Why We Need Better Tools in Commercial Real Estate

Using the right tools, you can get anywhere.

This will be a brief posting by me today. I’ve got way too much stuff to do for my own sake. So, let’s get started.

All commercial real estate brokers can agree with me, that our industry is slow to transform. In fact, I don’t think there’s been much innovation in the operating style of running or performing our business. The good thing about this is that it keeps our business model safe and pure. The bad thing is, that we have to settle for really crappy and antiquated tools to do the same work that people in other companies achieve with the click-of-a-button. I mean, even the mortgage industry has tools that automate and catalyze productivity! Now, what do we have? We mmmm… have excel.

It’s pretty embarrassing.

Now, I am not going to discount anyone out there, as there are existing tools which have been developed for commercial real estate like ProCalc, Argus and such. But man. These things are sooooooo hard to use. To be honest, I ditched most of them a long time ago because in my longing for productivity, i find myself in hours of becoming a computer hacker just to get my spreadsheet or comparables program to spit out a report so I can get to a listing presentation.

How many of you brokers out there that go through this? And if you’re not, believe me, your assistant is struggling with it.

We need better tools. In fact, I change my statement; we need simpler-effective tools. That’s why I think that light-and-easy to use CRE web applications like RateBlend and LoopNet will win. Disclaimer: I am an investor in RateBlend.

My point is that whenever we’re trying to sell or lease commercial buildings, we should have tools that make our jobs easier, and maybe even enjoyable. But instead we find ourselves grinding, struggling and wasting more time. It’s like licking sandpaper. I believe that if we are to use anything in our industry, that it should be as simple as using Facebook. Even my mother is on Facebook! In fact, the rule for these commercial real estate software companies should be ”If the user’s mother cannot operate our software, it shouldn’t ship out the door.”

I’m serious about this guys. Very serious. This is exactly why I think Loopnet and RateBlend could be winning in the future. I’ve seen people that don’t know how to send an email operate LoopNet. I’ve seen people that don’t even know what effective rent means operate RateBlend.

The things that stand-out to me when seeing successful tools in our industry is: they are frictionless. They give us more time to spend with our family and actually start living.

P.S. You guys can follow me on twitter here