Eastdil's Brave New World of
E-teasers and Virtual Data Rooms

Digitizing Investment Sales... Is your company more productive in 2001? Translation: Do you make more money with the same amount of effort?  No way.  At least that's the conclusion of McKinsey & Company's study, which found that only six industries -- retail, wholesale, telecommunications, securities, the assembly of computers and the manufacture of semiconductors -- realized significant gains from information technology investment in the late 1990's.  (New York Times, October 17, 2001)  Not real estate.  Oops.   Maybe we should think about technology investing as protection money.  If you don't invest, you may have an "accident."  I mean, "You will not be competitive." 

So here's a positive technology story from Adrienne Rice with Eastdil in Atlanta.  Rice raves about Real Capital Markets' web-based e-teasers for potential investors and Deal Management Systems' virtual data rooms for investors to review documentation online.  "The idea is to get an investor to review preliminary info, see if it fits their investment criteria, and then execute an attached PDF Confidentiality Agreement. ...  I allow $2,500 for the e-teaser in my marketing budget, but this price varies -- especially if we do a portfolio of properties. ...  We send anywhere between 40 and 350 e-teasers per property. [Full Disclosure: Rice is quoting ballpark numbers!]

"For certain properties we may set up a virtual data room similar to what we normally call a War Room at the property. ...  Depending on their security level, investors can access copies of entire leases and amendments, surveys, environmental reports, property condition reports, mechanical and systems specs and data, service contracts, floor plans, title information, etc. ...  The cost varies depending on the magnitude of the project.  For example, if you have 5,000 pages to scan and set-up the whole virtual data room, it could be $5,000.  I think a lot of it may depend on the complexity, amount of paper, number of properties, etc."

PikeNet Dispatch... Remember, the Dispatch is FREE.  So why not sign up your whole company?  If the Dispatch doesn't make you more money, it will keep you competitive.  I guarantee it!  Interested?  Send me e-mail.  Thanks.

--Peter Pike / ppike@pikenet.com