ROFO- putting business and available space together. This site was honored with a Webby Award. This IS the future of commercial real estate online.

Arcestra- is a revolutionary 3D visualization and marketing online service that helps lease commercial real estate quickly. Did I say THIS is the future of commercial real estate?

Creopoint.com- they say 1) rapid access to businesses and experts 2) improved digital branding 3) wants/haves and corresponding invitations to network 4) member viewpoints and forums 5) CRE news aggregated from around the globe 6) industry-focused search to avoid clutter.  I say #1 worldwide commercial real estate network?

Mos Atlanta- the best personal commercial real estate agent blog out today. Period.

Argussoftware- the best software in commercial real estate for property management, asset valuation, portfolio management, budgeting, forecasting, reporting and lease management.

Loopnet- iPhone search app. One of the first.

Zstrata- commercial real estate CRM.

Space for lease- well… space for lease.

OSCRE- commercial real estate data standards. But, is it working?

Intelligent buildings- look in the library section. Great white paper intelligence.

Realcretv- commercial real estate TV. Yes ,yes, yes but, will anyone watch?

Green building law blog- just cool content.

Transaction data and analytics- if you are big time, this is a must have.

Real estate investing news watch- real estate investment blog and news aggregator. Great info.

Realcomm- commercial real estate corp., commercial real estate tech and automation.  A must attend event.

Core Net Global- big time corp. global association.

Green exam prep- LEED training classes. Green is gold. I can’t believe I still use that line.

CPExecutive- commercial real estate executive news. Here are the hitters and this is what they read.

Crew Crew Crew- commercial real estate women… love the ladies.

Real Estate Forum Magazine- hardcore corporate, but a must read.

Realcorner- I still think I’m banned or blocked or something.

Visual Lease- leasing software. Just stunning.

Google Sketch Up-  3D buildings. Still fun and cool to play with, but also practical.

Chain Links- retail leasing group.

Property Week- from the UK. Commercial real estate, best site over all.

Multi-family Insiders- the name says it all.

Investor Loft- investor database.

REIS- commercial real estate property stats and data.

Biggerpockets.com- 50,000 members and growing.

CCIM- the best Commercial Real Estate education, period.

Urban Land Institute- best overall commercial real estate organization.

Retail Traffic- design, development, retail, finance. Kick ass blog too.

What made this advertisement so effective? Lease managers and lease administrators were struggling with manual processes and using programs that were not designed for lease administration, like Microsoft Excel. Visual Lease revolutionized the lease management software industry by offering an affordable solution for just a few leases, or a few hundred.

Interestingly enough, the message in this article is just as powerful today. Visual Lease still puts all of the information you need to manage your real estate at your fingertips. Visual Lease Web 2.0 is a powerful lease management Software as a Service (SaaS) that has revolutionized the ease of use, reporting, and flexibility of managing real estate leases. Whether you have a few locations, or a few hundred, Visual Lease will still save you time, money and countless headaches.

“Do you know when your lease expires?” If you do not have the answer at your fingertips, contact us today for a demonstration of Visual Lease.

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Now, with Visual Lease all of the information you need to manage your real estate is at your fingertips.  After Years of planning and extensive research, there is finally a powerful lease management software program that will revolutionize the way you control, track and administer your real estate usage.  Whether you have a few locations, or a few hundred, Visual Lease will save you time, money and countless headaches.

The responsibility of monitoring these dates often falls on each department.  Some of the common tools used to manage critical lease dates are Microsoft Excel, Word, and Outlook. The problem with these solutions is that they all lack centralized control.  Although flexible, Microsoft Excel and Word lack notifications, reporting, and detailed lease information.  Outlook provides calendar reminders but lacks any reference to the lease.  Lastly, when lease documents are directly referenced, the process of finding information is tedious, especially if the document is not scanned.

Lease management software is therefore essential to any company with a multi-lease portfolio.  An effective system will centralize critical dates, lease information, and contacts information of those to be notified.

Top 5 Critical Date Tracking Features

1.  Critical date email reminders delivered to specified contacts.
2.  A critical date dashboard that displays upcoming dates across the portfolio.
3.  Ability to search, report and export all critical dates to Microsoft Excel.
4.  Ability to specify which contacts receive each critical date alert.  For example, accounting only wants critical date alerts for changes in real estate lease expenses or regional managers receive notifications for leases in their territory.
5.  Unlimited user defined fields with associated critical date alerts.  This will enable any and every piece of information to be tracked.

Real estate leases can be very complex documents.  Tenants and landlords pay hundreds of thousands of dollars to brokers and others to negotiate favorable lease terms, but neglect to follow through with an effective way to manage the transactions once the deals are consummated.

In order to maintain control over these transactions and reduce the incidence of error or lost opportunities, many companies implement a lease management software system and expect that it will magically resolve all of their issues. However, the lease management software will only be effective if the company first designs and documents its Real Estate Lease Information Flow (RELIF) and then develops and implements a solution designed to monitor that flow.

