Technology for Marketing Commercial Real Estate

Commercial real estate is now a tenants' market. As a landlord, how are you going to attract and keep the best tenants? How are you going to win lease deals against increasing competition?

Every leasing manager knows the three things that need to be done to attract new tenants.

1. First, when you advertise, prospective tenants need to be able to find out important information (price/sq.ft., sq.ft. available, location) about your building.
   
2. Next, you need to differentiate your offering from other properties. You have to help the tenant visualize themselves in the space.
   
3. Finally, you need to ensure that you have all the documentation and information to prevent any problem that could get in the way of closing the deal.

The good news is that there are several new web based tools that can help leasing managers in all three of these goals.

Advertise and Be Seen

You've got your listings online. Your building has a web page or even a website. But can anyone find you? How much traffic do you get? Here are three great ways to attract the traffic you want:

• Search Ads are the little text ads that appear on Google when you conduct a search. They also appear on a large network of other sites based on the content of the ad and context of the page. In addition to targeting specific regions and search terms, you can precisely control the amount of money you spend. You only pay when someone clicks on the ad. Find out more here
  
• Display Ads are the graphic ads that appear on websites such as newspapers. In the past, these types of ads have been prohibitively expensive for advertising real estate assets, but Space Database has figured out a way to 'sub-divide' the cost across several properties. click here to see how we helped Colliers advertise in the Globe and Mail.
  
• Search Engine Optimization - this can be a complex art but there are some very basic things that will help search engines find and correctly index your content. There is a lot of SEO information on the web; here are some basic tips for real estate SEO.

Stand Out and Differentiate

To emphasize the unique nature of a building many landlords establish branded websites for a property. To enhance these sites even further, there are several web services that can add rich content.

• A Graphic Stacking Plan is a feature that Space Database can provide for hosted clients. A detailed representation of your building is automatically populated with links to drawings of available space.
  
• An Interactive Map helps your prospective tenants understand not only the location of the building but also appreciate the amenities in the vicinity. Google now lets you create very powerful interactive maps for free. It's simple. Find out how you can do it yourself.
  
• 3D Marketing Drawings help prospective tenants better visualize the space you have available. Find out how Space Database can help you enhance your marketing drawings.

Manage Information to Win

From the time that a prospect shows interest in a building up until they move in, it's critically important to maintain a flow of high quality information to support the process. Chances are that a tenant is evaluating more than one space. Any problems in providing data reflects poorly on the landlord and provides an advantage to the competition.

• Feasibility studies are the first step in seriously evaluating a space. You can make sure this stage happens quickly by providing your prospect and their designer with accurate CAD files to work with. Landlords that host with Space Database have instant access to this information by means of the Distribution CAD File.
  
• During the lease negotiation phase, it's essential to have quick access to the terms and lease conditions of other tenants in the building. When does the neighbour's lease expire? Are there options or encumbrances on the space? Are there spaces that you can offer an option on? Space Database worked with real estate executives to develop Lease Dashboard to support these needs.
  
• When a project moves into the detailed design stage, landlords are asked for documentation of as-built conditions. What is behind those walls and ceilings? If you can provide the technical drawings for previous work, you can dramatically reduce the time and cost for new fit-out projects. INDEXIO is a web based software and service that organizes all of your existing paper and electronic drawings into a simple and accessible online database.

John Zsolt's Vision For Space Database

Space Database was founded on the simple but powerful idea that something as basic as a CAD file could add value to a building.

John Zsolt came up with the idea for Space Database during the real estate recession of the 90's.  No one was hiring newly minted architects at that time so John created his own job.  As a self-employed designer, John worked on basic office interiors. Conventional wisdom dictated that a designer would measure a space and create a base drawing to work from - every single time there was a change in the building.  John thought there had to be a better way.

Through his real estate connections, John observed how landlords struggled with the task of calculating area for rents. Property managers used measuring tape, grid paper and calculators.  Was this accurate? There had to be a better way.

Around this time, CAD was becoming mainstream.  Most architects used it simply to speed up the drafting process. John saw that it opened up new possibilities.  What if a landlord had a complete set of accurate surveyed CAD files?  What if these files could be easily distributed to designers?  Once set up, these files would be easy to maintain even if there was a great deal of change in the building.

John's insight was that landlords did not just need buildings surveyed, they also needed tools to leverage the data created; tools to help them improve business processes.

Over the years we have built on this idea to the point where we support several aspects of commercial real estate through outsourced information management solutions.

We help managers make more informed decisions.  Managing a portfolio of buildings as financial assets is very difficult. It requires quick access to complex interrelated data.  Lease Dashboard presents data at every level of a portfolio, from overall performance metrics, to detailed stacking plans through to lease abstracts and floor plans. Using Dashboard helps Space Database clients make better investment decisions.

We save time and money for building operations. Tenant improvement work can be slow and expensive if documentation on technical systems is incomplete.  INDEXIO organizes a myriad of old electronic and paper building documents into a simple, accessible and easy to use resource.  Timely access to archival documents saves time for property managers and saves money on consulting fees.

We provide powerful marketing and leasing tools.  In a competitive leasing market, it becomes increasingly difficult for leasing managers  to stand out and engage prospective clients.  Buildings hosted with Space Database benefit from accurate CAD files, 3D marketing drawings, data driven stacking plans and web ads in mainstream media. Space Database delivers a significant marketing edge by leveraging the information that landlords already have.

In each of these cases, we don't simply provide a service.  We provide a service that integrates to, and supports a key business process.  Just as John did when he came up with the idea of managing CAD files, we are thinking about how to make our clients more effective at what they do.

Space Database is far from finished.  We still have lots of ambitious plans and ideas that we are working on.  It is such a tragedy that John will not be here to see them through.

The Space Database team is dedicated to realizing John's vision.  We are committed to building a company the way that John would have wanted it done.

John Zsolt

It is now one week ago that my dear friend and business partner died suddenly in a snowboarding accident. John had a close and loving family who will miss him terribly. It's been a awful shock for all of us at Space Database as he was a friend to all that worked with him. He always had time for his colleagues and would always go out of his way to help in any way he could.

The kindness, helpfulness and goodwill that John spread around him was reflected in all the messages of condolence that we received but even more so in the sheer numbers that turned out at his visitation, funeral and wake. People lined up for an hour and half to pay their respects at the funeral home. The church was full beyond capacity and the wake filled a very large bar and restaurant - standing room only.

John touched so many people. He will be missed deeply; far and wide.