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Top 3 Ways to Make Your Leasing Deal Move Faster with Jordan Hearin

Jordan Hearin Headshot
Episode #: 184
Top 3 Ways to Make Your Leasing Deal Move Faster with Jordan Hearin

Guest: Jordan Hearin
Topics: Leasing deal, ID Plans

Transcript:

Chris Ressa 0:00
This is Retail Retold, the story of how that store ended up in your neighborhood. I’m your host, Chris Ressa, and I invite you to join my conversation with some of the retail industry’s biggest influencers. This podcast is brought to you by DLC Management.

Welcome to Retail Retold, everyone. Today I am joined by Jordan Hearin. Jordan is with ID Plans, he’s got some interesting knowledge to share. I think a lot of you are gonna like today’s episode, which is ‘Top Three Ways to Make Your Leasing Deal Move Faster.” So welcome to the show, Jordan.

Jordan Hearin 0:43
Chris, thanks for having me. Being featured with the undisputed Joe Rogan of commercial real estate, I am happy right now.

Ressa 0:52
Oh, man, too kind. So Jordan, tell everybody a little bit about who you are and what you do, who ID plans is?

Hearin 1:01
Yeah, totally. I’ll start with ID Plans. I think most people, if you’ve been around commercial real estate, specifically retail, you are probably familiar with ID Plans. We’ve been around for 23 years now, which is kind of crazy to believe. And we started off printing booklets of all the information at retail shopping centers, from each back units to electric meters, irrigation, etc.

And we’ve developed over time past 15 years long, some of the best technology and commercial real estate, a company, you know great technology, great service with the goal of centralizing everybody in commercial real estate in one collaborative application, visualizing complex information for a goal of high efficiency, better NOI,and honestly a better tenant experience. And so I have the privilege of being at ID Plans, Chief Technology Officer and also in charge of all products.

So every day, I find myself contemplating and talking to everybody I can in commercial real estate, trying to find meaningful problems I can solve with technology. So I’ve been in software for, you know, a pretty long time, about 10 years, and I try to accompany my love and my nerdiness of commercial real estate, and my software knowledge to really find unique and clever ways to solve problems and, you know, really be the software guy for all my commercial real estate friends.

Ressa 2:25
So, got it. So there’s a lot to unpack there, we will. For those who don’t know, who does ID Plans consider a competitor?

Hearin 2:36
That’s funny. You know, we like to sit in the kind of middle of a lot of things, we offer a tons of things, you know, we don’t have a competitor on the market that does everything that we do. You know, we started out I think architects, local architects would view us as a competitor for sure. What’s funny?

And Chris, I’m curious, your opinion, too, over the past five years seems like there’s a bit of a gold rush of new software firms and technologies are kind of really trying to get into commercial real estate. So obviously, you have guys building engines and VTS, but again, we are a technology company, but really balancing, you know, boots on the ground service. So we don’t really consider any meaningful competitors out there.

Ressa 3:26
And at least today, you said architects, sure, because of the surveying of the property in the space, your bread and butter is not necessarily draw, doing construction drawings, for a new building being built?

Hearin 3:45
No, no, not at all, I think it comes down to one of the problems that we solve. We obsess over our customers, Chris, and when we see an opportunity to really, you know, solve a pain point, like Lisa outlined drawing for a perfect example.

You know, that’s kind of the foundation of one of our solutions, it’s 360, which Chris, you’re familiar with. And I think a lot of people listening, too maybe, you know, one of the reason why the product exists is really saying, hey, you know, the local architect isn’t equipped or capable, whether it be timing or cost effectiveness or an ever.

And so that’s kind of one of the ways where you’re able to develop a product and expand into something bigger and better. But, you know, again, I think over the past couple of years architects have started embracing ID Plans as opposed to being a bit frustrated or feeling like we’re at their market share. It doesn’t, that’s never been the intention of the case. It’s kind of grown over time to be much more of embraced and pushed back on.

Ressa 4:48
So I understand software platform, and I know because we’re a customer of ID Plans, what you all do, but explain a little bit for everybody. What is the core solution that ID Plans provides? And yeah, more than just getting a bunch of different things in one place. What are they doing?

