What will the state of commercial real estate be in 2032?

What if someone had asked you the same question back in1992? What will be the state of commercial real estate in 2012? What would your answer have been?

Business Evolution Occurs Over Time………Maybe Not Anymore!

Commercial Real Estate 2032. The Reality.

Brokerage as we no it no longer exists. The corporate and legal style business models now rule. Building their base thru the bust and accelerating thru the booms to dominate.Survival of the fittest and clinging to the survival of an outdated industry.

Data is a simple commodity.The big data for pay model seems like asking someone to carry a land line phone around and plug it in to send and receive calls.

Data standards are recognized as the norm and are the same for every commercial property in the world.

Geolocating and BIM are the standard data set and the updating of that data by the nano second is the real commodity.

The data created buy commercial real estate is now more valuable than the actual structures themselves. Reread that.

The patent lawsuits are old news and the curators no longer rule. The patent of commercial real estate data to a specific brand saved many a corporate brand.

The dollars generated from enterprise and consumer apps has evloved to more of collaboration and sharing model for the corporate real estate brands.

The public and corporate side of what they use to call the “cloud” is now a battle ground of failing and antiquated services.The need to hold onto these services are irrelevant.

Machine learning is not only a given it is mainstream and threatens to take over the structure of commercial real estate.Damn I should have bought IBM stock!

Tablets,Location,NFC,Verbal and Immersive UX gone. Human Interaction,Authorization and Engagement is Commercial Real Estate.

Personal Mobile Computers (PMC) are like fashion accessories and the peripherals help create the experience  for commercial real estate.Look thru your glasses and the restaurant glows blue. That’s a positive sign from previous patrons and for commercial real estate.

Personal Reality(total immersion) replaces Augmented Reality.The experience is the reality.

Moore’s Law. Dead on still.

Remember Google,Apple,R.I.M.,Nokia HP,Microsoft? I don’t either. Remember the Pad thing Apple use to sell? Kodak was one of the most admired and profitable companies. I’ve heard the museum they have is nice.

The “community” of commercial real estate touches all things business.Helping create a transaction has no value. Creating “community” is the only value.

Commercial Real Estate 2012-2032

I will be around in 2032. Who will hold me accountable for these predictions? Who thinks there is no chance in hell these will even remotely become reality? Your 25-30-35-40 years old. Go ahead and take that chance and be very very wrong! Thoughts?

Are You Addicted?

Sooooo I’m sitting in San Francisco having a nice organic free range gluten free wholesome no cage free something lunch with two very nice professional ladies when they bring up the subject of PORN. Yea that’s what I said “say what”? Let me clarify.Office porn.Yes there really is such a thing.

The interesting part of the conversation is that generally most people will freely admit to looking at office porn. The ladies like it !

Yes there is a site for office porn ( please do not Google it.) Lord only knows what will come up.It is called www.officesnapshots.com Go ahead take a look nobody’s watching.

So why office porn?

You’re sitting there in your little cubicle with gunmetal finish and glaring computer screen staring back at your face and you want to dream…so you click.

There it is all colorful and open. Cool ambient lighting and it even has a slide that let’s you whisk down the stairs like a big kid.

So you think “what in the hell am I doing in this 5×10 mouse cage?” Look at how the other humans are living.

Who designed this parking garage with windows? Does someone not think beyond the minimum allowable space and maximum allowable profit per square foot?

Oh wow as I am writing this an Amish couple just walked buy. I feel dirty. Wait, maybe it’s the yoga pants and boots fashion thing the ladies have going on.

Office porn can be good for you?

Alright all the fun and kidding aside (yoga pants) there may a perfectly good reason to embrace office porn.It will help you make money.

Here is how.

You can share it with the world. Or more precisely your clients potential clients and your target market.

Do it with the visual. Pictures and Video.

Find a great not a good photographer/videographer and shoot the most amazing visuals you can.

Find an architect and a designer and partner with them to create a site. Say www. atlantaofficedesign.com and post all the amazing visuals on it

Create an OPINION and comment about the amazing spaces. Who did it? What were they thinking? What materials did they use? How the people who work there use it.

Get the architect and designer to comment also.

BTW it can be any office. Just call and ask .Tell them you are featuring the most tricked out spaces in your market. I am sure they are very proud of it and would be thrilled to show it off.

I am seeing this trend more and more.

And this makes me money how?

Simple. You are faceing the consumer.

You are showing what there is in your market.

You are creating an opinion about that market.

You are showing the market your expertise.

You are using a visual medium in a way your competitors are not.

