Category Archives: Innovation

An office building just for Startups…

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I’ve heard several startup CEO’s say that commercial real estate brokers and building owners don’t understand a startup’s needs for office space.  I’ve also heard brokers and owners say that startups are unrealistic about their expectation concerning what an owner should be willing to do for a startup and its office space.  It is a struggle that has gone on for a while now, and being both a broker and a CEO of a tech startup.  I understand both sides, and I don’t have a good answer as to how you resolve the struggle.  However, something has happen for the first time that I know of, at least here in Atlanta, where a tech CEO has purchased a 5 story office building for the sole purpose to set up an ownership structure that favors the startups.  Will this disruptive CRE?  Will other building owners follow suit?  Will it be successful?  Where is the unicorn of a building?

Actually right next door to a building that my wife leasing out.  The building is called Ivy Place, and here is the article announcing Atlanta Tech Rock Star, David Cummings, has purchased it.  I’m extremely excited to see how this works out for David.  As I mentioned before there has always been a struggle between building owners and startups.  David is going to change that here in Atlanta, but will this work because of the model that he is going to setup?  Which is charging per head vs. per RSF.  Or does it work simply because companies want to be associated with David Cummings?  I do believe that having an environment where startups can collaborative is beneficial and has worked well in the past.  However, it has always been on a small scale for office space or in University sponsored incubators like ATDC here in Atlanta.  If it works on a big scale, say an entire building, will other commercial real estate owners follow suit.  Say a Kyle Jenks of Parkside Partners here is Atlanta.  Kyle is known for purchasing old warehouses and turning them into funky loft space.  Could he purchase a 50,000 – 100,000 RSF warehouse and turn it into a place for startups like David is doing for Ivy Place?

I know that these are a lot of questions with no answers, and I don’t have the answers either.  What I can tell you is that I believe that Atlanta Tech Village will be successful.  However, I think it is going to be hard to know if it is successful because of David Cummings and who he is, or the new model that he is setting up.  At any rate, I’m looking forward to seeing the environment Atlanta Tech Village creates and hopefully being a part of the that culture in the future.

 

Spec Suites, Photos, and the Owners

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Last week I wrote a blog about Virtual Tours – Good Idea or Bad Idea and it brought up some great conversations.  One particular point that came up is my focus for this blog, and that is staging commercial space.  One knock that you hear about commercial real estate is that the industry doesn’t provide enough information online, or to be more specific enough pictures showcasing the vacate space available in buildings.  To which a good friend of mine Dominic from Lease Matrix pointed out that commercial is not residential in that owners don’t stage individual suites for photos like a homeowner stages their home.  As Dominic pointed out, most commercial owners don’t want pictures of vacant space because they are tired, run down, and waiting for the next tenant to blow out walls, re-carpet, paint and generally make their own for the next 5 to 10 years.  So my question is this, what if an owner “staged” or in commercial real estate terms delivered spec suites for every vacancy in their building / buildings and then had professional pictures take on the suites.  Would they lease faster?

First off, let me say that this is never going to happen.  It would be too expensive for the owner to spec out every vacancy in a building only to have tenants come in and change the layout.  Now we all know that most owners do spec out suites for smaller users and these generally lease out faster then non-spec suites.  However, most spec suites don’t have professional photos done to showcase them online.  In face, most owners rely on brokers to bring in the tenants into their buildings, and trust that the spec suites lease faster because a prospect can just move right now.  In other words, they don’t have to think about what they’d need to do to the space.  They just take it “as-is” and move in.  So the questions is “would an owner be willing to spec more then just a floor of spec suites and then market them the way residential does?”  Put it out there for all to see, and take professional photos.  I’d love to see if an owner could prove that these suites leased quicker then the non spec, non professional photo suite in the building?  I think the answer would be yes, and I hope an owner will take the risk.

Thoughts???

Virtual Tours – Good or Bad Idea?

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I was speaking at a NAIOP event last week about Ten Eight, and an interesting question came up.  The question was “what are my thoughts about virtual tours, like View the Space“?  As I mentioned in my last post, I didn’t think virtual tours helped to push out an existing relationship on the tenant rep. side of the equation.  I also know that most of the companies that hired us after we’d gotten in the door utilizing the fact we had a virtual tour of every Class A building, didn’t use the tours all that often during the process.  However, what I did do for a lot of my clients was a video tour of the buildings while we toured that day.  See video for 1275 Peachtree.  What is interesting here is that my client moved into this building and sent the video out to their employees to show them their new office location.  There are over 100 views of this video.  So, I do believe that my client’s employees watched the video and my client used it as a way to introduce their new home.  But, does this make a virtual tour a good idea or bad idea for owners?

