CRECo.ai Roundtable: Technology, Marketing, Brokerage, Government Policy, Capital, Construction & Cyber Security in Real Estate with Andreas Senie

THE STATE OF THE COMMERCIAL REAL ESTATE INDUSTRY. AN INSIDERS GUIDE FOR REAL ESTATE PROFESSIONALS 2022

Andreas Senie Season 4 Episode 3

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Join Andreas, Saul, Rebekah, Chris, and Anna Maria for this month's Roundtable as we dive deep into the state of the Real Estate Industry and discuss the value of your network, vital technology, and how caution in the real estate market is a sign of tremendous opportunities.

This month's RoundTable included:


Andreas Senie, Host, Founder CRECollaborative
Non Profit & For Profit Business Technology Transformation Champion, CRETech Thought Leader, Founder & Brokerage Owner

Saul Klein, Realtor Emeritus, Data Advocate & Futurist, Original Real Estate Internet Evangelist,  Executive Editor Realty Times

Chris Abel, Membership Director 
Associated Builders & Contractors Association CT Chapter

Rebekah Carlson, Founder & CEO Carlson Integrated,
Past President NICAR Association, Brokerage Owner

Anna Maria Kowalik, SVP – Director Business Development Inland Green Capital LLC, a capital provider for commercial C-PACE projects and part of The Inland Real Estate Group of Companies, Inc.


ABOUT THE ROUNDTABLE: 
Your all in one comprehensive view of what is happening across the real estate industry -- straight from some of the industry's earliest technology adopters and foremost experts. Join us live at 6 PM EST on the 1st Thursday of each month, across all major social media channels and wherever you get your podcasts. This three-part show consists of:

Part I: Introductions and what's new for each panelist and the business sector
Part II: Sector Focus on the past month's most prominent news and paradigm shifts
Part III: What does all this mean for real estate businesses, and what you can do for the next 30 days

Join us as we dive deep into Technology, Marketing, Capital, Construction & Cyber Security trends affecting your business. Learn more at https://welcome.creco.ai/reroundtable 

#datadrivenbusiness #businessmanagement #commercialrealestate #crecollaborator

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[00:00:00] Andreas Senie: Welcome back to this month, real estate round table. You're all in one comprehensive view of what's happening across the real estate industry, straight from some of the industry's earliest technology doctors and foremost experts. I'm enjoying as sending your host founder of CRE Collaborative, brokerage owner and a technology growth strategist.

As we do every month, it's a three-part show introductions to each of our round table hosts part two, what's happening across each of our sectors, cybersecurity technology, marketing capital carwash has. And probably three, what does this mean for your business and how can you improve over the next 30 days to close more transactions, to be a better professional joining us for this month segment, we have none other Saul Klein, Rebecca Carlson, Chris Abell, and anima.

And as is the format what's called round, do a quick introduction. What's the biggest thing happening in your side of the business. And, uh, as an assumably, as usual, these are not in the order. They're supposed to be that I see them. So as you go first, just because I said your name, 

[00:01:24] Saul Klein: ah, there you go. Well, you know, lots of great things going on in, in my business.

And, uh, most of it manifest in sitting out in the front yard and getting a little sun. So when we've got something to take advantage, Um, but you know, throughout, and we'll probably talk about this in the real estate industry itself. There's lots of things going on in the economy. Lots of things going on, uh, uh, bring it down local.

I'll talk about the carwash. Uh, because on the 1st of May, we increased the prices on the carwash and we went to, uh, $5 for five minutes and $2 for six minutes on the bathrooms. And we haven't had any slowdown. And so I thought, you know, maybe every month when we talk about this, we should get some input from people.

They don't carwash us because that, that ratio might be something where we create a carwash economic indicator locally. What's going on in the economy based on something we figure out from what's going on at the car wash. So lots of people wash their cars or raise the price locally. Things are really good and nationally or internationally.

There's lots of things we're 

[00:02:35] Andreas Senie: going to talk about. Love it. And for those that don't know, Saul Klein is for all intents and purposes, I call the father of technology and internet adoption in residential real estate, as part of the team that helped form the real estate information network. But most people now know as realtor.com you know, out there with these associations, a true pioneer in the industry.

Syndication education and a true luminary. If I say so myself, at least for me, when we're talking and a carwash owner that I am dedicated to making famous in every aspect for average stuff, uh, Rebecca Carlson, if you want what's happening in Chicago, a little less sun as we were discussing earlier, 

[00:03:17] Bekah Carlson: far less sun than there is with a Saul in California, but we are experiencing certainly in marketing.

A real push towards the upcoming ICSE convention. So for commercial real estate, especially in the retail sector, the upcoming convention is a big deal. And we're having clients come to us with some last minute projects. And I would say the most, uh, I would say inspiring piece of it is how much of it is takeaway and how much of it and leave behind.

So actual documents that people are going to print and give to people, which is very fun. And we'll have it done for two years. And then also we have an amazing lunch that we put on specifically on behalf of a client next Realty on Tuesday, and anybody can come so on Tuesday from 11 to two at the Renaissance adjacent to south hall, we have our wonderful luncheon.

It's just a buffet. You come in and get some food. You network, you talk to people, you can even have meetings there. And we are encouraging as many people as possible. 

[00:04:20] Andreas Senie: So for the, for those that don't know, and you've been under a rock, if you don't know, you have to go to ICS. See in Vegas, in commercial real estate, it's one of the biggest events of the year.

I see Anna Marie is shaking her head. They're over at inland doing Inland's a big sponsors. Well, NARS there, everyone is there. Why? Because that's where deals are done. And Becca, thank you. As always insult coming back on the show, I'm always excited to hear things from the different aspects, especially the marketing brokerage side that you bring.

Speaking of brokerage side and marketing and. Anna marina I'll come back for the second third show. She pays some hearing it everywhere. That's the biggest thing happening? 

[00:05:01] Anna Maria Kowalik: Well, normally I would say about this time I'm coming down from, uh, April sustainability earth month. Uh, so many presentations webcasts, and just getting the word out there, doing the education piece because, um, this segment of real estate finance.