You are helping create the market……….Using Office Porn.

Your thoughts and(clean)examples are always appreciated.

Photo Credit:http://www.flickr.com/photos/macwagen/

So I Have An Opinion and I am not afraid to use it.

Over the last two or three years I have posted all types of opinions about websites,data companies,platforms,products,tools,old companies,new companies and just about everything else in the commercial real estate data space.

So I thought I would put them into one post and add a few comments with each.

Tenant Leasing information. Time To Let Go?

Holy Grail? Transparency? Market Shift?

WWW.ROFO.COM

Loopnet Co-Star Killer? Targeting Tenants. Pure Brilliance.

If I Built A National Commercial Real Estate Website,It Would Have?

Wrote this two years ago. Where the hell is it? Maybe I need to get to work.

OSCRE.org A True Data Standard?

Who has the true data standard?

I Am The CEO Of Loopnet.

I wish! I do have a few suggestions.

9 Ways To Market Commercial Real Estate With Data.

Do some deals and make some money.

Site Feature: Compshoponline.com

Wait! A site with lease comps on it. NO WAY!

18 Ways That The Realtors Property Resource May Change Commercial Real Estate Forever.

Sleeping GIANT in commercial real estate…take my word for it!

Commercial Lease Data. Is It Free?

Video and opinions.

Commercial Real Estate Data Is Open. Now What Happens?

Lots of question and answers.

Loopnet Co-Star And Your Data?

Video that got thousands of hits on my site. Why?

Commercial Real Estate Data Mining: Part 1

My boy Matt and I talk Google and all things data.

Data Tenants And Transparency.

Title says it all.

I Am The CEO Of Co-Star.

The anonymous emails were priceless.

Commercial Real Estate Data Mining: Part 2

Matt and I could go for days.

Commercial CIE’s Are Dead. Here Is Why.

Maybe MLS type systems are already dead. Check the residential side!

I Create A Billion Dollar Commercial MLS: Step1

Customer service and commercial real estate. What?

I Create A Billion Dollar Commercial MLS: Step 2

Tearing someone a new ass?

I Create A Billion Dollar Commercial MLS: Step 3

Fame Money Sex Power.

Co-Star Loopnet Data Opinions Tenants Transparency Lease Comps Fame Money Sex Power.

All that and the kitchen sink. The commercial real estate data space continues to evolve. Could there be a more exciting time to be in commercial real estate? I don’t think so and I sure as hell will not hold back on the opinions. Your Thoughts?

Image Credit:http://www.flickr.com/photos/sahans/

Photo Credit:http://www.flickr.com/photos/chrisjohnbeckett/

Here is an update on the Commercial Real Estate Disruption Events I posted about in September.

What I know NOW.

The first event date: April 4th 2012

The event location: General Growth Properties Chicago, Illinois

Huge props to GGP for having the vision to jump start this event and push the commercial real estate business forward.

The times: The day will start at 9-9:30 and conclude at 2-2:30.

Format: Coffee and donuts before the event.

At this point I am looking at 20-30 minute presentations.

Break for quick lunch.

Finish on time and respect everyone’s time.

Content: 3-D Mapping,Google,GIS,Aug Reality,CRM,Mobile,Apps,Retail tech etc etc. for commercial real estate.

Speakers: I have made contact with a few. I am now taking proposals to speak and or present at my e-mail dukelong@dukelong.com

Yes I have several contacts for presentations but I want to keep a very open mind and see what really cool stuff may come forward. Ya never know!

Networking: All day at the event itself. Also I plan to do something the night before. Preferably at a bar and casual get to know you kind of networking.

ICSC: International Council of Shopping Centers has stepped forward and offered to use their extensive knowledge resources and more importantly people.

ICSC is at this moment creating a website/event page that will allow members and non-members to sign up.

Note: You do not have to be a member of ICSC to attend or present at this event!

Huge props to ICSC for looking outside of it’s core to see what they can do to push commercial real estate. That’s call vision people!

Event Name: Yes there is an offical name and once the site is up we will blast it everywhere. Hey, we even have a cool logo.

Next: Look for announcements and the site launch very soon. Also scan your data bases for potential speakers/presenters and attendees.

One more thing: I will be heading to the west coast in the next couple of weeks to connect and do a little scouting. LA and San Francisco are strong front runners for the next event most likely with June/July event date and maybe New York in the fall.

Baby Steps Baby Steps. Now fire up those databases and Internets.

Image Credit:http://www.icsc.org/index.php

This week marks the one year anniversary of the launch of my YouTube Channel.

