BY: JOSH YOUNG, FOUNDER & CEO, RAISAL

Recently I joined 36,000 thousand people and 1,000 exhibitors at RECon 2016 in Las Vegas. The annual conference, put on by ICSC, “is the global convention for the shopping center industry.” It’s basically 3 days of non-stop opportunities to network, make deals, and see the future of the retail and CRE industry up close. Wearing a comfortable pair of shoes is a must.

Now, if you know anything about commercial real estate, you know that the industry has been hesitant to embrace change. Until recently, processes developed decades ago were still common place. And that’s not to say the players involved — borrowers, brokers, lenders, attorneys, etc. — didn’t get the job done. But, many of us felt the industry could be better served if we leveraged technology which is why we created Raisal, to connect commercial borrowers to lenders online in an easy to use platform speeding the velocity of the transaction rather than using the archaic way of finding lenders.

Technology certainly isn’t new. It’s being used successfully in many other sectors of the economy, including residential real estate. Over the past several months, we’ve hit a tipping point and tech has finally made it’s way to the forefront of commercial real estate.

Arnaud Karsenti, Managing Principal, 13th Floor Investments (left), Joshua E. Young, Founder, Raisal (middle), Adam Lustig, Partner, Bilzin Sumberg (right)

Walking through the halls of RECon, my team and I witnessed an industry embracing the beginning of a tech revolution in commercial real estate. For an industry that skews to an older demographic, RECon attracted entire sections filled with vibrant startup energy.

Virtually everyone I met was excited to change the way they do business and make it more efficient.

As someone who has experienced commercial real estate as an attorney and now as a tech CEO, it feels like the dawn of a new era. I’m humbled and excited to be a part of this revolution.

Here’s a short list of attending companies that are fueling the commercial real estate industry into the 21st century.

Brevitas was founded as an exclusive marketplace for the acquisition and disposition of commercial real estate assets. Built for owners, principals, and brokers who are dissatisfied with traditional methods to acquire and/or sell CRE Assets. Focused on private, open, and off market listings, Brevitas is an international platform that provides security, efficiency, and exposure to qualified investors. Brevitas has a list of 22 other CRE tech game changers.

Buildout is a marketing platform that streamlines the process of listing a property from start to finish. It allows you to create attractive, brand compliant marketing documents, build full HTML email campaigns, get automated retailer maps & demographics, instantly list properties across the web, update your company website and create document vaults. From one-person shops to national enterprises, companies across the country use Buildout to beat the competition.

CREXi is a commercial real estate marketplace that simplifies transactions for brokers with a suite of easy-to-use tools to manage the entire process from listing to closing. Bringing the traditional CRE sales process online, CREXi leverages the latest advances in technology to make transactions ultra efficient.

The entire process wouldn’t be complete without the financing component. I’m proud to say that Raisal is a leading fintech company, and one of the few aimed at the debt side of the market. Raisal is a cloud-based, online platform that uses a matching algorithm and a creative application to efficiently match up borrowers with the right lenders. Raisal’s lender network includes local and national banks, CMBS conduits, bridge lenders, and other direct institutional lenders. With the click of button, borrowers can obtain multiple bids from multiple lenders and compare their options.

This list just scratches the surface. Let’s not stop here — Please add the ones I missed in the comments!