The Real Estate Roundtable 11-07-24

[00:00:00] Andreas Senie: Welcome back to this month's 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 adopters and foremost experts in technology, marketing, brokerage, government policy, capital construction, cybersecurity.

As always, this is a three part show. Part one introductions. What's new for each of our round table hosts and their unique business sector or two sector focus. We unpack the biggest events, trends, paradigms shifts effect in the industry. And what you can do in part three to outpace your competition. I'm Andrea Senny, founder, CEO, collaborative brokerage owner and commercial director at KW in addition to being a technology growth strategist for both the nonprofit for profit sector.

And joining me this month is none other Rebecca Carlson, founder, CEO, Carlson, integrated past president, nightcar association, brokerage owner herself. Becca, always a pleasure. Nice to see you. 

[00:01:32] Bekah Carlson: Great to be here. 

[00:01:33] Andreas Senie: Also joining us. Anna Maria Kowalik, senior VP, director of C PACE, provider for commercial C PACE, all things green at Inland, the Inland Group of Real Estate Companies, specifically Green Capital.

Anna Maria, always a pleasure to see you as well. 

[00:01:49] Anna Maria Kowalik: Good evening to all. 

[00:01:50] Andreas Senie: As, as always. Before I forget, I want to wish our audience a happy Thanksgiving. Uh, we are thankful for you guys tuning in as thankful as I am for my hosts showing up and being part of this and our producer and everything that goes with that the full round table.

We'll be back in December this month. The biggest paradigm shift, candidly, the election, right? The election is behind us. It's closed. It was the biggest variable affecting real estate. That variable is closed. I am buzzing with activity as a broker, Becca. I'm sure you're buzzing with activity as a marketer and a Maria.

It's the end of the year. You should be buzzing with loans no matter what. But at the end of the day, it is the end of the year. God bless America. Happy to have this behind us so we can all get back to our day to day business. Only better, faster, bigger, and broader. Becca, tell me what's happening on the marketing side.

What's your sector facing? As we head into November, December, 

[00:02:46] Bekah Carlson: well, things have been very busy on the marketing side and supporting clients that are in a variety of fields and industries related to commercial real estate. In particular, we have, as soon as the interest rates dropped earlier this fall, our clients who are developers kept reporting back that their phones started ringing, people started wanting to talk to developers.

What I'm seeing that carry through now to my clients who are retail owners or Working on acquisitions is that they're actually doing deals and closing deals. People are excited about the end of the year and they're seeing a lot of activity, which of course means a lot of activity for us, investment, memorandums, uh, private equity, pitch decks for property development.

We've done. Every week we've had a growing number of surprise phone calls from clients who need help. And that's what we're here for. We're just another set of hands. So it works out really nicely, but I will tell you that things are happening and it's exciting. 

[00:03:45] Andreas Senie: Absolutely. End of the year is always my best time of year.

I love the last quarter, right? And, uh, this quarter is, it's not falling short by any means. And Anna Maria on the, on the financing side. Well, first 

[00:03:57] Anna Maria Kowalik: and foremost, I want to say we are thankful for you, Andreas, and all the good work that you do here and making this opportunity available to all of us. So we love you and thank you very much.

Uh, so that's one of the things we're thankful for this Thanksgiving and as well, as, uh, we're looking forward. To thrive in 25 and, um, and hopefully, uh, you know, have a better year than, uh, we've had, it's been a little slow going. It's been, there've been some bumps and challenges throughout, uh, mostly market volatility, uh, throughout the year and.

Uh, et cetera, but it looks like, um, things are settling today. Good news from the Fed, another cut in interest rates. And, uh, so that's the second since September and, uh, That was 

[00:04:56] Andreas Senie: 25 basis points for those that didn't tune in, right? Any reductions, a good reduction. It didn't behave that way when we thought it would, or some thought it would.

