One of the many things I’ve learned over the years from consulting work is that in most cases what your client needs is 100% at variance from what you think they need, and often 50% at variance from what they tell you they need. In other words, it’s easy for consultants to make assumptions about what their clients need, and… Read more »
One of the biggest frustrations with real estate consulting is having to wait to find out whether you’re right or wrong. Because most development projects, especially multi-unit rental properties, take years to get approved, built, and leased, if you as a consultant give advice to a developer you won’t find out for 3 or 4 years whether your advice was… Read more »
I wanted to bring to the attention of readers a really good article written by Nick Maggiulli, an analyst with Ritholtz Wealth Management. You can read the article via the link below. In his article, Nick talks about becoming an “uncertainty killer,” someone who helps eliminate or minimize uncertainty for co-workers and employers, as a way of enhancing one’s career… Read more »
For reasons due more to accident than planning, recently some articles on climate change and related issues crossed my (online) desk. One in particular was thought provoking, an article entitled “Covid-19 and Climate Change: Why we need to remember what we’ve lost” by David Roberts in vox.com. Here’s a link: https://www.vox.com/energy-and-environment/2020/7/7/21311027/covid-19-climate-change-global-warming-shifting-baselines The article makes the important point that humans, both… Read more »
Beyond rental housing, one of my interests is personal investing, which, to learn more about, I read lots of articles and listen to podcasts. Recently I read an article entitled “The Limits of Numbers in Life and Investing” by Vishal Khandelwal. It makes some great points about data and numbers in investing and you can read it via the link… Read more »
I’m just back from the future! When I started in this industry leasing services were a big thing, a major business element for property management firms, and a significant source of revenue for many consultants. Vacancies were high in the less desirable buildings—can you imagine 5% or 10% vacant in Toronto? That’s what it was like, and landlords were willing… Read more »
I’m just back from the future! When I started in this industry consulting was a pretty niche activity, with only a few firms (in Ontario) offering market surveys and other research and opinion services on a fee basis. Most clients were developers and property managers, either wanting to get ideas for a new rental development project or wanting ideas to… Read more »
Don’t stop hiring during the pandemic. Yes, I know the economy looks shaky, and yes, I know that the first instinct of everyone who owns or operates a business is to clamp down on spending, but the pandemic isn’t going to last forever and most of the rental housing industry is doing okay. Perhaps if your portfolio contains a bunch… Read more »
Recent professional activities in which I’ve been involved as a consultant remind me that as a good consultant you should raise more questions than you answer, stir up more doubt than you dispel, and offer more options than solutions.
At the beginning of this series on consulting, I discussed the role of consultants in the rental housing industry and explained that interpreting information and formulating recommendations for clients can be a complex challenge that requires experience, knowledge, problem-solving, and professionalism, attributes which not every consultant possesses. In this last post in the series, I’m going to talk about professionalism…. Read more »