Commercial real estate news – Page 3

November 5, 2013September 12, 2013 sundancecompany Commercial real estate news, Economy news, office productivity, office space tips, The Sundance Company

10 Ways to Motivate Anyone

Geil Browning, founder of Emergenetics International, an organizational development firm in the U.S., Singapore, and the Netherlands, discusses how to understand the unique brain and personality types of your employees so you can keep them invested in work and get amazing results.

I am often asked about how I keep employees inspired and productive. It’s an essential question since companies today must accomplish more, with fewer people. The most successful start-ups must be lean, nimble, and fierce.

In a nutshell, you should hire bright, energetic, innovative employees. Then offer them the right incentives–the ones that will impact their personal brain and personality types–to keep them mentally and emotionally invested in doing their best.

It’s impossible to talk about motivation without mentioning Drive, a book by best-selling author Daniel Pink. (His TED lecture was turned into a fabulous video.) Pink notes that people perform best when they are given autonomy, opportunity for mastery, and the belief that their task is meaningful. He says money is not the best motivator, and that employees want to be “players, not pawns.”

Pink believes Google’s “20% time,” in which employees may spend one day a week on whatever they want is a shining example of how allowing intrinsically-based motivations (a sense of accomplishment or purpose) can flourish. Personal endeavors from “20% time” resulted in Gmail, Google News, Orkut, and AdSense. Long before Google–back in 1948–3M instituted the “15% solution” or “dream time,” which yielded both Scotch Tape and Post-It Notes.

There’s no question that intrinsic motivation is essential. However, I do not agree with Pink that all extrinsic motivation (raises, bonuses, commissions, awards, titles, flex time, and other perks) is harmful. A skillful entrepreneur keeps employees motivated with a combination of both.

That said, there is no cookie-cutter approach to motivating your people. What inspires one person may leave the next cold. When you understand an employee’s thinking and behavioral preferences, you’ll be able to maximize his or her enthusiasm. This will help you get your workforce aligned and moving in the same direction, and you’ll see incredible returns.

1. Analytical types want to know that a project is valuable, and that their work makes a difference to its success. They need a leader who excels in a particular area, and whose expertise they believe benefits the group. They prefer compensation that is commensurate with their contribution. If they have done a tremendous amount of work on their own, don’t expect them to be happy if you reward the whole team.

2. People who are “structural” by nature want to know their work aids the company’s progress. They prefer a leader who is organized, competent, and good with details. They like to be rewarded in writing, in a timely manner, in a way specific to the task. An encouraging email is appropriate to communicate with them.

3. Social people want to feel personally valued, and that what they are doing has an impact on a project. They go the extra mile for a leader who expresses faith in their abilities. They prefer to be rewarded in person with a gesture that is from the heart. If your own preference is for written communication, send a handwritten note to a particularly social employee.

4. Innovative employees must buy into a cause. To them, the big picture matters more than the individual who is leading the charge. They prefer to be rewarded with something unconventional and imaginative, and would find a whimsical token of your esteem very meaningful.

5. Quiet staffers don’t need a lot of fanfare, but they appreciate private, one-on-one encouragement.

6. Expressive people feel more motivated when assignments are openly discussed and an open door is available. They like public recognition, with pomp, and ceremony.

7. Peacekeepers hope everyone will move in the same direction. They’ll never demand a reward or recognition, so it’s up to you to offer it.

8. Hard-drivers are independent thinkers. If they agree with you, they’ll be highly motivated. They will let you know what they’d like as an extrinsic reward, and they tend to want whatever it is right away.

9. Those who are focused team members must have confidence in the leader and in the project, or their motivation may falter. They want know up front what kind of reward they can expect. Make sure you follow through on whatever is promised.

10. Flexible people go along with the team, as long as a project does not contradict their morals or beliefs. They’re also happy with any kind of recognition.

Watch for the weakest link among your employees. If you have a slacker who consistently does less than everyone else but seems to get away with it, this can dampen the motivation of everyone else.