My honest answer, I don’t know.  On the one hand, the virtual tours I did for an entire office market really didn’t get used that often by my clients.  But that was for tenant rep. work, and not landlord rep. work.  However, a video I did for a tenant rep client, of their new office, got over 100 views in a month’s time frame.  So, does a View the Space help a landlord attract new business?  I don’t know.  I don’t think it could hurt them…  What I do know is that a View the Space can at least make a new customer of the building very happy by giving them a professional way of introducing a new home to that company’s employees.

What I do think could really help a landlord out is a virtual tour of every vacant space in their building or buildings.  If a free online search site, or landlord’s website had that….  Then I do believe it would get used on every single deal.  A virtual tour of the outside of a building and its lobby is a nice to have, but take it a step further and give the tenants a virtual tour of all vacancy and in my opinion you’ve got yourself a winner.

Thoughts???

What’s Disruptive in Commercial Real Estate? Moving…

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It is my opinion that with all of the new technology in commercial real estate trying disrupt the status quo a very simple fact gets overlooked.  What is the most disruptive thing about commercial real estate for the clients, a.k.a the tenants?  Simple, it is actually moving from one location to the other.  I was reminded of this by a simple stat that I heard recently.  Over half of all Office Managers quit either during or after an office move if they’re put in charge of the move.  Is this stat true?  I have no clue, but I can tell you firsthand that my clients hate the moving process, and the person that usually is stuck with the task is the office manager.

So, what’s my point?  I’m just throwing out my opinion about truly being disruptive in commercial real estate.   Build something that actually streamlines the moving process and then you’ll have a truly disruptive product.  Or better said, you’ll be the hero to brokers and office managers alike for simplifying their lives, and according to one stat.  You’ll be saving jobs….

My ROI on Social Media for 2012

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A friend of mine, Bo Barron, recently spoke about the use of Social Media for commercial real estate brokers, or more specifically LinkedIn.  In the article he talked about how social media won’t directly win you any new business, it is more about people becoming aware of your personal brand.  Which I very much agree with, and have implemented in my brokerage business at SWA.  What I want to highlight are my closed deals for 2012 and where the initial contact with my client began before the deal was closed.  As a quick FYI, my deals are down a bit from other years because the majority of my time is spent working on Ten Eight.  See the breakdown:

Signed Leases in 2012:  15

LinkedIn:  5 

Cold Call:  2

Referral:  5

MOSatlanta.com:  2

Twitter:  1

My point to all of this, is that in a year where I’ve had little to no time to do cold calling, and very little time to even prospect.  My time was best spent on LinkedIn and Referrals per the numbers….  Does Social Media work?  Did for me in 2012.

 

Life Before CoStar

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Yesterday, I had a meeting with a well respected 30 year vet. of commercial real estate here in Atlanta.  We were discussing Ten Eight‘s Version 2.0, and what it could mean for our industry, when my friend starting talking about life before CoStar.  What, life without CoStar?  For a broker that has always had access to the industry’s leading database company, this was like one of those stories of life without a computer or cell phone.  What would it have been like without CoStar?

According to my friend, it was a time in which brokers could easily stand out from other brokers.  This person would spend hours doing his own research, driving markets, and collecting his own details about the properties available in the market.  This broker stood out because he had better data then everyone else in the market because he worked harder to get it.  When CoStar came onto the scene, any broker could now get the same information that he’d been collecting on his own.  Therefore, making a broker’s job more about relationship building vs. data collection.  He had to found other ways to stand out from his competition with personal relationships and the use of technology.

The interesting fact to me is that he and other brokers didn’t go away when CoStar came into town with all of the data aggregated on available properties.  He adopted and found other ways to improve his craft.  So with all of this new technology coming into commercial real estate now, I wonder what brokers will do next to stand.  Without a doubt, it is a fun time to be in the commercial real estate industry.

