How Alpha Real Estate Advisors cut lease-comp research from hours to 60 seconds

The challenge

Making decisions with incomplete market intelligence

For a retail broker, comp data is the foundation of good advice. It helps establish market rent, support valuations and give clients the confidence to move. For Steve Kalyk, Partner & Managing Director at Alpha Real Estate Advisors, lease comps are critical to nearly every part of his work, from advising landlords and representing tenants to negotiating renewals and evaluating potential investments.

The challenge was getting them.

Traditional platforms like Crexi and CoStar provided a starting point, but Steve often found retail leasing data vague, incomplete or inaccurate. For example, they often missed important tenant details or showed lease expiration dates that were years off. That made it harder to answer basic questions about what deals were actually getting done, what tenants were paying, and when a space might really become available.

The challenge in commercial real estate is that data hasn’t been accessible. You don’t really know what deals are getting done, so a lot of it is just unknown.

Steve Kalyk, Partner & Managing Director, Alpha Real Estate Advisors

Without a reliable source, Steve and his team had to fill in the gaps manually by calling brokers and landlords directly, relying on comp-sharing groups, and trading market information one transaction at a time. Even then, those networks only captured the deals participants happened to share, leaving much of the market unseen.

In one bank renewal, Steve estimates he spent three to four hours speaking with market participants just to assemble the comps he needed.

The issue wasn’t simply efficiency. When underlying market data is incomplete or inaccurate, it can affect the advice a broker gives a client and make it harder to spot opportunities at the right time.

How they use DealGround

From hours of horse-trading to comps in 60 seconds

DealGround changed how Steve approaches comp research.

Not long after adopting the platform, he encountered a situation similar to the bank renewal, this time finding comps for a QSR. Instead of spending hours calling brokers and landlords, he pulled what he needed in seconds.

I literally just jumped on the DealGround platform and pulled 25 comps in 60 seconds. That’s a comp, that’s a comp, that’s a comp. Some of those deals weren’t done in the last 12 months, but it shows me what people are paying now in rent.

Steve Kalyk, Partner & Managing Director, Alpha Real Estate Advisors

That speed and access to more reliable lease intelligence has reshaped several parts of Steve’s workflow today:

• Comps and market intelligence. Whether he’s working a renewal, representing a landlord or advising a tenant on what to expect, Steve can quickly see what comparable deals are actually getting done and use that evidence to support market-rent recommendations.
• Finding leasing opportunities. When Steve sees a tenant’s lease coming up, he can approach the landlord early (with or without a tenant in hand) and offer to help if the space becomes available. Landlords are often surprised he knows, giving him an earlier entry point and helping differentiate the firm from other brokers.
• Sourcing opportunities for investors and developers. Steve also uses DealGround to identify properties with short lease terms, below-market rents or potential upcoming availability, giving him a way to bring clients proactive, sometimes off-market opportunities backed by real market intelligence.

If I know a lease is coming up, I can go to the landlord and say, ‘I’ve got a tenant,’ or ‘I don’t, but I’d love to help.’ Most of them are surprised we know that. It already separates us from other brokers.

Steve Kalyk, Partner & Managing Director, Alpha Real Estate Advisors

Example: From market intelligence to $1M in potential value

One Sacramento assignment shows what that intelligence can mean in practice.

Steve was advising an investor on a drive-thru property where the in-place annual rent, roughly $85,000 to $90,000, was clearly below market. Based on his experience, he conservatively estimated achievable market rent at around $130,000.

Then he pulled the comps in DealGround.

Across 20 recently executed transactions from the previous two years, the data pointed to market rents closer to $145,000 to $150,000, significantly higher than the initial estimate.

Those comps gave Steve and his client greater confidence in where the market really was, and the hard evidence to support that position when other brokers questioned the number.

Out-of-market brokers will always ask, ‘How did you come up with that number?’ It’s very easy to say, ‘Here are 20 deals that have all been executed in the last two years. Here are the comps.’

Steve Kalyk, Partner & Managing Director, Alpha Real Estate Advisors

The roughly $20,000 in additional annual rent above Steve’s initial estimate represented, by his calculation, approximately $1 million in potential additional property value for the client.*

* The transaction was not yet finalized at the time of interview.

The impact

Better data, better advice and stronger support through closing

With DealGround, Alpha Real Estate Advisors can move faster, advise clients with greater confidence and back its recommendations with market evidence rather than anecdotal information alone.

• Hours of research, reduced to about a minute. A comp exercise that once required three to four hours of calls and information-sharing can now take roughly 60 seconds.
• More accurate, defensible market intelligence. Steve and his team can use detailed lease data to support rent recommendations, valuations and negotiations with evidence of what deals are actually getting done.
• A competitive edge in identifying opportunities. Better visibility into lease expirations and market activity helps Alpha spot prospective assignments and investment opportunities earlier, often before other brokers know they exist.
• Stronger support through financing and closing. When appraisers, lenders or other parties need to validate a rent, sale price or cap rate, Alpha can provide the comps to substantiate the economics of the deal. Steve recently saw that firsthand when an appraiser asked his team to justify both the rent and sale price on a transaction under contract. Alpha was able to quickly provide the lease and sale comps to support both.

Alpha Real Estate Advisors already has the relationships and market expertise that are essential to brokerage. DealGround makes that expertise more powerful. For Steve, the value comes down to two things: better comps and better opportunities. With stronger data behind their recommendations, Steve and his team can advise clients with greater confidence while finding leasing and investment opportunities that might otherwise remain hidden.

Without the data, real estate is a lot of, ‘I feel like it could be worth this.’ This is hard proof. It just increases the chances of a close.

Steve Kalyk, Partner & Managing Director, Alpha Real Estate Advisors