Hearin 5:18
Yeah, yeah, totally. So we, ID Plans, we focus on how do we really solve meaningful problems. And we’ve, over time developed a bit of a philosophy that has three pillars, necessary centralization, collaboration, and visualization. And any idea that we build or want to build really has to be driven towards building one of those things.

So we want to facilitate an application that centralizes everything, every person in commercial real estate, so the architect, Judy, the leasing agent, Mark, the property manager, the one application integrated with accounting systems and other core systems, all together with really the very simple goal of enabling the right tenant in the right space at the right time for the right price, and making certain along the way that they’re having a five star excellent experience.

So, and we do that by centralizing all the data, for sure, we currently have 1.4 billion square feet of data currently in our database. So really giving software tools and dashboards for our users to take action on all that data, find meaningful insights and correlations, and other tools to really help capture leads and some of our leasing services to really be competitive, whether it be digital renderings, which we’re offering, or certain leasing strategies and marketing stuff as well.

Ressa 6:45
So to bring it down a little bit, sure, what if I’m, if I’m someone who never knew of ID Plans, and what am I buying?

Hearin 6:59
Sure. Well, the general goal of ID Plans, you know, we have a kind of a suite of services.

Ressa 7:08
And the best, what’s the number one seller?

Hearin 7:11
Well, I think our number one seller would certainly be remote property manager, which would be the exterior of the property gathering all the really critical assets, lighting, irrigation, we actually validate all the meters. So one of the biggest issues in the industry is what we coin as meter integrity. So our expert field engineers and field team with our application in hand plot survey and validate all electric gas and water meters. So that, those problems alone just are really huge.

Things are incredibly meaningful when it comes to ESG, when it comes to bring a more profitable center, when it comes to fulfilling commitments to tenants. And so when you’re buying a layman set of blueprints for your property that has inventories, every single piece of information, every single real asset that you have on the property and allows you to take action on that data, get better quotes, manage it more remotely, and overall a better experience for you and attend.

Ressa 8:12
Got it. Okay. Very helpful. So let’s get to know Jordan a little bit more. I would love to, all right. So we got a section called ‘Clear the Air’, Jordan, and I’ve got three questions for you. Are you ready? All right. Question one. What is one skill you don’t possess but wish you did?

Hearin 8:32
Man I’ll tell you what, I’m the lone ranger here at ID Plans. Our CEO is an excellent writer, our new CEO, oh, Paul Shweta is an excellent writer. I am the worst writer, getting any thoughts from here to my brain and into my fingers? I, man, I’m just the absolute worst. I can’t do it. I’m so jealous of Jeff and Paul. But one day I’ll get there, one day.

Ressa 8:59
All right. So, writing, I like that. Yeah. Number two. When is the last time you tried something for the first time?

Hearin 9:10
You know, man, the first thing that comes to mind, Chris, is I am one of those guys that when it comes to watching shows I can’t wait to the last minute, and so I just watch Stranger Things, the new season came out, watch that, and I checked it out and love it, it’s a great show. Every piece of it, I feel so silly for waiting all these years but I didn’t, you know, not now, I’m like everybody else waiting for another new season.

Ressa 9:38
Got it. Alright, that’s a good one. Last question. Tough one, what is one thing most people agree with but you do not?

Hearin 9:49
All right, Chris. I think you’re trying to get me in trouble or canceled here. I think the most objective one, and Chris, we actually might be in this agreement here. Whenever people, the thought or the question arises of does pineapple belong on pizza? I think they’d, like, the general consensus is yes, it does. I think, and actually even going back to Stranger Things, I think that was a feature. And I just disagree. I think, I think it’s, I think it makes zero sense.

I think, I just don’t get it. And I think I’m alone on a little of an island thinking that, you know, pineapple really shouldn’t be in the same conversation as pizza. But, you know, Chris, I hope we can still be friends now. But what are your thoughts.

Ressa 10:33
I agree with you here. I’m an old school pizza, New York thin. Well done. Please don’t have my cheese falling off the pizza type of pizza eater. Okay, so I like, then I want to fold it.

Hearin 10:50
Interesting. Well, Chris, let me ask you a question. Let’s clear the air. I got a question for you. So I’m not from New York, or the Northeast at all, I’m from Florida. And we’re not known for our pizza. And I can admit that. But you’re from up there. If we’re in Manhattan right now, anywhere in Manhattan, where are we getting pizza?