The Drive to Improve Commercial Real Estate Technology

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Since Ten Eight’s official launch on April 23, 2012, I’ve been invited to speak at several CRE Technology events.  It has been a great experience for me both personally and professionally.  These speaking opportunities have given me insight into several great young technology companies that exist today in the CRE landscape.  Here is a list of some of those companies I’ve met along the way.

ROFO - It’s an easy and efficient way to make the right real estate connections.

OfficeSpace.com - Our mission is to create an efficient marketplace connecting tenants with landlords and brokers. Our goal is to breathe some new life into an industry that has been a little shy about making changes.

The Square Foot - TheSquareFoot gives you the ability to easily find commercial real estate listings and connect directly with the landlords. It’s easy, fast and completely free.

42Floors - The easiest way to discover and create your dream office.

Property Capsule - All your portfolio data is available offline, no Internet connection required.  Property Capsule received two Digie award nominations at RealComm 2012! One for our CEO, Alex Markson and another for Art McCann-Highwoods for their use of Property Capsule.

Honest Buildings - Honest Buildings has created a profile for any building in the world with an address. This platform is the first place that connects occupants, service providers and owners to each other and the buildings where they live, work and spend their time.

LeaseMatrix – Dead Simple Lease Analysis

 

 

To Native App or not to Native App, that is the Question

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This seems to be an ongoing argument within developer circles.  However, for most users of technology, a person usually can’t tell the difference between a native app or mobile web app once they’re using the application itself.  So, at Ten Eight for our Version 1.0 we decided to develop a mobile web app vs. a native app for several reasons.

  1. Mobile web apps are compatible with all mobile devices, which equals one code for multiple devices vs. several codes for several different devices.  So, the cost goes is less to develop a mobile web app vs. mobile device.
  2. Mobile web apps never need to download the updated version of the software.  A developer updates the software and it is done vs. a developer updates the software and user has to download the new version from the app store.  Therefore, it is easier for the user to get updates on your software.
  3. Mobile web apps don’t need to be download from an App Store, just click the mobile link and you’re going.  So, it is easier and quicker for the user to get to the application.

No brainer, right?  Well, after 3 months on fully launching Ten Eight we’ve decided to move to a native app for our application.  Here are the reasons why:

  1. A native app has better function then a mobile web app.  The transitions from page to page look, feel, and function better then on a mobile web app.
  2. A  native app can take control of certain functions of a phone or tablet and a mobile web app cannot.  Meaning if you wanted to take a picture through you application, you’d have to develop a native app vs mobile web app to accomplish this through your application.
  3. A native app can be downloaded from the App Store.  I missed this one with our clients, but there’s truly something about being able to download an app.  It is still considered innovative, cool, and people trust it.
So, coming September 2012 Ten Eight will be launching its Version 2.0 of our application and you’ll be able to download it for the iPhone and iPad at the App Store.  There are many more enhancements being made then just developing a native app, but we’ll get to that in a later blog.  For now, in my humble opinion, it is going to change the status quo of how we as brokers tour commercial space with our clients.

 

There’s an app for that – CRE Tours

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A few weeks ago, I was fortunate enough to have been invited to present Ten Eight to a group of 60 or so Young Council of Realtors members here in Atlanta.  We had an great lineup of speakers including Chad Koenig, Doug Curry, and Coy Davidson.  The topic was about apps that can be used on tour, and each person had very valuable insight to share with the group.  I wanted to highlight just a few from each person’s discussion.

Chad Koenig - Chad highlighted a number of great apps to use for commercial real estate, which included:  iBooks, Evernote, Noteshelf, iMovie, YouTube, Whiteboard, and iAnnotate PDF.  I’m going to highlight 3 of them.

- iBooks – This is a great way to store floor plans and flyers for a tour.  We’ll store our entire tour package as a PDF in iBooks so we no longer print them out for clients.  Ten Eight will soon replace this function with the ability to download floor plans and flyers associated with the buildings you’ll tour.

- iAnnotate PDF – This app can be used to mark up PDF files of floor plans, flyers, leases, proposals or LOI’s.  Clients sometimes lack vision when it comes to seeing how a floor plan can work for them.  Use this app to show them.

- iMovie – Chad had a great idea here.  He took photos of a suite that was being constructed and turned the photos into an iMovie that he sent to his client to show them the progress on their new office space.  Now that is customer service.

