Not on the road to MIPIM

For many years, March has meant the MIPIM conference in Cannes.  This year is the first in quite a while that I won't be attending.  Last night, I caught the end of the movie, "The Reader."  It reminded me that I was first introduced to the book, "The Reader" by a Dutchman named Onno Husken.  Onno had founded The Ibus Group and was active in AFIRE.  There was one legendary AFIRE dinner at which I was randomly seated at a table full of Dutch...Onno being one of them.  It was a dinner that I will never forget and I still see Koos Gerlofs and his wife who were also at that table that night and we always laugh about it.  Although I had never met any of my table mates before, we had so much fun, perhaps for some at other envious tables, too much fun and Onno was the ringleader.  We sang.  We were loud.  Other tables looked at us but in the end, we enjoyed ourselves and isn't that what dinners at conferences are all about?  Onno and I became friendly. He had a Christmas ritual of sending a book he loved to a number of people.  I became one of the members of that list and one year he sent "The Reader."  It is a brilliant book and I have always loved it (but like with many movies, the book is better than the movie).  One Christmas, there was no book from Onno.  After a while I wrote him an email.  The reply I got was from one of his colleagues.  Onno had died of aggressive cancer around the holidays.  I was very sad.  Onno was full of life.  During one MIPIM, Onno grabbed me and said, "I need to introduce you to someone."  We walked around Le Palais looking for some Dutch guy named Marinus.  But we didn't find him.  After I learned that Onno had died, I tracked down this guy that he had wanted me to meet.  Marinus Dijkman is the publisher of those wonderful full color yearbooks such as "Europe Real Estate."  Onno knew something:  Marinus and I became fast friends and have been for many years.  We can only be grateful that Onno knew that we should meet and knew that we would find a friendship with each other.  And isn't that what being a member of the global commercial real estate community is all about?  Finding friends in foreign lands that you might never have met if it weren't for circumstances and the desire of someone to help others connect?  I will miss MIPIM this year as I have a good number of people, both in Europe and elsewhere, who I got to know during the years when I was really "On the Road" as a member of Institutional Real Estate, Inc. 

I know there are some of us who have thought about writing a book in our lifetime.  I know I have and believe I will someday.  But it's a dream that not too many of us will ever be able to realize.  However, one of our brethren has accomplished just that and it's a novel to boot.  I bought it and read it last week on a long train ride.  It's a murder mystery in which the main character is a real estate investment banker.  But that's just the backdrop to a truly engaging and well-written story, one that provided suspense and held my attention right up to the end.  So, I heartily recommend it to you. The book's name, "Waking Up."  The author:  Joe Traum, formerly with Eastdil and Nomura and whom I am fortunate to call my friend.

Two dogs:  I'm certain that my dog, Sherwood (top) is really my grandfather, Herman Silverman.  When I look at Sherwood I see Herm.  I've never seen more expressive eyes on a dog before; they're eyes of the ages; they're the eyes of an old soul.  The dog below is one that I saw this morning in the lobby of a well-known Manhattan skyscraper.  It's made of stainless steel but nevertheless has the feel of what it is:  a balloon dog; and, you can't help but smile when you see it.

Final word on resumes:  terrasearch Partners has a very good 'resume primer' on their website.
BTW, here's their opinion on the subject we've been debating:  "A bullet point with personal interests is good. It may help you make a connection."

Restaurant of the week:  Marrakesh, 235 E. 53rd Street, New York (6464.837.0501).  A tiny place (it's downstairs) serving really good middle eastern cuisine.  I had the lentil soup and the veggie couscous.


On the road....

March 13-22:  Northern California
March 23-25: Boston for PREA's Spring Conference
April 1: Albany, New York
April 5-9: West Coast Trip
April 11-14: Dallas to attend the UBS Investor Conference
April 16-21: Tuscany
April 21-23: Venice for the annual INREV Conference
May 13-15: North Palm Beach, FL for the annual Homer Hoyt Institute/Hoyt Fellows conference
July 13-16: Laguna Beach to attend the NMS Real Estate Roundtable





These are my views and not that of my employer.

