## DIY Aims to Streamline Commercial Real Estate with Tech-Focused Approach
**Key Takeaways:**
– DIY, a tech-based platform, seeks to improve commercial real estate transactions by offering software tools, services, and an affordable talent pool to brokers, managing directors, lenders, and property owners.
– CEO and founder Andrew Bermudez, a former commercial real estate broker, aims to address the challenges brokers face, including managing email overload, streamlining data, and efficiently marketing properties to the right buyers.
– Bermudez foresees a future with more AI-driven solutions, but recognizes that many brokers have limited tech expertise and require user-friendly programs.
– He believes there’s a significant opportunity for a company to fill the gap in the commercial real estate space, particularly in providing more streamlined lead generation and marketing tools.
**DIY Tackling Tech Gap in Traditional Industry**
As the world of real estate increasingly embraces technology, one company, DIY, is aiming to bridge the tech gap in the often traditional commercial real estate sector. Founded by Andrew Bermudez, a former commercial real estate broker who previously built a successful career by leveraging technology, DIY offers a suite of tools and services designed to empower brokers and other industry professionals to manage their business more efficiently and effectively.
“It’s unreal,” says Bermudez, “I’m very passionate about commercial real estate technology and the future of commercial real estate.”
Bermudez’s journey to founding DIY began with his own experiences as a broker. “I was top five of the top 10 [brokers] and I had a great team,” he says. However, his success stemmed from his coding background, which allowed him to utilize technology to gain an edge in the industry.
“You know I used to like buy keywords like in the early days of Google, when they were just getting going and it was pennies,” Bermudez recalls. “Now you try to buy the word ‘office’ and it’s $22 a click.”
This early experience cemented his belief in the power of technology to transform the industry. However, he quickly realized that many other brokers lacked the technical skills to keep up.
“A lot of my clients were software companies, technology companies, some of them had sold their companies and become Angel Investors or Venture capitalists,” he says. “They would always say, ‘Dude, you’re not a commercial real estate guy, you’re a tech guy. That’s not commercial real estate, you should start something.’ ”
Though he initially resisted, the entrepreneurial bug eventually bit. After a few failed ventures, he launched DIY eight years ago. The company has experienced significant growth, now employing over 100 people and generating millions in revenue.
**A Suite of Tools for Brokers Facing Challenges**
DIY offers a range of services to address the needs of busy commercial real estate professionals. They offer a free listing platform, allowing brokers to list properties for sale or lease. In addition, they provide tools for lead generation, including virtual assistants who can handle outreach tasks like making calls and sending emails to potential buyers. Other services include marketing and graphic design, enabling brokers to create brochures, property flyers, and social media content.
DIY also offers a range of services designed to free up brokers’ time and help them focus on higher-revenue generating activities. This includes tasks such as email management, responding to listing inquiries, updating prospect reports, managing calendars, and even handling transaction management and database maintenance.
“Pretty much it can be anything from, like, drafting AIS leases, PSAs, or even commission vouchers,” explains Bermudez. “Everybody operates differently, that’s it, that’s all you guys do.”
**The Future of Commercial Real Estate Tech**
While DIY focuses on addressing the immediate needs of brokers with technology-based solutions, Bermudez sees significant potential for further disruption with the emergence of artificial intelligence (AI).
“I don’t think the broker is ever going to go away, especially in commercial real estate,” he says, noting the unique nature of commercial real estate transactions. “The market tends to be a lot smaller. It’s not like you buy a house and then maybe buy another one or two. You don’t familiarize yourself with the lease terms… it’s a lot like Investment Banking. You really need somebody who understands this.”
He believes AI will play a major role in making brokers more productive, particularly in areas like email management, lead generation, and data analysis.
“We have virtual assistance that manage a broker’s email— that’s the biggest complaint we get from brokers is how much email they get,” says Bermudez. “Things fall through the cracks and they don’t even know how to delegate email. We have a pretty good program where we just show them the best way to do it, and they just start nodding because it makes sense.”
He envisions a future where AI can automate tasks, such as responding to listing inquiries, updating prospect reports, and even analyzing market data to identify potential opportunities.
“There’s a lot of data entry that goes into commercial real estate, and moving data from one side to the other,” says Bermudez. “If you do an export from this Property database, but then you want to capture all that data from another property ownership database, and you want to kind of blend them into two and see what the truth is…that can be done in a combination with data warehouse technology.”
With AI playing a more prominent role, the challenge, Bermudez believes, is to create solutions that are user-friendly and accessible to brokers, many of whom may not be technologically adept.
“A lot of brokers are not techy,” Bermudez acknowledges. “They can do email, they can do calendars, they can do Microsoft Word. But their time doesn’t allow them to think about this stuff, or learn the stuff. So whatever solution comes through, it has to be semi-automated, or it has to do the work for the broker so they don’t have to think about it. And it has to be really easy user interfaces.”
**The Opportunity for Disruption**
Bermudez remains optimistic about the future of commercial real estate tech, and he sees a glaring opportunity for disruption, particularly within the lead generation and marketing space.
“We all use CoStar— CoStar is the commercial MLS if you will,” he says. “CoStar, LoopNet… that’s what brokers used to find properties. I have found this year, 2024, with the Homes.com acquisition of CoStar, they’ve just taken their eye off the ball in commercial real estate. They’re head down, ready to take over residential. And in my opinion, we’re getting left out.”
He believes CoStar has neglected the needs of commercial real estate professionals, leaving a void in the market for companies like DIY to fill.
“There’s a lot of things that CoStar doesn’t provide that makes me pull my hair out. Let me give you an example, if I want to buy a house, I call my realtor and she programs in my criteria. Every morning at 4:00 AM, I get an email with all the houses that just hit the market, within my criteria. Then I go shopping, I tell her which one I like, and then we go preview. That does not exist in commercial real estate,” he says.
“I’ve been telling my CoStar people this for years. Oh, this would be so easy if I could just…and my clients ask me the same thing. Can’t you do something where you create a search and then it comes to my inbox? And the answer is, no,” he says.
He believes that the next five years will see the emergence of solutions that address this key shortcoming in the market by creating more streamlined lead generation and marketing tools.
“There is so much friction in commercial real estate when it comes to taking property and putting it in front of a prospect,” he says. “I think the next five years, hopefully, will give us some way to solve that issue. Because it’s horrendous right now. Deals are missed because of all the friction. If that makes sense.”
**Closing the Gap: A Challenge for the Industry**
Bermudez sees his company as playing a pivotal role in bridging the gap between the traditional world of commercial real estate and the rapidly evolving digital landscape.
“It’s really opportunistic,” he says, “and you’ve got to keep in mind that a lot of people who join commercial real estate tend to be former athletes. They’re not usually the people who played a lot of video games. They’re not really the people who spent a ton of time on Facebook or a ton of time on Twitter, etc. You need that type of person to go there. It’s very rare that you find somebody who is comp-competition and discipline-driven that also does these things.”
While the challenge of bridging the tech gap in commercial real estate remains, Bermudez and DIY are committed to developing innovative solutions to address these issues. Their focus on streamlining workflows, automating tasks, and providing access to affordable talent positions them to be a key player in shaping the future of the industry.