A recent meeting with an old friend, Revels Cayton, Jr. of Architask, highlighted the extraordinary savings inherent in outsourcing. Architask, for example, outsources the preparation of construction drawings and digital modeling to highly educated professionals in Bucharest, Romania, at a cost of $25 per hour. This is far less than the cost incurred by major U.S. architectural firms, where, according to Cayton, construction drawings account for roughly 40% of architectural fees.

So now I'm wondering. What about outsourcing ARGUS runs for analyzing property acquisitions? What about security personnel monitoring security cameras of your facilities? Finally, what about corporate lease abstraction? In theory, all these tasks could be done by good English speakers overseas.

Has anybody outsourced a significant function of the real estate management process? Is this a practical way for real estate service providers to become more efficient? Send e-mail. I'll report more in a future Dispatch.

--Peter Pike