Unpredictability, The Greatest Challenge to Tech CRE

Unpredictability is the biggest challenge to utilizing technology in commercial real estate investment. Investing often has moving parts and changes along the way, and at times, technology relies on predictability and logical forecasting. However, tech investment companies are making strides to make technology compatible with the flexibility needs of investing.

“Without a doubt, the dynamics of investments are one of the greatest challenges,” Jeff Holzmann, CEO of IIRR Management Services, a crowdfunded investment management firm, tells GlobeSt.com. “The issue is that very few things work according to original plans, and issues come up that no one could have foreseen. Examples include investors that passed away, investments that didn’t pay as projected, amounts that were entered in error, and so on.”

The caveat to investing is that each deal is different and, even with a strict strategy in place, deals are analyzed on a case-by-case basis. “Having worked on hundreds of deals across the country and in all CRE categories such as multifamily, industrial, self-storage, parking, office, and more, we learned how each deal is different and how the technology needs to be built to accommodate the specifics of each situation,” says Holzmann. “We also work with thousands of investors from all over the world, so we’ve learned what people expect from an IT system that manages billions of dollars of investors’ money.”

To adapt technology to the needs of investors, IRM is continually updating its technology. “We employ a tech team that constantly develops the platform and improves the procedures,” says Holzmann. “We also maintain a digital employee manual and solicit feedback from all of our teams in order improve it. Even if the technology platform is amazing, it’s only as good as the people who are trained to use it. We hold “all-hands” meetings several times a year to train the entire team on all the new features and learn from their hands on experience.”

In addition, the firm has updated its tax reporting system. “We’ve an ability to download financial history, classified all assets on a common tier system and much more,” says Holzmann. “We implemented these changes because we’ve listened to the customers, analyzed the feedback we received and thought out how to best design new technical features to serve the customers better. This makes the customers and the staff much happier and more motivated.”