So niche that, um, it really requires a lot of touches between, uh, us and the ultimate client. Uh, it's a, um, uh, you know, it's something that's best done on an education platform. And so that's all I constantly to, and, uh, And I say, usually I'd be coming down from this month, but this month was so successful the past month that I have additional engagements this month that I'm involved in as kind of overflow, which is actually a wonderful thing.

Uh, no complaints, uh, things are happening and we're really doing got a real push on, getting the word out. Yeah. 

[00:06:10] Andreas Senie: I'd love to hear it. I mean, I'm seeing more and more C pace related content, which is exciting, especially as, as different lenders, inflation and rates runs see faces a no brainer, my book. And I love that you touched on that educational piece because we have a hat tip to Rebecca's daughter for getting her first job out of education.

And for Chris Abel, joining us again. As the membership director at the associated builders and contractors, didn't you just come out of a big educational event, just the other day 

[00:06:39] Chris Abel: retreats as well. Yeah. Huge event. I've been spending a lot of time. Um, the past couple of weeks actually with, uh, not only associated builders and contractors, but I've been helping out the minority construction council here in Connecticut, um, in the technical high schools and introducing, um, you know, these students to different opportunities and.

So, yeah, we're wrapping up construction safety week this week. It's like every week, every month, every day, there's something you just got to grasp onto it. And then yesterday actually was skilled trades day and we ha we hosted, uh, just about, um, 600 students to this construction career day. Yeah. I mean, that's where they found me a few years ago.

So I have a soft spot for this event, but it is hands-on, I mean, completely immersive. You're going to be introduced to construction. Um, you're going to be getting inside heavy machinery. You're going to be using fire extinguishers with the fire protection companies, the right way. You're going to be pulling Meyers.

You're going to be, uh, working with some of the big vendors and they're doing some time competitions. OSHA and department of labor and department of transportation, they're all there. Um, so a big shout out to everybody who came out and supported the, the event yesterday. And I got to say, the kids were.

After a three-year hiatus, these kids were just like pumped. They were polite. They had great questions. They're ready to go. So, uh, it was good. It gave, it gave some new energy to the future of the construction industry. Knowing some, some students want to build. I was, I was kind of hanging out in a, a giant Jenga, uh, exhibit for a few hours, just helping, you know, help these kids see how high they could build the towers up to the ceiling.

So it was good. Good to see the youth out there. Building and just hope to can get them to work, uh, as soon as possible because we need it. Phyllis 

[00:08:26] Andreas Senie: out, employment gap. We touched on a few shows ago and speaking of employment gap Baca, your daughter is filling the employment gap of 

[00:08:35] Bekah Carlson: have a certified nursing assistant.

And she just had her fourth interview after passing the state exam. Literally one week ago today she passed her state exam. She has not graduated from high school yet. She graduates next week. We've had multiple interviews with doctors and hospitals and she just got, she just got it at the hospital that she has always wanted.

[00:08:57] Andreas Senie: That's it seems like everybody's full of energy. It's may, we're full of energy. Everyone's excited to be going where they're going, solar, you're making more money at the carwash. Do you need another partner? I mean, then you've got the four people here. 

[00:09:10] Saul Klein: Actually three of us went to high

[00:09:16] Andreas Senie: orderly after 

[00:09:16] Saul Klein: high school, we got together and we said, you know, you need to buy real estate. And how do we do it? Can we do it together? And so, yeah, partners are a good thing. If you can't 

[00:09:27] Anna Maria Kowalik: kinda like the way the inland group got, uh, on its feet, it was, uh, for, uh, college buddies who got together and, uh, I studied education and we're going to go that route and then, you know, some diverted, but altogether they started investing in real estate.

So nothing better than that 

[00:09:47] Andreas Senie: at education first, then their first foray or free labor, it sounds like Chris, you gotta have some free labor out of a bunch of kids yesterday. Um, over to Saul's carwash begin growing. What? Um, so we touched on that last, last month and I just want to bring it back front and center.

And how would things with that new, uh, trans tramped. Trolley system, they were raising the prices or they were doing away with it. They were, they were changing everyday. I get a 

[00:10:11] Saul Klein: couple of things. Uh, they opened up what they call the blue line, which basically runs from the border up to LA Jolla. So it runs from the Mexican border, California border to LA Jolla, which is real.

Part of the San Diego. So you've got this blue line and it's really too early to tell what's going to happen and how that, but the idea is that they'll build higher density along that corridor and it will, you know, make it easier for people that work in LA Jolla that don't live there to give you all of the things that we know about that we know make sense.

Um, and the way that land use changes around transportation. So in San Diego, and it's probably happening everywhere. Inherent San Diego, lots of things going on to change transportation now. Something's not so logical. Some things happen overnight without anybody knowing it. There's lots of incentive behind this taking place.

And so that's, what's happening in San Diego. And we also know that land values will change based on the transportation. There'll be halo effect on properties, uh, based on the proximity to transportation. And so. That was the blue line in San Diego, but then there's also to change transportation to the combined.

The governments in San Diego wanted to add a gallon of like a 5 cent, a gallon tax on top of the existing CACs. And that doesn't make a lot of sense that penalizes everybody, particularly people that don't make a lot of money. You have to commute from further out. There's totally regressive. And, uh, we got that tabled for awhile while, and then California, the state we've got extra gear.

So a lot of, um, experimentation with transportation because that gets us Spanish, gets us back into Annamarie your thing, right? Is sustainability. My favorite book, right? And your grandfather orient, American prosperity, security and sustainability in the 21st century. And under all is the land. And you got to do the best that you can with the land, because if we're going to get out of the jam that we're in and all the major social problems that we have, we can do it.

If we manage our asset effectively 43% of all of the. Of the assets in this country is real estate. So if we pay attention to the data and we pay attention to the environment and we're conscious of sustainability, there's lots of good things happening. But in the meantime, we've got inflation, we've got high interest rates.

We're going to have a recession. We don't know how bad it's going to get. Should I buy, should I not buy lots of things going on? Right. 

