The economy’s health is returning and, like young leaves in springtime, new jobs are beginning to bud. Yet, the recovering economy is not in steady bloom. The detritus of a long and blustery economic winter litters the real estate topography, shadowing the sun of increased demand. The recovery has its good days and its bad days – its strong weeks and its weak ones – like the intermittent cold rainy mornings and warm sunny days we all experience when life returns in April and May. However, like summer, recovery is inevitable. Yes I said it, inevitable. The recovery will happen – faster in some markets, slower in others – but those that prepare for it will prosper first and profit most.
The world of commercial real estate is caught in this seasonal economic struggle- typically two full quarters behind the highs and lows of the broad economy. Today, cap rates are slowly compressing with perceived property values increasing in advance of any real return in demand. Businesses are beginning to hire again, but only in certain sectors where growth is fueled by the promise of returning economic health. The blossoms are held back by debt struggles abroad; tragedy in the Gulf and aftermath of a long, dormant economy.
Tight budgets and cold economic winds have forced owners, managers and tenant occupants to use creative survival tactics. Smart commercial real estate companies are reaching out of the shadows and into the sun with concentrated marketing efforts that flag new and aggressive opportunities for their prospective tenants. A cost efficient reach into the sunlight through new, web-based identity tools, real estate centered search engine optimization and building awareness tools are an excellent and cost efficient means for supplementing the traditional broker channel.
New economies bear new tools and new methodologies for doing business. Proactive owners fearlessly invest in these ideas, enhancing their assets’ identities and significantly improving the chances of swift and prosperous recovery. They are leveraging powerful new technologies that have emerged from lean economic times. The promise of new growth will come to those who act. Those that wait may confront a late and deadly Frost.
Nature’s first green is gold,
Her hardest hue to hold.
Her early leaf’s a flower;
But only so an hour.
Then leaf subsides to leaf.
So Eden sank to grief,
So dawn goes down to day.
Nothing gold can stay.
