10th Oct, 2012 Real Estate Investment

Relationships, Reputation & Real Estate Ventures

Welcome to the launch of Trident Real Estate Capital’s blog!

We are excited to begin this new initiative for both our clients and those who are interested in real estate.

In this space, we intend to update you on recent news and events, trends and prospects in the market, innovation in the property space as well as key takeaways drawn from our own experience as real estate professionals.

Recently, I attended a London Business School alumni event at Macquarie Bank where I enjoyed meeting a number of entrepreneurs. While devouring mouth watering h’orderves, a founder of a major Australian cloud service company interrupted my gourmet indulgence and wished to know what was the single most important skill necessary to be successful in the real estate game. Without hesitation I replied that, “Real estate is about relationships and reputation.”. The founder stumbled and responded, “What about the old axiom location, location, location?”.

Relationships are key as they are an excellent source of deal origination for real estate ventures. A case in point is the current residential development Trident Real Estate is exploring in Beaconsfield, Sydney. Having purchased a commercial property, we considered it polite to contact our adjacent landowners to enjoy a coffee and introduce ourselves. This simple introduction evolved into a discussion in connection with a joint venture proposal for a multi-unit residential project. The parties are shortly expected to enter into a term sheet outlining the main issues relevant to the development.

Establishing relationships requires extensive networking and a gregarious attitude, but how does a business build a reputation? Peter Linneman, a real estate professor at The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, once said, “always do the best to fulfill what you said you would do, help others simply because you can rather than because you believe it would indirectly benefit you, and do this for the next thirty years, and you will have a great reputation.”.

Loosecubes is a company that is built on this ideology. Loosecubes allows companies with spare desk space to host entrepreneurs at no cost. These altruistic companies consider that having a variety of different mindsets, skillsets, and backgrounds clustered in one place increases creativity, knowledge spill-over and achieves higher levels of innovation. For the last eighteen months, Trident Real Estate Capital has shared its own office space with entrepreneurs focusing on energy saving devices in homes. The exchange of ideas between our staff and the hosted entrepreneurs has been profound during this time and the referral of business has been mutually beneficial.

Building relationships and a reputation is good business. What do you think?