[00:12:45] Andreas Senie: Right. A hundred percent and it is happening everywhere. We spoke on the greater New York putting in congestion tolls, because you're driving to work. Let me charge you more really that just doesn't help people who have to get where they need to be.

We did not tell that it's happening. So luckily I'm happy at home in Connecticut for the time being, not commuting in, but to your point, the going green being impactful. Moving along the lines of net zero carbon emissions, which countries are committed to global land use changes. That's what we're seeing, but I'm not seeing the transactions coming through, at least in mining.

Uh, we're seeing a lot of stalled development in the sense of a lot of the things that are coming up for deliverability are really 18 months prior. They were started the restarting. I wonder from your sides of the table, how many of you are seeing a change in the actual transaction? Where yes, I bought it for X, but now let me shift and pivot to Y or are people sitting back and saying 17% inflation?

I better wait. I want to, I want to see what's going. You know,

[00:13:58] Bekah Carlson: no, I 

[00:13:58] Anna Maria Kowalik: think things are, you know, things are progressing. It's just that, uh, there are still supply chain issues. And so we noticed that even on some deals that we have in place that are ready to be financed, uh, you know, uh, just aren't moving along as, as quickly as they normally would.

Um, and, and people are saying, oh, you know, I'm waiting on materials for. Uh, what was supposed to be a five, six weeks is now three, four months. And, uh, you know, and then it's been worse in many scenarios. Um, so, so that's definitely an issue. Um, I, I think, you know, uh, Yes, finances have something to do with it.

And it typically isn't CPAs. It's it's other portions of the capital stack that are either tightening, uh, restrictions or, um, uh, Uh, requiring additional qualifications, et cetera. And, and, uh, would you actually make, see, pays a more attractive product to use in conjunction, uh, with, and, and trying to get that, uh, uh, sustainable project moving forward.

[00:15:19] Andreas Senie: You know 

[00:15:19] Saul Klein: what? You're going to see a lot of change taking place with the GSA. With any Freddie and, and for private and different uses of the, of the data again. So there's major changes that are taking place now. And then this idea that interest rates are going up, they got to go up, they got to keep going up because we've got inflation and that has to be curved.

And they know people know that handle, this, know how it needs to have. It might get worse, worse. It might, we still see a lot of sugarcoat on, on what might take place. I know that there are people that buy lots and lots of properties at a time are keeping their powder dry, are holding back or making plans or things that they think might happen that are on the real positive side.

That, so there are, there is. Uh, and so I'd say this all along, look for the opportunity and avoid the distinct. So there's going to be a lot of opportunity. There's going to be a lot of pickup and we can see every time the interest rates ratchet up just a little bit X number of people fall out of the marketplace for one reason or another.

And so in what is the, and it's intended because it's intended to slow down the demand, right? If the slow down the growth and then there's always the pain, can they do it? Can the fed do it without. Creating and recession, can they do the soft landing while all of this stuff is speculation? Right? So everybody's got to be looking out for themselves, paying attention to what's going on.

And I said for the first time yesterday, and I'm really bullish on real estate, I love real estate. It's like, was it in my blood man? And when I got a license, it wasn't to teach people how to sell real estate. All that turned out to be that they have a sales team working for me. It wasn't a sell to other people.

Although I knew that was a way you can earn a living and it was for me to be able to go out and find real estate. Yeah. If I had really liked real estate and I would always say, buy real estate, have a long-term hold. This is the best thing you can do. Interest rates are still at a, on average, low, so you should still make out as long as you have the ability to hold.

But with certain assaults against private property rights than some crazy things that we see going on. I said yesterday for the first time, I'd be hesitant. If somebody asked me to do. Paul would you invest in real estate in California today? Right. So that doesn't mean that I wouldn't, but I would say, you know what?

Right now I would not, I would hold back. And that doesn't mean, I think it's a bad investment or it's like, right. 

[00:17:45] Andreas Senie: It's she wouldn't cost you. You're being cautious. You're saying.

Yeah. And being cautious is, is a, is a big thing. And then Becca, you're, you're out there marketing for many different investors, developers, different projects. Are you guys adjusting messaging because of caution or are you just out there for more 

[00:18:05] Bekah Carlson: so, so far? We haven't seen a lot of messaging adjustment, but interestingly enough, I did just meet with a client today who is raising a, who's raising an investment fund.

And we were talking about the strategy of. Of tailoring the messaging to make sure that a younger generation of investor understands that uncertainty brings opportunity rather than just uncertainty puts you in this fearful position, but rather their purpose in their, in their company and their fundraising and their, their names, legacy real estate group.

Right. They're trying to build a legacy and they want to appeal to a younger investor in the 30 somethings. These guys are in their thirties. They're they have this great vision for multifamily investment. And yet they're hitting that hurdle of people, seeing the macroeconomic trends and being frightened.

And yet we're, we are tweaking that messaging to make sure that they understand that there's opportunities in there. And that's what great investors do is find those opportunities. 

[00:19:06] Andreas Senie: Not necessarily a short-term turnaround, well, real estate isn't it short-term could be for most it's mid to longterm. Uh, and then now generational shift, which was that we talked a lot about.

So, uh, good luck on the messaging. Most of my clients are not in their thirties. Thank God. I mean, come on, come on. Uh, and I say that with a lot of hubris. There are so many different clients out there in different groups and so much data that dissolves point, but it's, it's slim pickings for us here in the Northeast.

There's only X amount. And what for the first time, at least in my market, there are, when you have these big development projects, people are ready to get on the phone and talk about their triple net tenants and move. And I'm having trouble with some of those brokers. They seem to be hesitating to respond because they don't want to lock up portion X, Y, Z.

This is what I take back from listening to Saul and Angie back at Anna Maria and, and Chris, you as well. If there's no materials, they don't want to commit everybody's cautious, but suppose your points, generational wealth real estate will always eventually rise. That's how old you are, right? 

[00:20:18] Saul Klein: That's the whole that's.

We bought the carwash in 1979. And then you hold onto it. You'll do. Okay. 