About The Sundance Company
Established in 1976, The Sundance Company has the experience to help you with your commercial real estate needs throughout the Boise Valley. If your requirements include property management, leasing, real estate development, project planning, construction or space planning then look to us. The Sundance Company has more than 1.5 million square feet of office and industrial space available in prime locations in the Boise metropolitan area. More information is available at www.sundanceco.com or 208.322.7300.

October 1, 2013August 8, 2013 sundancecompany business information, commercial real estate, Commercial real estate news, Economy news, The Sundance Company

Do You BYOD To The Office?

A recent article from Steelcase discusses the pros and cons of BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) to work. The workplace is changing; employees are no longer tied to their desks or offices. As the trend of remote and mobile working continues to grow, it’s important for organizations to allow their employees to make personalized choices about the technology they use in remote and mobile settings. That’s why BYOD has become an essential element in how we work.

On the positive side, BYOD can encourage teamwork and collaboration activities, which are often spontaneous in current work settings. Having personal devices handy makes it easier for employees to share information, call up documents on demand, and make changes to documents on the fly. It is also important for employees to be comfortable with the technology they are using in order to reach their full potential as a worker.

This growing trend doesn’t come without its challenges. For example, there’s a greater range of devices with a greater range of applications and content sharing approaches. This has led to more security and compatibility issues and overall governance for the IT support professionals. From the employees’ perspective, there is also a perception that if they have 24/7 connection to work through these devices, they must answer when a call or email comes through. This has even sparked lawsuits over the value of employees’ time.

Despite these potential pitfalls, BYOD is a great tool for companies who want to motivate their employee base, promote collaboration among teams, and offer flexible work strategies, especially for top performers. Additionally, companies can put in place smart and strategic guidelines to help mitigate these risks.

At Steelcase, we’ve seen great success with our BYOD program. We’ve approached our BYOD program as voluntary, meaning employees can choose to use the BYOD program and receive a stipend but buy their own handset hardware, or they can choose to have a standardized hardware device that’s company issued. In our Americas region, almost half of the mobile phone users have chosen the BYOD program. They’re enthusiastic about choosing their own technology for mobile phones.

Additionally, almost all of the people choosing the BYOD program select SmartPhones as their technology of choice. Frequent travelers consistently comment how much productive they can be with a SmartPhone as they travel.

In an ideal setting, people in the workplace have choice and control when it comes to the technology that they use and therefore want to purchase their own technology, perhaps partly from a personal technology budget provided by their employer and partly from their own pocket. It’s important that organizations adapt to these trends and insure that personal technology seamlessly integrates with corporate business systems and networks. This will be a substantial challenge for global IT organizations to face.

September 17, 2013September 12, 2013 sundancecompany Boise Commercial Real Estate, boise valley commercial real estate, Commercial real estate news, Economy news, The Sundance Company

Commercial Real Estate Forecast: Vacancy, Rent Improvements

Falling vacancy rates and modest rent growth are predicted for each of the major commercial real estate sectors, according to the National Association of Realtors’ (NAR) quarterly commercial real estate forecast released last month.

NAR is forecasting commercial vacancy rates nationwide to decline 0.2 percentage points in the office sector and 0.6 points in both the industrial and retail sectors. Lawrence Yun, NAR’s chief economist, said the multifamily vacancy rate is not expected to change much as the sector will continue to have the tightest levels of availability.

“Office vacancies haven’t declined much because total jobs today are still below that of the pre-recession level in 2007, but rising international trade is boosting demand for warehouse space,” Yun said. “Consumer spending has been favorable for the retail market, and rising construction is keeping apartment availability fairly even, though at low vacancy levels.”

Lower vacancies are continuing to have an especially pronounced effect on the multifamily sector’s rental rates, according to Yun.

“That, in turn, is pushing apartment rents to rise twice as fast as broad consumer prices and average wage growth,” he said.

Average apartment rents will rise 4 percent in 2013 and another 4 percent next year, according to NAR’s forecast. However, NAR said that with new construction rising to meet increased demand in the multifamily sector, it will likely see vacancy rates edge up only a tenth of a percentage point, from 3.9 percent in the third quarter to 4.0 percent in the third quarter of 2014.

