RealShare EXCLUSIVE: Experts Favor Real Estate, but With Caveats

Green was a member of a panel of brokers who generally feel optimistic about prospects for commercial real estate in the next 18 to 24 months, but the panel members also emphasized that investors need to examine each individual deal closely. "It's hard to generalize. You have to look at things street by street," said Robert Osbrink, a broker panel member and Orange County-based president of transaction services for Grubb & Ellis.On an advisors panel moderated by Michael Desiato, editor-in-chief of Real Estate Media Inc., Desiato asked each advisor to list what he considered the biggest risk facing the markets, and the answers ranged from interest rates to government regulation to the huge inflows of capital. Sanford Goodkin, chairman and CEO of Sanford R. Goodkin and Associates, said he worries that with so much money chasing real estate, "Risk is being priced out of the equation."Besides the brokers and advisor speakers, panelists at the conference included representatives from every realm of the industry, who addressed every facet of the commercial real markets, including lending, development, technology, insurance and emerging trends like the tenant-in-common phenomenon. A separate discussion of the tenant-in-common industry titled, "The Next Big Thing: The Who, What, Where, Why and How of Tenant-in-Common Investing," was one of the new features of Real Estate 2005 this year. Another was a special presentation of a Lifetime Achievement Award to George Smith, chairman of George Smith Partners Inc. Smith could not attend the conference to accept in person because he has been ill, but his son James Smith accepted the award for him and assured the audience that his father will be back in the office soon.In addition to the panelists, the event included a keynote address by Shorenstein Co. chairman and CEO Douglas W. Shorenstein, who was engaged in a Q&A session by Real Estate Media Inc. president and CEO Jonathan A. Schein. During the open conversation, Shorenstein elaborated about his firm's shift in philosophy. "In the past we were looking for assets. Now, we're looking for relationships."Monday marked the first time that the annual conference and networking event has been jointly produced by Real Estate Media Inc.'s RealShare organization, which acquired the 20-year-old RECG in November, and Schein opened the gathering by praising RECG founder Marty Stolzoff and declaring that RealShare will continue the 20-year tradition of "superb conferences" that Stolzoff has established. Following Schein's kickoff, the conference began with a panel of economists who all described themselves as optimistic about the national and California economies, but with some reservations about the likely impact of rising interest rates, the possibility of a cooling California housing market and only moderate job growth. Their outlook set the tone for the day, with most speakers throughout the event voicing confidence in the market but with some reservations.