Real News from RealNex

The RealNex Webinar Series continued November 19 with special Guest Mike Falk SIOR CCIM. RealNex CEO Jeff Finn interviewed Mike and discussed highlights from his new book Abundant Broker. Abundant Broker is a consolidation of best practices, systems and processes that have helped hundreds of brokers start their CRE careers fast and build consistent long-term success. These proven and time-tested techniques take the guess work out of the business to create predictable results and top performance. The Abundant Broker formula for success enables new agents to generate $100,000 in their first year and then, by continuing to refine their process and improve their skills, to build long term wealth in commercial real estate.

In the world of commercial real estate, technology is certainly nothing new. For many years now, technology has been at the center of commercial real estate, bolstering the industry to new heights. These revolutionary tools of technology have been used to help shape the face of commercial real estate,  and it shows no signs of slowing down anytime soon. 

Based on research of Q3 2020 data, RealNex head of data and research Dr. Jeffrey Fisher presented his analysis and findings in a webinar last week. Dr. Fisher was joined in this quarter’s webinar by Terry Tallen, Chairman and CEO of Tallen Capital. Given his ownership of a diverse portfolio of retail assets, Terry was able to provide particular insight into real time activity in that sector.

If you take a look around, it’s easy to see that the traditional shopping mall has been in steady decline over the past several years. According to research firm Moody’s Analytics, mall vacancies were at a historic high of 9.8 percent in September 2020, which exceeded the previous high of 9.3 percent in 2011. And, unfortunately, this trend doesn’t seem to be going away anytime soon. In fact, Coresight Research recently estimated that 25 percent of America’s approximately 1,000 existing shopping malls will close over the next three to five years. 

As we continually face unexpected obstacles, the real challenge lies in finding new and creative ways of using the technologies that we already have in order to solve today’s problems. 

Real estate, both commercial and residential, has been exploring new ways to conduct property showings for some time now. 

In light of the recent events, commercial real estate professionals all around the globe have one question in mind - moving forward, how can we make our buildings safer? 

With data now available from the first full quarter since the Covid-19 pandemic shut down the economy and forced work from home rules, RealNex hosted its quarterly Market Update with Dr. Jeffrey Fisher. Based on his research using data from the National Council of Real Estate Investment Fiduciaries (NCREIF) and others, Dr. Fisher presented his findings and analysis of a dramatically altered landscape. Although the impact was mitigated by government programs that enabled more rent to be paid than otherwise might have, rents, NOI and returns all dropped for the first time since the 2008 Global Financial Crisis (GFC).

By Jeffrey D. Fisher, Ph.D.

While the commercial industry was already on the road to becoming a tech-dominated business, this year has seen the transition happen at a pace never imagined.