Has anyone else noticed a shift toward texting with your closest industry contacts, especially around deal intel / sourcing?
For those who do this, what's driving it? More casual than email? More control of your relationships (i.e., not on company servers)? Better response rate?
I definitely like the convenience and informality of text, but mixing work topics into personal text threads gets noisy in a hurry. Curious how people manage it.
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Lol, is this a joke?
No, honest question.
I was on the institutional brokerage side for seven years. As in most places, there was a lot of corporate surveillance of email and attempts to centralize all contact lists. I noticed a lot of deal originators shifting to texting their contacts on the principal side for increasingly important questions and ideas. I assumed some of it was to stay in front of people in a low-friction way, but there had to be more to it than that. Just wondering if everyone in the industry does this now and if there's a better approach than commingling those conversations with your personal text messages.
Can you share anything on the subject? Thanks.
I'm someone who likes the blend work and personal life, despite most people advising to keep them separate. When you work 50+ hours a week, i think it makes sense to build personal relationships with people.
Not trying to be a dick here but I honestly have no idea what you're even talking about.
If someone wants to talk / text w you they'll find you. If they don't you're just not important enough. Tough break.
I've been on the IS side and acquisitions side and part of being successful (kind of) on each side is the genuity to be natural. Whatever you're talking about sounds like a try hard move.
Just go with the flow. Text clients back when you have a sec. They ain't going anywhere. We all need each other in this real estate circle jerk.
You're right; the original post wasn't too clear. Sorry about that. The app idea wasn't super helpful either given it's all hypothetical and abstract.
Texting someone for info vs emailing or calling is just a tactical difference. So is what device or app you use. My view is they're all pretty inefficient for getting to the point. There's certain information about each party that should not have to be repeated over and over and over again just so you can get to a meaningful conversation.
I think this is a problem. Sounds like you don't. I give you the nod since you cared enough to weigh in. Thanks for that.
I've only used it a few times, but it sounds like what you're looking for is slack.
Slack
Thanks for the suggestion. I've used Slack quite a bit. You're right it's in the ballpark. Couple reasons I think it's not a great fit in this case:
Off the cuff, I think the better fit here would be a custom application that wraps Telegram Messenger. Telegram is free, simple, fast, and secure (client-to-client encryption available for especially sensitive topics). Even does (encrypted) voice calls. The custom application could then bring the real estate specific layer and rely on Telegram to solve the messaging piece. To create an account (or invite someone to connect) you just provide your/their phone number. If you move companies, you take everything with you.
I'm a bit of a geek so apologies if that's overly technical.
What's your view on the process of trading/gathering info and opportunities in your market(s)?
Lol, is this a joke? (the bit about Telegram being a good basis for software)
You do know that the negotiations over the Saudi Aramco deal were conducted over WHATSAPP right? Or that most firms even in finance use Slack, because it provides ways to document messages for storage? Or that not everyone needs to pay for the basic features?
What matters for most firms (including my old firm) was being able to document important conversations with clients. All communications with clients had to be documented is all (so backed up, no deletes). Apart from that, I've discussed shit with my bossmen on Slack, Whatsapp, email, you name it. Nobody cares for which platform is used.
PS:- Slack is so good, I've created Slack groups for my family and extended family and now we use Slack to communicate with each other lol. Sure, we don't get conferencing, but who cares?
> You do know that the negotiations over the Saudi Aramco deal were conducted over WHATSAPP right?
Had no idea, but it jives with the trend I mentioned.
> Or that most firms even in finance use Slack, because it provides ways to document messages for storage? Or that not everyone needs to pay for the basic features?
Yes and yes. But if you want people outside your organization to join your workspace, you need to pay.
> What matters for most firms (including my old firm) was being able to document important conversations with clients. All communications with clients had to be documented is all (so backed up, no deletes).
Yes, this was my old firm as well. And yet a lot of the VPs, SVPs, Directors, and MDs were back-channeling outside of this infrastructure. A firm can obviously lever some people to play in the sandbox, but not everyone.
