A message to the old school developers, acquisition managers and brokers: the right technology cost more to avoid than to adopt.

I wish I had enough money to waste on redundant or unnecessary work. But, sadly, I don't. That's why it's frustrating when I see developers, acquisition and retail leasing professionals who do have money waste hours, days, weeks; miss opportunities and fall headfirst into dead-end projects by doing things the way their mentors did - before technology came along and helped the smart ones cut out inefficiencies, save time, make more money and avoid more loss. I hate to burst your likely higher than average developer, broker or acquisition manager bubble, but the Stanford and MIT grads that the Blackstones of the world hire are probably smarter than you.. But they aren't wizards. They don't have tiger blood or magical powers. Nobody does. They simply utilize technology and have built or utilize efficient mechanisms and systems to find, negotiate, finance and manage properties better than you or your predecessors.

When I worked as an acquisition manager, I was told to buy a plane ticket ($$), get a hotel ($$), rent a car ($$) and drive to the city halls, economic development offices and brokerage firms in the cities that we were interested in developing in: week in / week out. I was in my twenties, single, ambitious and (I think, anyway) fairly smart - but I quickly noticed that I was wasting time and money traveling, driving, waiting in lobby's and gathering data. I also wasted time gathering and compiling data back at the office.

I received information from brokers who only showed me properties that they could get paid on (brokers... am I right? Just nod your head. Nobody can see you, it's fine): Opportunity. I secret shopped communities for rents and for insight on vacancy: Demand. I met with the city for information on new development: Supply. I LITERALLY counted names on the doors and snuck pictures of fire schematics for unit counts, then went back home and inputted my terribly scribed notes into excel tables. TIME. MONEY. I would weed out what we didn't like, input all the unit counts (one by one); rents, vacancies, anticipated new supply from other projects; run the market studies and pro-formas with anticipated costs and revenues; take it all to my boss's office, get rejected, and then get sent back out to the field to look again. This was the model. Sound familiar?

This isn't where I say that CoStar will solve all your problems or that the 1700 researchers that we have to gather information on over 4.4 Million Commercial Properties to include lease, sale and rent comps, vacancies, new development, over 60% more properties listed for sale or lease than are on LoopNet (which we own), demographics, traffic counts and (much, much more) are better than your best acquisition guy or gal.. This certainly isn't where I am going to say you should fire them. You still need them; and you still need field time. But this is where I will suggest that perhaps it's time to take a look at your methods and tool box.

How much redundancy do you have by re-inventing the wheel? How much time are you spending looking for information that someone else has already? How much precious time in the field (because field time is certainly necessary) is spent gathering and compiling data that is already at your competitor's fingertips; that you can spend 30 minutes gathering rather than half a market visit? And what is that worth to you? Throwing myself under the bus here.. I can tell you from personal experience, it's worth about 50% of what I was worth as an acquisition manager - and for the size of operation we were, it was worth more than a full time analyst. When I factor in the countless missed opportunities or risks that could have been avoided: tens; hundreds of thousands of dollars? Millions of dollars? It certainly depends on your business model, but food for thought: the right technology cost more to avoid than to adopt. Always.

I work with Developers, Acquisition Managers, Retailers, Vendors, Brokers, Lenders, Assessors and Appraisers and Contractors who use data and services from CoStar's diverse group of products to make money, save time and avoid risk. I am connected to some of the most impressive and successful professionals in these verticals and I enjoy bringing not only people together with solutions, but people together with people. Both my services and my personal introductions have led to millions of dollars of opportunities for friends, colleagues, counterparts and clients. I am available to answer any questions that you may have regarding CoStar and best practices that I have observed in Commercial Real Estate. You can schedule a demo or a coffee (on me) with me in the link provided below:

https://ryangoodcostar.acuityscheduling.com/

Or, call me: 503-867-2563