1. Prospecting – Properties received from broker relationships or researched independently that the firm may visit and perform light, initial underwriting on
2. Letter of Intent Submitted – Deals the firm submitted an offer on
3. Under Contract – Deals with an existing binding contract progressing through the underwriting, due diligence, and closing phases
4. Closed – Deals that a firm has successfully acquired (these properties typically move on to their the asset management team)
5. Dead – Deals the team prospected but did not move forward on for various reasons, moving to Dead after any stage of their pipeline
6. Tracking – Deals that the team may not be actively pursued, but are good to know for various reasons (building comparables, understanding market trends, etc.)

While deal statuses provide informative, high-level information on deals, effective pipelines should also include relevant deal and property information along with critical team deadlines. In order to compete for each deal, teams must consider tracking the call for offer dates, PSA execution deadlines, due diligence expiration dates, and closing dates. Including this data allows team members to easily see the most important metrics and analysis on deals, and gives investment teams the ability to quickly share information with executives who wish to understand the landscape of the deals the firm is participating in. For executives, it is critical to stay abreast of all the prospecting and closing activity as well as what deals are missed or passed on. This level of data awareness enables firms to identify consistent bottlenecks in their diligence process. Reducing these roadblocks inevitably leads to more effective deal execution,  which increases the pipeline, which then enables the firm to prospect and close more deals.

In our discussions with CRE firms who are looking for smarter ways to manage their pipeline, the two most frequently heard issues include pipeline collaboration and pipeline reconfiguration as their company evolves over time. The challenge with leveraging a static document to track and share information across a small or large team is that only one team member can edit the pipeline document at a time.  Duplicate versions of the same document lead to inefficiencies and information never making it to the appropriate party. Additionally, as firm’s processes and executives change over time, there’s no simple way to change the current information being tracked on the pipeline report. This leads to teams spending hours digging through supplemental spreadsheets to add historical data to their pipeline report, much of which is inaccurate.

These inefficiencies have been top of mind for us at Dealpath since we began building our platform, especially for CRE firms. We designed and constructed Dealpath on the foundation that enabling teams to effectively track their deal pipeline is the first necessary component to achieving success in closing the right deals for the firm. With Dealpath, customers are able to create a single or multiple personal or shared pipeline reports consisting of different information that they can effectively collaborate on from anywhere with their team. They’ve said goodbye to adding a “v2, v3, v4…” to the end of their excel document names and wondering if they are looking at the most up-to-date version. Additionally, firms can reconfigure their pipeline report by adding or removing data with just a few clicks as their needs change over time.

We’d love to hear from you to explore ways your team can adopt a pipeline tracking process that allows your firm to better document and collaborate on your real estate deal pipeline as you strive to gain a competitive edge in the industry.

The post How to Use Technology to Manage Your Real Estate Deal Pipeline appeared first on Dealpath.

Within the commercial real estate industry, this process is getting increasingly difficult to manage. The entire CRE deal management process; from prospecting all the way to closing on a newly acquired or developed property uses three common tools:

1. Excel Spreadsheets for tracking
   • A Deal Pipeline spreadsheet contains a list of deals in various stages of the firm’s pipeline and corresponding, important metrics on each property, such as building type, net rentable area, tenant occupancy, and more. This spreadsheet usually consists of deals in all stages of a firm’s pipeline, including dead deals, which have been prospected out by acquisition analysts and managers and can be a list as long as 1,000+ deals.
   • Each deal typically has a Deal Tasklist spreadsheet that contains a template of tasks that needs to be completed by the team throughout the acquisition and development processes to fully execute the deal. This spreadsheet assigns accountability of specific tasks to members of the team and shows specific due dates to ensure each phase of the deal is completed on time.
2. Cloud Storage for file management
   • Firms often use a standalone cloud storage provider, such as Dropbox or Box, to store deal files and share them internally and with third parties. This allows them to better organize files (by deals, region, or any other method) and better coordinate with team members and external deal members by sharing file links.
3. Email and Phone for collaboration
   • Team members rely heavily on long, multi-party email threads and phone calls to get status updates and coordinate on deals. With complex transactions involving multiple parties (brokers, attorneys, consultants, lenders, etc.) making sure that tasks are completed on time and correctly can require heavy coordination.

While spreadsheets can work for tracking data, commercial real estate teams will struggle to effectively collaborate on deal pipeline reports and task list spreadsheets. This leads to missed critical dates, incomplete tasks throughout the deal process, and confusion amongst team members on the status of a deal. Additionally, more often than not, there are multiple versions of these spreadsheets floating around the firm, leaving team members unsure if they’re reviewing and taking action on the correct, most up-to-date deal information.

Because of the deal tracking and collaboration limitations in current deal flow processes, firms are beginning to leverage deal tracking and collaboration tools, like Dealpath, to increase team’s productivity, reduce their risk profile, and add the ability to scale deal throughput.

It is critical to have a system of record for a firm’s deal pipeline, a clear progression of tasks based on the type of deal transaction, and deal files. This enables CRE teams to work together more efficiently, quickly report on all or a subset of their deals, and intuitively find the files they’re looking for with one quick search. Each commercial real estate firm operates in their own unique way – how they track their deals, tasks, assign work, report on deals and assignments, and store deal files. It is critical to not only find tools flexible to work how you do, but also gives you the power to amplify your team’s abilities through efficiency, collaboration, and data.

The next time you find yourself asking around for the status of a deal or task, wondering if you’re viewing the most up-to-date deal document, or scrolling through a long email thread looking for something shared with you in the past, remember there are deal tracking and collaboration technology that can help your firm reach the productivity and results you need to execute more deals with fewer errors, faster.

If you’re interested in finding out how Dealpath can help you with your needs (or have questions or feedback about my post), email me at success@dealpath.com.

The post CRE Firms Can Increase Productivity and Accuracy by Leveraging New Tools appeared first on Dealpath.