Emerging Technology

January 22, 2015

When asked about the important emerging technologies in the marketplace, Tom Fink replies, “I think we still have a long way to go before technology is really a factor in the commercial real estate market space. But, I think it’s still an exciting time…There is a lot of room to grow."

He comments that commercial real estate still really loves its paper and its spreadsheets, but there has been more of an initiative to put the information on the internet so people can have access to it. The broker community seems to be a very popular target audience but he is starting to see more and more technologies that are targeted to help people that rent a lot of space in the market.

Transcript

Aaron Kaiser:Hello, I'm Aaron Kaiser, partner at EisnerAmper and Co-Chair of our firm's Real Estate Practice. It's my pleasure today to introduce Tom Fink, Senior Vice President and Managing Director of Trepp LLC. Trepp was founded in 1979 and is the leading provider of information analytics and technology to the commercial mortgage backed securities, commercial real estate and banking markets. Welcome Tom. We see that the Trepp last week sponsored a CRE tech intersect. What are the other emerging technologies that we see are important in the marketplace?
Tom Fink:Well, I think one of the things that we see in the technology space, Aaron, is that first of all, commercial real estate still really loves it's paper and it’s spreadsheet, but we are beginning to see a lot more efforts and a lot more initiatives to put the information that makes real estate Martin's clip on the Internet so people can have access to it.

So again, people are still trying to serve the broker community. That seems to be a very popular target. Though, we're starting to see more and more technologies that are really targeted to the tenants and the people that, you know, rent a lot of space in the market to help them do that. We're also beginning to see the emergence of crowdsourcing and internet raising of capital, so it's no longer but a big pitch book together. Go to one institution after another, talk to your friends and neighbors. It's put it up on the website and let people come in and take advantage of the crowdsourcing. So I think we still have a long way to go before technology is really a factor in the commercial real estate market space, but I think it's still an exciting time. I still think there's a lot of room to grow.
Aaron Kaiser:Thank you very much for your insights and thought leadership.
Tom Fink: Aaron. It was my pleasure. I've always liked working with you and the folks at EisnerAmper.
Aaron Kaiser:Thank you so much. For more information, go to EisnerAmper.com.

About Aaron Kaiser

Aaron Kaiser is an Audit Partner and member of the Professional Practice Group and a leader in the Real Estate accounting services group.

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