NAR is estimating that vacancy rates in the office sector are expected to decline from a projected 15.7 percent in the third quarter of 2013 to 15.5 percent in the third quarter of 2014. The industrial vacancy rates are projected to fall from 9.3 percent in the third quarter of this year to 8.7 percent in 2014. Retail vacancy rates are expected to decline from 10.6 percent in the third quarter of this year to 10 percent in the third quarter of 2014.

When it comes to rent growth in the other sectors, NAR expects office rent to increase 2.5 percent this year and 2.8 percent in 2014. Industrial rents are expected to grow by 2.4 percent this year and 2.6 percent in 2014, and retail rents are likely to increase 1.5 percent in 2013 and 2.3 percent in 2014.

Article courtesy of reit.com.

September 10, 2013July 16, 2013 sundancecompany commercial real estate, Commercial real estate news, The Sundance Company

The Evolving Face of Commercial Real Estate Technology

A recent article from Opinion of Value discussed some new commercial real estate technology showcased at the CRE Tech Intersect. CRE technology is an impossibly broad term that touches really every facet of a complex industry. Occupier services. Search. Data Exchange. Analytics– and more. The CRE Tech Intersect conference pulled these diverse items together in a setting that provided attendees with some great cutting-edge information, but still reminded everyone that personal interaction was still our industry’s most important tool.

COMPSTAK: Brokers have been using data on recent completed leases in the marketplace as currency forever. A lot of veteran brokers have regular meetings with colleagues from competing firms to trade lease comparables. We’ve been crowdsourcing comps for years, and pretty effectively at that.

CompStak CEO Michael Mandel says that they have close to 100% of lease data in New York, the first market in which they rolled out the service. Compstak’s comps are available to brokers essentially on a barter system– you give comps, you can get some. Again, not terribly different from how brokers operate amongst themselves already. Mandel sees a strong market for their data with institutional investors and major developers. CompStak’s aggregated data could supplement information that these entities now get for free from their broker.

This brings up a new take on a conversation that’s been going on in commercial real estate circles for a long time. Not the case everywhere, but it has been a very, very long time since information on something as mundane as available spaces has been considered proprietary. Brokers that base their business model on hoarding information at their desk are going to be forced to change. This applies to lease comparable data, too. Commercial real estate data is a commodity, and it’s getting cheaper and more readily available. Knowledge, information, and the ability to synthesize both into a real understanding of the market, though, has value. Smart brokers know this and welcome new players like CompStak.

LIQUIDSPACE: LiquidSpace is focused on booking immediate-need meeting space, short term conference rooms, etc., by taking advantage of an increasingly mobile workforce and the growth of co-working space. CEO Mark Gilbreath has an even bigger vision, though. From a real estate perspective, the biggest challenge facing start-ups is appropriately scaling a young high growth operation. What if these early stage players had an efficient method of ordering their office space à la carte instead of in bulk? Office space needs can be responded to real-time and based on immediate need. A more dynamic team with the flexibility to respond to the immediate needs of key employees. Bottom-up facility planning.

September 3, 2013July 16, 2013 sundancecompany business information, Commercial real estate news, office productivity, office space tips, The Sundance Company

How To Improve Customer Service

July 23, 2013July 16, 2013 sundancecompany commercial real estate, Commercial real estate news, The Sundance Company

BOMA Survey: Office Tenants Optimistic About Future Staffing, Space Needs

A recent article from the CoStar Group shared the results of the first survey of tenant sentiments and needs by the Building Owners and Managers Association (BOMA) International since 1999. Despite the recession and changing workplace trends, the walls aren’t closing in on office space requirements just yet, according BOMA.

BOMA found that, as a group, office tenants are optimistic about the future — more than 75% of respondents in the 2013 BOMA Global Office Tenant Survey plan to increase staffing levels and space requirements, or at least retain their current employee headcounts and office footprints.

“Clearly, tenant space configurations are different – they need to be friendly and collaborative, with such features such as a work bench, a fun room or multimedia room – but the need for more office space is not going away,” noted John Combs, principal of RiverRock Real Estate Group, a West Coast-based CRE management and leasing firm providing property management for industrial, office and retail assets.

“[Requirements] can’t shrink too much more,” added Combs. “Those companies that are leasing are taking the same or more space. It’s reconfigured and it’s denser, but many people are hiring.”