[00:20:25] Andreas Senie: And you were talking about a Trek, so your Trev, you increased prices. What percentage is that? You were talking about that at 15%, 

[00:20:34] Saul Klein: but we hadn't done it in a long time. And that's one of the things that I'm interested in the carwash, very simple kind of business, but there are different ways you can generate more revenue, right?

You can increase the decrease the time for the same amount of money, or are you writing in there different combinations of things that you can do? To, to make something as simple as that generate more revenue and the way you do it is you pay attention to the data. You also know which stalls do the best at what time of day.

And so there are a lot of different things that you never even think about with this little business, like a carwash, uh, where you can actually have a major effect on the bottom line, just through page, by paying attention to the. 

[00:21:13] Andreas Senie: Sure because I've got building optimization back on CPAs, putting in some of these green initiatives, aren't just great for being impactful.

They actually affect the bottom line at the end of the day, when you can optimize that building, 

[00:21:26] Anna Maria Kowalik: I always say you go green and you're safe green, you know, because, uh, the, the money money savings comes from, uh, the lesser energy consumption. And, and the fact is, you know, places like Herman. Consume a lot of water, you know?

Uh, and, uh, so what measures are in place, you know, to help relieve some of that or perhaps some kind of recycling method. And, uh, there are, there's so much new technology. Uh, being developed to around sustainability, um, yeah. You know, with some of the new hydrogen gas products and, uh, just all kinds of things and, and that's what makes this such an exciting, uh, arena because, uh, the possibilities are.

Almost endless or as endless as the imagination. And, and, um, I think some of the push toward, uh, doing things in a more green fashion is. Is really to the benefit of innovation and, uh, people are being forced to look at things in a different light and, and come up with new ways of doing things. And, and even in the, um, area of battery storage, you know, because even when you have renewables, there's still a storage issue to.

To take into account. And, and so that technology is constantly improving. So there's just, you know, I mean, it's an endless conversation 

[00:23:01] Andreas Senie: literally. Well, uh, the endless way to, to improve or find that little piece of your capital stack, you know, solid, I'm thinking of your car wash Sharon, I'm thinking back to the first time I'm pulled into a gas station.

And they started playing a video, commercialized, pumping gas on the little screen. And if we can get that as a CPA Sloan, while the guy's cleaning his car,

that would be the truly creative financing of it all. Um, but Chris, I mean, on your side, construction wise, Is it our green materials, if regular materials are shorts by are the things needed for greening to be, uh, to be more involved, what's going on there? 

[00:23:44] Chris Abel: Um, just to kind of piggyback on what, uh, Anna Maria was saying.

So as far as thinking kind of thinking outside the box, we're thinking in different ways, um, the materials aren't necessarily just out there, you know, okay, we're not going to do it this way. We're going to do it this, you know, this way instead. But what I'm seeing is, especially with some of the. Um, municipality, some of the state funded work, some of that, um, you know, some of that, that public work, these jobs are being held up.

They're not starting right away. Um, the, the grant money and the money that was there, they're basically saying, well, yeah, those prices went up, but I'm sorry. There's no more money there. So then you have the GCs, the CMEs and their representatives, basically coming down to the substance saying, Hey, We're not getting any more money.

We can't really change what we're doing. So I am seeing some of the subcontractors, um, you know, trying to get a little more innovative. You know, and, and dig into some of those materials and try to find different ways to maybe go green, where they weren't really thinking about it before. It may not work on the set of projects that are going to be kicking off in the next, let's say five or six months, but they're starting to prepare for, let's not get caught like this again, because some of these subs are in spots where, you know, they have licensed tradespeople there.

And if they can't keep them working. They can't let go of a licensed trades person because a electrician's going to get, going to get gobbled up in a heartbeat from a, from a competitor. So they are starting to look into more, uh, sustainable options at different initiatives. Like I said, most of those aren't going to be the projects that are, you know, maybe kicking off very soon, but they just don't want to get caught with their.

You know, they don't want to get caught in the future in the same, in the same basket, as far as the materials go. I mean, everything's just still really hard to get, you know, to get there. Uh, I 

[00:25:35] Anna Maria Kowalik: haven't seen a lot of recycling of materials. Uh, Chris, and so like in, on demolition sites, you know, they will take the good usable wood.

Use it, uh, in a newer construction project or, or some kind of a retrofit scenario where they need to repair something. Uh, have you been seeing a lot of that 

[00:26:00] Chris Abel: as well? Oh yeah, I've seen 'em. I was actually speaking to a smaller drywall contractor who has, uh, a father and uncle who are more on the GC side of things.

And I'm seeing a lot of that. Um, You know, uh, through some of those smaller, those smaller sub saying, Hey, listen, you know, we can, we can probably work together on this, you know, give me what you got there. What type of demo work are you doing? And then, uh, nothing new here, but the restoration side of things, obviously, um, there, I know a couple of the restoration contractors I work with.

They're taking some stuff in that. I have maybe passed on five years ago and said, you know what, we're not going to reuse this. And they're starting to build up a nice little, um, you know, build up their sheds and build up yeah. To say, you know what, because there's also some stuff coming out that, you know, some of these places, they, they want something a little more unique, you know, and I know a church project right now where they're not looking for.

The the, the, the windows to be like, you would see in a school, all set up, they want, they need a different type here. They need something here and they need the basement to be done a little bit different. And they're obviously not sitting on tons and tons of cash where, so they they're, they're more willing to say, Hey, listen, you know, what do you have?

What do, what do you have in mind? You're the expert. Come talk to, you know, and it's forcing these contractors to kind of get back to the roots and be, be a little more creative too. Um, especially in, that's more in the private, I would say that's more in the private sector than the public. The public is pretty.

Let's get this done 

[00:27:40] Andreas Senie: where they can. The, I think I mentioned last time. So Shelton, I moved to Shelton for those tuning in the first time. Love it. Taxes dropped by half from where I was before they're going down again, big manufacturing part coming into town, huge tax rule from the corporate tenants in the area.

