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!!