Resumes: On track?

Last week's column generated a good number of responses about the resume thing. I thought I'd share some with you given that there seem to be two distinct camps on this:

-I like a resume that somehow tells me something special about that person. I think this can also be useful to the interviewers because it gives them an interesting and non-threatening way to begin the interview.

-It doesn’t really make a difference, though I think it serves to remind the interviewer that the candidate really doesn’t have much experience and is using his or her “life experience” to fill white space. However, since jobs are like needles in haystacks these days, perhaps you might be sitting across the desk from the one CFO in America who is also a salsa dancer.

-I agree with you; total rubbish and should not be on a resume. If a person to person interview goes so well that a potential employer wants to know more about you, fine. But not on the resume.

-These interests are risky to state. I am not sure that I want to hire a guy with an 8 handicap. I know where he will be every minute he/she can.Every once in a while it maybe handy but the risks are not worth it.

-I have on mine "Enjoyed working through anger issues while in prison"

-Yes, MBA career services instruct candidates to put these kinds of interests on their resume. The belief is that it will show a recruiter that the interviewee is not an MBA automaton that can just crunch numbers and make Excel models. I list two interests at the bottom of my CV and they have come up in interviews to help break the ice and to create a relationship beyond just job function. I’m interested in hearing what others think as some of these examples are too extreme in my opinion.

-My Uncle Bill said never hire a guy with a single digit handicap, he will be spending too much time on the golf course.

-50/50 on the interests, could help, could hurt, wouldn't use unless I had deep inside background (rare) of who I would be talking too.

-It was suggested by my career adviser in grad school (advice i chose not to take) as it could create something "non-work" to discuss at the interview to explore how personalities and interests mesh, beyond someone's skills and experience related directly to the job. But it is risky at the same time.

-Including outside interests has become the norm because it shows that candidates are well rounded, have interests outside of their day to day job and shows dedication or discipline in other activities that may or may not help them in the workplace. At least with my experience it can be a talking point to break the ice which can help get the conversation for an interview off to a solid start. Many of your top organizations like to see that candidates include this and you never know if may be something that sets you apart from an already competitive group of candidates. I have never heard of it doing harm as long as it's not political, gender or race specific which I would hope is just common sense for folks.

-I think this "Interests" thing in the resumes is a good thing, puts more of human dimension on these candidates, perhaps making for some good conversation or an ice breaker

- I have hired and fired a lot of people in my time and I have to say that I’ve found that this section offers a more telling glimpse into the “person” that you are hiring more than a lot of other things on their resume. We all want to hire the best person for the job and often times I’ve found that you can get a really good idea about the person’s work habits and how they will blend with your corporate culture by understanding what it is that they do with their free time. In talking about these types of things in the interview setting, I have often found that it’s a lot easier to get them to relax and build a rapport with them which in turn creates a setting in which they feel that they can act more naturally vs giving a typical interview performance. At the end of the day, a good interviewer needs to understand psychology.

-The only "interests" we screen for are those that "give back" to the community. Might be teaching; mentoring; acting as a docent; language/translation services for the infirm, etc. Beyond that, we don't care - but if it seems to be a "commercial" activity that could compete with or replace the interest in our business, it might be considered a negative. On balance, I agree with you - that stuff is better saved for a personal interview when there is a direct engagement between people.

-I find that these 'interests' are all a little bit over the top and scream of egoism (just my opinion). Not impressed. Maybe I am missing something, but this is coming from an entrepreneur. Candidates are there as part of a competitive process to land a job and join a team. Performance, awards and achievements speak to me more than interests, unless it is on a Linkedin profile.

-Generally, in my opinion, the placement of Interests at the bottom of a resume is a good thing. Fit is a difficult component to gauge and having some added insight into the person behind the facts typically serves to enlighten a reader. One word of caution: frivolous items such as "people watching" "exploration of cultures" can work against the message of being focused and action oriented.

