone who knows how to research beyond the first search result. Strong candidates will know how to investigate information, verify accuracy, identify inconsistencies, notice meaningful details and changes, and organize findings in a way that is easy to understand and use.

This is a strong fit for someone who genuinely enjoys research and is comfortable spending significant time finding, checking, organizing, updating, and maintaining information.

Prior U.S. residential real estate experience is helpful, but not required. Strong research ability, honesty, accuracy, judgment, organization, and reliability are more important.

RESPONSIBILITIES

Responsibilities may include:

Conducting detailed online research using public sources
Building and maintaining organized research databases, trackers, and spreadsheets
Gathering and verifying property, market, business, professional, community, and local information
Researching people, businesses, organizations, events, resources, and opportunities based on specific criteria
Monitoring assigned information for changes and updates
Maintaining accurate source links and verification dates
Identifying duplicate, inconsistent, incomplete, outdated, or questionable information
Comparing multiple sources when information conflicts
Organizing research so that it is easy to review, filter, and use
Identifying relevant patterns, changes, deadlines, connections, and opportunities within researched information
Maintaining recurring research projects after the initial research has been completed
Completing special research projects as assigned
Providing concise updates that highlight meaningful findings without requiring review of every individual research entry

The scope of the research will evolve as you learn the business and demonstrate your ability to produce accurate, useful work.

RESEARCH STANDARD

I am looking for research, not copy-and-paste data collection.

You should be comfortable going deeper when necessary, determining whether information is current, using reliable sources, checking multiple sources when appropriate, and clearly identifying information that cannot be verified.

You should understand the difference between finding information and producing useful information.

Accuracy matters. Never guess simply to complete a field.

When information conflicts, is unclear, or cannot be confidently verified, document the issue and ask when appropriate.

WHAT SUCCESS LOOKS LIKE

Strong performance means your research is accurate, properly sourced, organized, current, and easy to use.

Recurring research should be completed consistently. Important changes and time-sensitive information should be identified. Useful findings should be surfaced clearly. Research should require minimal correction or cleanup.

As you learn the business, you should become better at recognizing relevant patterns, connections, changes, and opportunities within the information you research.

The goal is for your work to save time and make meaningful information easier to identify and use.

Quality, accuracy, relevance, and usability matter more than simply producing a large number of entries.

QUALIFICATIONS

You may be a strong fit if you:

Enjoy researching and investigating information online
Are naturally curious and resourceful
Have strong attention to detail
Enjoy working with spreadsheets and structured information
Can perform repetitive research without sacrificing accuracy
Notice inconsistencies and changes
Think about whether information is actually useful
Can follow detailed instructions
Work independently after learning a process
Keep recurring work organized
Verify information before making assumptions
Communicate clearly when something is uncertain
Are dependable with deadlines
Are interested in learning about U.S. residential real estate

Strong written English is required.

Experience with Google Sheets, Microsoft Excel, Google Workspace, online research, data entry, data cleaning, database research, market research, contact research, web research, or data verification is valuable.

POSITION STRUCTURE

This position may begin part-time while work quality, accuracy, reliability, and productivity are established. Full-time is preferred and the right fit can grow into a full-time position rather quickly. There is potential to grow into additional hours, including full-time work, based on demonstrated ability, performance, contribution, and business needs.

I am interested in someone seeking a long-term opportunity who can eventually take ownership of recurring research responsibilities once they are learned.

COMPENSATION

Starting compensation: $3.25–$3.75 USD per hour, based on experience and demonstrated ability.

There may be opportunities for increased hours and future compensation growth based on performance, reliability, productivity, contribution, and expanded responsibilities.

HOW TO APPLY

Please answer all questions below in your own words, no AI. Specific examples are strongly preferred.

1. Tell me about a research assignment where the information you needed was difficult to find or verify. What were you researching, what steps did you take, and how did you determine that the information you found was reliable?

2. You are researching something for me and find conflicting information from multiple websites. How would you d ---------- what information to use and what to report to me?

3. You find 30 possible results for a research assignment, but I do not have time to review all 30. How would you determine which findings deserve my attention, and what information would you include so I can quickly understand why they matter?

4. Tell me about a time you noticed an error, pattern, connection, change, or useful piece of information that you were not specifically asked to find. What did you notice, and what did you do with it?

5. What research, spreadsheet, database, or data-management experience do you have? Please describe the type of work you performed, the approximate amount of information you managed, and what you were personally responsible for maintaining.

6. Please provide your available hours per week and your normal working hours in both Philippine Time and U.S. Central Time. The starting compensation is $3.25–$3.75 USD per hour. Please confirm that this is acceptable and state your requested starting rate within this range.

7. Please attach your résumé and, if available, one example of a spreadsheet, research project, tracker, database, or similar work that demonstrates your research and organization skills. Remove all confidential or private information before sharing.

8. Please include a 1–3 minute video introduction. Briefly introduce yourself and answer the following question:

What makes research genuinely useful to the person receiving it, rather than simply a collection of information?

Please provide a working video link that can be viewed without requesting access.

Applications that do not answer all required questions or include the requested résumé and video may not be considered.