Just last week or two weeks ago, 

[00:05:09] Anna Maria Kowalik: right? Right. But, um, but in general, uh, lots of activity, lots of inquiries, lots of people preparing to do more projects and improvements and, um, you know, and even from the construction side, uh, we're seeing a little bit more, um, uh, flexible lending opportunities, uh, you know, because CPACE cannot, uh, finance.

Everything in the project and and therefore we, you know, uh, we need to have other mechanisms in place. We can finance that energy efficiency or renewable 

[00:05:48] Andreas Senie: energy. So I'm going to ask Chris in December and I was going to ask tonight, but I actually have seen some of the costs come down, right? I was. Yes. We have a few different models we use and I've had a few different investors, developers, owners, national segment.

No, no, no. Bring those development costs down. And went, Oh, I'm loving that. So interest rates are headed down a little, uh, development costs are headed down. Costs are headed down. Income is rising again. Great day to be in commercial real estate. 

[00:06:15] Anna Maria Kowalik: Yes. 

[00:06:16] Andreas Senie: And the way, you know, at a 13, 000 Point jump in the stock market.

That's a lot of cash to park for the end of the year. Uh, it's the way I look at no and great time to buy realistic as, um, I do want to highlight to the audience and being thankful for this audience tuning in. 75 percent of which are in America, 25 percent of which is our overseas, regardless of your desired outcome, you know, uh, the biggest threat to your business.

Is the next 30 days and how you walk and talk. Um, and especially Becca, I'm glad you're on. I was going to pick on Chris and I, and I can't. Not channel Dan Wagner here and say, don't forget about your 1031. It's still at risk, but he'll be back to talk on that. Uh, as well as, uh, saw on the data standard on data standards, MLS and so forth.

What's the biggest, uh, biggest thing people are doing or could be doing as they position themselves through the end of the year to start the year? Well, marketing. 

[00:07:14] Bekah Carlson: Well, when we talk about marketing, a lot of times you talk about what to do and what, what you're talking about, and there, there's There in social media in particular, we can think about what you should post.

You want people to know who you are and what you do, what you know. So I find that people talk a lot about their experience and capabilities, their organizations and affiliations, the things that they are involved in. Within their industry and maybe in a personally affected charitable type role. Uh, company service offerings.

You can never assume that everybody knows. What you do, especially if there are additional areas of growth and all of us are always are changing and growing and developing new skills and new capabilities. And if people don't know what those are, you can get marginalized or kind of put in this. This whole where people know you for one thing, but you actually do a lot more than that.

So you have to make sure that you're have some breadth of explaining the various things that you do If you're in commercial real estate, 

[00:08:20] Andreas Senie: my intro is too long No, 

[00:08:27] Bekah Carlson: i'm saying that's exactly why you need an intro that talks about the various pieces of thing that you do because otherwise People don't know they can't work with you on one thing.

If they don't know that, 

[00:08:38] Andreas Senie: for instance, scope of what you offer. And it's not just what we offer, right? It's not me. I it's we combine team, your company 

[00:08:46] Bekah Carlson: for sure, for sure. Well, I think about. Like an Maria talking about what she does. It's always fun for me to hear her explanation about how they're part of the capital stack and not the whole capital stack because that triggers people to know, like, oh, I should I like that.

Lenders do want to talk to her. She's not competitive with some of the other people. traditional lenders, they're actually partners on things versus thinking, Oh, she just does green lending, which then would pigeonhole her and make it like decrease the amount of referrals she could get from that other audience and also decrease the amount of impact that she can have putting together a really successful capital stacks and get the deals done.

So It's really important to know certainly within the commercial real estate space, your listings, your transactions. People love hearing about successful transactions. They love having other people tagged who are part of those deals. The other fun thing I have, uh, you know, There are aspects of commercial real estate where I'm more well read than others.

I love getting article shares from some of my friends and colleagues who are in a little bit different sector 

[00:09:59] Andreas Senie: That's why that's why I think this show is successful, right? It's all of us together, but go on. Sorry to jump in 

[00:10:04] Bekah Carlson: No, you can interrupt me all day, every day. Andreas, I'm 

[00:10:09] Andreas Senie: the host. 