-In answer to your question about “Interests” on a resume. It is mildly entertaining and might spark a brief discussion, but it would have extremely minimal bearing on the hiring decision. In fact, it could detract. If a guy maintains an “8” handicap in golf, I’m think he’s golfing more than he’s working!

-I believe that commanalities secure business relationships, establish trust and as much as I loath to admit it people invariably trust those that are most similar to them. I think personal interests are ever more important, especially in an environment where there is little to differentiate those with school and qualifications.

Someone mentioned to me that it might be more of a generational thing.  Given that many people of certain age groups are exposing themselves on various social networking sites, and that these sites are more and more being accessed by everyone from a potential employer to a potential date to a potential borrower the mention of interests and hobbies in a resume may just be a non-event.  Anyway, thanks to everyone who wrote to me on this.  I appreciate hearing from you.

Restaurant of the week:  Graziella, 116, rue McGill, Montreal, Quebec (514-876-0116).  http://www.restaurantgraziella.ca).  Very delicate cooking in a hip high-ceiling space.  Nice pris fixe lunch menu.

Photo:  Looking out the back of the Amtrak train from New York to Montreal yesterday. 


On the road....

March 8: St. Louis
March 16: New York for the IPD USA Index Launch
March 23-25: Boston for PREA's Spring Conference
April 1: Albany, New York
April 5-9: West Coast Trip
April 11-14: Dallas to attend the UBS Investor Conference
April 16-21: Tuscany
April 21-23: Venice for the annual INREV Conference
April 26-20: London
May 13-15: North Palm Beach, FL for the annual Homer Hoyt Institute/Hoyt Fellows conference
July 13-16: Laguna Beach to attend the NMS Real Estate Roundtable





These are my views and not that of my employer.

A Snow Day In New York-Schools Are Closed: Yippee!

When I was growing up a snow day like today was a treat.  School was closed and after we dug out as many cars as we could for $5.00 a car (hey, it was a long time ago) we'd take our Flexible Flyer sleds to the "Green Jungle" where there was a pretty steep hill and you had to both navigate the trees on the way down and then stop, by dragging your feet, before crashing into the big boulder at the end of the run.  We also used to have great snowball fights in ths Safeway (supermarket) parking lot where the plow guys (on orders from my father who managed that shopping center) would pile the snow really high in a certain corner of the lot for us.  We would build what we thought of as forts and then teamed up for battle.  Years later I vividly remember my sons and I walking through the woods behind our house in Short Hills, NJ to the Municipal Par-3 golf course and creating one of the last great sledding runs which we enjoyed on these plastic things that went really good.  In the mid-90's my wife and I decided on the spur of the moment to take the train into Manhattan and have dinner at a place we loved down in the Village.  It was a big snow and the cab we took from the train station could not navigate the streets.  We got out and walked.  It was a beautiful night and very romantic.  It was more than just the external beauty; it was the joy of the spontaneity.

Last week I mentioned that I had seen what looked like 1 million square feet of industrial space vacant on the NJ Turnpike.  An old industry friend, Doug Haynes of Alexander Summer Company in New Jersey wrote to correct me:  It's more like 12 million square feet, depending on what section of the highway you're talking about.  Last year at Exit 8A alone it was more than 1 million square feet!

Recently I've had the opportunity to see a number of resumes of people in the masters programs of some of the top business schools in the country..  I was a little surprised to see that many included "Interests" or "Additional Information" sections at the end.  I was never coached to include these type of things as there is a risk that you'll turn someone off.  Here are some examples:

