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Commercial real estate is just as impacted by technology as other industries are. In this post, two thought leaders from Voit Real Estate Services southern California team share 4 technologies having huge impact on CRE right now.

While you’ve likely heard of most of these technologies, you may not be familiar with the impact they can have on commercial real estate. Carrie Rossenfeld of Globest.com interviewed Voit team members Brandon Keedy and Connor Wieck, available below in its entirety.

Four Tech Trends Shaping the CRE Industry

SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA-Innovative tech startups are reshaping the commercial real estate industry with new tools that can cut costs boost productivity and improve decision making Voit’s Brandon Keedy and Connor Wieck tell GlobeSt.com.

Virtual Reality (VR): ‘It’s Like Reality, Only Better’

You’d be hard-pressed to find a technology receiving more press than VR does (unless it’s the next topic—artificial intelligence), yet how many of us have thought of how it might fit into commercial real estate? Calling VR a ‘natural fit’ for commercial real estate, Keedy and Wieck think:

It provides investors with the opportunity to view properties without time-consuming and expensive travel between locations, as well as explore spaces still under construction or even on the drawing board.

They also note the effectiveness of VR for things like tenant improvement projects.

…companies can now utilize the technology for the tenant improvement process. Whether deciding on furniture placement, finishes, buildout or other aspects of development, VR allows companies to visualize a near-end product prior to finalizing their high-cost decisions.

Keedy and Wieck think the only reason VR is not more dominant in CRE right now is the cost, which they seeing moving steadily downward.

Artificial Intelligence (AI)

As we noted above, AI gets a lot of press. You’re seeing it nearly everywhere now; so, perhaps it was just a matter of time before it made its way into CRE. Music to any CRE professional’s ear is Keedy and Wieck’s claim that: “AI can help CRE professionals close more deals by providing valuable financial, property and market data, as well as guidance about best practices for agents”.

Keedy and Wieck also think AI will automate processes like proposal generation as well as offer a more robust search experience in the first place.

Internet of Things (IoT)

Maybe not as common a term as the previous two, IoT is definitely making inroads to CRE too, according to Keedy and Wieck. Comparing the current revolution to the change in phones after introduction of the iPhone in 2007, they say:

Suddenly, your device that was used to make and receive calls, send simple text message and perform a short series of other rudimentary functions was transformed…

In comparison, they think:

…the IoT will have the same effect on buildings and space and will give tenants and owners a baroque experience they weren’t capable of before.

Big Data

Another less-common term, for the CRE market, Keedy and Wieck define big data as:

…the gathering of all things occurring in a building or space and giving it the ability to be analyzed for the benefit of its handler.

They list as possible commercial real estate big data examples:

…systems that facilitate predictive maintenance or integrated systems within buildings that offer opportunities for increased operational efficiencies—to the tracking of financial transactions created by the organic movements within each market, data is being collected everywhere in CRE.

Just Another Trend We Watch For You

The movement of technology into commercial real estate is just one of the trends that René Nelson and the professionals at PacWest Commercial Real Estate continually track to keep their expertise up-to-date. Visit eugene-commercial.com or give her a call at (541) 912-6583.

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