Corporate Real Estate Technology Trends 2001

By:  Jeffrey S. Weil, MCR.h, CCIM, SIOR
Senior Vice President
Colliers International
ph 925.279.5590  f 925.279.0450
jweil@colliersparrish.com
www.officetimes.com

The following presentation was given to approximately 2,000 attendees at the recent Realcomm Corporate Real Estate Technology Conference in Dallas, Texas on June 15, 2001 by Jeffrey S. Weil, Senior Vice President of Colliers International and Founder/President of OfficeTimes.com.

 Wow, to speak for only three minutes about the impact technology is having on commercial real estate is like trying to read a John Grisham or Stephen King book, cover to cover, in under five minutes.

 You folks in this room are for the most part at the forefront of technology, but to many in my commercial real estate industry a fatter bandwidth means The Rolling Stones put on weight, and mention baud to some brokers and they look at themselves in the mirror.

 Let me jump right in and give my opinion on behalf of at least some portion of the corporate commercial real estate brokerage sector of what works, what needs work, and what might be a few ideal models for the future to better harness the power of technology to our industry sector.

 What works:  Personal Digital Assistants and I am amazed not every single person in our industry doesn’t have and worship a Palm-type device.  The Palm/Phone combos coming out now are hot.  Websites work, such as our officetimes.com we’ve run for five years.  A few comments about great websites – they need to be kept fresh, constantly updated, and are the most incredible 24 by 7 information resource in the world.  Just don’t expect to make money off a website.

 We do a lot of lease negotiations now by red-lined e-mailed lease contracts.  I think we’ve barely scratched the surface of e-mail as communication vehicle.  As the pipeline gets larger this is going to be one incredible visually rich medium.  We’ve published officetimes for the past 21 years, and it now goes out by e-mail with hyperlinks right to the sources. 

Computer-enhanced renderings of proposed projects are now almost photographic quality.  A new tool I acquired last month is a built-in car computer/voice recognition system.  I tell my car who to call, or what CD to play and hands-free it’s done.  Very neat.

 Let’s talk about what might not be working tech-wise in our industry.  CD business cards, cool, but not used much.  I ask brokers what they think of them, “They’re great, I have a stack of them in my drawer!”  but have you ever played one?  “No, but they are cool.”

 Intranet sites for corporate multi-market assignments, touted by a number of brokerage houses including mine, have a lot of sizzle, in some cases they actually work great but more often then not, we set up this fabulous secure site for our corporate clients, on-line documents and plans, and when the client wants an update does he or she go to the site?  No, they pick up the phone and call the broker.  Time will fix this habit-change.

 Another technology not quite there yet – Internet-connected PDA’s.  Blackberry seems to be ok, Richochet appears good, but I’ve had a Palm 7 for 3 years and between the slow modem, no graphics and tiny screen this concept has a ways to go.

 Internet property listing sites.  Two challenges – one is many brokers don’t update their postings on a timely basis, so in some regions the information is current, in others it’s out of date.  Second challenge – I hope this business model works without a usage fee.  I’ve done a number of recent informal surveys of top office and industrial brokers, asking just three questions,  “How many of you access Internet sites at least once a month to post or search for properties?” 80% is the most common response.  Next, I ask, “How many use it once a week?” and the response is usually 50%.  Last question, “How many of you would still use these internet sites if there were a nominal charge to post or access properties?”  Almost every time I do this survey the answer is zero hands go up.  Zero.  Here is a quote from a Senior Office Broker, 18 years in the business, who has close to two million square feet of Class A office space listed, I asked him to comment about online listing services.  Quote, “I’ve never really sought out Loopnet or Cityfeet, or CoStar.  They have always called me and if they don’t’ call me then I haven’t really thought about chasing those guys down.  Since the past two months, no calls from those guys, 0 percent of the money that I’ve ever made in brokerage has come from somebody who saw my stuff on Loopnet.  I get a lot of calls from brokers out of the area doing surveys, but almost all of my deals have been the result of brokers locally in this market who know that I’ve got the buildings.”

 OK, what would be the perfect corporate real estate tech world in the not too distant future?

 When the rest of the world gets up to speed to be able to put video walk throughs of 50,000 square feet sublease listing on my web site or send out by e-mail would be very neat.  I have to keep reminding myself that just because we here all have 800 megahertz and T-1 lines does not mean our viewers are at this level. 

 One single source for brokers to post their listings which would then repost to Loopnet, Cityfeet, CoStar, your own company site and everywhere else, with some incentive system to make brokers keep their listings updated – maybe an electronic shock if they don’t and no charge to list or search. 

Another tech tool that could be awesome – we all have I0, Information Overload, too much, too fast, too many sources and the information is either too broad or too detailed.  Just imagine if we had web sites that have voice recognition, are customizable and responsive.

 I speak to my computer

 Computer, want weekly updates, Walnut Creek office space, Class A, 20,000 square feet and larger.

 Computer, screen out permanently the following e-mail, Toronto-office.com, toners-are-cheap.com – (Now they will never hit my screen again)

 Computer, Palm Pilot entry Wednesday July 15, 12 noon lunch with Fred Sanders.

 Computer, e-mail, send reservation request July 15, 12 noon for 2 Chestnut Grill with confirmation return.

 All by voice, not a touch of the keypad or mouse.

 We in this room are the future of our industry.  Thank you.

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