[00:10:11] Bekah Carlson: I know. So the other piece is when you talk about like your perspective on professional issues.

And my caveat to that is. Professional issues. So I, over, you know, over a number of years I've compiled like my own little list of that I call gentle suggestions to prevent you from embarrassing yourself

[00:10:38] Andreas Senie: on social or in marketing in general, 

[00:10:40] Bekah Carlson: on social or in marketing in general. So like if you're mean in your typing and in your interactions, 

[00:10:53] Andreas Senie: that might be at the top of Google when somebody searches for you. 

[00:10:56] Bekah Carlson: Well, the real, like, right. The written word is forever. We, we are saving all of this data, all of this writing.

So if people are mean to other people, especially in writing and in a social media or a marketing context, it's a bad thing. And it reflects on the person who's doing it, not the PR on the recipient. Unfortunately, that is how that tends to, you know, Tends to happen. Uh, and I would say what you should do, though, is interact with people, right?

There's a don't do like, don't be a jerk in your interactions, but do interact with people and companies. They need interaction so that their posts can go further organically. Another gentle suggestion would be to not include personal comments on professional social media posts. I Used to comment. I love you, sunshine on my company, social media posts.

So as loving and wonderful as that is, it didn't put me in the best light as a professional that my daddy is commenting. I love you, sunshine on my posts. It was very sweet, but it was not appropriate for the situation. So 

[00:12:14] Andreas Senie: you don't mind and set, uh, set rules. It sounds like, and just be aware 

[00:12:20] Bekah Carlson: if you 

[00:12:21] Andreas Senie: wouldn't shout it out in public, or even if you would shout it out in public, maybe don't shout it out online.

[00:12:25] Bekah Carlson: Context, the context matters. So, uh, then another piece is, uh, regarding political views and not making them your political views front and center. Unless you really don't care if people avoid you and you could lose half of the people that you know and like and are connected to so being really, really conscientious along about what you're saying, because people will react to it, but you may never see those reactions and there's an element.

Also, you're seeing other people's content on social media and in marketing. You can, like, take offense or you could even cause offense. Intentionally, we have the opportunity as business professionals to rise above that, and we should take advantage of that opportunity. In the end, our goal is to build our businesses and we've worked very, very hard to do that.

[00:13:28] Andreas Senie: Yeah, no, at the end of the reputation network is network. Your network has its own views and there are certain things that people will move on and can be discussed or even debated. Channel and medium is everything. Text is not a debate channel. Ergo, social media posts is not how you debate things, in my humble opinion.

Um, not my humble opinion, my professional opinion. I've, I've had friends similarly that, you know, all of a sudden something pops up and I go, no, no, no, not here. Right. This is, this is here. It's important. Um, and people don't think that way all the time and it's easy to be reactive instead of thoughtful and conscious.

[00:14:09] Anna Maria Kowalik: Being the elder person here, I can just say that, uh, Manners growing up. Um, uh, basically we were taught, you know, you don't want to have fights at the family Thanksgiving table. Don't talk politics, religion. Uh, you know, there, there is the certain laundry list of things that you, you know, just kind of shy away from.

And in the professional sense that, that adheres. That 

[00:14:39] Andreas Senie: holds true. Yeah. It holds true more true today than ever because there's so many ways you can be outspoken that you're not. You know, Becca beat me up on threads, beat me up for not being on threads, but who knows which are my clients are on which channel, right?

Even if, whether it's my professional, my personal, you just don't know. Uh, so again, back to traditional values, methodology, steelmaking, good manners, be conscientious of what you're posting, who you're talking to, how you're talking, how you walk through an office, right? Talking to someone. So the, the, In line with posting, everything and anything is recorded today, right?

Anywhere we go, ring doorbells, office doorbells, I use an AI note taker, I love it. Right? But that means things are being recorded all the time. So you never know, uh, what, when and where in this world of a fishbowl we are now living in digitally. 