Ressa 11:09
That’s a great question. You know, quite candidly, in this city, I haven’t gotten a straight up slice of pizza in a while. But what I would, I would tell you a little differently. If you wanted to come up north, for Italian food and pizza, I would take you to Arthur Avenue in the Bronx. Okay, and there’s a, it’s a street neighborhood with a bunch of stuff. And that’s where I would bring you in, you would get unbelievably pizza, you would get a nice sandwich with super-sod and sharp Provolone that make you choke every time you bit into it, and be delicious.

Hearin 11:55
I pay extra for it. Chris, I also think I’m representing a lot of your listeners here. Some of the, many would like to see a segment where Chris rates pizza, all around New Jersey, and I, you know, a one bite type of situation. So maybe we can put that together one day, sponsored by ID Plans. So we’ll talk about that later.

Ressa 12:14
All right, sounds good. All right. Let’s get into the part of the show. Talk about three ways to make your leasing deals happen faster, get recommended to me quicker, get tenants open sooner. I think everyone wants to do that. And you’ve got some ideas. And I like that you have some ideas, because you come from a tech world, right? Software world, you don’t come grown up in the real estate business.

So I think that’s a fascinating place to come from too, you know, take a lens, look at like, alright, this is how these people do it. Here’s where I think they can improve even though I grew up in this world. But I can take what I saw happen here and apply it here. So item one, what’s the, or we’ll go three. We’ll go 3-2-1? Sure. Well, do I like lists. Yeah, what is the third, number three way that someone can make their leasing deal happen faster?

Hearin 13:22
Yeah, well, I think number three, sort of the big one first, Chris, this is my kind of outside perspective. And this has been echoed in it plants. And really, in order to get this list, we have to understand, okay, what kills deals, right? What is blocking deals, right? Because Chris, you are right. Everybody on the thread wants to do the work and get done as quick as possible. I mean, everybody wants to get a deal done. But why does it slow down? Right.

So understanding that, and so the problem, generally speaking, is there’s so many people that think getting good deals done, the general chief goal of getting a deal done is very simple. I think its objective, being the right, finding the right tenant for the right space at the right time for the right price. I think everybody can agree with that. That’s what it’s all about. But the problem is, it takes so many people to get that deal done.

And he’s talking about the leasing person, you’re talking about the brokers, you’re talking about the construction folks, the architects, the tenants involved, the government’s involved, there’s so many different people, and it changes all the time. There’s not one deal, and so, and oftentimes, all those people use different tools. They used to be different. They call things differently, they probably sit in different offices, etc. So they very, they very rarely work together.

They’re kind of in silos, and so front loading all information, and what I mean by that, and obviously ID Plans, we have a product for this, but you know, you don’t have to look at ID Plans to do the sorts of things if you’re actually able to when you first on day one, you’re going to represent a space. If, generally speaking, you’re gonna say what information do I have about the space and then you’re gonna start filling in the gaps.

You’re going to go, maybe you can take some photos of the space, you’re going to take the photos, you’re gonna massage it into a PDF template, and you’re going to try to, you’re gonna post it on loop net, you’re going to go all around and try to try to hustle this space, you’re gonna work incredibly hard to find somebody who’s interested in it. Maybe you’re looking for a Rolodex, maybe you’re looking for somebody who’s net new, doesn’t matter, but you’re gonna work really hard to get somebody there.

Now, once you get somebody interested, now it’s time to, really where the work starts happening. You got to order plans that tend to have tons of questions about some of their equipment, whether it be clear high, any of these sorts of certain situations. And now most people are caught kind of flat footed, because the architect may take four weeks, the HVAC guy may take, we’re just talking, Chris, it may take nine months, who knows, right? There’s so much of these things.

So if you’re actually able to utilize all the information, you need to actually execute that LOI and of course sign the lease upfront to actually market the space. Man, we’ve seen people move deals incredibly fast. In fact, I have some REITs telling me all the time that they are able to do win deals, they ordinarily wouldn’t have won by virtue of a really front loaded information. So I think that’s the number one big thing. That’s the big hole that I see at crypto. Obviously, I’m curious your thoughts.

