What Did My Broker Know?
And When Did He/She Know It?

Early Warning, Please... January is the month of predictions, and we're all reading a slew of articles on real estate markets around the U.S. as brokers and research firms tout their analytical skills. So I'm imagining that I'm a corporate real estate director or maybe I'm an institutional investor. And I'm thinking. ... What is my service provider saying publicly? What does his/her latest internal research show?

This is a particularly acute question when markets turn sharply and published reports go out of date quickly. For example, let's take Insignia/ESG. Insignia's most recent research posted on the web is for the third quarter of 2001. Presumably Insignia is still gathering the statistics for the fourth quarter. My guess is that, when the research is ready, Insignia will print a report on calendar 2001, issue a press release and maybe predict 2002 trends. Something like, "In 2002, we predict office vacancy rates will..."

So if I'm paying a large service provider to represent my corporate space requirements or to manage my property portfolio, shouldn't they tell me first? And what better way to notify me than by e-mail? (You knew that there had to be a net angle here.) So I wonder. Is any national firm reporting regularly to its best clients by e-mail? If so, tell me more.

In the meantime, research firms like Reis and Torto Wheaton Research do provide online access for their customers to voluminous up-to-date statistics. And both firms publish free weekly e-mail reports for registered subscribers.

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--Peter Pike