Anyone else believe pipeline management for CRE investing could be done better?
I have been in CRE investing for a number of years (fun fact... started at Lehman Brothers one year before BK. That worked out well. More on that another time) and have always found the deal pipeline management process a bit of a mess. Whether at an institutional PE fund or working within a small team/company... 

SOO I have decided to build a saas solution for this. Its in process but in the meantime would love to hear how others in CRE investing manage their deal pipeline and if you think it could be done better... And if so, in what way? And if you do not have a system, feel free to comment with all your hopes and dreams for everything you want a pipeline management tool to be for you. This is the opportunity you have been waiting for.. someone FINALLY asked you about pipeline management. share to your hearts content. I am all ears (and also extremely appreciative).
[{"id": "gewubsc", "text": "I mean step 1 for me is having my initial conversation and the last is getting a listing or doing a deal with them. For me, its simply tracking where they are in the process of being ready to commit to a sale or investment and building a knowledge base of their specific investment criteria and experience / data of properties for sale. I think that its less about pipeline management and more about tracking the cultivation of the relationship. How many times have I spoken with this person? Have they looked at any of my deals? Have we gone over their portfolio or investment goals? Are we on a first name basis? What is their criteria so I understand how they analyze and underwrite their deals?. Additionally, with sellers who can be difficult to approach / get across, I do as much property or market research as possible before I approach them. That way I approach them with less of an ask and more of a fill in these blanks for me type of dialogue.", "replies": [{"id": "gewv5gc", "text": "Thanks for comment. It sounds like you are coming at it from the brokerage side (which is fine - just clarifying, maybe same issues apply). What I am driving at is where are you actually writing down and tracking the deals you have in process (ie pipeline). And in the space, what is working for you and what isn't? do you have a deal that needs to see what you are tracking and discuss the deals with you? A junior or senior person following along?", "replies": [{"id": "gewxt1x", "text": "I just use a simple excel sheet and white board. \n1st Step is information (Rent Roll, P&amp;L, Structural Information)\n\n2nd Step is doing a CMA and establishing price and commission \n\n3rd Step is marketing, OM / listing the property \n\n4th step is fielding offers and getting MA \n\n5th step is close \n\n\nAll of these individual components for tracking can be broken down into smaller fields / checkpoints.  \n\nA truly great system for this would be able to track not only steps 1 - X but have the ability to attach files and notes to it. If it could integrate with a CRM that would be the most ideal but that likely would become more complex. \n\nOutside of Admin I keep my deals to myself. The main issue most people have is thinking deals / properties are ready when their not. For a large team with junior brokers having an oversight or view ability for senior brokers to track juniors timelines on individuals properties could prove incredibly useful.", "replies": [], "depth": 3}], "depth": 2}, {"id": "gewve85", "text": "Great project! Good luck! \nWould love to see it as you make progress.\n\nMy biggest challenge is being able to find a one stop solution for all aspects of the deal and being able to refer back to that data after the fact.\n\nI view the challenges as follows: \n1) first contact- communication tracking\n2) deal data collection\n3) underwriting - can your software host an underwriting spreadsheet and/or link to Argus\n4) financing / equity raIsing - bank offer comparison, investor portal\n5) closing - include all participants (legal, title, etc) - \n6) on boarding\n\nEach of these items can be more granular but this is what I have off the top of my head.", "replies": [{"id": "gewwjo2", "text": "Awesome! Thank you for the feedback. My focus today is creating a platform for the 5% of the work that usually allows you to get through 95% of your deals and then grow from there.", "replies": [], "depth": 3}], "depth": 2}], "depth": 1}, {"id": "gewv1o6", "text": "Dealpath", "replies": [{"id": "gewvarx", "text": "Yep. How do you like it?", "replies": [], "depth": 2}], "depth": 1}, {"id": "gewyc7k", "text": "I\u2019d be interested in seeing something like this . Trying to break my way into the investment team and could use any leg up!", "replies": [], "depth": 1}, {"id": "gex5gaq", "text": "Speaking from previous experience at BB CMBS lending and now at a small REPE firm, I\u2019ve only used excel. I think it\u2019s an amazing idea and I\u2019m pissed I didn\u2019t think of it. So many easy improvements to make.