• Interests:  fishing (inshore, offshore and fly) and guitar
• Climbing high points
• In the process of visiting every U.S. state with my wife
• Interests include golf (maintain 8 handicap) and international travel (visited 35 countries)
• Other interests include running, fitness instruction, constructing puzzles and volunteering with at-risk youth
• Visited historic and modern architectural landmarks throughout Europe
• Accomplished competitive sailboat racer
• Interests:  Architecture and Design; International Travel; Football; Skiing: Golf; BBQ Grilling
• Interests include new urbanism
• Motorcycle enthusiast, enjoy golfing and working with youth
• Enjoy Boston Red Sox, Notre Dame football, cooking Italian and personal investing
• Enjoy skiing, reading historical fiction, exploring local restaurants
• Interests include pickup basketball, documentary film, architecture, reading, travel and boxing
• Active trader in equity and derivatives markets
• Over five years performing salsa dance in Mexico, Spain and US
• Interests include free-market economics, coaching/mentoring, collegiate athletics, weight training, nutrition and my three year-old chocolate Labrador Retriever.
• Active top secret security clearance with full scope polygraph
• Interests : running, basketball, volleyball, golf, general aviation, flamenco guitar, economic theory
• Interests:  Long-distance running, traveling, tennis, Trojan football and snowboarding
• Reader, avid golfer and novice fly-fisherman, also enjoys dog training and learning the culinary arts
• Interests:  Teaching my nephew basketball, mentoring, cooking, boxing, playing poker, studying Hinduism and learning Hindi (my fiancee is Hindu)
• Interests:  Electric violin, acoustic guitar, tennis, golf, basketball, cartography, orhestral music, wildlife conservation

First of all:  I have no doubt that each and every one of these is sincere and true.  What I'm not sure about is why these folks have felt that they should include these kind of things in their resume. Or is this just another case of a sense of transparency of full disclosure or diversity?  A casual acquaintance from some time back told me that when he went to interview for an IT job with a major corporation the person interviewing him saw that he used to be a professional musician.  When the interviewer found out that the blues band this guy played organ in was a well known national act (whom he particularly liked) it didn't hurt him in the interview process, not one bit.  But I have not, in all the jobs I've had, once had my 'Interests' play any role in the process of being offered a job.  These resumes that I pulled these bullet items from suggest that some schools are coaching their students to use "interests" as a way of engaging a potential employer.  What do you think?  Is this a good thing?  Is it helpful?  Does it make a difference, either way?

Final item:  Headlines from RCA's Month in Review report published yesterday:  More Positive Signals, But a Bumpy Ride Ahead:  Strong sales and price gains mix with sluggishness




On the road....

March 4-7:  Montreal
March 16:  New York for the IPD USA Index Launch
March 23-25:  Boston for PREA's Spring Conference
April 1:  Albany, New York
April 11-14:  Dallas to attend the UBS Investor Conference
April 16-21:  Tuscany
April 21-23:  Venice for the annual INREV Conference
April 26-20:  London
May 13-15:  North Palm Beach, FL for the annual Homer Hoyt Institute/Hoyt Fellows conference




Photo:  West 88th Street, Manhattan @ 7:15am today.




These are my views and not that of my employer.

UNC Real Estate Challenge Winner: Correction

Sorry.  The University of Chicago won the UNC Real Estate Challenge last week.  Due to a little too much sake I make an error.

This week I was at a gathering of about 300 pension funds, endowments, foundations, consultants and oh, yes, investment managers.  What brought us together was IREI's VIP conference.  But what kept us together was the gaining of understanding of where we are in this world of institutional real estate investment.  And, from what it sounded like to me, we aren't much further along than we were in 2009.....yet.  Some of the enlightenment came from the announcing of some of the results of the 14th annual IREI/Kingsley Survey of U.S. Pension Funds which will be available for public consumption in April and some from the Quik-Talley questions taken at the event.  Here are some of my takeaways:

1.  New Normal Returns:  Core, 6%; Value-Add, 8-10%; Opportunistic, Mid-teens
2.  40.9% strongly agree that core strategies will predominate in 2010
3.  Investors see decreased target allocations to opportunistic strategies
4.  $34Bn in new capital expected to be committed by U.S. Tax-Exempt investors (vs. $18Bn in 2009)
5.  Investors will increase their emphasis on separate accounts with existing manager relationships
6.  Multi-family is far and away the most attractive property type for 2010.
7.  There are currently 614 funds offered by 480 managers in the market
8.  Regional funds and country specific funds are more popular than global strategies

And here are a few actual quotes (from consultants):
1.  "Every manager that comes to the table to day has a poor track record or no track record which makes it difficult to evaluate them." 
2.  "The level of fees is not as important as the structure of them." 
3.  "The most common change to terms we're seeing is a one-year extension of the investment period."
4.  "The most common change to fees is a reduction in Asset Management fees (by and average of 28%)"
5.  "The first 'screen' in evaluating a manager:  is there a strategic fit with the investors existing portfolio and objectives."

