As most brokers can attest, the average commercial real estate deal is anything but average. Once a potential buyer is engaged, a deal might take several months to more than a year to formally close, and that's hardly accounting for a major setback or re-trade. It's a process that has yet to be meaningfully streamlined.
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“Brokers are expected to be marketers, admins, and due diligence reviewers all at the same time,” says Yan Khamish, Ten-X's New York City-based managing director of business development. “It really detracts from their time spent interacting with clients and sourcing new transactions.”
Ten-X, formerly known as Auction.com, has set out to build an online commercial real estate marketplace that standardizes the many phases of a transaction into a 90-day-or-less period. By implementing a systematic digitized process, the company believes that it can help to eliminate the variables and uncertainty that so frequently tangle up the deal process.
The company aims to solve these uncertainties largely through its system to fully collect due diligence information - such as titles, physical assessment reports, and rent rolls - upfront, and in only 14 days. Afterward, the deal enters a 45-day due diligence review and marketing period, in which the platform helps to drive pre-qualified buyers to the property's online listing and broker.
The third stage of the transaction offers the broker three choices for interacting with potential buyers and the seller: Live Bid, Managed Bid, or Offer Select. Brokers can review offers or auction their properties to the pool of fully vetted buyers. The bid options allow the broker to auction a property to a wide pool of qualified buyers. The Offer Select product acts much like a traditional in-person transaction, allowing for list terms including price, timing, and contingencies. Once the buyer is chosen, Ten-X implements a 30-day closing period, which includes the transfer of title.
“We're doing the upfront legwork to bring clarity and strict timelines to the deal process, holding all deal parties accountable and eliminating the threat of a re-trade. We're allowing brokers to get back to what they do best - sourcing and closing deals.”