Um, large part is office. Um, more so now, industrial beam dope, super exciting, getting things done in these areas. We're very stalled, but they are now moving to what you were saying before crests. They've kind of figured it out. Like, let me get the materials. And not that the materials are substandard.

They're just shifting from different places and that's okay. Especially if they're marketed well. Over there to back. Um, and so on, on the college side, on the car side, outside of the cars, uh, so you touched on something and I hesitate to bring it up for those who are newer to the round table, but the ice exchange is some big things, some big acquisitions, and what I'm hearing all around the table.

This hesitation. So consolidation or style, let's call it stockpiling of funds or just resources. It's not funneling resources. I'm an investor. I'm stockpiling my resources so I can make moves. The VC space funding is down 17% Q1. Same time last year, valuations are up. So yeah, everybody's stockpiling, consolidating resources.

Ice is doing something similar. I know 

[00:29:09] Saul Klein: I talked to ear to go ice as the biggest company. You've never. And, um, ice is the company that owns the New York stock exchange or, you know, the New York stock exchange. So this is the company that owns the New York stock exchange and something like 27 other exchanges around the world.

This is, this is big time. This is the capital of mark. On steroids and they have been accumulating over the last three or four years, the products that they need to be able to control data flow from the time someone might be interested in buying a piece of real estate until the loan pays off, automate as much care about the digit digital digitization of real estate.

Digital, all of them never happened. Oh, no people went, oh no, we got all these days. At the highest levels, right. It's being, it's being done. So what we had, so ice, just so you know, if you ever hear, uh, it's the first time I heard it, I thought of the immigration thing, you know, but, um, so don't be misled. And so that it's the Intercontinental exchange it's giant company.

It was the New York stock exchange, a lot of other exchanges and it's purchased a number of companies and you can, we've listed them on the data advocate. If you want to see them, they spent so far $27 billion. 

[00:30:30] Andreas Senie: And the stockpile. And 

[00:30:32] Saul Klein: buying companies that also that have information, but also then have relationships and contracts with other entities.

So they just bought black Knight, which is a real estate industry vendor. And they paid $13.1 billion for black Knights. And so that's a lot of money it's by the big player. Now, a couple of days before we heard about. CoStar offering or putting up something like a $200 million to bring all their technologies together.

And they've got rid, so commercial people are very familiar with CoStar and CoStar is moving into the residential space. Then now you've got these two giants and at the same time over organized real estate or what I call legacy legacy real estate. What we've got is, um, lawsuits, major lawsuits that kind of like put bricks on the bed.

The current real estate infrastructure. And so I see major, major changes that we've talked about for years now, but actually you don't have technology things are, you don't see it. You don't, you don't see it all of a sudden, boom, you see it. And so that's where we're headed. And this $13.1 billion acquisition of black Knight by ice company that owns the New York stock exchange should tell people that they should be looking for opportunities.

And that they'll get it. There's going to be some dissent and there's going to be some pushback, but $27 billion has been spent by this very successful company to do what they're going to do. And this is what this has the opportunity to do is completely changed. Uh, the, uh, the economics of MLS. The MLS is back, multiple listings, you play, and then you put your listing it.

So you put the content in, you pay to put the content back. There's contents got value. If you put the content in and somebody can take that content, somebody like Zillow and say, and they can create a billion dollar company around your content, then how come you shouldn't get paid when you put your content in?

And the answer is the structure hasn't been there, but. And so really, and truly, we're going to start to see the value of data. This could shake up the whole equation while there might not have been enough money within the real estate industry to somehow finance the cost of operation for the collection of the data, which is what MLS is.

Do you take it up to that level in the capital markets? And there should be ample opportunity to put together the capital so that at some point, people that go out and collect the data, don't have to pay to get it exposed and. 

[00:32:58] Andreas Senie: Sorry to, so everyone is consolidating on all fronts, building their stockpile.

This is what I'm hearing around around this, this table, except for CPAs, because if you're in CPAs, everybody needs money and it's cheap money, 

[00:33:12] Anna Maria Kowalik: tons of it. So that's the 

[00:33:18] Bekah Carlson: one good thing. 

[00:33:20] Andreas Senie: And these exchanges. And I go back to what Chris was saying in your seeing literally at the ground level exchanges between contractors networks, being the birthing that these networks or these barter exchanges between contractors, for supplies that are all going to end up rolling up into a New York stock exchange at a macro level.

And on top of all of that is ice. The company we've now know from Saul 

[00:33:46] Saul Klein: and other exchanges. Right. And so we're talking about creating marketplace. And the technology stacks that allow there to be marketplace. And marketplaces and everything. And why I didn't mention, and this is, is that this, the dream here is that if you can create a spot market in real estate, you can create a futures market in real estate.

So without getting into a lot of conversation about that futures markets are great. They allow for more capital to come in a spine market. That's where people buy and sell back and forth. That's what it's worth. It's like, right? What it's worth right now. Well, if you want it, then if you have that kind of marketplace with enough transactions, then what you can do is people can bet on the.

Right because you have a spot market. Well, that brings more capital in the marketplace. So 43% of all of the assets in the country is real estate. And there's no futures market in real estate. And the reason there's no futures market is there's no spot market, but what if you could create a spot market that means you could create a futures market.

That's a giant, giant money, right? So people are interested in creating. And what's one way to do it. Well, you don't need multiple listing services to do it, but if you have relationships with multiple listing services and you can get a fair trade in the value of the data, and the whole thing can shift the company that wants to put together a spot market, doesn't need how many bedrooms, how many, that's not the kind of data we're talking about, right.

Time on market, but other kinds of things that won't affect. So that kind of data you can, somebody can get that and create a spot market. Then it create a futures market. That's. A lot of new capital, a lot of new opportunity, lots of things going on. And so there's ice purchases me. Right. 

[00:35:31] Anna Maria Kowalik: Saw Saul, uh, because maybe, you know, more about this than I do, because I'm not very technologically inclined, necessarily didn't grow up programming or anything like that.