To effectively track the flow of information the following steps can be taken.  This is part of a four part series exploring How Well Does Your Real Estate Lease Management Process Flow:

Step 1 – Define existing processes, identify hot spots and information required for and from each document that touches the lease deal.
Visualize the path that documents take, and then identify any redundancies, bottle-necks or other problem areas that can slow the process.  Be sure to think about all documents, including leases, amendments, estoppels, SNDAs, landlord invoices, change of address letters, etc.

For example, visualize what would happen if an estoppel letter were to come in.  Who should receive it, and what should happen prior to execution?  If your company requires (as it should) legal department approval, understand what documents and information it would need.  Consider who should be consulted in order to find out whether any claims exist against the landlord, the status of the rent account, etc.

Step 2 – Develop a documented process/system to keep hot spots and reporting requirements in focus.
By communicating with each department to determine their reporting needs, rework the process eliminating redundancies, bottlenecks and problem areas.  Most importantly, document the process with a flow-chart or an outline so each department/person can see how they fit into the overall picture.

Step 3 -Assign qualified personnel ownership of information.
Once you have the documents flowing correctly, delegate the responsibility of capturing missing information to those who understand the process.  They then take ownership of the data’s integrity, and retrieving missing information becomes their responsibility.

Step 4 – Monitor compliance using tools tailored around your processes.
Develop management reports that quickly identify errors in data or changes in your portfolio. For example, in order to ensure that changes in rent are supported by the lease documents, you should produce a report that identifies changes in rent from one month to the next.  Similarly, in order to measure performance of disposition activities, create a report that compares changes in net absorption of vacant, surplus and subleased space within the portfolio.

Technology is a great tool for automation, but it is only as effective as your Real Estate Lease Information Flow is developed, documented and monitored over time.

What is the problem? Lease information is not organized, centralized or easily accessible for answering questions and making decisions.

When is the problem most apparent? The process breaks down due to time requirements, mistakes and inability to adapt to changes in the portfolio.  Often the same data is being recovered over and over and the same questions are routinely being answered, if at all.  Lease data is not easily gathered for reporting and budgeting.

Where is the data and where is the work done? Lease data is confined to the filing cabinet and is not in a format where strategic business decisions can be made.  Lease administrators are limited to working in the office where they are close to hard copy lease documents for reference.

Why will I benefit? Lease management software like Visual Lease saves time and money on resources that can be redirected to focus on more strategic initiates.  It also saves money and eliminates the threat of missing critical dates, like renewal and termination options.  The cost of a missing an option often dwarfs the cost of the software.  Lease data can also be mined for budgeting, forecasting, and strategic planning. Visual Lease allows lease administrators to work anywhere, anytime.  Documents, contacts, lease clauses, financials and reports are available 7×24x365.

To effectively track the flow of information:

Step 4 – Monitor compliance using tools tailored around your processes.
Develop management reports that quickly identify errors in data or changes in your portfolio. For example, in order to ensure that changes in rent are supported by the lease documents, you should produce a report that identifies changes in rent from one month to the next.  Similarly, in order to measure performance of disposition activities, create a report that compares changes in net absorption of vacant, surplus and subleased space within the portfolio.

Technology is a great tool for automation, but it is only as effective as your Real Estate Lease Information Flow is developed, documented and monitored over time.

To effectively track the flow of information:

Step 3 -Assign qualified personnel ownership of information.
Once you have the documents flowing correctly, delegate the responsibility of capturing missing information to those who understand the process.  They then take ownership of the data’s integrity, and retrieving missing information becomes their responsibility.

To effectively track the flow of information:

Step 2 – Develop a documented process/system to keep hot spots and reporting requirements in focus.
By communicating with each department to determine their reporting needs, rework the process eliminating redundancies, bottlenecks and problem areas.  Most importantly, document the process with a flow-chart or an outline so each department/person can see how they fit into the overall picture.

In order to maintain control over these transactions and reduce the incidence of error or lost opportunities, many companies implement lease management software and expect that it will magically resolve all of their issues. However, the lease management software will only be effective if the company first designs and documents its Real Estate Lease Information Flow (RELIF) and then develops and implements a solution designed to monitor that flow.

During this 4 part series we will list the steps that can be take to effectively track the flow of information.

Step 1 – Define existing processes, identify hot spots and information required for and from each document that touches the lease deal.
Visualize the path that documents take, and then identify any redundancies, bottle-necks or other problem areas that can slow the process. Be sure to think about all documents, including leases, amendments, estoppels, SNDAs, landlord invoices, change of address letters, etc.

For example, visualize what would happen if an estoppel letter were to come in. Who should receive it, and what should happen prior to execution? If your company requires (as it should) legal department approval, understand what documents and information it would need. Consider who should be consulted in order to find out whether any claims exist against the landlord, the status of the rent account, etc.