[00:15:32] Anna Maria Kowalik: Well, and the one thing that we do want people to record is This interaction that our group has, uh, in so much as it's a one stop shop for all kinds of things, real estate.

Uh, and, and so when, as you and Becca were discussing earlier about, you know, your intro and how effective it is or isn't, it is, and it stipulates all the various things that all the Experts on this program try to convey. And so knowing that you can utilize any one of us at any time, uh, to, uh, further your own business in the audience.

Um, we are more than happy to do that for, and with you. 

[00:16:28] Andreas Senie: Which dovetails back to mentorship and traditional deal making. We build each other. We build our businesses by building each other up. Bringing value to each other and to our prospects, clients, customers. Uh, and I found that that's, that is the true way to get repeat reputational referral, right?

That's the, that's the gold standard. And again, blessed to have everyone on the show to have such a high standard caliber of guests, uh, not to mention. The level of expertise I'm borrowing from Martin Norcott. Here's his tagline. There's no, uh, there's no replacement for experience. You're the smartest guy in the room.

You're in the wrong room. That one's fine, right? And this is a very smart room and our audience tuning in Martin and others all over the world, commenting in interacting 3, 300 tune ins downloads monthly global show who knew that it would grow to be this. I've got, I've got team members, new team members, and they're going backwards, like top down.

Most recent backwards. And I'm like, Oh my God, when you get to four years ago, just stop and just,

but the, and that's a thank you to our producer, Mr. Mendoza in the background, for making us all good. Sound good. 

[00:17:39] Anna Maria Kowalik: Yes. 

[00:17:40] Andreas Senie: Speaking of good manners and everything going on, let's shift gears a bit now that we've beat up our audience, not beat them up. It's just what we're seeing guys. Every month we give you a tip and a trick and tell you what's happening.

That's your biggest threat. Biggest opportunity. We're back in conference season, right? This is conference season, CRE tech, ICSC. Everybody's now meeting in person, which dovetails into social posts and in person interaction. If you're walking across the conference room hall, you don't know who's next to you.

There's a thousand people there, right? You don't know who over here is what. So just keep. Well you do, as I understand it, Becca and Maria, you are fresh off, I think, back to back, little con, little local conferences, not little. Yes. So how are people out there on the 

[00:18:26] Anna Maria Kowalik: conference side after it's very active out there?

Um, I moderated one panel. I, uh, uh. Actually did a presentation at another, uh, event. Uh, it's been a very active, uh, a couple of months here. And, uh, and the most wonderful part of it is making new relationships. Uh, Actually extending that hand and shaking hands and looking people straight in the eye, um, nothing replaces that.

And I, you know, and there's so much to be garnered, you know, from having those conversations in person, uh, and a certain trust level. That comes about as a result. And, and so there's nothing can replace that in, in any business relationship. And so, uh, I, I think that's very important and, and Becca and I have seen each other and have been able to hug in person, uh, over the last, uh, um, month or so, uh, attending some of the same events.

So, 

[00:19:42] Andreas Senie: And you bring up hug in person, right? Now, think where we were in 20, you know, post covid. Everything's upward and onward for me, bro. At the end of the day, it's the only direction we have and all we can do is grow. Speaking of onward, upward and big events, shameless plug, not shameless. Our partner CRE tech.

We're going to be there next week. This is not a local event. This is very much the largest gathering. Of real estate innovation, sustainability, green tech, institutional capital. What was once 80 vendors, 2015, it's now 20, 000 companies in the space. This is the one place you're going to get it all, all in one place, in person, live and candid.

Don't worry, we're going to fill you in after the show if you can't make it. Hope to see many of you there. Use our discount code cracker 20 and YC for 20 percent off back across. And I will be there in person while not moderating. You connect with us through the social media app schedule times.

Otherwise we'll see you out on the floor. The day is here. The 

[00:20:46] Announcer 1: day is here.

