Real Estate Technology
PR Newswire | January 09, 2024
Nestfully, an innovative public search portal in the real estate industry powered by some of the country's largest MLSs, today announced a collaboration with Local Logic, a leading location intelligence software provider. Local Logic's advanced location and demographic insights are now directly integrated into Nestfully's platform, enhancing the home search experience for both consumers and real estate professionals.
Nestfully connects consumers directly with the most accurate and up-to-date listing information from the MLS and is elevating its service offerings by integrating two of Local Logic's flagship products - Local Content and Local Demographics. These additions will empower homebuyers with deeper insights into potential properties, covering aspects such as neighborhood characteristics, local services, transportation options, and detailed demographic data.
"Our collaboration with Local Logic marks a milestone for Nestfully," said Amit Kulkarni, Bright MLS Chief Marketing Officer. "Integrating Local Logic's advanced location and demographic insights directly into Nestfully introduces new value to agents and homebuyers and brings them a new innovative tool that enhances the homebuying search."
Local Logic's Local Content product offers 18 distinct location scores across services, transportation, and character, along with details on nearby points of interest and school data. This user-friendly and customizable interface ensures brand consistency while enriching the user's understanding of a home's lifestyle and location characteristics.
Local Demographics provides a comprehensive view of neighborhood dynamics, including income, employment statistics, population demographics, education levels, housing data, and more. This feature is designed for fast implementation and consistent site design, allowing real estate companies to focus on their core business while offering valuable insights to modern home seekers.
"Nestfully's innovative approach to real estate search aligns seamlessly with our mission at Local Logic," said Vincent-Charles Hodder, Co-founder and CEO of Local Logic. "By infusing our comprehensive location intelligence into their platform, we're not just enhancing the homebuying experience; we're reshaping it. This partnership reinforces our position as the go-to provider of neighborhood insights, benefiting both real estate professionals and homebuyers."
About Nestfully
Nestfully delivers millions of residential property listings and a wealth of information to home buyers and sellers from the definitive source used by real estate pros – the MLS. Consumers get access – at no charge – to a search experience that has no advertisements, just home listings and seamless connection to local agents and brokers who know the properties and markets the best. Nestfully was designed, engineered and launched by several of the nation's leading MLSs including California Regional MLS and Bright MLS, with REcolorado, BeachesMLS and Miami REALTORS® as participants.
About Local Logic
Local Logic is a location intelligence platform that digitizes the built world for consumers, investors, developers, and governments – delivering unrivaled clarity and actionable insights capable of creating more sustainable, equitable cities. With more than 85 billion unique data points – the largest unique location data set in the U.S. and Canada – the platform creates a digital twin of cities, quantifying the built world and offering predictive, precise analytics to inform the present and future of over 250 million individual addresses.
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Real Estate Technology
Business Wire | January 25, 2024
Cushman & Wakefield, a global leader in real estate services, today announced the firm is working with Microsoft to deploy an advanced suite of artificial intelligence (AI) solutions.
“We are committed to seamlessly integrating our people with the right technology and processes to enhance service offerings to our clients. Today’s launch of the use of Microsoft Azure OpenAI Service and Copilot for Microsoft 365 at Cushman & Wakefield again demonstrates our ability to pair robust technologies with market intelligence and expertise,” said Salumeh Companieh, Chief Information & Data Officer, Cushman & Wakefield.
Since 2018, Cushman & Wakefield has been focused on aligning business, data, and operations. Results to date range from an 80% material reduction in operational cycle time, to a reduction of client supply chain costs via proprietary supply chain network optimization capabilities.
Azure OpenAI Service
Azure OpenAI Service is a cloud-based generative AI solution that offers customers a range of capabilities, including access to cutting-edge AI models, backed by the power of Azure. With Azure OpenAI Service, Cushman & Wakefield can benefit from the power of cloud computing, data analytics, and artificial intelligence to deliver innovative solutions for its clients and stakeholders. Azure OpenAI Service enables Cushman & Wakefield to create custom copilots that can enhance customer experience, improve operational efficiency, and increase competitive advantage.
The platform enables developers to build, deploy, and manage AI solutions for various scenarios and domains. Some of the features of Azure OpenAI Service include machine learning, cognitive services, bot framework, computer vision, natural language processing, speech recognition and more.
