It's 3 PM on a Tuesday. Your biggest client just called asking about retail properties in Atlanta with anchor tenants and leases rolling in the next 18 months. You know you've seen the perfect property: it was in an OM from last year, great location, exactly what they want. But where is it?
You're clicking through folders, searching email and texting your analyst who's in a meeting. Two hours later, you're still hunting while your client is getting impatient and your competition is probably already on the phone with the listing agent.
This scenario is more than frustrating, it's a symptom of a larger challenge facing today's commercial real estate professionals.
Over our team’s combined over 50 years in brokerage, we've identified a critical gap between information collection and information utilization. It's not about work ethic or market knowledge; many brokers possess both in abundance. The challenge lies in transforming raw data into actionable intelligence.
Consider the wealth of information you encounter daily:
Consider what you collect every single day:
This is intelligence that other data providers can complement, but can’t match, because it comes from your relationships and daily interactions. Here's the thing: if retrieving this information takes 20 minutes when you need it in 20 seconds, you're missing opportunities.
Which is why you need to create an Intelligent Data System.
Let's define what separates a simple filing system from an Intelligent Data System. It's not just about having your documents organized in folders—it's about building a living, breathing repository of your proprietary property knowledge that actively helps you identify new opportunities.
An Intelligent Data System has three critical components:
It’s the difference between having a library and having a research assistant who knows every book in that library and can instantly connect concepts across all of them. The most successful brokers aren't just collecting data—they're building Intelligent Data Systems that multiply their market effectiveness.
Here's what's changed in the last few years: AI enabled platforms can now read and understand your property marketing brochures, automatically extracting and updating key information like lease terms, tenant details, and property specifications. What used to take hours of manual data entry now happens in seconds, with the information safely and securely stored where only you can access it. Your historical and current data becomes your most powerful prospecting tool when it's instantly searchable and actively working for you.
The largest brokerage firms have entire research departments and enterprise-grade databases. However, they lack something invaluable: your in-market relationships and the nuanced intelligence you’ve gathered daily throughout your career..
Over the past year alone, you've:
The most successful brokers in your market have figured out how to systematically leverage this information. They can:
Knowing the problem is only half the battle. The real question: how do we transform your information collection into a systematic competitive advantage?
Creating an effective system doesn't require massive investment or technical expertise. It requires commitment to a structured approach that evolves with your practice.
Start where you are. Gather everything in one place:
Create a simple folder structure:
The goal isn't perfection, it's accessibility: locating any piece of information within 60 seconds.
Add the context that makes your data valuable:
For Every Property:
For Every Prospect:
For Every Closed Transaction:
Transform your system from static storage to an active Intelligent Data System:
Test, refine, and expand:
How Smart Systems Transform Careers
“Before DealGround, storing and accessing offering memoranda was one of the least efficient parts of our workflow. DealGround has unlocked decades of valuable data we can now leverage across investment sales, capital markets, management, and leasing.”
— David Chasin, CEO, Pegasus Investments
Having helped dozens of brokers build these systems, the DealGround team has seen every possible mistake. Here's how to avoid the most common ones:
The Mistake: Many professionals begin with overly ambitious systems, creating elaborate categorization schemes that become burdensome to maintain. We've observed brokers developing intricate taxonomies with dozens of data fields, only to abandon them within weeks due to complexity. Worse yet, people think the process is so daunting that they don’t even get started.
The Solution: Begin with essential data points that directly impact transaction success. A functional system capturing five critical data points consistently outperforms a theoretical system tracking fifty. Start with core intelligence—lease expirations, ownership contacts, active requirements—then expand based on proven need. And keep going, even if it’s incremental at first. Building big new habits requires daily, small steps.
The Mistake: Over-engineering file structures and categorization systems creates friction in daily use. When filing a document requires multiple decisions and navigation through nested hierarchies, the system becomes a barrier rather than an enabler.
