This survey came across my desk this morning and I thought it was good enough to share:  http://www.realtor.org/research/research/cre_market_survey

The REALTORS® Commercial Real Estate Market Survey from the National Association of Realtors (NAR) measures quarterly activity in the commercial real estate markets. The survey collects data from commercial Realtors®.

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I wrote about Commercial Real Estate Tools for 2012 a few weeks ago.  In case you missed it, they were Site To Do Business (STDB), planEASe and REA.  I promised that I would tell you about more tools in the future.  Well, the future is here and here is now.  This week I would like to share with you some other tools that I use.  They may help you or at least point you in the direction of something that does help out.  There are a lot of great technology tools and applications out there and sometimes knowing what is possible is all that you need.

Let’s start with Dropbox.   Dropbox is a great way to share files with anyone anywhere.  One of the best features about it is that it is free.  Yes, I said F-R-E-E.    I think they make money by having people buy additional storage.  I haven’t had to do that in my three years of use.  I take advantage of the fact that when you get other people to use Dropbox that they give you more storage for free.  I don’t find it hard to get a person to use something that makes their life easier and it doesn’t cost them anything.  Okay, what exactly is Dropbox?   In my own words, it is cloud-based storage that can be used easily by anyone.    I most often use it for the transfer of huge files like environmental reports, property appraisals, CAD files or large due diligence files.  I just enter in the email address of the person that I want to share it with and they get an email asking them to sign up for this free file-sharing service.  In seconds, they are able to download these gigabytes worth of information without clogging up their email or worrying about viruses.  I think you understand what it is so I won’t go into anymore explanations.  Oh yes, one of the other cool features about it is that you can access your Dropbox folder from multiple computers and even your iPhone.  Very very cool.  Don’t forget…. It’s F-R-E-E.

Snag It is another application that I am always using.  Snag It is an application that allows you to easily screen shot anything at the press of a key stroke.  I know, I know…  You are thinking that screenshot capability comes with every computer.  You are 100% correct.  What Snag it does is allow you to ‘snag’ a portion of your screen that you actually want.  I am assuming that you don’t always want your entire screen in the JPG shot.  You don’t want the view of your computer desktop or the surrounding application menu.  You just want the information, graph, chart or picture that fits your requirement.  That is what Snag it does.  It allows you to draw a box on your screen and just screen shot within that box.  I use this for all of my marketing materials, course design or anything where I am using graphics, pictures or information to tell my story.  ‘Seeing is believing’ so you need to check out Snag it on your own and see why I love it so much.

I hope that you find these applications as useful as I do.   I must be honest in that I didn’t discover them on my own.  I found out about both of these from my friend and fellow CCIM, Jay Lucas.  He is the master of technology and told me about them a few years ago.  I checked them out and have been using them every since.

Related articles

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I found this article very insightful on a number of fronts.  It was sent to me by friend and fellow CCIM Instructor Carl Russell.  Remember, jobs drive commercial real estate.  What comes to mind as you read this?

NYT: How U.S. Lost Out On iPhone Work

Published on the New York Times Website on January 22, 2012

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http://bit.ly/y7Qhg8

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2012 is here!

2011 was a roller coaster year.  It was better than 2010 but it wasn’t as great as everyone predicted.  That is okay, better is good.  As we start out this new year, I have found myself discussing commercial real estate tools a lot with other professionals in the industry.  I guess people ask me because I am a CCIM Instructor and have an Electrical Engineering degree from Purdue University.  Until now, I hadn’t given it any thought but I figured it would be a good topic for this blog.

I have three applications that are critical to my daily business.  I think that they would be a great place to start.  I will follow-up later with more tools that will help you out.

Let’s start with Site To Do Business or STDB.

STDB is an online demographic tool offered by CCIM Technologies, Inc.   This company is the wholly owned for-profit subsidiary of the CCIM Institute.  It is a market analysis tool that provides up-to-date information on demographics, psychographics, aerials, flood plains, traffic counts, business lists, mapping tools and information charting.  I use this tool everyday and it is a mandatory staple of my business arsenal.  My course, “How To Increase Your Fees Through Market Analysis‘ uses STDB to demonstrates practical applications of Market Analysis through case studies.

PlanEASE is another application that I am thoroughly in love with.

PlanEASE is an investment analysis software program.  What I like most about it is that it was developed by CCIMs and follows extremely close to the CCIM investment analysis method.  As a CCIM Senior Instructor, that is important to me.  The application is modular and allows for the analysis of every type of real estate that is out there.  Office, multifamily, retail, land or industrial.  It allows for acquisition, development, disposition, leasing or lot sales.  It provides excellent reporting that allows for visual and numerical display of your information.  When I was in development, I received rave review of my development packages from my lenders.  They stated that they rarely see clear and informative packages as they saw with mine.  My packages were developed from PlanEASE reports.  My course, “How To Increase Your Fees Through Investment Analysis with PlanEASE’ uses case studies to show how to analyse deals with PlanEASE.

REA is another mainstay for my business.

REA stands for Real Estate Assistant.  REA is a Customer Relationship Management (CRM) product for commercial real estate.  The power of REA comes two-fold.  First, it allows tracking of both people and proprieties and the connections between them.  Second, it allows multiple users to work with it at the same time and keeps the data up-to-date for all users.  Laura can make a change at her desk and Alex will see them immediately on his.  This allows for users to be located in multiple offices, locations, states or countries.  The program allows you to track the leads of a particular property and prepare reports based on all the activities as well.  REA is how we keep track of our revenue.

