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Yaakov James Zar
Founder @ Lev
At Lev, we help commercial real estate owners get the right financing with the best experience.
Highlights
There’s something interesting I’ve been thinking about in CREF that I thought was worth sharing…
It seems like the number and size of independent CRE finance brokers/advisors is rapidly diminishing, and most offerings moving forward will be from organizations that are both lenders and brokers. These groups need additional tools to better compete in this evolving industry.
This seems to be caused by some of the recent fraud and fraud-adjacent activities in the market for the past several years (decade?), as well as attempts to vertically-integrate/make more money from transactions that sponsors do.
It has become (and is further becoming) very difficult for a third-party to originate an agency loan, which has led to more intermediaries further integrating into agency lending businesses. We’ve seen examples of this in the HFF/JLL deal several years ago, the Greystone/Cushman deal last year, and most recently, we’ve seen many top agency brokers move to work directly at agency lenders.
One effect of this on sponsors is that you have less options of truly independent third-party originators who are working across the market. It’s more important than ever to invest in more direct relationships with lenders (and, of course, Lev is ready and willing to support that).
One effect of this on brokers is that you need to somehow further differentiate your offerings to compete with groups who could offer full-service, direct lending alongside advisory and broker work (as groups like Walker & Dunlop and Berkadia have been doing for years).
For lenders, at least agency (and maybe some private) lenders, in order to keep your customers engaged with you, you might need to expand your product offerings beyond just originating for your own book, and also broker/advise on deals with third-party lenders.
I think we’ll see a lot more M&A activity (both firm-wide and individual, high-producing brokers changing shops) in the coming months.
This change is a significant factor in the rebound our industry will experience as interest rates go down and activity picks up. I think the shape of the CREF industry this cycle will be significantly different than it was pre-COVID and during ZIRP.
I am an optimist and believe that the business model innovation, along with technology innovation in this competitive market, will lead to exciting and positive outcomes for sponsors, brokers, lenders and every stakeholder in our industry.
I am excited to be part of supporting all of these stakeholders through our market-leading innovation at Lev for decades to come.
Our team is shipping impactful features for our customers too quickly for me to only post our professional videos, so here is an internal video of our new "track your pipeline via email" feature.
Our customers can just forward an email they got from their investment sales broker (or anyone) to [email protected] and we'll create the deal in their pipeline with a summary and a bunch of other details. They can then go to market for financing for that property in like 3 minutes.
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Mesh makes it much easier to stay in touch with the people you care about. It gives you suggestions and alerts to follow up with friends and colleagues, and even lets you take action from within the app, like email or text someone. Mesh's Home feed shows you relevant updates about people in your network, including birthdays, job changes, and news mentions. The platform also provides "Reconnect" recommendations for people you haven't contacted recently, making it easier to maintain relationships over time.
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Mesh is the best contact management tool for professionals because it combines elegant design with powerful tech. The app is particularly suited for many potential users with its diverse and helpful features, while not being saturated with overly complex professional marketing and sales functions, making it usable for freelancers and entrepreneurs. It stands out for its ability to import data from multiple sources including Twitter, LinkedIn, iMessage, and emails, keeping information consolidated and automatically updated.
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Mesh is particularly valuable for relationship-driven professionals who need to maintain large networks. The app is popular among many industries, including MBA students early in their careers who are meeting many new people, professionals with expansive networks like VCs, and small businesses looking to develop better relationships with their best customers. Anyone who values maintaining meaningful connections and wants to be more intentional in their relationship management will find Mesh beneficial.
Mesh offers competitive pricing in the personal CRM market. Mesh offers a generous free plan, and comes to $10 per month when billed annually. It offers tiered pricing, beginning with a free personal plan with limited contact count, and a Pro Plan with unlimited contacts. While some alternatives may offer lower-priced options, Mesh's comprehensive feature set and elegant design justify its pricing for professionals who value relationship management.
Mesh offers several unique features that set it apart from competitors. Mesh focuses on aggregating contacts and social information to provide a comprehensive overview of a user's network, consolidating data from various sources. Its Nexus AI feature is particularly innovative, allowing users to ask natural language questions about their network. Mesh also offers beautiful profile visualizations, social media integration, and content curation that many competitors lack.
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