How A New CRE Platform Is Helping Owners And Brokers Unlock The True Demand For Their Assets

Just because something exists doesn’t mean there’s a market for it. 

Markets begin when demand for a product begins. This is especially true of commercial real estate, where demand has historically been hard to predict and access to supply is often limited. 

“If we knew the demand for a market months or quarters ahead of time, it would be easier to bring well-aligned supply to it instead of throwing everything at it and seeing what sticks,” MarketMaker CRE founder and CEO Jeff Smith said. “But with CRE, you’re facing several challenges that keep that true supply and demand from being known.” 

Of the trillions of dollars of CRE assets that exist, just a small fraction is transacted each year, Smith said. This is due, in part, to a large portion of the supply being inaccessible to brokers and buyers alike. 

“The most active institutional buyers are not necessarily looking for properties already posted across every listing platform,” Smith said. “They are often searching for privately owned assets that are not publicly marketed, not listed and not broadly shopped to the marketplace. These are properties owned by individuals and organizations that would consider selling at the right price — but have no interest in launching a public sales process.”

These types of assets are what AssetAlign.com was designed for, Smith said. Asset Align is a free, fast and private site that acts as a direct conduit to CRE’s most active buyers for private owners and commercial brokers. 

Asset Align allows a building owner or broker to enter their address, property type, subtype and approximate price range. From there, they are shown active buyers in that price range — public and private REITs, investment funds, family offices and institutional investors — with acquisition criteria already entered into the MarketMaker CRE platform. 

Fueled by MarketMaker CRE’s hundreds of billions in off-market demand, growing by tens of billions per month, it continuously refines and narrows results, identifying the best-aligned buyers. When alignment exists, users can request direct communication with the actual acquisition decision-maker.

“Asset Align is actual intelligence, not artificial intelligence,” Smith said. “It accesses the real-time input, acquisition and disposition plans of major institutional investors. It was designed for the vast inventory of commercial real estate that exists beyond public listings — the assets that are not actively for sale but may be privately available to a serious buyer.”

Smith said every broker wants to transact with a top-tier REIT or fund, but few get the opportunity. Now, all have equal access to align their supply performance criteria with the planned acquisition criteria of top-tier buyers through Asset Align, he said. 

While the platform enables direct conversations between buyers and sellers early, it very much protects the broker, Smith said. Asset Align has commissions already ready for the brokers, all covered on the buy-side, and any sell-side is theirs, too. 

The platform only includes off-market and private assets, no public supply, he said. 

“If a broker puts something on LoopNet, they can't put it on Asset Align,” Smith said. “But if they do put it on Asset Align first, it will connect them to buyers directly. If there isn't a buyer present, they can simply save that search, and they'll be notified when the demand shows up and, of course, be free to post at will and have both bases covered.”

Asset Align provides access to more than $1.5T in active acquisition demand, with new institutional buying plans being added continuously. More than 150 institutional buyers enter and update acquisition criteria each month, creating a living marketplace driven by real-world purchasing intentions, Smith said. 

One of the goals, he explained, is to educate brokers on value and demand, so they can make more efficient, intelligent transaction decisions. Pricing is not what sells a property; demand is. So being able to get a clear picture of a property's demand, with one-click access to an optimally aligned counterparty, is valuable for both brokers and sellers, he said. 

“Looking backward was historically the best way to price something. Looking ahead at actual, approved, planned intel is more informative,” Smith said. “With Asset Align, you can see how many buyers are actually interested in a property at various price points and make smarter pricing decisions.” 

Property demand is growing quickly across asset classes, some quicker than others, so if a buyer is not there today, the vetted buyer base is growing by hundreds of billions per month, he said. 

“So check back often. It's fast and free,” Smith said. 

Smith said he sees an opportunity for more industry-elevating tech releases in the CRE world and teased additional platforms the industry should be looking out for. One is ICREPro.com, a new brokerage certification that elevates, preserves and protects brokers, allowing them to transact much faster with much larger bases of supply and demand in the market. He will also soon be rolling out another tool within the ICRE Pro independent broker Networking CRM, a dual-sided virtual data room closing system that enables real-time meeting of the minds. 

“It’s always surprised me that the VDR is one-sided,” Smith said. “We put all our information into it, give it to the title company and hope the other side is doing it, too. What if we could all do that, step by step in unison?” 

Most of the tools Smith is working on are based on tapping into that type of common-sense thinking and bringing it to CRE as a whole, he said.

“People often look at our tools and say, ‘This is just common sense. Why haven’t we done this sooner?’” Smith said. “I look forward to continuing to unfold the common-sense nature of how simple these solutions are and how much they help our marketplace.”

This article was produced in collaboration between Asset Align and Studio B. Bisnow news staff was not involved in the production of this content.

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