5 Minutes in Multifamily: Episode #4

Recorded on May 7 by Hyro

‍

Introduction: 5 Minutes in Multifamily—a new video series featuring real estate and #proptech experts sharing their insights on key industry topics and trends, all under 5 minutes. Well, usually under 5 minutes.

For this episode, we were honored to welcome Pierre Melhado, to dish on topics such as:

• The new focus on sustainable housing
• Needs of Millennials and Gen-Z 
• How the blockchain environment is going to change the way real estate transactions are done, adding much-needed efficiency 

‍Our Key Takeaways:

• As the world begins to emerge from mandated lockdowns, many of us have developed a different perspective concerning humankind's impact on the environment. Everyone’s waking up.
• There’s big excitement around blockchain. While many think cryptocurrency is blockchain, blockchain is the foundation that allows cryptocurrency to function. And as it relates to real estate, one of them is smart contracts, meaning you're no longer worrying about papers disappearing, it reduces the cost of real estate title search, etc.
• Keep your eye out for trailblazer Spencer Rascoff (co-founder of Zillow), and most recent co-founder of Pacasa. He's always ahead of the curve when it comes to real estate technology.

‍

‍About Pierre:

Pierre offers over 15 years of accomplishment-laden experience in the property management industry. He has driven achievements of high velocity leasing, expense reduction, project management, maximized organizational efficiency & empowered others to succeed.

‍

WATCH THE FULL ON-DEMAND RECORDING:

‍

‍

FOR THE FULL TRANSCRIPT, KEEP SCROLLING:

‍

Monica: Hi, everyone. Thank you for tuning in today. I'm excited to introduce our special guest Pierre Melhado, and I'm going to turn it over to him to give a quick introduction of who he is and how long he's been in the industry. 

‍

Pierre: Thank you. I appreciate it. Looking forward to this conversation. Uh, I've been in the industry for over 15 years in multifamily most recently working at the vice-president level, very involved in proptech and multifamily across Europe, UK as well as USA. So I'm very excited to discuss what I can help you with. 

‍

Monica: Thrilled to hear your insights. Super funny story, everybody - actually, I was attending a conference and pier was not there for the conference, but just overheard us talking about real estate and proptech. So I am thrilled to hear what he has to say today. So let's just jump right in. 

‍

Question #1: What are the top three things that owners and property management companies should be thinking about for 2022? 

‍

Pierre: 2022 is going to be an exciting year. I think really the pandemic has changed the view of many people and many owners. And I think with that as the world begins to emerge from mandated lockdowns, many of us have developed a different perspective concerning humankind's impact on the environment and whether it's the par of station, the emission of greenhouse gasses or illegal wildlife trade, we're really going to be focusing on sustainability and millennials, gen Z. Everyone's really waking up; they want companies that are sustainable. And I think another thing we're gonna be focusing on is resilience in today's world with pandemics, and that can be done by virtual and self tours. mental health focus, a space that can be converted into offices or bedrooms, plus more green space and coworking spaces as many are working from home. And last but not least, and I don't know if everyone's gonna agree with me on this, but it would be blockchain. I think the blockchain environment is really going to change the way real estate transactions are done. it's going to add a lot of efficiency and it's new, but there are countries that are moving towards blockchain for real estate. And I'll talk a little bit more on that later. 

‍

Monica: I love it. So your top three things are sustainability, resilience and blockchain. 

‍

Pierre:You got it. 

‍

Monica: Love it.

‍

Question #2: What are some risks for companies who are hesitant to adapt to today's digital demands and changes?

‍

Peirre: You know, you're going to lose your customers, especially gen Z and millennials, because they want to do self tours. They want to do virtual tours, augmented reality, and it's just a lot easier to tour apartments having those services. Also, it inhibits the ability to grow as financial partners will start to require their property management partners to invest in digital ecosystems that are scalable. So if you want to grow and remain in focus of the customers, you will have to adapt, or you'll be left behind.

‍

Monica: Nobody wants to be left behind. I love the severity of that. It's like, hey, let's be future ready. 

‍

Question #3: So what are you reading? 