Like, um, my grandchildren are today, you know, but, um, uh, so is some of this kind of setting. Uh, the standard four, or is it going to be used for things, you know, w we've been hearing about all kinds of new technology, uh, uh, trends, uh, with, uh, metaverse real estate, um, with, um, uh, cryptocurrency, which is still cryptic to me.

And, and so, you know, all that. I dunno, is it all interrelated 

[00:36:20] Saul Klein: or fro to a degree so we can have conversations about all those things, but that's like, aside from the fact that I bought black Knight. Okay. So now when we look at technology stack and we started hearing people talk about blockchain, well, then that is something that makes things possible that had never been possible before.

And many of those types of things. And then when you hear people say cryptocurrency, that's an application of blockchain technology. So you can build different things with blockchain. And one of the things you can build is cryptocurrency. Now there are many different types of cryptocurrency. The most famous one is Bitcoin.

And so you see, it's like, so there's a lot, there's a lot of learning that needs to take place in this. And it's not rocket science. It's just a matter of all these pieces. 

[00:37:07] Anna Maria Kowalik: And I can see pace and the conversation. Yeah. Because.

[00:37:18] Andreas Senie: But it starts with that ground up exchange between the two contractors, sharing those supplies, those stockpiles now because of tokenization and the digitalization of the data, they can do it faster, farther. I think back to when I first got licensed and I'm not dating myself on this one, but the one hour rule I could drive an hour.

That was my market because that's as far and as fast as I could travel with knowledge in a competitive way. Cut to a few years later with an iPad growing out of my arm, I could go as far as I wanted to, as far as I was licensed. And what this global trend is, this web three world. The scary thing about web three is I remember dealing with other brokers developers, and they go out.

You, you try, you can't do a transaction in the other state. You're not, you're not you, you don't know the market. I have no idea yet. I see yet about the metaverse markets. So you're pointing to Maria about what is that to all of us. It is just the next asset class from where I sit, coming up with Nike buying in and all these others.

And I don't know how to affect the construction industry except to say, there'll be the digital construction industry. You look at a infinite world, right? And back I've in, you're probably out there marketing or at least seeing all this stuff.

[00:38:37] Bekah Carlson: So so far, I think I don't have any clients that are early adopters. So, and honestly, commercial real estate doesn't tend to be in the early adoption of technology sort of mentality. But interestingly enough, talking about data, I actually was interviewing a client for an article today and they're based in, uh, in the Nashville market.

They are incredibly successful brokerage. And they were pointing out some of the areas where technology misguides strategy. So they do site selection for all sorts of retailers and they will see franchise or lines drawn where, where the franchisor takes the country takes municipalities in the country or, or, uh, market segments, and then make some lines because of where they think people are.

And they're arbitrarily placed. And so his point was, you may find that in two different areas, that the key crucial marketplace where the franchisees should have stores are literally next to each other, are the only places in those entire market regions where that store should be, unfortunately are literally right next to each other.

And they'd completely cannibalize each other because sometimes when we take the data from outside, And we don't understand the micro marketplace. We don't understand wayfinding. We don't understand geographic limitations. And certainly like in Nashville, they have bedrock in Chicago where a Prairie, you could build anything anywhere here, Nashville, not the same place, same way.

So it was really interesting covering some of those boots on the ground. You know, that boots on the ground concept. Because local knowledge still matters, even though you can have that broader market market knowledge and Andreas you're in the same state, you're driving a couple hours, you're driving the marketplace and you're learning it because you actually are becoming boots on the ground.

You're not. I you're not buying properties from Google and hoping that you're right, because the Google earth tour, 

[00:40:39] Anna Maria Kowalik: I like everything in, in today's world, though. People are moving at too fast, a pace they don't take enough time to just sit and consider what's in front of. And so, uh, when I was in the property management industry prior to coming to, uh, inland green capital, uh, what you were talking about back up is particularly true with, or without technology.

The fact is that. People would take demographics and do site selection without considering the next level, uh, internally of, of psychographics, because just because the, the income levels are at a certain, uh, position in a particular, uh, area of, uh, of the city, doesn't take into account. What the spending habits are, what the savings habits are and how that affects how they, uh, uh, consume in the retail world.

And so, um, it just, you know, so many different levels. And I think sometimes we all just have to take a breath and step back and take a look at the data in front of us and 

[00:41:57] Saul Klein: analyze it to really, to get to your point. You can go out and buy the data that tells you all those things about those people. And if they are here today, and that gets what you're talking about is the platform that lets you go in, let you bring up very quickly layer after layer of data.

So you can see not only the demographic information, but the personal habits information, the loan on the property. The walkability of the, the volatility, the halo effect that certain properties have, if you build it in this area. So getting a unified view, see, we don't have a unified view of property, and this is a residential, this is commercial, but if we were smartly developing.

A particular municipality. We'd looked at everything. We get a unified view and we'd see how building in one place can enhance the other. We'd see how we could mitigate the ill effect of, of gentrification in one area. Right. We'd be able to do this in a smart way. And the use of the data and the advanced technologies of the day are getting us close to being able to do that.

And that's probably what you saw back as you saw an advanced broker. That understanding it's great for me. If I, I want to know, okay, here I am in this. I want to know within 10 minute walk, where's the closest Starbucks, where's the closest restaurant. Where's the closest, uh, childcare center. And I can do that, right.

No matter where I am right here, I want to know within 10 minutes of where I am, where are these different points of interest? And so this is all valuable information. That's going to become more and more available to everybody. And right now it's available to. 

[00:43:34] Andreas Senie: Well, 

[00:43:36] Bekah Carlson: hold on. Sorry. Another piece that I found very interesting was that he talked about how he advises clients on.

Looking at forward facing trends because they're looking at a lease that they're looking at a 30 year lease. Why would you look at where the best spot is today? And Belle say, oh, but the Chick-fil-A is there. He's like, yeah, but the Chick-fil-A has been there 20 years. It wasn't like this when Chick-fil-A picked the site.

