I find it amazing how many people are willing to spend not just marketing dollars, but construction and design dollars, on a piece of paper that says that they thought about the environment when they built out their space. Build two buildings exactly the same but get one LEED certified and you will likely be…
Technology and enabling relationships
In my time in real estate I’ve noticed a trend. The real function of brokers is to make their clients feel good about the decision they are making. The actual negotiation of a lease, while important, is something that most people can do. Saving a dollar or three a square foot is nice, but not…
Say it quickly.
You know those 60 minute meetings on your calendar that only have about 15 minutes of useful content…why aren’t you holding people accountable for wastefulness of time? Why do some people feel the need to go up to the last minute? It isn’t bad or wrong to let people go 10, 20, even 45 minutes…
The weekend is dead….long live the weekend.
Maybe it’s just me, but I can’t believe we’re 5 months into this year. I’ve had one down week all year and weekends have been non-existent. So this one I blew off my responsibilities and told myself to deal with it all on Monday. You know what happened? I had a great, relaxing weekend (if…
Real Estate is the anti-zero sum game
A zero sum game implies that when one party wins someone else must lose by an equal amount. But in this world, most things aren’t actually zero sum. But real estate in particular is about value creation for all parties. Buildings are owned by investors that have an interest in owning an asset. Their model…
Broken Clocks
How long until later generations no longer understand the phrase: “A broken clock is right twice a day”? How long until the grandfather clock goes the way of the slide rule and there’s only one manufacturer left making commemorative editions occasionally that no one buys?
A bit pumped up about real estate connectivity
Real estate is like a living organism. It’s impossible for any one person or group to really understand everything that you need to know to predict what should happen next. Anyone who thinks they have the magic answer either isn’t qualified to actually make an informed answer or should be making millions in Vegas. The…
The mark-up
I’m going to go off-topic a bit from what I normally write about and mention a brief experience I just had with T-Mobile and technology. I don’t think this is limited to just T-Mobile but it’s an experience that seems too common in our modern world. My phone is Android. I’ve been on Android since…
Why not more real estate?
I get asked a lot by people what I write about and invariably I say mostly real estate but it can get pretty tangential. The thing is, it’s all real estate. General business blogs are real estate focused. Lean/Six Sigma blogs are real estate focused. Business operations and finance blogs are real estate focused. But…
Why Challenge Current Thinking?
Some people like to go with the herd. What everyone else does is fine with them. It’s part of what is driving the Cult of Apple (although it helps that they also make great products). It’s what prevents innovation. When people fall in line with current thinking on the “correct” way of doing things and…