NAREIM Executive Officers Meeting
In Miami,
Florida on March 16-17, the National Association of Real Estate Investment
Managers (NAREIM) held it’s semi-annual Executive Officers (EO) meeting. This one focused on leadership. In attendance were approximately 60 senior
executives from investment management and private equity real estate firms. The
CEOs that I spoke with told me something that I’ve heard about each the EO
meetings – it’s the openness with which peers share challenges, and thoughts on
solutions, that makes this meeting special.
Here are some
notes I took during the meeting that I offer for your consideration:
- What does it take to be a leader today?
- Inspirational
- Lead by example
- Mentor
- Get people to follow them
- Establish and maintain credibility
- Consistent
- Walk the talk
- Cheerleader
- How they define success
- Don’t answer questions / ask questions
- Leadership has become disappointing: A survey by Inc. magazine showed 65% would rather take a new boss vs. a pay raise
- Only 7% of employees have trust and confidence in their senior leaders
- Did you leave your organization in better shape than you found it?
Commercial real
estate is an industry whose foundation is ‘the deal.’ Leading an organization requires a senior
manager to dedicate a significant amount of time to managing / developing /
inspiring their team vs. making deals.
For some, it’s a challenge – as I know from my own career, making a real
estate deal is seductive and adds to our accomplishment history. But from the discussions at the NAREIM EO
meeting, it’s clear that there is more focus than ever on the importance of
being an effective leader – on attracting and retaining top talent and creating
a stimulating environment.
Some people say
that leaders are born and not made. I’m
not sure I agree. In many ways it’s a
matter of having a true desire to lead and developing the tools to be a
leader. If you are a senior officer at
your firm, and you’re not already a NAREIM member, I encourage you to check it
out. Getting away from your desk for a
few days a year to interact with other industry leaders may be one of the most
valuable investments you can make – in your firm and in yourself.
PREA Conference
The Pension
Real Estate Association Spring Conference took place last week in Washington,
DC. A number of the conversations I had were with capital raisers, marketing
and investor relations professionals. The
energy level at the PREA event was high…we’re riding a wave of prosperity –
companies are hiring – compensation is up and everyone seems happy. But, with hundreds of funds in the market,
raising capital has never been more challenging. It’s also not easy to invest – as there is so much money chasing the same
deals. One of my friends, whose firm has
sold 10,000 apartment units, told me, “It’s difficult to turn down a deal at a
5% cap rate.” It continues to amaze me –
how the appetite for real estate continues to drive cap rates down to historic
lows. While many institutional investors
are focused on income – getting a nice check quarterly – there may be surprises
when the properties are sold and there hasn’t been any appreciation – no ‘pop’
at the end of the hold period.
I joined the
New Members/First time attendee breakfast, as did a few other PREA veterans. There I sat with some mostly younger folks
whose companies had recently joined PREA or they were attending their first
event. Attending any industry event for
the first time can be daunting – I can remember the days when I didn’t know
anyone…it’s not easy and it’s one reason that I will approach people standing
by themselves during networking breaks or cocktail receptions and strike up a
conversation. Some long-standing
industry friendships have developed from those simple interactions.
During the
event, I learned about the PREA Industry Leader interview series. They run up to 15 minutes, are very well done
and offer some great insight from a diverse group of industry leaders. Take a look!
Monetarex
Olga Koroleva, founder and CEO
of Monetarex, and I were introduced at the CRE Tech Intersect conference in New
York City by Larry Sousa, a long-time industry friend and advisor to Monetarex.
Olga recently gave me a demo of their service.
While Monetarex slips into the realm of some
other commercial real estate data providers and services, there are some unique
aspects that make it worth exploring.
Olga described the steady progress she is
making, getting companies to check out Monetarex and then deciding if it’s a
tool that can help them. From their promotional material:
- The Monetarex platform comprises a
network, investment marketplace, and private firm data.
- Delivers comprehensive business intelligence
on over 1,000 private real estate firms, their investment activity,
regulatory filings, and key personnel - all in real-time with up to 100
data points per firm.
- Provides tools and analytics for the private
CRE market to streamline deal sourcing, due diligence, market research,
and communication.
Having been involved with an early entry into
commercial real estate technology, I can appreciate the challenges that Olga
and other start-up entrepreneurs face today. There are some groups gathering
friends and family money and others aggregating funds through crowd-sourcing
mechanisms to invest, not just in hard assets, but in technology
start-ups.
These are exciting times for our industry,
which I’ve always believed has been the slowest to adopt technology. And
while this may be commercial real estate’s own ‘tech bubble’ those left
standing will have contributed to taking the industry to the next level of
recognizing how adopting new technologies can make collecting and managing of
data, and other functions, easier and more robust.
Congratulations
Charlie Nolfi recently joined Calare Properties as Director of Marketing and Investor Relations
On the
Road...
April
2: Commercial / Institutional Real Estate Women's Leadership
Workshop, New York City. Learn more and register here
May
5: Commercial / Institutional Real Estate Women's Leadership
Workshop, Chicago, IL. Learn more and register here
May 6 - 7:
NAREIM Accounting and IT Meeting, Chicago, IL. Learn more and
register here
May 14:
Annual meeting of The Hoyt Fellows, North Palm Beach, FL
June 15 -
16: IMN US Real Estate Opportunity and Private Fund Investing Forum, New
York, NY. Learn more and register here
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