Okay, so there is some of the stuff that I heard from the stage.  What did I learn from individual conversations with people?  Well, I'm not going to share that with you as that's stuff that I may be able to benefit from personally.  But the overall mood was optimistic and realistic.  Things are moving slower than people had hoped but it's not like things have turned from dark to light just because we started a new year.  There seems to be a strong interest in debt, distressed and otherwise.  There is also an interest in recapitalizations.  However, so you don't have to rely on me totally for insight I suggest you seriously consider attending this conference next year. 

BTW, the venue for the VIP Conference was one of the most spectacular pieces of real estate I've ever seen.  Terranea Resort in Palos Verdes, California offers almost 360 degree views of the Pacific Ocean.  This photo is a rainbow that came out for just a few minutes after the rain stopped.  The photo was taken just outside my hotel room.


On the road....
2/17-19: Raleigh/Durham for meetings and to be a judge in the UNC Kenan-Flagler Real Estate Challenge
3/14-25: Boston to attend the PREA Spring Conference
4/12-14: Dallas to attend the UBS Annual Client Conference
4/21-23: Venice to attend the Annual INREV Conference
4/26-30: London






These are my views and not that of my employer.

The Changing Road

The word I've heard most this week is 'Change.'  It's not just change in the amount of capital (formerly known as The Wave of Capital) ready, willing and able to be invested by institutional investors nor just about the changes that investors are looking for in fund structures nor just about the control that investors are seeking nor just about the stronger interest in separate accounts, club deals and one-off transactions and of course the changes in fee structure that investors are clamoring for. It is about all these things but it's about more too: about how people get compensated, about the types of new advisory businesses that have been and are being launched, about the way deals get financed, about the jobs that disappeared and are slowly reappearing, about whether bigger is better. Mike Golubic of The Townsend Group wrote an excellent piece in the Spring, 2008 issue of PREA Quarterly. Here's an excerpt:

"The last five years (2003-2008) have seen the number of available funds double and the total assets under management more than quadruple. Over this same time period, investor appetite has continued to exceed the existing capacity, and as a result, investors have had to wait in lengthy contribution/deposit queues to get new money invested." Boy oh boy, how things have changed!

When I graduated high school, my parents gave me a graduation card. What I remember about it is that it had drawings of a path that my parents hoped I would follow: College. Career. Marriage. Home. Family. Country Club. Retirement. I don't think I bought into it then and in hindsight, while some of that path ended up the road I did follow (although a lot of it was 'Driving With My Knees') it reflects the values of their generation; a generation to whom owning a home represented the American dream. Well, as John Lennon said, "The dream is over." Americans are walking away from their homes by the thousands, simply mailing their keys back to their lender (if they even can figure out who the lender is). These are not all situations where the value of the house/condo is less than the mortgage on it. And it's not limited to people who can't afford to pay the mortgage. But the sad and somewhat scary thing about this is that, for those folks, their dream may be over for good. In the world of high finance, there is always news, always talk and as a result, some action. But as I talk with people around the country, we are in very, very bad shape and we seem to be spending our resources on things outside helping our own people. When history looks back on this period in American history. They may even title the chapter, "The American Dream Is Over." What a legacy!

The photo above was taken almost a year ago to the day.  It's of my father with The Jill, the airplane that he and a pilot brought cross-country in 1945.  It is a single-engine Japanese war plane.  I'd written here some time back about this experience and how much it meant to him.  I found the plane through the Smithsonian who had it sort of buried in one of their warehouses.  I only recently discovered this photo that was taken that snowy, icy and cold day but for my father, it gave him one of the warmest feelings of his life.



