Technology - Liberty Realty Capital Group

Our Air Is Getting Cleaner, And Natural Gas Deserves Some Fracking Credit

July 19, 2016 by Randybaconin Real Estate, TechnologyLeave a Comment

$fracking$ A new study released by the World Health Organization (WHO) says although outdoor air pollution worldwide has increased by 8% in the past five years, air quality in the United States has become cleaner. A key reason that air quality has improved is because more Americans than ever are now relying on natural gas, and burning natural gas emits fewer pollutants into the atmosphere than burning coal.

The air in this country is getting cleaner, and natural gas deserves some fracking credit.

Hydraulic fracturing, also known as fracking, has turned the U.S. into the largest producer of natural gas in the world. Fracking has unleashed so much natural gas that prices have plummeted in the past several years, which has made it cheaper to generate electricity from burning natural gas than from coal. This is an important part of explaining why WHO recorded lower levels of air pollutants in the U.S.

View entire article in Investors Business Daily.

Theme Park In A Box

May 5, 2016 by Randybaconin Real Estate, TechnologyLeave a Comment

New Tech Allows Shopping Centers To Install Turnkey Theme Park Experiences

Shoppers don’t often go to the mall to meet basic needs, they’re looking for something more—an experience they can share with family and friends. While most megamalls feature amusement park rides and indoor ski slopes, regional malls in small markets can’t justify the capital expenditure required for such attractions; however, that just got easier. New technologies are allowing centers to offer a theme park-like experience, but with turnkey convenience and the economies of scale that come with amortizing design costs across multiple locations. DreamWorks and Crayola, and companies like them, are producing new attractions that can fill excess space in a regional mall and draw in more visitors. Many shoppers that live in smaller metros do not have a quality theme park nearby, and now retailers and mall owners can turn centers into must-visit family destinations. Indeed, investors might consider buying and repositioning a B mall to become a themed destination.

Read more at: https://www.bisnow.com/national/news/retail/theme-park-in-a-box-new-tech-allows-shopping-centers-to-install-turnkey-theme-park-experiences-59574?utm_source=CopyShare&utm_medium=Browser

To discuss commercial mortgage financing contact Liberty Realty Capital here.

5 Killer Apps to Maximize Commercial Real Estate Productivity

January 25, 2016 by Randybaconin Real Estate, TechnologyLeave a Comment

boxer-screenshot

Prior to getting my CRE tech startup, Digsy, off the ground, I was a commercial real estate agent for Lee & Associates. I worked there for 12 years and was promoted to Senior Vice President & Principal of the firm when I was 25 years old. I attribute much of my success to my unsatiated obsession using technology tools to improve my productivity and workflow so I could win more clients and quickly close more deals. This obsession with productivity remains today.

The technology available today is smarter and more efficient than it was when I was a commercial real estate. My tech tools help me maximize my productivity each and every day.

The context of how I use these apps has changed because instead of being an agent, I now run a CRE tech startup. Instead of trying to find tenants and landlords to use my brokerage services and sign off on a lease, I now use these tools to recruit amazing software developers, get VCs to fund us, and get tenants to use our CRE platform to find the best commercial real estate agents to help our clients find commercial space.

Although I don’t use these tools from the perspective of a CRE broker, the end-goal is the same: get funded, get more clients & close more deals.

Being an entrepreneur is a super busy, never-ending list of things to get done. Here are the apps I use to kick ass and take names throughout the day and be ultra productive:

Boxer — My Favorite Email App

Email not only drives the day of commercial real estate agents, it also does so for CEOs & Founders. Like many CRE agents, I get over 500 emails a day and it’s crucial for me to be able to process them quickly. This is why I love using Boxer. With Boxer I can set-up reply templates to quickly respond to emails with one tap. I love the HTML reply template feature because it allows me to quickly respond with an email that includes a link to a pitch deck, marketing brochure, etc.

View entire article at CRE Radio & TV at there website Creradio.com

To discuss commercial mortgage financing needs contact Liberty Realty Capital Group.

Everything You Need to Know About Commercial Solar

October 26, 2015 by Randybaconin Real Estate, TechnologyLeave a Comment

As the price of solar panels continues to drop–they’re already 80% lower then in 2008–more commercial companies are finding several reasons to switch over. Actually, make that several billion reasons. The commercial sector consumes more than 1.3 trillion kWh each year, and since the average electricity rates for commercial users have inched up more than 20% in the past 10 years—from $0.08/kWh to more than $0.10/kWh—that adds up to an increase of tens of billions of dollars in utility bills. So it definitely makes sense for companies to generate their own electricity. So much so, that it could become the top source of electricity by 2050.

The Challenges

But while the benefits are promising, there are still some challenges. For starters, there’s always a possibility that Congress won’t extend a 30% tax credit for solar power beyond 2016. That would deliver a financial blow to commercial and utility scale projects. Meanwhile, smaller commercial companies are already facing the hurdle of high upfront costs. Fortunately, solutions like third-party ownership—where a third-party takes on the initial costs of designing, constructing and owning the solar system, then sells the electricity to the customer at lower rates—help mitigate that problem. Then there’s the issue of land. The National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) estimates that a 100% solar America would require solar installations on up to about 0.6% of the country’s total land area. Or roughly the size of West Virginia.

Read more at: https://www.bisnow.com/national/news/energy/everything-you-need-to-know-about-commercial-solar-51455?rt=title?utm_source=CopyShare&utm_medium=Browser

Find out more about Liberty at our Youtube page.

To discuss commercial mortgage financing needs contact Liberty Realty Capital.

Peek inside Facebook’s massive data centers

September 20, 2015 by Randybaconin Real Estate, TechnologyLeave a Comment

Technician Prineville 2 - Facebook data center

If you open Facebook on your phone for 30 seconds, your activity most likely touches more than 1,000 servers.

Much of that “magic” happens in the social network’s own massive data centers.

Since 2011, Facebook has built centers in Oregon, Iowa, North Carolina, and Sweden with innovative, environmentally conscious designs that it has made available to the public through its Open Compute Project.

In July, it began constructing a fifth in Fort Worth, Texas.

Take a peek inside those centers and see where all your Facebook data “lives.”

See entire article at Business Insider.

Solar Power Is Within Reach for Multifamily Owners, Developers

September 14, 2015 by Randybaconin Green financing, TechnologyLeave a Comment

Solar power is becoming a much better investment for owners and developers of apartment properties. The price to buy solar panels has dropped significantly, and today’s photovoltaic panels are much more efficient than just a few years ago. Prices are now so low that a set of rooftop solar panels sometimes makes sense purely as an investment, without any extra cash from subsidy programs or tax credits.

“In many areas there is actually grid parity, meaning you could produce power at the same cost or better than what it costs to buy from the utility,” says Thomas Osdoba, vice president of green initiatives for Enterprise Community Partners Inc.

Read entire article at National Real Estate Investor

Find out more about Liberty at our Youtube page here.

To discuss your funding needs contact Liberty here.