Strategy is sexy. It allows you to sit on a mountain top, take a big picture view and think about your company's portfolio is broad strokes. When it comes down to actually running your portfolio, though, you live in the world of tactical commercial real estate activities. Those activities -- some of which can be menial -- have to be done on time and accurately to ensure the best possible performance from your company's leased or owned spaces. Here are some of the most important tactics to use:
Maintaining Key Person Lists
Tactical commercial real estate doesn't start with buildings. It starts with people. Being able to get in touch not only with your organization's contacts at each location but also with third parties for each building ensures that you will have access to the people that can solve problems right when you have them. More than just maintaining the list, it is tactically wise to also maintain the underlying relationships so that you have a strong line of communication when you really need it.
Benchmarking Every Variable
While some corporate real estate departments still use Excel or other manual means to analyze their portfolios, installing specialized tactical commercial real estate software is a better option. This software collects all of your portfolio's data and allows you to report on just about any aspect of it. What this means is that you can benchmark sites against each other on very specific criteria. Detailed benchmarking lets you quickly identify usage or expense anomalies so that you can then dig deeper and find out how to reduce them and, hopefully, save money.
See REoptimizer®'s Benchmarking capabilities
Maintaining a Central Calendar
Knowing that you have to be in Fort Wayne on February 1 for a lease negotiation is great. However, it's even more important to know that you also have to be in Fresno on the same day for a walk through on a new build out. Having a central calendar that covers every action on every property, every relationship and every lease lets you see when you have conflicts coming. It also helps to make sure that you never miss important notification date and lets you travel more efficiently.
Storing Documents Digitally
For all of the good that automation brings, sometimes you need to go back to the actual document. When that happens, it's crucial to have the document where you can easily get at it. Typically, the best way to do this is to scan the document and put it in a digital storehouse. That way, it's safe and can be accessed from anywhere you find yourself. At the same time, it's also a good tactical commercial real estate practice to take the original paper documents and send them to a safe storage facility, just in case.
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