Hartman Simons Commercial Real Estate Blog

Four on Friday: Duke Long of The Duke Long Agency

Broker Duke Long, owner of The Duke Long Agency in Indianapolis, has one of the commercial real estate industry’s most visible online presences. On his website – which bears the tagline “Commercial Real Estate with a Little Attitude” – and in his Twitter feed, he offers an often acerbic take on the sector. He also has appeared at real estate conferences nationwide to discuss such topics as social media, marketing and content creation.

We recently got a chance to discuss with Long the commercial real estate industry’s use of technology, his tips for brokers entering the field … and his driving skills.

HS: What's your overall assessment of how well the commercial real estate industry has integrated social media and other online technologies – what's it doing well and what’s it doing poorly?

Long: My general assessment is that the integration is about fair. There is still a lot of talk about what we really should be doing. The number one issue is still defining what the real return on investment (ROI) is for any digital media. I have one simple question for everyone. Tell me the real ROI on your mom. Seriously. Tell me. I will wait.

OK – maybe that is stretching it a bit far, but the entire world uses digital media everyday, and we do not need to only define a digital strategy by dollars. In my opinion, the most dynamic use of digital media is occurring in the retail sector. It crosses all platforms, and it’s breathtaking to watch the innovation and adoption. Sadly, the most discouraging segment is brokerage, which too often is ignorant and embedded in a “worst practices” mentality – and, of course, damn proud of it.

HS: If you were speaking with someone about to enter a brokerage career, what advice would you give them about how to best succeed in this day and age?

Long: First and foremost, find a mentor. Unfortunately, the good ones are few and far between. The second thing is to define the market and segment that you want to dominate. Example: Chicago downtown retail. Walk that market and literally know every building, owner and tenant and be able to answer any question about that market in your sleep. The third thing is tools, both online and off. Get a set of 10: customer relationship management (CRM) software, mapping software, etc. The final thing is relationship building. Be in front of a potential client every single day, and nurture that relationship.

HS: Your website has a poll asking readers about their preference in the presidential election. Do you think the race is having an effect – good or bad – on the commercial real estate sector, and how much of an impact do you expect the outcome to have?

Long: In all honesty, I don’t think it will matter one little bit, and that in and of itself is a sad statement.

HS: If you weren't a broker, what career would you want to pursue?

Long: Easy: racecar driver. Formula One, IndyCar or NASCAR. I am a graduate of Speedway High School. Unfortunately, I have a “checkered” driving record to prove that my “skills” are still as sharp as ever.

Connect with Duke on Twitter, LinkedIn and Google+, and check out his website at DukeLong.com.

Four on Friday: Coy Davidson of Colliers International in Houston, Part One

You would be hard pressed to find a commercial real estate figure with a bigger online presence than Coy Davidson, an office broker and senior vice president of Colliers International’s Houston office. He authors a popular blog, The Tenant Advisor, in which he examines current trends in the industry, and he is a passionate advocate of social media. His information-chocked Twitter feed has earned a whopping 10,500 followers.

We recently got a chance to talk about a wide range of commercial real estate issues with Davidson. In this first installment of a two-part Four on Friday, he discusses the industry’s reluctance to embrace social media and the benefits the various mediums offer the industry.

To what extent has commercial real estate embraced social media?

In my opinion, commercial real estate has been very slow to adopt social media in comparison to other industries. While many commercial real estate professionals are starting to experiment with the medium, it is still very far from mainstream.

The number of commercial real estate professionals I’ve seen on social media networks has increased pretty dramatically over the last two years and when you’re on those channels regularly, it might appear that there’s more widespread adoption than there really is. But there are 50 brokers here in my office, and not many have adopted these tools.

The vast majority of the industry has not embraced these tools, and I think there are a couple of reasons. For one, it tends to be a more conservative, b-to-b industry like the law sector and financial services. Two, there’s still quite a bit of skepticism about social media’s effectiveness.

How fundamental a part of the industry’s future do you see social media being?

The day will come – I don’t know if it’s going to be two years from now or five years from now – but it’s obvious to me that it will become a fundamental part. I’ve been in the business long enough to remember when the desktop computer wasn’t a fundamental part of the business. People said, “You can’t make any money sitting at your desk typing on a computer.”

I can also remember when the cell phone wasn’t a fundamental part of our business. People would say, “Why would I want to have a client call me at home?”

I think social media will be no different. It’s a daily part of American culture now, and it’s only going to increase. It’s just a matter of time before it weaves itself into the business community and corporate America.

How would you describe the benefits of the main social media networks – Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn – for commercial real estate professionals?

That’s a broad question. Generally speaking, for brokers such as myself, the real value of social media is the chance to build credibility and visibility by providing valuable information. But most commercial real estate people don’t understand that. There’s a tendency to want to sell instead. They have not been educated in the basics of content marketing. Social media is a starting point, a place to initiate new contacts and then move the conversation offline.