And what they're 

[00:44:03] Saul Klein: really doing is they're good. Like everybody really should be thinking about, and that's becoming a concern. Right more

right here, rising their best, how they're earning their money. They'll know things about this, that other people don't know and it's feet on the street, but it's feet on the street using the technology, using the tools that allow you to really serve your client and do the very best that's a differentiator.

And it's it's. 

[00:44:29] Andreas Senie: And keeps it makes professional approves the value of that professional, that broker, that realtor it's the nuanced intelligence they bring to the table that AI can't pick up on one because there's not enough connections. It's not a single source in a simple truth that all these platforms understand.

I mean, MIT has an incredible piece of software where they're shifting zoning in real time with demographic and heat maps, to look at that and some predict traffic patterns. So you can then move a store or a Chick-fil-A, which is popping up all over here. Funny enough, but at the same time, uh, spot on it.

Data data data as solace does the paradigm shift. And there is a platform that does this guys shamelessly Cracko AI does layer data, but not at the scale that you're talking about because it's not, it can't be done yet, but tokenization will get us there right now. 

We've 

[00:45:24] Saul Klein: got the entire United States map and you would be amazed.

At the what's out there right now, 

[00:45:30] Andreas Senie: uh, deep blocks, um, uh, to each point in order to Anna Maria on the retail demographics and, uh, discretionary income place for AI incredible stuff. In real time, cell phone data anonymous data on the development side, future looking deep blocks that AI incredible. Building buildings moving things on, on an up-to-date zoning.

What can I do? What's the net present value? What can I do in 30 years? It's it's there to solve point it's all out there. 8,000 plus companies as a 20, 20, 20 as consolidation has happened, as I mentioned earlier. And, uh, wow. The excitement is just bubbling for me here. I love talking tackle. We really went into this way on the tech side.

[00:46:20] Saul Klein: Just to have access to information that they never had access to before and how exciting that would be. And it's going to change the whole methodology around buying and selling homes. And then this technology is also going to increase liquidity. It's going to allow for faster sales. And so while fees might come down, you're going to have more transactions because one of the reasons you don't have as many transactions in real estate is I buy it today, but I can't sell it.

Six months from now. Right. But if I could buy it today and I knew I could get my money out tomorrow, if it was that liquid, you'd have more transactions. Not saying that people are going to buy today and fell tomorrow. But with liquidity where I know I've have to turn my money, my real estate and cash, I can, that changes the risk factor and people are going to be more willing to get involved in real estate, if that's the way it works.

And that will be the way it works. 

[00:47:11] Andreas Senie: Yup. Marketplaces more and more marketplaces are out there just investing in real estate. Second. I mean I'm invested and Maria, I invested in some CPS lunch. Well, I'm sorry. The app, I put money into invested in some seat by extension. They're all there. These secondary markets popping up and we're blowing through some times.

It sounds like we've, we've, we've already hit segments here. We've talked about what's happening in our space and our sectors. What, uh, as we come up to the top of the hour, what is the biggest thing from each side of the table that has a real estate professional, we should be focused on. We're doing over the next 30 days as we go around the room, uh, to help us be better and do better, obviously, you know, finding the right.

Well, let's go start with, let's go in reverse Anna Maria. 

[00:48:01] Anna Maria Kowalik: Um, I would say from a C pace perspective, uh, this can begin to be a very busy time, uh, with projects getting underway, uh, with a better weather coming, especially in a place like Chicago, where we've got the limited. Good weather to deal with a season.

And, um, and also because here in Illinois, for example, and just speaking, you know, it's different nationally and we do, uh, provide financing to projects nationally, but here on the local level, uh, there are, um, uh, incentive. Especially for renewable energies that, uh, are available this year that are going to be prorated, uh, after this year and eventually go away.

And so we, uh, you know, do, uh, advise the people who are thinking of doing these kinds of projects, um, you know, really look into it now. And, uh, we have plenty of resources available, feel free to contact. Uh, my first name, uh, S spelled here on the screen dot last name@inlandgroup.com. And so I'd be glad to help you with any questions.

[00:49:17] Andreas Senie: That's fantastic. And Chris, on the construction side, on the education side, perhaps even on the labor side, what's the biggest thing, uh, owners can do cause contractors, GCs, um, 

[00:49:29] Chris Abel: it's, it's, it's not just a shameless plug, but I, I. I honestly would encourage some of these owners to really look into some of the associations, some of the, some of the chambers, some of the organizations, you know, maybe, you know, I've talked to a few owners recently, I'm trying to get, you know, kinda come on board and I have opportunities for them.

I have the opportunities they're there. Um, Everyone to what's all was saying earlier, as far as inflation, you know, intended to kind of slow things down and slow. It's slowing those owners down for making their decisions. And I keep telling them, listen, you gotta not asking you to go ahead and make some giant gigantic purchase.

But if you want to change something about what's going on, you gotta do something a little different. And I, I got to tell you, I see the people, it's not just what my association, the people who are, who are really harboring those relationships and really going back to their, Hey, I got to do a little more with this association or let me go to this event and see what they're about.

Um, depending on what the topics are and the panels and all that sort of stuff, they seem to be doing a little bit better. So I would just encourage, encourage people to kind of. Go back to some of the, some of the original, uh, connections and associations that they've dealt with. Maybe look into a couple of new ones, just kind of see who you can bump into because everything that event we did yesterday, there was a whole booth dedicated to construction to AEC marketing.

There was a, that was never a thing before, and we had kids going over and to talk about AEC marketing. They had no interest in. The sights and sounds, but then they were at that booth and they were asking those people about what they did. And, um, I just see everyone on this particular podcast. I'm seeing that every single day in real life, as I get out more and more and more, and then things have opened up where I'm seeing people on the capital side of the marketing side of the room, everyone's kind of blending.

I had a great comment. With a gentleman today who is looking to get into, um, the dispensary's and all that sort of stuff, which is a huge hot topic in Connecticut. So then I called him to take care of a business thing for a volunteer situation that I, that I'm involved with and it turned into, Hey, if you need contractors, reach out, it's just, I'm seeing a lot of crossroads.

So I just a long-winded way of saying, you know, we're w build out your networks a little bit more. You know, see who's around you and start leveraging those relationships old and new. 