Atlanta-based Kingsley Associates conducted the survey of nearly 1,300 office tenants between March and April, revisiting attitudes, priorities and needs of office tenants for the first time since a January 1999 report by BOMA and the Urban Land Institute (ULI).

Kingsley vice president Phil Mobley gave an overview of the “What Office Tenants Want: 2013 BOMA Global Office Tenant Survey” at this week’s Every Building Conference and Expo before several thousand attendees at the San Diego Convention Center.

Michael Prabhu, managing director Jones Lang LaSalle’s property management portfolio in Southern California, Arizona and Nevada, also noted that the outlook among building owners was positive, with improving economic conditions and fundamentals trending in their assets trickling down to the property management level and interactions with tenants.

“We feel the corner has been turned and the economy is moving along, albeit slowly, but in the right direction,” Prabhu said. “Tenants in our buildings are feeling more comfortable and confident, which is driving some of their space utilization decision making. It’s a more optimistic environment.”

As expected, the survey results reflect the major changes in office tenant priorities since then.

In 1999, barely half of respondents to the previous BOMA survey were located in assets with “intelligent building” features and systems almost taken for granted today such as HVAC, fiber optics, cabling for Internet and high-speed networks, and LAN/WAN connectivity, and strategies such as coworking, hot desking and hoteling were mostly outside the office workplace mainstream a decade and a half ago.

While the updated survey found no universal “next big thing” comparable to the rapid changes in technology and alternative workplace strategies that swept building management in the 2000s, Mobley said the latest study showed that three of the top five factors influencing overall tenant satisfaction are service-related.

One relatively easy way to add value to a building is the addition of health and hygiene amenities such as anti-bacterial dispensers.

“Such amenities are comparatively rare in buildings occupied by survey respondents, but they are rated highly when present,” Mobley said.

The full results of the BOMA study will be released next month, including data on tenant attitudes about sustainable building programs and features space usage and telecommuting trends.

About The Sundance Company

Established in 1976, The Sundance Company has the experience to help you with your commercial real estate needs throughout the Boise Valley. If your requirements include property management, leasing, real estate development, project planning, construction or space planning then look to us. The Sundance Company has more than 1.5 million square feet of office and industrial space available in prime locations in the Boise metropolitan area. More information is available at www.sundanceco.com or 208.322.7300.

May 22, 2013May 20, 2013 sundancecompany business information, commercial real estate, Commercial real estate news, The Sundance Company

Commercial Real Estate Professionals Embrace New Technology

An NREI article discusses how technology can be a huge boon to busy commercial real estate professionals in creating efficiencies and delivering faster and better services to clients. Yet for many the challenge is sifting through the deluge of new tools without getting caught up in a race to have the shiniest new toys regardless of whether they help you do a better job.

Commercial real estate professionals are gravitating to technologies that can assist with key functions such as file sharing, client relationship management, analysis and marketing. “What we hope to use technology for is that we can provide better services for our clients, not just for the purpose of deploying technology,” says Mike Kamm, president of Cassidy Turley in San Francisco.

For example, Cassidy Turley is in the process of implementing a new customer relationship management (CRM) solution that it calls “eClient.” The solution will allow professionals to track their individual client relationships and provide a broader look at who others in the firm are working with. “That is going to be a major improvement in our productivity, and also allow us to provide better client services in a more coordinated fashion,” says Kamm.

For small and mid-size firms, technology has the added perk of helping level the playing field when they compete head-to-head with larger firms. “Our view on technology is that it is only going to make us more efficient in the long run and we are trying to embrace it as best we can,” says Scott Burns, president of Wilson Commercial Real Estate in Los Angeles

Wilson Commercial has 75 shopping centers in its portfolio. “We get calls all week long from people wanting to get in and tour the space,” says Burns. Often, people want instant access to the properties. So Wilson Commercial has posted YouTube videos that provide virtual, 360 degree tours of its spaces. The firm still wants to bring prospective tenants to the physical space, but giving them a sneak peek eliminates some “tire kickers” that just want to check spaces out with no serious interest in signing a deal, adds Burns.