Reflecting back on what have I learned.

1.You must respect Charles in Charge!

Yes oh yes it does look easy. It is not. I like many of you have over the period of your lives watched a ton of  TV and thought ” hell I could do better than that”.

Guess what…you probably can’t. Hey, Scott Baio I tip my hat to you sir. Anyone else have the balls to do the same. That’s what standing in front of a camera will do to your brain.

2. Content Creation.

I started out with hundreds of ideas and still have hundreds of them. The difficulty was choosing which topics were the one’s that I had the most passion and interest in and then put on video.

Think about an industrial building…..keep thinking…see what I mean. Pretty boring…but maybe not so much.

Office buildings….still boring….I do like the decaying human in a cube wasting a precious life for the corporation angle. Hmmm.

Retail seems to be the easiest because it relates so much to the experience of shopping and interaction…unless your the father of two daughters. It’s Hell.

Adaptive reuse…now that has a lot of potential.

Airports as a hub of all cities in the future…not downtown’s.Think of Atlanta and Dallas. I think of the airports first too. Trend?

My point is this. Take the topics above and try and come up with visuals and text that makes a point entertains shows an opinion and do it in three minutes.

Oh and do one a week for a year.

3.Stats and Production.

At the very beginning I stuck my little camera up and let it roll. Raw,unedited,bad sound,and sunglasses.Hey, I had to start somewhere. What did I learn? Wow did I need help.

Enter Nathan at Ovation Studios. Nathan tracked me down on LinkedIn and shot me a message.”Hey maybe I can help you with your video’s.” I obliviously needed HELP and we struck up a professional/friendly relationship. You will never see the first stuff we shot….. it was brutal.

Nathan does all the camera work, editing, sound and formatting. Let’s remember what he has to work with!

Numbers: 9200 plus views on YouTube.

More importantly I post(embedded) all the videos on my blog and the hits for each get into the thousands.

4.What I would do differently.

Start with a list of at least 50 yes I said 50 topics and work on a solid 20 topics for at least a month before even thinking of filming.

Practice Practice Practice. I stand in front of my home video camera and Practice. Guess what? I still suck.

Time Effort and Money. Put in the time to make it worthwhile. Remember that your time has a value. 50 videos will cost x dollars. Be prepared to pay for quality.

The writing or content context part of this is where I would focus the most. The visual is not that difficult. The other is at times very hard to articulate.

5. Benefits?

Fame and fortune. Uh….NOT. If that is the reason you want to do videos for commercial real estate. Get a life!

Learning more about your market.

Gaining insight into your business and your customers business and helping pushing it forward.

Creating and OPINION about all commercial real estate. Priceless.

Interaction and reaction to the videos. 99% good and the rest….whatever.

Almost everyone that meets me for the first time mentions something about a video that I have posted. I call that brand recognition.

Finding clients in a completely different way. Some people don’t want to read and would rather listen and watch.

6.What’s Next?

More Google+ Recorded Hangouts.The technology is there…for free!

Broader topics. Examples: Logistics,Airports,Green,Leed, Sustainability,Interviews with Big Hitters….in a bar:):)

Travel to more cities and dig deeper into the commercial real estate business…and not the corporate fluffy stuff.

Document four brokers and how they do deals. Day in the life of how deals get done kind of thing.

One on one with Sam Zell unedited uncut and raw. Now that sounds like a video worth watching.

Interview 3-4 Co-Star reps about data……and try not to throw up.

Think a little harder about the offers of “sponsorship”. Is it selling out? Is it giving away control. I can fund the things and do,say,film,opine and rant whatever I want. Still thinking.

7. Was it worth it?

One year’s worth of YouTube video interviews,opinions,buildings,deals,attitude,learning…was it worth it? HELL YES!

New Updates.

-Instantly create all of the below without LoopNet’s branding!
-No logo or mention of LoopNet anywhere – not even in any URL’s.
-You don’t need to wait for a graphic designer anymore.

Email Campaigns
-It pulls all your listing info into a template so reduces data entry.
-Get rid of whatever service you are using because you can manage contacts, track clicks, manage unsubscribed, etc.

Property Websites
-New templates: pick colors, add/edit photos, etc.
-New registration options: electronic CA’s.

Flyers
-New templates like Offering Memorandum, Postcards and more.

Private Listings
-Add listings that do NOT show on LoopNet’s marketplace.
-You’ll still get access to use protected websites, send emails, create flyers, etc.
-When you’re ready to expose them to everyone you can flip the switch.