Real News from RealNex

The June 18, 2020 episode of the RealNex Webinar Series featured Geoffrey Kasselman, SIOR, AP Leed and his presentation of The Exponential Future of Real Estate. RealNex CEO Jeffrey Finn hosted the session that took a look back over the past century and time traveled forward to the next 25 year to envision the dramatically and dynamically transformed new world that might be in store. Geoff provided a highlight reel of the exponential technologies that are transforming our world, the expected disruption and the convergence that is likely to take place. He also shined a light on the X Factors that could accelerate, decelerate or change the course. To set the stage the he referenced a quote from The 2019 World Economic Forum:

It’s no secret that industrial real estate has been the golden child sector of commercial real estate, as of late. Industrial properties have consistently been among the top-performing sectors, but unfortunately, COVID-19 could cause returns to take a significant hit. 

Did Ya Know, You can roll-up or drill-down from Organization to Contacts?!

In the wake of the COVID-19 global pandemic, some companies are choosing to offer tours without a leasing representative. This trend not only allows everyone to stay safe and healthy, it also meets growing interest from consumers to view a property on their own time and at their own pace. But are self-guided tours sustainable for commercial real estate? Will it work? Let’s take a closer look. 

Did Ya Know, email attachments are now saved in CORE CRM Contact History?!

The global coronavirus pandemic has had an unprecedented impact on many of the habits and customs that have guided our society for as long as we can remember. And few places have been as disrupted as the workplace, with the majority of the American workforce being confined to their homes. 

In the May session of That’s #CRE #CREAGH, RealNex lead developer Tim Creagh showcased an incredible array of new advances made to the platform.

There never seems to be a shortage of prognostications about what will happen the moment a crisis hits.  Some of you may remember the dire predictions for real estate at the onset of the Global Financial Crisis (housing oversupply for 25 years).  A few of you may even remember the doom and gloom from the S&L crisis.  Predictably, an immediate conclusion some in the real estate industry reached was that the office market is dead due to Covid-19 – not to return.  No ifs, ands or buts.  We have proven technology that accommodate us working remotely and we have no need to commute to an office anymore!

The RealNex Webinar Series continued May 21, with Dr. Jeffrey Fisher providing a Commercial Real Estate Market Update based on Q1 2020 data. The data and results marked a first glimpse of the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic’s impact on CRE markets. Even with just one month of the quarter realizing the full brunt of the change in the world order, industry performance was starkly different than Q4 2019. Private Real Estate values are largely backward looking based on appraised values and comparable sales, while public markets are more forward looking. Thus, the NCREIF Property Index (NPI) of privately-owned real estate eeked out a positive .7% return for the quarter whereas REIT prices dropped a staggering -23.4%. It is expected that in Q2 with the NPI will move into negative territory for the first time since the Global Financial Crisis and that REITS will be buoyed to more closely align with the drop in underlying asset values. With transaction volume plunging in March and even more in April and May, price discovery has yet to be realized.

As always, the April episode of That’s #CRE #CREAGH was jam packed with terrific new enhancements and advancements to the RealNex Platform. In this most recent session RealNex lead developer Tim Creagh displayed a host of new tools just released as well as several items pending in May.