A quick virtual tour can also help tenants form detailed questions about a particular space or shopping center. It is not going to replace the physical walking and touring of the space in any way, but providing that video snapshot of a space on demand to prospective tenants is becoming part of the marketing tenants are expecting, notes Burns.

The next stage videos is 3D models, such as those created with the Floored app. The tech firm scans spaces with 3D cameras, refines the data and produces models that are available online to be shared with prospective tenants.

Proliferation of CRE apps

There is an app for just about everything these days, and commercial real estate tasks are no exception. Commercial real estate professionals are utilizing apps that assist with everything, from converting voicemails to text messages to providing immediate access to research reports and property listing services and databases. Apps for property information sites such as CoStarGo and LoopNet Mobile are increasingly popular.

Such technologies can help commercial real estate professionals in the field save time when scouting for investment sales or leasing opportunities. In the past, when they saw an interesting property and wanted to research ownership, they had to phone the title insurance company and ask for information. Now there are apps that provide that same info on demand.

For example, Fidelity Title has an app called Commercial Pro 24-7 that allows users to touch the image of a property on an aerial map and receive title insurance information on terms of ownership, parcel maps and other recording documents.

In the past, it was a challenge to track down ownership information behind properties held by an LLC or other private entity. Now commercial real estate professionals can use apps such as ProspectNow Mobile to find the names of owners behind those companies by conducting a search with a building address or contact phone number. ProspectNow is an online database that claims access to a commercial real estate database of 6 million building owners and 30 million tenants, including phone numbers, mailing addresses and building details.

The process of finding ownership information can now take a commercial real estate professionals four to five minutes compared to several hours of deep digging. “It makes us much more efficient and lets us leverage technology and apps that literally save us hours of our time,” says Burns. “Where we used to research things manually, we can now click a few buttons, wait 10 seconds, and the information pops up.

Challenges of dealing with technology

Implementing new technologies is not without its challenges. Certainly, making sure you are deploying the right software and technology for what you really want to do takes a lot of vetting. “Obviously, technology is very expensive, and you don’t want to have to redeploy new platforms any more often that you have to,” says Kamm. Technology also is changing very quickly, which makes it more difficult to stay abreast of the latest and greatest tools.

Getting commercial real estate professionals and staff trained and using the technology effectively is another challenge. “You can buy and deploy a lot of software, but if people aren’t using it properly then it is not going to generate the kind of returns that we all want,” says Kamm. Even once people go through the training, there is no guarantee that they will actually use it, he adds.

May 15, 2013May 13, 2013 sundancecompany business information, commercial real estate, Commercial real estate news, office productivity, office space tips, The Sundance Company

Recent Survey on Tech Trends in Commercial Real Estate Yields Surprising Results

A recently conducted a survey at The News Funnel gauged the commercial real estate industry sentiment as it relates to technology trends. Some of the results were not so surprising, but one thing really stood out. The main takeaway from survey was how many exciting new websites are being launched on a regular basis creating a real tech revolution in the industry. Another things that was really surprising was the amount of respondents who said they are still getting the majority of their news and information from their desktop devices as opposed to mobile. It’s completely contrarian to what’s obviously happening in the tech sector in general as mobile is taking the tech world by storm. Old habits die hard, but if someone can get the industry to adopt to a mobile solution, they will have the field to themselves.

Here were the major findings of the survey:

Which data and information website is used the most by industry professionals?
CoStar was chosen by 60% of the survey followed by Real Capital Analytics and LoopNet in a virtual dead heat for second place.

Which new real estate tech site are you most impressed with?
A virtual tie between View The Space and OfficeSpace.com. CompStak was selected as the third most impressive site. Other sites that were chosen were RetailMLS, 42Floors and TheCapRate.

Which aspect of the industry is experiencing the most exciting innovation?
More than half of the survey respondents selected “news”, followed by “marketing” and “space search”.

Which area is lagging the most in regards to tech innovation?
“Data analysis” was the answer most given followed by “marketing” and then “property management”.

When asked which sector of the industry is experiencing the most innovation residential or commercial?
Almost 70% of the survey said “commercial”.

Finally, and most surprising, What type of device you use to access real estate information?
83% said their desktop while only 17% said mobile.