Microsoft Technology Centers
Microsoft Technology Centers are facilities that provide immersive experiences and deep technical engagements in 50+ locations around the world. Microsoft Technology Center architects collaborate with academic, industry, and government partners to advance the state of the art in AI and create positive impact for society.
The Microsoft Technology Center is providing Cushman & Wakefield with access to cutting-edge research, tools, and top specialists from Microsoft and its partners to develop powerful and adaptable applications that use AI features. It is also providing insight into various areas and problems that need AI solutions, with learning and improvement through feedback and advice.
Copilot for Microsoft 365
Copilot for Microsoft 365 brings the power of next-generation AI, grounded in the user and company’s data, to Microsoft’s workplace productivity tools like Teams and Outlook and Word. It works alongside users to provide suggestions, summaries, generate, analyze and explore content and data across documents, presentations, spreadsheets, notes, chats, email, meetings, and more.
Ensuring the safety and security of interactions with Generative AI is a crucial value driver for Cushman & Wakefield. Copilot for Microsoft 365 offers a high level of security for how the firm leverages GPT models, providing confidence that data is not exposed for training and does not leave the company’s ecosystem, thus safeguarding confidential information.
“With this next generation of AI, we have a unique opportunity to accelerate innovation at Cushman & Wakefield and across commercial real estate,” said Laura Craig, General Manager, Data & AI, Microsoft. “We’re collaborating with Cushman & Wakefield to bring together AI advances that benefit from Microsoft Azure OpenAI Service and Copilot for Microsoft 365 to empower the firm’s professionals with new, AI-powered tools.”
About Cushman & Wakefield
Cushman & Wakefield is a leading global commercial real estate services firm for property owners and occupiers with approximately 52,000 employees in approximately 400 offices and 60 countries. In 2022, the firm reported revenue of $10.1 billion across its core services of property, facilities and project management, leasing, capital markets, and valuation and other services. It also receives numerous industry and business accolades for its award-winning culture and commitment to Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI), Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) and more.
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Real Estate Investment
PR Newswire | January 11, 2024
Cohen & Steers, Inc. announced today the launch of the Real Assets Compass, an interactive tool focused on real estate allocations designed to help financial advisors and institutional investors improve portfolio risk-return profiles. Using the firm's Capital Market Assumptions for the next 10 years and 30 years of historical data, the Real Assets Compass ("the Compass") compares historical and expected returns and volatility of traditional portfolios of only stocks and bonds with those of a more diversified portfolio of stocks, bonds and listed and private real estate.
Cohen & Steers believes that many investors are under-allocated to real estate despite the well-documented benefits of the asset class, including its strong performance and potential to enhance risk-adjusted returns. These investors include those across a range of profiles, from self-directed investors to those investing with financial advisors or family offices.
Cohen & Steers' analysis, utilized in the Real Assets Compass, suggests that adding real estate to an investor's portfolio of stocks and bonds can improve its total return and risk-reward profile. The Compass can help advisors demonstrate the impacts of adding real estate to a portfolio and address client questions about allocating to real estate. The potential benefits of a real estate allocation apply to an array of investor styles, ranging from those more conservative seeking income or lower risk to those seeking growth or higher returns.
Joe Harvey, Chief Executive Officer & President, said:
"The Real Assets Compass is the latest example of Cohen & Steers' commitment to innovation and providing advisors with the tools necessary to build better portfolios and educate clients around the benefits of private and listed real estate allocations."
The Cohen & Steers Real Assets Compass will enable financial advisors to:
Build customized investment profiles based on general risk tolerance, investment objective and portfolio size
View a portfolio allocation with both listed and private real estate based on that profile
Adjust the total real estate allocation and the mix between listed and private real estate
Forecast the impact of an allocation to real estate on the risk/return profile of a portfolio through a clear comparison to a traditional stock/bond portfolio
View resulting 10-year expected portfolio growth in dollars and quantitative performance and risk metrics, as well as the past-30-year return profile
Download easy-to-understand reports to review with clients
Jon Cheigh, Chief Investment Officer, said:
"We believe real estate should be a strategic, long-term allocation for most investors. Yet too few investors recognize that allocations to real estate can deliver strong absolute and relative returns at lower risk. As a result, we created our Real Estate Advisory Services, which aim to help institutional clients allocate to listed and private real estate based on where we are in the market cycle. These capabilities, along with the Real Assets Compass, will play an instrumental role in Cohen & Steers' work to close the education gap that exists in investors' understanding of the power of real estate allocations."