[00:52:05] Andreas Senie: And Rebecca from fellow Chicago, native there to Anna Maria, outside of the good weather and getting out there to the luncheon and ICRC in Vegas on what they think the best thing they 

[00:52:16] Bekah Carlson: could do.

And the website is very easy. It's 2022 Vegas luncheon.eventbrite.com. And anyone can register. We are very, very happy to just to have people there and to follow Chris's example of building your network. That's something that we at my company and certainly all of my clients are very, very committed to building that network.

And since uncertainty does bring opportunity, don't get down. Like don't let like the. The negativity of the news and of the experiences of, you know, it sucks that your guests tank cost $65, but you don't have to cry about it all day every day, right? Like there's, there are opportunities out there and we've got a, you got to get out of your own stuff and move on, move on to looking for those opportunities and being very, very tactical and strategic and networking to do.

[00:53:20] Andreas Senie: Um, network is always net worth as Jonathan Stein and I parroted back and forth and shore and solve from, from the high level view or the low level view at the Carlyle level. So 

[00:53:35] Saul Klein: they used the 30 days. What should I concentrate on it? And this is not, this is the next that you really want the next 30 days will they actually kind of fits real estate practitioners.

People I know and love. When you think about real estate, this is a really important thing for people to realize this has been a hot real estate market, and it's not easy to sell real estate in the hot real estate. Right because there are a lot of buyers in it, right? It's not easy to sell real estate and a hot, still 6 million transactions, same amount.

It's not easy. Well, guess what, we're going to head towards a recession, maybe into a recession is pretty going to go up. You know what? It's not easy to sell real estate in a slow real estate market. People who sell real estate are survivors. That's what this business is about. We need in the next 30 days, you need to focus on what you always focus on.

You know, we used to always kid about the real estate industry. You got to go out and eat what you kill. And it's like, yo, should I buy this piece of software? Or should I have dinner on Friday? And that's often the way it is. That's the kind of business it is. Right. It's all based upon your individual productivity.

So if you're asking me, what should you do in the next 30 days? It's like, make sure that you put food on the table at the end of the week, Hey, attention, what's going on around, you know, that it was hard to sell real estate over the last couple of years, and it's going to be hard to sell real estate over the next couple of years.

But if you're a real estate person you're going to do. 

[00:54:48] Andreas Senie: Well, oh, well said nothing changes if nothing changes and we are in a cyclical business, right. And businesses will move in. Transactions will happen. And it's, uh, being on value and finding what your value is. What is your on my side? What is your unique value proposition to your client and how is that changing?

COVID is ending and we're back in the market. Some of them, it doesn't 

[00:55:10] Anna Maria Kowalik: change it because real estate is relationship. And so that's what it all comes down 

[00:55:16] Andreas Senie: to. And it's, if, if that is true and I agree. How much of that needs to now be augmented through technology. What have we learned with the last two years have proven that we're out there now promoting, um, ourselves, not technology, these different podiums, these different platforms.

How can we extend our reach? I used to say in 2010, I was the luckiest time to be a broker because the technology was there for me to go get as much business as I wanted. I could find the owner. I could find the different pieces of data, and most people didn't really know yet. How did. They just knew their local people.

So it was very easy to take business from my betters. Now everybody's kind of figured out how to go get that now, to your point, Anna Maria, we're back to those relationships. How well have I built those relationships and, and catered to my clients so that we can do more deals, uh, from my end, um, Mr.

Mendoza, I know you're back there at the top of the hour. And although we each went around. Love to do a quick run through on how to reach each of us, uh, on the outro. As soon as we say goodbye to this month, uh, you asleep at the switch. Here we go. So Klein, uh, data. All things macro and saw that you exit out up from their trainers, speaker, consultant.

[00:56:36] Saul Klein: Yep. That's good enough to data advocate.com, the data advocate that common, all the things we talked about today, and we'll continue to talk about there so you can find it all there. 

[00:56:47] Andreas Senie: Fantastic. And I don't know the order of Reagan. You have it in, but car back, a Carlson luncheon on Tuesday. 

[00:56:56] Bekah Carlson: Tuesday May 24th in Las Vegas Renaissance, adjacent to south hall, 11 to two coming out.

[00:57:06] Andreas Senie: Uh, you don't even have to buy an ICSE ticket. You can just go to the luncheons or hang out at the Starbucks or any of those listening who have been to these events next on the other exit. And 

[00:57:18] Anna Maria Kowalik: it just call me if you don't know enough about CPS, because you should know about bays and, uh, stay tuned for next month, because I'm going to have a couple of, uh, pretty, uh, Fun and, and, uh, big announcements to me.

[00:57:37] Andreas Senie: Fantastic. Chris, Abel, I believe is next. 

[00:57:41] Chris Abel: Yeah, absolutely. Any, uh, you know, any contractors that want to reach out to me, best thing is to do is just give me a call. ABC is the largest commercial construction, uh, association in the country, um, with the Connecticut chapter. But if you're anywhere in the country, I can line you up with one of my counterparts in a, in a chapter near you.

And you can, uh, you can learn more about, uh, about the association, but I'm opening. Any sort of conversations, just give me a call 

[00:58:09] Andreas Senie: networking. And it's fast for those looking for me as always email me Twitter. So on LinkedIn, love to talk growth strategy or just realistic. My broker GSE properties, Preco AI connect research, execute all online in one simple place that all being said to our listeners.

Thank you without you. We do not have a show. And as much as I enjoy talking to this group of people, I can do that on zoom without all of this. So Mr. Mendoza, thinking for making this so wonderful on the background there. So our listeners download our show anywhere you get your audio, have a podcast, Alexa, Google podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, Pandora, or just ask your Alexa device to tune into the crack away or Preco AI round table.

Also, please, don't forget to subscribe to our YouTube channel where there's a host of great content, including sector interviews most recently with Annamaria on CPA, specifically for those that don't know and do share rate and review, as it relates to. Thank you again for tuning into this month round table powered by Cracko AI.

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