Brokers are the lifeblood of commercial real estate. Period. Unfortunately, most technology companies don’t understand this…..

Over the past year, we have noticed an increased amount of new technology in CRE centered around online search that is trying to disrupt the current brokerage process.  However, hardly any new technology has been created that improves the process for brokers.  Again, the new technology in CRE is focused on search and seemingly not focused on making great tools for brokers.  As a result of this, commercial real estate brokerage is constantly being referred to as an “old” and “antiquated” industry with a very outdated process.  Combine the currently overpriced CRE technology/software pricing models with the outdated technology for brokers, and let’s face it, brokers are getting the raw end of the deal.

We believe that brokers are not only the key to making CRE deals happen, they are also the key to the data that is being created within CRE.  Property owners recognized the value of a broker and pay them well for the service they provide when a deal is done.  However, under the current technology structure, brokers create commercial real estate data, give it to technology companies for free, and then are overcharged for access to the collective data.   Again, we believe that the brokers are the lifeblood to the commercial real estate industry.  The owners recognize it, the tenants that hire brokers recognize it, but most real estate technologies firms do not.  Those that know CRE well understand that it is a relationship business, and probably always will be.  This knowledge comes from 40 years of combined CRE experience from Ten Eight’s founders.  So, what does this mean for CRE technology?  We think it means that the best way to integrate a tool into the industry is to give it away for free, so that you can have access to the relationships, data, and feedback created by the brokerage firms.  That’s a change in the current model.  Disruptive?  Perhaps.  The right thing to do?  Ten Eight thinks so…

So, starting today, Ten Eight’s Pro Account is going to be free for all brokers.  We realize that we don’t have a company that is worth a dime without the brokers’ support and adoption of our product and products to come.  So, due to a change in our funding strategy, we now have the ability to do what we wanted to do from the onset of our launch.  We’re going to provide Ten Eight’s Pro Account for free exclusively to brokers.  Use it, and tell your broker friends about it.  The data derived from all of the tours will be a great resource for brokers, and it is going to be free for us to share with our clients and also within our brokerage firms.  So, if you want Ten Eight for free, and you are a BROKER, just click on the link that says “FREE FOR BROKERS” on our home page.  Or, you can give me a call at  (404-312-2053) and I will give you a promo code over the phone.  Also, here is Ten Eight Promo Video as well if you wish to learn more.

Finally, there is CRE technology firm that is willing to embrace the brokerage community and focus on disrupting the time consuming and outdated technologies that currently exists, rather than trying to disrupt the industry as a whole.  Let’s make great tools and close more deals together!

I’ve now spoken to most of the big firms in Atlanta, GA and Chicago, IL about Ten Eight and the one question that always comes up is “What’s the real value of Ten Eight for my clients?”  This is simple to answer because my brokerage firm has been using Ten Eight since November and we’ve used it on 20 or so tours now.  Here are the three things that we’ve seen happen with our brokerage clients that were using Ten Eight on their phones.

1. Guideline - Let’s face it, most of our clients don’t do this everyday.  Therefore, they don’t know what to look for in evaluating one office building vs. the other.  So, most of the time tenants look around at an office building having no clue what to be looking for.  Ten Eight provides them with the guidelines or blueprints as to what to look at when evaluating an office building.  Since we’ve come up with 8 common attributes for all buildings, they now 8 things to look for when evaluating one building vs. the next.
2. Focus - When you’re on building 5 of a 7 building tour how many of your clients are still really paying close detail to building number 5?  What we’ve found on our tours, even the long ones (just finished a two day tour with a total of 15 buildings with one client), is that by using Ten Eight our clients have remained focused longer on the tours.  In fact, most make it all the way through the tour without losing focus.  Why?  Because they now have something to do.  With Ten Eight, we’ve given Tenants an excuse to look at their phone the entire time and put a game like mobile app in their hands that gives instance feedback.  It’s the instance feedback that keeps a client’s attention.
3. Fun & Interactive - I’ve personally a pretty fun guy.  I can hold a conversation for a long time.  But, even the best personalities grow old when you’re touring more then 5 buildings.  It is tiring.  Period.  But, with our clients we’ve seen that energy level remain throughout the entire tour because they’re having fun using Ten Eight.  I can’t tell you how many times I’ve come back into a car with a couple of decision makers together and they immediate ask each other….  ”What did you get?  I got an 8.7, what did you get?  I got a 7.6.  How did you get an entire point below me?”  They start comparing scores.  It is fun, again, like a game.  However, this game helps them make decision, and ultimately a broker’s life easier.  When they start trying to figure out why one is a point higher then the other, buildings start to get talked about and remembered.  It is a really cool thing to see.

There are a few other values of Ten Eight to the Tenant, like more confident decisions because you’re making a decisions on data and not just feel alone, but these three examples are the values that I’m seeing while you’re phyically touring with your clients.