Real Estate REality Check | Real Estate & Business Career Success Education and Training

Today on Real Estate REality Check, I have a rather easy assignment, given that I am going to attempt the not-so-impossible by bringing our guest out from his shell. The not-so-shy, the always informative and truly effervescent reformed yet long recovered attorney, who is now the Senior Executive Managing Director of Investment Sales for Meridian Capital Group, spends his days not only representing many of the name players in our industry, but also the true stars and integral backbones of NYC, namely the mom-and-pop owners of multifamily, industrial, office and retail properties. Yes my real estate brethren, I give to you the one and (definitely) the only David Schechtman. Thanks for joining us my friend, just a few days after your recovery from a perspective changing moment in your life which we will get to a bit later ... needless to say David, we have some things to talk about, here beside the rising and to many, not so rising tide of real estate, life and the consequential tumult from the pandemic.

Today we are fortunate to have with us on Real Estate REality Check someone who I consider to be (pun intended) not only on the cutting, suburban and urban edge of real estate professionally speaking, but also, without dating myself too much, a friend whose persona reminds me of the title of the 1980’s song “Cool Cat” by Freddie Mercury and Queen ... yes my real estate brethren, I give to you the Executive Vice President and COO of Urban Edge Properties, Chris Weilminster.

Today we have with us on Real Estate REality Check, two renowned leaders who have played an integral role during their illustrious careers in making a difference for their clients, those that they work with, as well as for the CRE industry, namely the dynamic duo and vice chairpersons of investment sales and retail leasing, respectively, for Compass, my dear friends Adelaide Polsinelli and Robin Abrams. Thank you so much for joining us, and for being the charter members of our new series called “The Mothers of REinvention,” which plays off of the name of music legend Frank Zappa’s old band, “The Mothers of Invention.”

Today on Real Estate REality Check we have with us someone who less than a decade ago took on a U2 like “I Will Follow” mindset when it came to his passion to make something out of nothing, notwithstanding that at the time, he then possessed the equivalent of the title of an Elvis Costello song called “Less Than Zero” when it came to his base of knowledge in the world of CRE. In spite of those challenges, he went on to build a “value-added tech driven data engine employing sophisticated algorithms and artificial intelligence” that some may describe as a “CRE data democracy.” He did (and I may add, continues to do) so by not only subconsciously embracing the song titles “Harder Better Stronger Faster” by Daft Punk and "It's in the Way That You Use It" by Eric Clapton, but also by heeding the wisdom of, among others, Jeff Bezos and his “Day 1” mindset, so as to minimize the chances of Reonomy meeting up with the business equivalent of the schoolyard bully who wants to take its lunch and give them a metaphorical wedgie, to that of Ben Franklin’s mantra of “Diligence is the mother of good luck,” and W.B. Yeats as well, who said “There are no strangers here, only friends you haven't yet met,” all of which he employed to ultimately co-found Reonomy (which, as a consequence of a networking play date, with props out to an old Grateful Dead tune and his co-founder, because “Mr. Charlie” told him so). I give to you my real estate brethren, from the streets of London, the one language shy of being a polyglot and the man who had the business he co-founded in college become the subject of a 60 Minutes segment, the truly fascinating CEO of Reonomy, my new friend Rich Sarkis.