May 1, 2013April 16, 2013 sundancecompany business information, Commercial real estate news, office productivity, office space tips, The Sundance Company

Five Ways Robots Will Change Real Estate

A recent article from InmanNews discusess how robots could have an impact on real estate. It may sound like science fiction, but it’s not. Robots are about to be everywhere, including real estate. Robots are in the wild, cleaning up nuclear waste, sanitizing hospital rooms, and entertaining us all. How will they impact real estate? It’s anyone’s guess at this point, but here are five ways robots could impact real estate within the next five years.

1. New telepresence robots, like the ones from Double Robotics, will finally let us be in two (or more) places at once. Control the robot from your iPad and communicate face-to-virtual face with co-workers and potential clients. Send a telepresence robot along to an open house. Invite brokers and clients to attend previews from the comfort of their home or office. The possibilities of telepresence are limitless.

2. Robots like Romo could lend a helping hand. Need exterior shots? Send a Romo out to the street for wide angle views. How about a cameraman for your video? Check. Need a BPO? A Romo with some simple software can canvas a street and send back data while you meet with clients.

3. How about a robot who can issue conditional approvals and underwrite loans in real time? Robots with natural language processing could collect data from a client interview and, connected to an underwriting engine, produce financing options and approvals in minutes.

4. The issue of private drones is unfolding in front of our eyes. Federal, state, and local governments are racing to issue guidance on drone use; but no matter the outcome, drones will become fixtures in our skies. Depending on how legislation shakes out, drones could be used for aerial views, home fly-throughs and more. This is already happening with remote controlled quadcopters. The machines will handle it with a few taps on your iPhone tomorrow.

5. Robots could make finding the perfect home a breeze. Imagine a robot that could use information about your client, their Facebook interests along with some simple questions about their income, to query and sort MLS listings for the perfect place for them.

Of course, how exactly the future will play out is anyone’s guess; but one thing’s for sure, robots will be a part of it.

April 3, 2013February 12, 2013 sundancecompany business information, commercial real estate, Commercial real estate news, Economy news, The Sundance Company, Uncategorized

Can A Company Use Instagram To Share Their Story and Build Their Business?

Instagram is a photo sharing service available as an easy to download application for any Android or iOS powered device. The photos captured can be shared on Facebook, Twitter and even Tumblr too. It is time for businesses to understand that this social sharing platform is here to stay. So how can a business use Instagram to share their story?

Build an Identity
Start snapping photos of your business. Once you’re ready to post your first image, you’ll be able to add a location if it is not already listed.

Try uploading photos of interesting aspects of the store or products, or share images of things the people who shop your business care about. You’ll be amazed at the response when you start sharing your perspective. Visuals speak louder than words.

Use Hashtags to Build a Following
What’s the point of taking a great photograph if no one will notice it? Celebrate your active brand advocates by deciding on a short, easy to type phrase that people can include in their tweets. For example Adidas used the hashtag “#thereturn” to celebrate the return of Derrick Rose. They even made it a predominate design element on their website for D Rose.

With the use of these hashtags you can monitor conversations focused around your brand by using the Twitter search feed or directly displaying these photos using the Instagram API on your website. Make sure to include any legal terms and conditions related to the use of the publically shared content. In the footer of their website, Adidas informed people: * If you send us a Tweet, or use our hashtag “#TheReturn” on Twitter and Instagram, you consent to letting adidas and Derrick Rose use your content and handle, in any media. If you opt in to our Facebook application All In For D Rose by adidas you also consent to letting adidas use your customized Facebook image in any media. Fan based media can be shared cross-platform allowing you to successfully use Instagram for marketing and to increase brand loyalty through the instant gratification of social likes.

Find Your Advocates
Snap a photo using Instagram and then select that you’d like to add a Photo Map. You’ll be prompted to “name a place”. This is where you’ll see a list of available locations based on your GPS location. Once you find your business, select it as the location and then upload your photo. Once uploaded you’ll be able to click on the location as a hyperlink and browse the gallery of photos other people have tagged for that same location.

Find anything interesting? Follow that individual and you’re on your way to building your community.