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 As we rapidly approach the end of January and seek to find some form of clarity on valuations moving forward, we continue to be faced with tight credit markets and deteriorating property fundamentals. While we are encouraged by the strong level of investor interest in a number of our property offerings and the fact that two of our deals have gone “hard” over the last two weeks, as well as the amount of equity on the sidelines, risk aversion continues to be the primary focus of many investors. Assets with any significant level of risk suffer from investors requiring disproportionately…

President Obama and the American real estate industry have a mutual interest in turning off the twin economic engines that are driving the nation’s financial downturn—the fall in housing prices and the credit crunch/impending collapse of major banks.   Most experts agree that the way to halt the slide in housing prices is to minimize foreclosures by keeping people in their homes with delinquent mortgages that have been restructured.  A huge obstacle to the restructuring of home mortgages is the inability of bankruptcy judges to alter home mortgage terms.  Ironically, when most debtors appear before bankruptcy judges, their largest economic liability…

Developing Meaningful Success Metrics during tough economic times is more challenging than one might think. The economy is certainly not static, so why should the manner in which you assess the effectiveness of your business model not be fluid in nature as well? How do you measure success, are you measuring the right successes, and are you using the right measurements to determine your success? Complicating matters along with the current economic conditions is the reality is that each industry, sector, vertical, and micro-vertical all have unique business drivers. Furthermore, depending on how a business is positioned, where it is…

I listened to the CNN interview with Obama yesterday and was happy to hear he is as addicted to his Berry as the rest of us.  Unlike our soon to be former President who probably cant even type an email no less operate a BB.  Obama is a gadget head and understands the power of tech and how it relates to business and leadership.  This is a huge PR boost for RIM  the manufacturer of BB. In the real estate industry the BB has also been a powerful communication tool for brokers.  We joke about the Crack Berry issues. Sure…

  The capital markets are still in varying states of paralysis. This paralysis originally set in mainly due to losses ignited by the residential sub-prime meltdown and disruption in other financial markets such as credit default swaps. These losses created a very large erosion of capital causing many financial institutions to fear for their existence and made capital preservation the main priority – not lending. The TARP funds already committed and the expected continued government stimulus has helped to settle the capital markets but uncertainty now results from what lies ahead for economic fundamentals, especially for the commercial real estate…

Conventional leadership theory is littered with misunderstood and misapplied practices. The fact is that any practice, no matter how highly regarded, when taken to the extreme can not only erode the intended value, but can often cause great harm. I have espoused for years now that when a practice evolves to the level of becoming a “best practice” its time has already past. Once a methodology becomes institutionalized through mass adoption it is by my definition obsolete. You simply cannot drive innovation by doing the same things in the same ways as your competition. Those of you not familiar with…

A Twitter user on a ferry in the Hudson using an Iphone was one of the first to capture photos of the plane. See photo.  Twitter if you haven't heard is a fast growing free mobile social networking and micro-blogging service that allows users to send updates via SMS, instant messaging, email. It has the potential to very powerful. Twitter beat out CNN with this information.  How this tool applies to the real estateindustry is still undefined. Using it to keep people in your network/client base updated on market information may be its best use. Getting vacancy information quickly and…