[DEALGROUND CLIENT EXAMPLE PLACEHOLDER - Insert a specific story about a broker who was over-engineering their system before finding a better way, with quotes. See placeholder above]
The Solution: Apply the "30-second test"—if you cannot file or retrieve information within 30 seconds, your structure needs simplification. Effective systems use intuitive, broad categories that align with how you think about your market. Most successful brokers use some variation of:
You can always add complexity later, but you can rarely simplify once bad habits form.
The Mistake: Diligently tracking the architectural style of every building, the original construction company, the type of HVAC system, the parking lot striping date, and other data points that do matter, but distract from the key data smaller that move deals towards the finish line. We've encountered brokers with comprehensive historical data who cannot quickly identify properties with near-term lease rollover.
The Solution: Focus on metrics that directly drive transactions:
Supplementary information should only be added once core intelligence is consistently captured and actively utilized. Ask yourself: "When was the last time knowing this piece of information directly contributed to a deal?" If you can't answer, leave it for the time being.
The Mistake: Systems degrade without consistent maintenance. Initial enthusiasm gives way to competing priorities, rendering once-valuable intelligence outdated and unreliable.
The Solution: Integrate system maintenance into existing workflows:
Remember: a passable Intelligence Data System maintained religiously beats a perfect system abandoned after three weeks. Every time. But thankfully, you don’t need to break the bank or compromise on functionality for more than mediocre. Carry on, dear reader.
Thankfully, you don't need a massive technology budget to build competitive systems or compromise on functionality. Here's what actually works at different investment levels:
Perfect for individual brokers just starting to systematize:
Pro tip: Consistency matters more than sophistication. A simple system used religiously beats a complex system used occasionally.
For smaller teams and brokers ready to scale their systems:
Key consideration: Choose tools that integrate with what you already use. Switching costs are real.
For larger teams and high-volume brokers:
Most brokers end up with data scattered across multiple platforms that don't communicate. Your property information lives in spreadsheets, client data in your CRM, documents in cloud storage, and none of it connects. Plus, you're manually entering data from every OM you receive, a time-consuming process that's prone to errors and delays.
This is exactly why we built DealGround—to solve the integration problem that wastes hours every week while ensuring your data remains securely yours. Rather than replacing your existing tools, it acts as an intelligence layer that:
Whether through Dealground or alternative approaches, the critical success factor remains establishing a single source of truth for your market intelligence—one you control completely.
Your data only creates value when it drives behavior. The best systems prompt specific actions:
Rather than reacting to listed opportunities, you're engaging owners months before disposition decisions. You understand specific buyer preferences: knowing that certain investors prioritize certain parking ratios, for example, enables targeted opportunity matching.
When clients seek market intelligence, you provide immediate, comprehensive insights:
Your system maintains relationship nuances (communication preferences, specific requirements, transaction history), enabling personalized engagement at scale. Follow-up occurs at optimal timing with relevant intelligence.
Let's get specific about returns. Brokers who implement these systems typically see:
Beyond quantifiable metrics, professionals report enhanced confidence and reduced stress, because you know critical intelligence is accessible when you need it.
The gap between where you are and where you want to be isn't as wide as it seems. It's not about working more hours or having better connections. It's about leveraging the intelligence you already possess.
Our challenge: choose one active deal and organize everything you know about it. Then do another, and another. Build momentum through small wins.
Technology is evolving rapidly and lowering barriers to entry, clients have more options than ever, and market cycles are accelerating. Yet one element remains non-commoditizable: the proprietary intelligence you develop through relationships and experience. Your market knowledge and relationships plus the right technology tools yield a winning and one-of-one combination.
Your Intelligent Data System, properly organized, becomes your sustainable competitive advantage and makes you indispensable to clients, invaluable to owners, and irreplaceable in your market.
The investment required is minimal compared to the opportunity cost of inaction. Every day without systematic intelligence capture represents lost opportunities and diminished competitive position.
What’s stopping you?