> Apart from that, I've discussed shit with my bossmen on Slack, Whatsapp, email, you name it. Nobody cares for which platform is used.
Totally agree. Of the ones you listed, I think Slack provides the most context because of the channels. But it still gets pretty noisy in my experience. Plenty of articles out there about slack being worse than email in a lot of cases...
> Slack is so good, I've created Slack groups for my family and extended family and now we use Slack to communicate with each other lol.
I'm a big fan of slack for certain things. Using it on my current project. How do you have it set up for your real estate conversations (i.e., what channels and notifications)?
Disclaimer:- I haven't worked in RE per se, so don't know how using Slack would apply in your case specifically. Although Slack is definitely present significantly in finance. Our firms pay for the whole deal, since it's a good platform to have Whatsapp, Evernote and Skype functions on one platform. About the back-channeling part, I guess it has to do with enforcement. We had clear protocols for how things were to be documented, which were pretty much enforced as the standard globally. Some other firms I know of used a combination of WeChat and email for this purpose, or WhatsApp and email. The end-goal is that everything gets backed up and documented - it's easy for a large firm, not so much for a small firm. At the end of the day, it's about developing a system that works throughout for everyone who matter. If a separate system ticks all the boxes and suits everyone's purpose, then there should be no reason why it can't be integrated into the current set of protocols. For example, even though the default for us was Slack, depending on local custom, I've chatted with people from the other side on WeChat and WhatApp. In some places, financial discussions on apps are mandated to be documented by the regulatory authority (eg: HK).
Telegram sucks because: a.) the servers are mobile, though iirc, currently in Dubai, b.) Half-baked UI/UX c.) limited functionality for formal discussions and documentation d.) lack of team-based resources. Tbh, I would say that Telegram is good for journalists and their sources, or people in an oppressive regime such as Russia.
Really helpful context. Thanks for sharing.
We're generally on the same page here about the utility of documenting communications. The blind spot I observed in the real estate business was the 1:1 conversations between client-facing people on the brokerage side (mid- to senior-level) and their counterparts on the principal side. Usually the info being exchanged was highly sensitive. Often it was done in person or by phone, but also increasingly done via personal text at least from the broker's end. We were a "team-oriented", salary+bonus shop, but the brokers were still understandably protective of the relationships they worked hard to develop. My impression, which could be wrong, is it was less about skirting the regulatory environment and more about being agile and discreet (not that these are incompatible, but these folks seemed to feel that way). Many of the more senior-level brokers could go to any firm they wanted if the current employer made it too difficult for them to operate. We saw that happen a few times.
Anyhow, given the input shared in this thread I don't really think there's any justification to build some kind of custom messaging for real estate. I don't disagree with some of your complaints about Telegram, but I was referring to their API which specifically allows you to build a completely custom app (i.e., your own UI/UX) that leverages their messaging stack. And the target audience I had in mind is the same group noted above, who don't really want to necessarily share everything with their team/employer (regulations be damned).
Coming out of this thread, what I do think would be useful is a super narrow tool that allowed investors to define their deal criteria/filters and then selectively share those with outside parties like brokers or GPs. This could significantly cut down on some of the most repetitive conversations in the business. Might spin this up over a weekend and see how it feels.
OP this has been going on since before 08' - unless your city just discovered mobile devices...? In that case, I highly recommend you downloading the Tinder app
Maybe so. I've only been in the capital markets space since '11 and it took me years to feel like I understood some of the industry norms. It just seems like a more recent shift toward less formality and more back-channeling, and that's what is needed to enable a tool that purposefully gives the individual employee control over his/her relationship data. Originators have always wielded power, but they haven't really had the tools to control/leverage their data -- it's usually tied up with the employer.
Again, it's less about texting than it is about how much effort it takes to bring the appropriate context to every conversation.
This is a stupid topic.. i want to reiterate my feelings on how lame this topic is
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