The launch of the Real Assets Compass follows the appointments of Rich Hill as Head of Real Estate Strategy and Research in September 2022 and Jeff Palma as Head of Multi-Asset Solutions in November 2021, to grow Cohen & Steers' portfolio allocation and research capabilities. The Compass tool can be used by institutional investors in conjunction with the portfolio allocation and real estate strategy insights produced by the firm.
About Cohen & Steers.
Cohen & Steers is a leading global investment manager specializing in real assets and alternative income, including real estate, preferred securities, infrastructure, resource equities, commodities, as well as multi-strategy solutions. Founded in 1986, the firm is headquartered in New York City, with offices in London, Dublin, Hong Kong, Tokyo and Singapore.
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Real Estate Investment
PR Newswire | January 04, 2024
Pennington Partners & Co., a multi-family investment office that specializes in working with entrepreneurs, CEOs / founders, and their families, has announced the launch of Pennington Real Estate Partners (PREP). The new vertical will make direct investments in residential and commercial real estate across the United States, providing new and existing Pennington clients with proprietary real estate investment expertise.
The new offering will focus on tax-advantaged investing including Opportunity Zones, structured equity, and senior secured lending given emerging opportunities in the existing marketplace. The launch represents an expansion of the Pennington team with the addition of Taylor Coe and Alex Rongione. Both come from distinguished careers in institutional real estate investment management, most recently at Walker & Dunlop Investment Partners, and will join the firm as Managing Directors and members of the PREP Investment Committee. As leaders of Pennington Real Estate Partners, Coe and Rongione will each be responsible for designing investment strategies, sourcing opportunities, executing business plans, and realizing investments. Additional information and bios can be found below.
"Pennington Real Estate Partners opens the door to many new opportunities for our clients," noted Brian Gaister, co-founder and CEO of Pennington Partners. "We have expanded our in-house real estate investment expertise that will allow us to capitalize on investment opportunities throughout the United States. We are incredibly honored to have Taylor and Alex join us to lead this new endeavor. Both bring significant experience that will be essential in uncovering and navigating new investments."
The launch of Pennington Real Estate Partners comes on the heels of notable growth and expansion for Pennington Partners. The firm closes out the year with more than 100% growth in assets under management, the launch of a new offering in private equity, and has been recognized in numerous industry accolades. "We're thrilled to be joining forces with a top-tier firm like Pennington, where we can add commercial real estate and associated structured finance to the array of opportunities available to our advisory families," added Coe and Rongione.
About Taylor Coe and Alex Rongione
Taylor Coe joins Pennington Real Estate Partners as a Managing Director and member of the PREP Investment Committee. Prior to joining Pennington, Taylor was on the equity investment team at Walker & Dunlop Investment Partners ("WDIP"), a middle-market real estate investment platform with over $6.1 billion of assets under management as of his time of departure. At WDIP, Taylor was responsible for closing investments with a total capitalization in excess of $1.3 billion. Taylor is also the founder of Sunshine Peak Partners, a boutique investment management firm, and is a graduate of the University of Colorado.
Alex Rongione joins Pennington Real Estate Partners as a Managing Director and member of the PREP Investment Committee. Prior to joining Pennington, Alex was also on the equity investment team at Walker & Dunlop. He contributed to all aspects of the investment process including but not limited to capital raising, strategy, origination, and execution. At WDIP Alex was responsible for closing investments with a total capitalization in excess of $1.7 billion. Alex is a CFA charter holder, a NAIOP Developing Leader, and a graduate of the University of Pittsburgh.
About Pennington Partners & Co.
Originally founded to serve the needs of the two founding families who have built and sold companies in various industries, Pennington Partners & Co.'s mission is to elevate the lives of highly successful entrepreneurial founders and their families. We provide a breadth of investment, wealth planning, and personal financial administration solutions that were created by and for founders, CEOs, wealth creators, and multi-generational families. We partner with successful families and their advisors by providing objective advice, strategy, sophisticated investment solutions, and family office services to generate meaningfully higher efficiency while maintaining the intimacy of a single-family office. In short, our vision is to transform the landscape of financial advice for families of complex wealth, in order to deliver better outcomes.
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