Most commercial real estate blogs have a significant focus on local markets. Is the cost of real estate going up or down? What is going on with vacancy rates? What do you need to know for executing the best lease in the current market? Where are the demographic trends heading over the next 12 months? How can I save you money on your next lease?
None of these questions are going to be answered here. Why? Because in my opinion they don’t add a whole lot of value for the common person within CRE. There are surprisingly few blogs that really focus on the day-to-day fundamentals of what real estate means to a business.
Executing leases is a big part of the service provider and even corporate world but the reality is that this action is fairly rote. It’s where the money is but it isn’t where the business value is. So what if you save $1.00 a square foot on the lease if the building is poorly located, the design will not promote collaboration and the space is twice the size of what is really needed. Great lease but you’ve failed the business.
The lease is a few months of work while the operations will be several years. I’ll choose to focus on the several years side every time.
Same for most CRE Technology – most of it focuses on those few months of activity while ignoring the several years side of the equation. Sure, a system to help with leasing activity is important and adds value but it isn’t a game changer. It isn’t going to make the business 10% more productive – it may help save money this year though.
Too often the service providers in real estate forget about those several years you need to live in the building – or simply don’t understand what it means to you to live in a particular building. Hopefully I’m helping you understand the greater part of real estate, which often has very little to do with the market or the lease.
PS: When saving this post I noticed that in 5 years I have never even created a category for “Lease,” that’s how little I write about it.