On the road....
2/9-11: Palos Verdes, CA to attend IREI's VIP Conference
2/17-19: Raleigh/Durham for meetings and to be a judge in the UNC Kenan-Flagler Real Estate Challenge
3/14-25: Boston to attend the PREA Spring Conference
4/12-14: Dallas to attend the UBS Annual Client Conference
4/19-20: New York to attend the ING Annual Client Conference
4/21-23: Venice to attend the Annual INREV Conference
4/26-30: London

Restaurant of the week: Inside Park at St. Barts (http://www.insideparknyc.com), 325 Park Avenue, New York. This space is a hidden gem, right on Park Avenue. It's got an eclectic menu and is pretty quiet so it's good for a business lunch. My salad was excellent. During the spring/summer/fall there's a great al fresco eating area which excellent for people watching.













These are my views and not that of my employer.

What we give up along the way

The ponds in Central Park had a thin layer of ice this morning with the temperature at 16 degrees and with wind chill -1!  And like the warnings to potential skaters, it seems like investors are slowly and carefully testing out the depth of the ice or perhaps the depth of the institutional real estate investment market.  Those of us who have tested out the ice on a pond know how putting one foot in front of the other, very, very slowly goes.  We're a little tentative until we feel solid footing and then we turn around to our friends who remained on the shoreline and say "Hey look at me!" And just then, you hear that terrible sound of ice cracking beneath your feet and your heart starts pounding and while your instinct is to turn and run (back to your now laughing friends) you turn and go slowly, inch by inch, step by step until you reach land again and say "Phew, it was fun but I wonder if it was worth the risk.  

Some people call it work/life balance.  Others call it compromise.  Still others may say prioritizing.  Whatever you call it the result is that there are things we give up along the way.  When I first started traveling for work it was all weekday trips meaning I would be home over the weekend.  So, I didn't miss many of my sons’ weekend activities.  But I did miss the weekday opportunity of 'spontaneous parenting'. I wrote an essay on this a few years back called, "Hey Dad" which described my feelings of not being around (due first to travel and then to separation) when one of my sons could just yell down from his room, "Hey Dad, can you come up and help me with something?"  But that's one of the things we give up along the way.  But it's not just family matters that are affected.  When we travel, we can't commit to things that occur on a regular basis:  taking a class, volunteering, joining a band or just having some regular routine in our lives versus our work life.  We all have to give up certain things along the way and at some point, looking back, we may regret what we gave up or what we compromised on mainly in the spirit of our careers.  But one of the things that I learned from "The Power of Now" is to forgive myself for the past....for the past mistakes, for the past bad behavior, for missing out on the things I'd given up along the way because thinking about those things can 'make you crazy and old before your time' (Crosby, Stills & Nash from 'You Don't Have To Cry').  And the same holds true for the future.  "Who knows what tomorrow may bring?" (Traffic) And trying to imagine what the future holds can also drive us crazy.  That's why living in the moment, focusing on doing the best we can with what today offers us, accepting what is, no longer paddling upstream has lifted a burden off my shoulders.  I can't go back and recapture things I gave up along the way.  But I certainly can capture those things that present themselves to me today and all the future todays I have left.  

Restaurant of the week:  Norman Rose Tavern, 1401 First Street, Napa, CA (http://www.normanrosenapa.com).  As described on their website:  “that comfortable spot where you can meet family and friends for a nice pint or glass of wine paired with a great burger or other classic, American comfort food.”  It's true!

On the road....
2/9-11:  Palos Verdes, CA to attend IREI's VIP Conference
2/17-19:  Raleigh/Durham for meetings and to be a judge in the UNC Kenan-Flagler Real Estate Challenge
3/14-25:  Boston to attend the PREA Spring Conference
4/12-14:  Dallas to attend the UBS Annual Client Conference 
4/19-20:  New York to attend the ING Annual Client Conference
4/21-23:  Venice to attend the Annual INREV Conference
4/26-30:  London





These are my views and not that of my employer.