It is great excitement and I welcome you all. To Cretec, New York City, 2023.

[00:21:24] Andreas Senie: Special shout out to Michael Beckerman, CEO, who built this thing, this room from 80, right? And the industry mushroom, and he's still there and he's still growing. We're now at the Javits Center. Now the conversations aren't as deep. The relationships have deepened over the years, but there's many new faces that you've met.

You can do business with. So I've got a quick poll here, even though there's three of us, you're handing physical business cards out, right? That's still the thing, not the digital and go. So I do both 

[00:21:55] Anna Maria Kowalik: because people sometimes ask for the physical card. They say, you know what? I can't keep everything straight in my phone and I forget.

And when I have the physical card, it helps me connect better with you. And so when I get feedback like that, then. I, the audience, you know, I love to be green. It's in, you know, my name, but, uh, by the same token, uh, It is sometimes easier to conduct business with something physical. There's that, uh, I brain and coordination.

Yeah. Yeah. 

[00:22:41] Andreas Senie: Um, I, and so yeah, cards all day, every day for me and, and not just merciless, merciless, merciless, merciless, that being a mercenary and just pushing them into someone's hand. I'm actually having a conversation in an exchange. That's right. 

[00:22:55] Anna Maria Kowalik: Uh, and it's And I noticed one other thing too lately, people are taking more notes on their cards.

[00:23:03] Andreas Senie: Oh yeah, biggest faux pas in the world. Hand me a card made out of plastic that I can't take a note. Like I can't really That's 

[00:23:09] Anna Maria Kowalik: right. That's right. No, no, no. And I've been doing the same thing myself. And again, it's that eye hand coordination thing that, that's just human. And so we have to do what we do best, right?

[00:23:25] Andreas Senie: Absolutely. Well, so, so the, I won't say which pockets, cause I know people in this audience have been, have handed me their card, but if you see me at a show, your card goes into a certain pocket. And that's a priority of how, when you're getting a call back, right? 

[00:23:39] Bekah Carlson: I 

[00:23:40] Andreas Senie: can't do that. You go into a phone with 2000 contacts.

That's why I can't go digital. And, and I'm the, I'm tech pho, I'm as tech forward as anyone on this call. I have a tech aggregation, and I still use cards. I love cards. Matter of fact, I think the entire industry is starved for physical cop, real conversation, paper. Uh, the fact that nobody knows what stationary is anymore is a problem.

Handwritten notes and the fact 

[00:24:09] Anna Maria Kowalik: that they're teaching handwriting in schools anymore. So 

[00:24:13] Andreas Senie: we're going to stay away from the political stuff. 

[00:24:17] Anna Maria Kowalik: It's just, but it's not, it's, it's basically, you know, just the evolution of, uh, you know, where, uh, education and everything has gone, you know. It used to be a thing 

[00:24:33] Andreas Senie: with, uh, with chat GPT two, then three, then four, right?

In an email, you don't even know if that's real. If you got a handwritten note from someone, they took time to slow down it, right? Not to mention add your business card to it. Your business cards now on the desk of that owner, that operator, that investor. Your physical logo is now in their office. Yes. And I found they don't throw them out.

[00:24:59] Bekah Carlson: I am going to do a plug here. If you are sending holiday cards, audience members, if you are sending physical holiday cards, holidays are going to come faster than you think they are. Get going. I already 

[00:25:10] Andreas Senie: said Happy Thanksgiving because I already know, right? I need to catch 

[00:25:14] Bekah Carlson: up. This month is going to fly.

Get them into the printer. So you have them and have time to do your physical signing. 

[00:25:22] Andreas Senie: Yep. And they don't, and they don't sell, well, they may have stationery at CVS, but I've found it's a little hard to get. Um, that being said, we are short,

[00:25:35] Anna Maria Kowalik: That's what the specific paper places are for. 