\n\nHappy to help and talk more. Shoot me a DM.", "replies": [{"id": "gexx6qd", "text": "Would love to discuss. Will do! Thanks!", "replies": [], "depth": 2}], "depth": 1}, {"id": "geyms9m", "text": "Check out Realinsight.com", "replies": [{"id": "geyui16", "text": "Great. will do.", "replies": [{"id": "gf4poeq", "text": "Looked into RealInsight...  a debt tool so not really applicable. Appreciate the lead however.", "replies": [], "depth": 3}], "depth": 2}], "depth": 1}, {"id": "gf01zin", "text": "I'm a broker in CRE investments ( net lease &amp; healthcare acquisition/disposition) and self-taught in the realm of tech and data science, and I have been thinking about this problem since my first internship after seeing how big of a mess it really is. Plenty of SaaS companies have tried to create a solution for it, but none so far have been a one-size-fits-all solution. I'm largely responsible for my company's switch to our new platform for deal management, after testing every service that seemed to be a potential fit. While it greatly improved our process, there are still pieces that haven't been solved. I know you're talking about buy-side and not brokerage, but I'd bet that we share similar headaches. I plan to make the switch to your side of the table in the next few years, so I'd love to hear about your solution and offer any help that I can. Feel free to send a message, I'd appreciate the discussion.", "replies": [{"id": "gf0lcxz", "text": "Thanks for the comment. Not surprised to hear that. When I first started down this path, I found most of the platforms out there were broker oriented.. and my original concept included a broker workflow. I did a lot of work discussing pain points with brokers friends and found many were dissatisfied with the tools they had, specifically around the issue I am solving for. My goal now however is to focus on my very specific problem on the buyside pipeline management piece and if it works, expand to the broker solution that was initially contemplated.\n\nIll shoot you a message. Would love to continue the discussion.", "replies": [], "depth": 2}], "depth": 1}, {"id": "gf052j3", "text": "Have used Rethink it\u2019s built on salesforce. For me it is more for sales/leasing than investing. I\u2019m not using it for that, but it might be decent for it?", "replies": [{"id": "gf0lek3", "text": "Thanks for the heads up. Will check out!", "replies": [], "depth": 2}], "depth": 1}, {"id": "gf1xqjo", "text": "Be aware, a lot of people have tried this, to various degrees of failure. The ones I've seen gain significant traction are [DealPath](https://dealpath.com), which caters to larger institutions, and different but used by some this way is [Reonomy](https://reonomy.com), which is more favored sales brokers for prospecting.\n\nSome other attempts:\n\n[AtlasX](https://atlasx.com)\n\n[CNergy](https://getcnergy.com)\n\n[DealStat](https://dealstatrei.com)\n\n[TermSheet](https://termsheet.com)\n\n[Reiance](https://reiance.com)\n\nAnd there are several others. Nothing new under the sun. It's not the idea of pipeline management that the market needs, it's the execution.", "replies": [{"id": "gf4qm9i", "text": "Familiar with most of these but not all. Thanks for taking the time to list them. \n\nAnd yes, eyes wide open on the challenges. I have been in CRE pe for \\~10 years, first institutional side and now as a sponsor of two small platforms. Worst case, I am scratching my own itch... but definitely excited to see what others think. The goal is for this platform to be more than just a database with a \"pipeline\" dashboard and actually a space where the \"5% of the work needed to kill 95% of your deals\" can happen (and then track all your deals and that work for easy access later)... \n\nNot sure that makes sense but as I make progress on that development Ill share more here.", "replies": [{"id": "gf6orbf", "text": "Add me to your email list, I'd like to stay up to date. Will DM you my details.", "replies": [{"id": "gf7kobh", "text": "Absolutely", "replies": [], "depth": 4}], "depth": 3}], "depth": 2}], "depth": 1}, {"id": "gf680q8", "text": "Our firm became one of the first ones to use OneSource pipeline system for commercial mortgage brokerage. It does a pretty good job at keeping everything organized but we are still working with the company to tweak it to fit our business better. It organizes by deal status (gathering/quoting/processing/closing) and is easy to share the deal page with the client for them to upload DD.", "replies": [{"id": "gf6ire2", "text": "Thanks for insight. very appreciated.", "replies": [], "depth": 2}], "depth": 1}, {"id": "gjs6ihz", "text": "Sounds like a great initiative and something that will be well-received in the industry!", "replies": [], "depth": 1}, {"id": "gxsitlr", "text": "not sure where this went but check out this beta... chat for pipeline. Like slack meets pipeline. maybe if you have an analyst (or boss) could be useful.. we use it.\n\nhttps://www.pline.ai/invite?group-id=609ada75-5ac4-4364-81c1-7dc9e4176954&amp;nonce=OyRF\\_5xiYSj24Vdld-lPGCpoCKw&amp;expiry=1623454337327&amp;mac=3badd0da2537d009f507dddf6e74ff34319a6d053855bb6f5bf7ac950b2f3e0c", "replies": [], "depth": 1}]