These applications are just the “tip of the iceberg” of technology that is available.  Next week, I will talk about some other programs that will help you improve your business.

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Impact on Commercial Real Estate

• The supply-chain disruptions created by the Japanese tsunami have largely settled, contributing positively to both the Philadelphia Fed Survey and the sales rebound in vehicles, primarily because they are rising off such low inventories. In addition, higher vehicle prices likely influenced retail sales since lean inventories in prior months drove higher prices. Thus, while the improved performance is a welcome change, it does not yet establish a trend. The gradual momentum shift in improved consumption and business optimism bodes well for industrial properties, particularly in markets with high exposure to technology, energy, trade and manufacturing. Rising leasing activity generated a 70-basis-point decline in vacancy over the past year to 12.1 percent. The monthly effective rent of $4.17 per square foot as of 3Q 2011 remains 18 percent below the 2007 peak, and represents a 12.9 percent discount to asking rents.

• The office sector also demonstrated a strengthening trend as professional and business services hiring has outperformed the broader employment market. Over the last quarter, office properties recorded a surge in net absorption of nearly 6.6 million square feet, a major turnaround compared with a net loss approaching one million for the same period last year. The national vacancy rate declined 20 basis points from third quarter last year to 17.4 percent. Asking and effective rents stand at $27.85 and $22.39 per square foot, up 1.3 and 1.6 percent, respectively, on a year-over-year basis.

The Research Brief from Marcus & Millichap offers timely insight and expertise into the rapidly changing investment real estate industry.

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2012 is the year of crazy deals.  It is a good sign when I have multiple deals to laugh at.  The craziness of them only demonstrates how different the market is from even 3 years ago. 

Deal of the week:  I have a tract of land that has been under contract for several months.  The only contingency is that the owner agreed to rezone the land on behalf of the buyer.  Other than that, it is a cash deal that will close within weeks of the rezoning.  Well it hasn’t been that simple.  This land has been on the city council agenda on three separate occasions and they keep on forgetting to discuss it.  Every month goes by and we are all bewildered.  To make it funnier, the city really wants this buyer to get this land.  It represents an economic development gain for the city because it will bring in a new business that will be almost all base employment jobs.  For those that are familiar with Economic Base Analysis theory or have taken CCIM CI 102, you would know that base jobs are the best ones for a community.  They export services which imports money into the community.  Base jobs drive total jobs which drive population and disposable income.  It can’t get any better for a small town.  After four months, we are still waiting for the local city council to remember to address this important zoning issue.  You would think that the buyer would give up but he really wants to build here and the city is constantly telling him that they want him.    We are crossing our fingers for them to at least acknowledge that it on the agenda this month.  Welcome to small town commercial real estate.

Next week, I will share another crazy deal that I am in the middle of.

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You can find the article that I wrote for the September issue of The Network Magazine on page 28:

http://edition.pagesuite-professional.co.uk/launch.aspx?referral=mypagesuite&refresh=kP05D12g1wN7&PBID=8f6d5bb3-ca8e-4475-bced-e358605b8c5c&skip=

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Laurex Realty Advisors has been trying something new and different with its clients.  We are partnering with them to invest in the marketing of their property beyond the activities a typical broker does when obtaining a new listing. 

We always do things like:

• Place a sign on the property.
• List on commercial real estate listing websites.
• Send out email blasts.
• Take standard photos.
• List on Craigslist.
• List on the ww.LaurexRealty.com website.
• Provide regular progress updates.
• Create a YouTube video of the property.

We decided that we want to provide an opportunity for a property owner to strategically position their property in the marketplace in order to achieve extraordinary results.  We work with our owners to prepare a positioning plan that will allow them to achieve the real potential of ownership that their property can provide.

Some elements of this plan include:

• Develop a Strategic Positioning Plan.
• Develop a Target List Study.
• Custom Signage on the property.
• Interior Flood Plans.
• Target List Cold Calls.
• Professional Photos.
• Walk-in Cold Calls.
• Trade Journal Advertising.
• Direct Mail.
• Showcase Commercial Listing Website Placement.
• Google, Bing, Yahoo Marketing.
• Customer Domain and Landing Page.

These are just a few of the Strategic Positioning Initiatives that our owners invest in.  Over the years it has proven that these techniques work.  They work because they reposition the property in the market.  They drive new traffic into the leasing process.  More importantly, they find tenants for my landlord which is the number #1 priority.  My property owners are very happy that in turn makes me very happy.

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2011 is the year of teaching for me.  Five years ago I would have never predicted how passionate I would be about teaching commercial real estate.  In March I was promoted to Senior Instructor by CCIM.  I love teaching the CCIM introduction, financial analysis and market analysis courses.  Earlier this year I was certified as a MCE provider by the Texas Real Estate Commission.  I have written my first MCE course in market analysis and I have a couple more in design in the areas of market analysis and financial analysis.  I must admit that it was CCIM that gave me this teaching bug.  I also have to give credit to my friend Cliff Bogart, CCIM who has encouraged and mentored me in teaching MCE in the State of Texas.   The excitement of helping others understand new aspects of the industry while meeting and making new friends is where the fun is.  I hope that you enjoy it as I narrate my journey in this the new direction.

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