Is there any one network that is best suited for commercial real estate figures?

I get that question a lot. The short answer is, I don’t think there’s one that’s better than the others. It’s whatever tool gives you the best access to your target market.

Our industry tends to gravitate to LinkedIn because it’s solely a business social network and is therefore the safe choice. People aren’t going to roll their eyes when you have a LinkedIn account, while they might if you say you’re using Facebook for business.

But I go against the grain a little bit: I believe in a multi-channel platform. Based on my two and a half years of using them all extensively, I think they all have their advantages and disadvantages.

The most important thing to keep under consideration is your target audience. You’re going to access different people with each of the networks, so whichever one of those platforms is giving you the most engagement with your target audience is probably the best one for you. I have found Twitter to be the best tool for accessing people that I didn’t know and Facebook to be the most engaging platform, where as LinkedIn has been a better tool to interact with people I already kind of knew.

On a personal level, I’m a little frustrated with the CRE community on Twitter right now. As all the brokers are showing up with the ingrained push mentality that is pervasive in the industry. The “we’re so awesome” tweets don’t resonate. They don’t recognize that their clients probably don’t want to read that stuff or about commercial real estate 100 percent of the time. My philosophy is that credibility with clients and prospects is more important than credibility from your peers.

The Wednesday Wrap: March 28, 2012

Each Wednesday, The Wrap presents a compilation of recent noteworthy commercial real estate stories from a variety of publications. Here are five stories that caught our eyes in recent days:

• “Trepp: $362 Billion of Commercial Real Estate Debt Matures in 2012” – from Citybizlist.com. A total of $362 billion in commercial real estate debt will come due this year, according to a new estimate from Trepp. The figure is an increase from the $346 billion that matured last year.

Approximately $1.73 trillion worth of commercial real estate debt is set to mature from 2012 to 2016, Trepp calculates. Ominously, the firm estimates “that as much as 56 percent of the 2016 maturities are underwater by 10 percent or more, reflecting the large volume of 10-year mortgages that were originated at the market peak in 2006,” said Matt Anderson of Trepp’s research team in a statement.

• “Tech Firms Go Far and Wide for Space” – by Eliot Brown and Laura Kusisto of the Wall Street Journal. Almost every industry has decreased its office space in recent years. There is, however, at least one notable exception: the technology sector. According to Brown and Kusisto, “landlords in multiple cities throughout the country – including some that didn’t have a big tech sector in the past – are enjoying the benefits from expanding Internet-focused firms, software companies and other technology employers.”

“Companies in the tech sector accounted for 29 percent of all growth in the U.S. office market in 2011, adding an estimated 10.2 million square feet of space – nearly the size of four Empire State Buildings,” Brown and Kusisto write.

Austin, Texas; Cambridge, Mass.; New York; and Washington D.C. are just a few of the non-Northern California markets to benefit from tech firms’ need for more space.

• “CRE Starting to Embrace the Tweet” – by Miriam Lamey of GlobeSt.com. A new GlobeSt.com poll shows LinkedIn is the preferred social-media network of commercial real estate professionals but also indicates that Twitter is gaining popularity in the sector.

Twitter has something to offer virtually all of the segments of the commercial real estate industry, Robert Krueger, manager of social media outreach and communications for the Urban Land Institute, told Lamey. “If you are in the hotel and hospitality sector, [Twitter] can be used as a way to drive online traffic to your review websites and alert [users] to limited time specials,” he said. “If you are a developer, Twitter can be used to build public support for your project. Building owners and architects can also use it to raise awareness for a project, build their industry reputation and brand themselves as ‘green.’”

• “Don’t Look Now but Investor Interest Reviving in Warehouses” – by Randyl Drummer of CoStar.com. A slowly but steadily improving labor market has increased investor interest in U.S. warehouse properties, says this article by Drummer, based in large part on a new survey from PricewaterhouseCoopers.

Nearly all of the major U.S. industrial markets experienced positive net absorption last year and a few, such as the Inland Empire in Southern California, are in a full-fledged recovery, according to Drummer.

“Combined with limited construction over the past few years, the potential for rent growth in most markets is now a key driver for acquiring industrial assets,” he writes.

• “Six Tips for Leasing a Retail Center Profitably” – by Ben McLeish for REBusinessOnline.com. When leasing a shopping center, the first thing a landlord should look for are tenants whose customers are likely to visit those stores more than once a week. That’s one of six leasing tips offered by McLeish, the director of retail services for Colliers International Tampa Bay.

Another tip: make sure your rental rates remain competitive. “Don’t give space away, but realize that thriving retailers have plenty of choices for space in this market,” McLeish writes. “If you aren’t competitive with retail centers down the street, you won’t get the tenant. It’s that simple.”