‍

Pierre: I love podcasts. I love reading. I tend to read non-fiction. Right now I'm listening to The Real Estate Guys and that's interesting, yeah, it's an art in our industry. They speak not only on investing in real estate, but also where tech meets real estate. So I think any of those folks that are in our industry that are a little scared about proptech and maybe what products they should look at or how it can benefit the real estate industry. It's a really great podcast, cause they go to various forms of technology and how it can really benefit the real estate industry. And actually it was through one of their shows that, um, I learned about Steve Streetman, who is a cryptologist and he worked for the Pentagon, and he wrote a book called Cryptocurrency and real estate. And after he did his work at the Pentagon, he went into the real estate world. So he has experience in crypto as well as real estate. His book is very, very interesting, and for love who would like to learn more. I think it's a great read. It's an easy read. It's not going to be giving you formulas and graphs. 

‍

Monica: I love it, so these are really great things that everybody can check out. 

‍

Question #4: Who do you think are some of the trailblazers in the industry, and how can we learn from them?

‍

Pierre: So, you know, I'm old enough to know when Zillow first came around.I think a lot of gen Z, they've just grown up with Zillow, but Spencer Rascoff who cofounded Zillow, and most recently co-founded Picasa Homes. He's always ahead of the curve when it comes to real estate technology. Back when he formed Zillow, it was industry leading to be able to get both the rental and sales on one application and with the Picasa, it makes a second luxury home ownership attainable. The program allows you to buy fractional ownership into uniquely curated homes in great markets. Picasa owns a home, and then sells a fraction of real estate and they manage the real estate to ensure it operates properly. So it's a great way to enter the second home luxury market and not have to put down, you know, $4 million on to a home.

‍

Monica: Awesome. That's super cool. Going to make sure that we're all following. 

‍

Question #5: What do you think is the next big trend in the multifamily industry?

‍

Pierre: Well, you probably know what I'm going to talk about. I'm really excited about blockchain. And I think a lot of people get confused with cryptocurrency and blockchain, and they think cryptocurrency is blockchain, but really blockchain is the foundation that allows cryptocurrency to function. But blockchain has a lot of other features. And as it relates to real estate, one of them is smart contracts and all real estate titles would go on to blockchain. It would be electronic, which means you're no longer worrying about the papers disappearing, reduces the cost of real estate title search as the title would be authenticated, or as we say in the world of blockchain, it would be non fungible and title insurance companies, if I were them, I would take one or two sentences. I'd either worry or get ahead of the game and be on the front end and make sure you're not replaced by blockchain and see how they can work their business into the blockchain. The country of Estonia is very digital. Uh, you vote digitally in Estonia and they have full wifi over the entire country. And they're already on the blockchain doing this smart contract. And I said, those smart contracts are non-fungible and unique. So you can place a contract online on the blockchain and be able to authenticate who’s owned that piece of real estate from day one.

Finally, as it relates with syndication, and syndication is really being able to buy a slice of real estate. There's a lot of syndicators out there that have been doing a lot of business, you know, like Grant Cardone, he loves promoting himself and he does a really great job of doing that. But the problem with syndication is you can only take out the money after the fund has decided to sell the real estate, but on the blockchain, you'd be able to tokenize that. And with property tokenization, you'd divide real estate into crypto tokens. So instead of a traditional syndication, you can sell your portion of the real estate when you want, as opposed to traditional syndication. So those are some things that really excited me about blockchain. 

‍

Monica: I'm thrilled because if people want to follow you and learn more about blockchain, what's the best way they can get in touch with you. 

‍

How can we stay in touch?

‍

Pierre: Absolutely, the easiest way is just find me on LinkedIn! I answer all my LinkedIn messages. 

‍

Monica: Perfect. Thank you so much, Pierre. I'm really excited to share all of your knowledge and insight. We're going to leave with your nominee. So who would you nominate to be up next on an interview like this?

‍

Pierre: I would nominate Steve Boyack . He's been a great mentor and he understands real estate, he understands technology, and most importantly, he understands people.

‍

Monica: Awesome. Well, thank you so much. Have a great day. It was great having you. 

‍

Pierre: Awesome. Great. Seeing you Monica, take care.

‍

Show Notes & Learn More:

‍

Connect with guest Pierre Melhado:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/pierremelhado/

Listen to what Pierre's tuning in to: The Real Estate Guys Podcast

Loved this podcast? Check out the next episode:

‍

Want to be our next podcast guest? Contact us at liat@hyro.ai.