Doug Curry – Doug of coursed covered Xceligent’s new app that is targeted to compete with CoStarGo.  In his presentation, Doug made a great point that when you have at least two competitors in a market the data is better and the price is lower for the brokers.  Not knowing Doug before this, he has an expansive background in CRE data and a definite game plan that has been formed over many years of competing against Costar.  I was impressed with him, and have been impressed with their app.  The one feature I will point out is that their app doesn’t limit you to just your market, you can search space in any market Xceligent has data.  For those of us that use Costar, we understand that you’re limited to your market unless you pay them more for access to all markets.  I’ve used both apps and feel they are comparable to each other with Xceligent being less expensive.

Coy Davidson – Coy didn’t go much into apps that he users, more about how he has grown his personal brand through the web.  Anyone that knows Coy, understands what a great job he does with his web presence.  What impressed me the most about Coy was his humble nature and his honesty about how he got involved in social media and the true results from it.  Some of my favorite points from his presentation were that fact that he will never get a deal from social media, but it does get him in the door.  Another was the fact that he doesn’t have to pitch people once in the door because he is already viewed as an expert.  Therefore, he can concentrate on their real estate, and not himself.  Finally, Coy said that he is a good guy (couldn’t agree more), but an average guy that people can forget.  However, when they see his web presence they don’t forget him and he is no longer an average guy.  Bottom-line from my point of view:  Coy is a pioneer, good guy, great friend, and anything but average.

Tip of the Iceberg – Realcomm

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Last week I had the opportunity to speak at Realcomm, in Vegas, about Ten Eight.  It was a great opportunity for us, and a great event in which I learned a lot about the latest in technology for commercial real estate.  Folks, we are only seeing the “Tip of the Iceberg” concerning technology in CRE.

I thought I knew a lot about the goings of technology in CRE, man was I wrong.  The more surprising part to me.  If I don’t know about most of the technology out there, how can the average CRE professional have a clue?  I mean, if I study technology in CRE, and I didn’t know about all the awesomeness that exists….  How is a broker that is chasing deals for a living to know?  We, as technology professionals, either need to do a better job promoting what we have, or face the same fate as the Titanic.  But, brokers, know this….  The technology is out there!!

However, this blog is not about the marketing of CRE Technology, it is to highlight the cool technology that I saw, and the lessons that I learned.

COOL TECHNOLOGY

Cube Cities – A very cool and new way to search for office space.  It is a 3D augmented reality in which you can see the entire skyline of NYC and other cities in 3D with the vacancies of each building in orange cubes.  Click the cube and see the space along with the view from the space.  Again, very cool.

Property Capsule – Have your entire leasing portfolio on a very cool app, and only have to update your listings in one place.  Plus, over 30,000 logos in their database, you can easily show which tenants are in the other spaces.  Wish I would have had more time to talk to these guys.

The Square Foot – Just launched in Houston, with the rest of Texas to follow at first.  They’re focused on a great online search experience for 5,000 RSF tenants or less.  Tenant brokers don’t want to deal with this size of a tenant, but Landlords need to lease the space.  These guys are here to help.

OfficeSpace.com – Currently in Portland, Oregon and just launched in Denver, Colorado.  They are a free online search for CRE as well, but they don’t launch in a market until they have 95% coverage in that market.  They’ve also got some really cool leasing tools for brokers.  My favorite, create your own flyer using their upgraded technology to make it look great and it is free.

LESSONS LEARNED

CRM is a big issue for CRE Brokers.  Just asked the CIO’s that have implemented them into their organizations.  I didn’t know this was such an issue.  However, I’m in an organization of 5 for my brokerage business and we’re all are on board with our CRM.  However, according to the CIOs on the panel, adoption of a standard CRM within their organization is next to impossible to accomplish.  One was quoted as saying the person in charge of implementation says that he has a lot of groundhog days.  Another panel member asked the question, “why is it so hard to implement CRM in commercial real estate?”  Do you have an answer?

3 CLICKS – Just ask Transwestern CIO Eugene Kesselman about 3 clicks…  I loved this point.  Long story short, your app should take no more then 3 clicks to produce the data that a broker or his client wants.  More then 3 clicks and you’ve lost the broker.  Working on this with Ten Eight right now.  Love it!!