Four on Friday: Jeff DeHart

Meet Jeff DeHart, a partner at SJ Collins Enterprises, a retail development company focused in the Southeast and Mid-Atlantic.  Jeff acts as the primary asset manager and managing member of the company’s various projects. Jeff’s previous experience includes time at his own firms, six years at Collins/Goodman Development and eight years with the Portman Companies. Many of you may also know him as RetailJeff on Twitter. Hartman Simons’ attorneys have enjoyed working with Jeff on several projects during the last three years and we are pleased to feature him in this week’s Four on Friday! 

HS:  What are some retail trends you see in the Southeast?

JD:  Right now we are seeing a number of opportunities in adaptive reuse and infill development.  I believe this is a macro trend as retailers seek out proven markets.   Many older shopping centers have a lot of functional obsolescence and simply need to be replaced. We are seeing more retailer demand in the Mid-Atlantic than here at home.

HS:  Any retail predictions?

JD:  There will definitely be some fallout of yogurt stores. We have watched them pop up around Atlanta and the Southeast. I have three teenage sons and two of them work at a yogurt shop! The stores located in areas with no immediate competition and high barriers to entry will be most likely to survive.   Another trend to watch is the effect of internet shopping on Big Box retail.  If you can go into a big box store and price compare from your smartphone, margins will continue to be pressed.  This could bode well for specialty merchants who offer something other than price.

HS: Why are you so active on Twitter?

JD: I’m a Learner by nature. Twitter helps me keep up with the latest news and trends. This is critical to our business because trends and demographics drive everything.

HS: Football Team?

JD: Go Dawgs! I’m a proud, yet sometimes troubled, UGA alum.

 

Four on Friday: Hartman Simons #FollowFriday

We know you are getting all your Atlanta commercial real estate news @hartmansimons. However, check out our top four twitter recommendations for  #cre thought leaders located around the country.

1. @CoyDavidsonCRE

Followers: 7,969

Location: Houston, Texas

Bio: #CRE Professional with Colliers International. Tenant Representation and Corporate Real Estate Strategy, Longhorn, New Media & Economics junkie

Recent tweet: 9 Business Trends That Aren't Going Away http://ht.ly/5PpLs

Why should you follow Coy Davidson?Coy Davidson, senior vice president at Colliers International, tweets about his expertise in tenant representation and corporate real estate services. His twitter account often shares the newest post from his blog, The Tenant Advisor.  We can always count on Coy to share rich content that just makes us feel smarter.

 

2. @Michael_MBA

Followers: 3,634

Location: San Diego, Calif.

Bio: Commercial Real Estate, ICSC, CMBS, Strategy, Leadership, Shopping Center Management, Retail

Recent tweet: Mid-Year Update: Office Leasing Strong In Spite of Anemic Job Numbers - CoStar Group http://ow.ly/1v2Kcx #office #cre

Why should you follow Michael?Michael is a great resource for cre news. Not only does he aggregate top articles on current events, his twitter feed features articles that help followers understand how these stories affect the cre industry.  When we asked Michael via direct message why he uses twitter he said, “I want to democratize #cre & related intel. Wish I had these resources as a new #cre pro. Want to help community find info.” Thanks, Michal…we think you are doing a great job!

 

3.@dukelong

Followers:1,650

Location: Indianapolis, In.

Bio:  Broker/Owner Commercial Real Estate

Recent tweet: Create a Billion Dollar Commercial Multiple Listing Service. Step 1:Customer Service. http://bit.ly/p5i9Ba #CRE #DCRE

Why should you follow Duke Long? If you like lists, you need to follow Duke. Check out The List to 10 “Things” Commercial Real Estate Needs for 2011 and BOMA 2011 Summary: The List. His twitter account highlights some of the top stories (and lists) on his blog dukelong.com-ramblings of a commercial real estate broker. From real estate trends to cre sources, Duke has you covered.

 

4.@ICSC

Followers: 6,590

Location: New York, N.Y.

Bio: Serving the Global Retail Real Estate Industry

Recent tweet: #Research: ICSC-Goldman Sachs Weekly Chain Store Sales Index Increased Again http://bit.ly/qenpQK

Why should you follow International Council of Shopping Centers?If your work is affected by retail real estate, we can’t think of a good reason why you wouldn’t follow ICSC. Unlike many organizational twitter accounts, ICSC does more than tweet about its upcoming conferences. It shares the latest retail news and research. The organization is truly a thought leader in the social media space.  It recently launched The ICSC Social Media Pavilion at RECon 2011 and due to the positive response, the initiative will launch at several other regional events. Attendees learn how social technologies are applied in retail real estate and shopping centers.

Now its time for you to stop reading and get tweeting! Check out these tweeters and make sure you follow @hartmansimons.com. Happy Friday!