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Box Thoughts
August 2, 2013

What I’ve learned from working in CRE – that I would have never learned from a book.

Experience matters –

  • That poorly planned furniture move schedule WILL impact your facility go-live.  Oh, you forgot to plan for that when picking when you have to move out of your existing building?
  • Bigger sites with more people don’t always equal greater productivity.
  • Bigger sites with more people in low cost areas don’t always equal cost savings.
  • Smaller sites with shorter lease terms don’t always equal more real estate flexibility.
  • Sometimes cost shouldn’t be a factor in real estate decisions.
  • Sometimes cost should be the only factor in real estate decisions.
  • 12 months is not always long enough to make decisions.
  • 24 months is not always long enough to make decisions.
  • 6 months can be too long for some decisions.
  • It is common for clients to not know they have locations in a particular market.
  • Forecasting is a four letter word.
  • For any given financial modeler you work with, you will receive 3 different “completely accurate” financial models for the same project that disagree with each other.
  • A lease is just a contract – not an actual binding agreement.
  • ALWAYS check your actual lease payments against what you are supposed to pay.  Usually they don’t match (and rarely do they not match in your favor).
  • There is no project in this world not eligible for incentives somewhere.
  • Incentives can sometimes hurt a project more than they can help.
  • Just because you qualified for incentives doesn’t mean that you’ll receive them.
  • Just because you’ve been approved for incentives doesn’t mean that you’ll receive them.
  • The world has become one giant Global market.
  • Local markets have never been more important.
  • Microeconomics will impact your business more than ever.
  • Global ecommerce is the only way to make money in the future.

And that’s barely scratching the surface….it’s been a wild ride so far.

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