[00:25:40] Andreas Senie: It's a little hard to find. Retail may be in its prime, but retail is expensive. Right? So, uh, your market, maybe you're in down, you have Chicago downtown, but not all of us. I'm outside Manhattan. Um, you know, the, uh, but well said, what is the one tip you want to give the audience?

I know we've given a lot of tips. This was the one takeaway for the next 30 days. Let's go forward. But you're pushing forward on your audience, get your loans and be prepped for 2025, you know, outside of social, but you want to give us a takeaway, uh, to the audience for November. I would say, 

[00:26:18] Anna Maria Kowalik: I 

[00:26:18] Andreas Senie: would 

[00:26:19] Anna Maria Kowalik: say business as usual.

But faster and better and more. Well, I would, I would venture to say slow it down a bit. It's going to get really hectic with the holidays upon us. And so you want to be very intentional with Everything that you do, whether it be personally or professionally. And so, um, my, my best advice, you know, would be business as usual, take it, but take it a step at a time, be measured.

Uh, you know, when you rush things, you forget something when you, uh, do things too fast, you miss something. Uh, just, just be intentional. End out the year well, so that the new year can begin well. And, and as you know, and as I always say, the future is green. 

[00:27:18] Andreas Senie: Allowed in it. Okay. Becca, what's the, what's the biggest takeaway you can give to the audience outside of joining you at Sierra tech?

Just kidding. 

[00:27:26] Bekah Carlson: Huge takeaway. Join me at Sierra tech. The other takeaways are look for opportunities to connect with people. And there are lots of holiday parties and lots of opportunities that are going to surface. So making sure that you have the space in time in your calendar to go to them. And I say, I agree with Anna Maria, not rushed, but to go to them with the intentionality of putting faces with names of people that you haven't had the opportunity to meet in person.

So. It is a really special time of year for that. I'm I meet people that I've heard of or had conversations on a phone with every time I'm out this time of year. So sometimes I would rather be at home in my jammies and my slippers and um, eating junk, but it is a context for real estate as a contact sport.

So prioritizing which ones you're going to go to, committing to them and going. Are all an important piece of this season. 

[00:28:31] Andreas Senie: That's right. There are 2080 golden deal hours. It's the end of the year. Assuming you take your two week vacation, not many of them left. And that's not, and that's nine to five. That doesn't include the after hours of that.

And what I'm hearing is deepening your intention and your relationships from both. That's what I'm going to echo back because again, network is net worth. I'm blessed to have you guys on the show. I'm blessed to have the network. I have you saw Darren, Dan. Anna Maria, Rebecca, Chris Abel. Um, and it's just been incredible growing in the industry together and always looking to others to support me as I support them.

And what else could you ask for in this holiday season? So I'm going to save my Merry Christmas and the year for December, but it is the best time of year for real estate. Personally, professionally, let's all be conscious of that and bring a little magic back into everyone's day. As we move forward, uh, there was a statement made at a conference.

I was at Texas and I'm going to share it. Uh, believe in the evil, evil you see with your two eyes and nothing else. And believe in the good, the world, whether you see it or not. So that being said, once again, thank you to our audience for making us not only a global show, but in the top 10 percent on Google per tune ins and downloads.

And thank you for tuning in. Thank you for showing up and showing out. Looking forward to December. Looking forward to November. Going to have a great time at CRE tech. You can catch us anywhere you get your audio on all major social media channels. Full round table back for December. And don't forget to like rate and review us.

It really does help. And those of you tuning in live on, on social media, don't forget, you can comment in question in, uh, we will call you out as long as, uh, your comments are not aggressive, right? Pointing back to Becca's statements. If you're, if you're here and you're bringing value, we will absolutely talk to her with you and we love having you enjoy the rest of the month.

Looking forward to CRE Tech, ICSC and otherwise. Hat tip to my fellow hosts and all of their growing businesses and hat tip to our audience as their businesses continue to grow. Cause I get to see it and watch it as do you. Mr. Mendoza, will you lead us out? Thank you for all you do as well. 

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