Commercial Investment Real Estate March/April 2018 | Page 50

CCIM
CONNECTIONS
Equal Partners
by Sarah Hoban
echnology and commercial real estate have danced together
for many years, but they weren’t partners. “2018, for me,
is the year of PropTech,” says Camille Renshaw, CCIM.
Renshaw aims to play a big part in the merger of tech
and commercial real estate. She’s co-founder of Brokers+Engineers,
a tech-driven brokerage firm and trading platform for net lease real
estate, which launched in December 2017.
Net lease is ripe for tech transformation, Renshaw says, noting
that the U.S. market is estimated at $6.5 trillion. “It’s a vast mar-
ketplace, and there’s a core market in need of understanding the
market-specific data analytics. For example, looking at why these
things trade, what they should trade at — that’s really untapped.
Net lease is unique; its characteristics create different metrics
for valuation.”
One of Brokers+Engineers’ initial products will focus on predic-
tive pricing. The company is “in the midst of creating the largest
data set for net lease that’s in existence” and has created an algo-
rithm that develops pricing for clients.
Brokers+Engineers’ second product is aimed at brokers accom-
plishing 1031 exchanges. A few years ago, Renshaw completed
a large 1031 deal that included 30 principals with equal voting
rights. To aid future 1031 exchanges, her team members developed
a process that scanned the market for all available deals; they then
manually sorted through them.
Brokers+Engineers turned this process into a product that lever-
ages artificial intelligence, so the company can use one broker
instead of five and presents options to the client in a clean interface
dashboard, rather than a spreadsheet.
Despite the emphasis on technology, “for our clients, a lot won’t
change,” Renshaw says. “They’re going to interface directly with
senior brokers.
“Our mission statement is to help virtually anyone intelligently
trade net lease. People who maybe didn’t play in the market before
will now have greater access and understanding of what the net
lease market is. And the more people who play in our sector, the
more liquid it will be.”
Renshaw also will continue her efforts to attract more women to
commercial real estate. “We are hugely invested in what women are
doing in the field,” she says. “It’s a great time for women to enter
the field — there are so many opportunities. People are beginning
to understand that companies have a higher chance of success if
they have truly diverse boards and truly diverse executive teams.”
T
Sarah Hoban is a freelance writer based in the Chicago area.
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March | April 2018
COMMERCIAL INVESTMENT REAL ESTATE