Ressa 16:14
We’re going to take a quick break here.

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Ressa 17:10
There’s a million different things that slow deals down. And, you know, we’re taking this from your lens, which is you know, a different lens than from the one the background you come from and then from the company you work for, but I think it’s, it’s appropriate. I think you make a great point that having all the information in one place, and having the actual information makes a ton of difference and will obviously speed things up. I think there’s two pieces to that, though. One of two challenges to that.

So one, it’s who is getting that information? Right? So if you have some small landlord out there, whether it’s him or the leasing person, it’s the same amount of time, because whether he does that later, or does it now. Now, I would argue on your, you know, on your side of the table that if he waits, he could lose the deal. That’s less about speed, that’s just like execution risk for not having the data that you need.

But it could take that person the same attempts of who’s actually getting the information or you mentioned, the leasing person, if the leasing person, you know, does go and get it all, well, then they spent the six weeks gathering that information, and they just do move faster, and once they have it, but they just lost six weeks doing that. So I think obviously, who gets that information matters.

And then too, and I think more of the gating issue for many is just there’s a cost for that information, unfortunately, or maybe fortunately for you, because maybe, whenever business, the reality is, I think it’s unbeknownst to many people, that when you buy a property, all this information doesn’t like come with the property aggregated in one place.

And even when you build a property out of the ground, you might not do it in the same way that it plans does it to make it you know, and have the software piece of it. It might be in some blueprints, physic, like legitimately the construction drawings, but being able to abstract the construction drawings into something digestible for non construction or engineers is critical, which is what Id plans does.

So but there is a cost to it right? You You have a business because there’s it’s a valuable cost to it. So those are two gating issues. But I do believe that if you solve those gating issues, your SIR, and you’re certainly going to make deals faster, and from the cost side of it, there’s obviously, you know, you could argue, well, this is what’s getting you a deal, you’re going to have to spend the money anyway. Now, you know, that’s the argument. But I think someone on the other side would say, Well, I don’t have to spend it now.

Hearin 20:30
Yeah, it’s totally true. And I definitely agree with your points. I for sure, like, in a very sad world without it plans, right in that world. Yeah, and theory, front loading information, you know, the leasing folks, you know, go into the field and guidance information on their own. And this and the other is that’s good in theory, but they’re also pretty busy. They also don’t have one deal. They have many deals, right. And, you know, there’s no access and time. And so I definitely hear that obviously, everybody in this call has access to it plans and intersections.

But I think the sweetest part about everything. And this is I think this wasn’t necessarily the truth five years ago, or six years ago, but it’s certainly the truth now is that the cost of the architect he didn’t really settling drawling, the photographer getting the spaces, or the photos, if you’re really fancy, the virtual tour, all those different costs add together is more expensive than just the one provider like Id plans that ID 360s. So it’s actually cheaper.

These one provider on especially if you’re a larger reach, you know, standards, matters of standardization, has a wider reach. And you know, in less than 10 days, you have all the information you need, in a ZIL like experience that you’re actually utilizing the market.

So, you know, you’re not putting any pressure into a PDF, you’re not doing anything like that you’re actually using the Zillow like experience that has all the information needed to execute a deal right now. And you’re actually using that for your prospecting. So that’s our play on it. You could certainly, you know, use a philosophy for sure, but I’m,

Ressa 22:01
you know, I’m not gonna hide it. I am a subscriber ID plans version one. And, you know, we’re in with ID 360. So, I think I think it’s important. So to have the information front loaded, standardized in in one in one place. But I was just saying, you know, devil’s advocate, those are like two weeks. Oh, yeah, issues.

Hearin 22:26
Know, for sure. We love it. And those challenges are, I think, are very welcomed. We, you know, we constantly look to improve. And, you know, if we’re not growing, we’re dying, you know, we you know, commercial real estate moves very fast. And we definitely want to be the A, on the leading edge of the bleeding edge of really helping out everybody in the industry, in the industry, especially the leasing folks to cool, sure.

Ressa 22:53
Yeah. All right. That’s number one. front load the information, even though we started with three, that’s the number one, what’s number two?

Hearin 23:01
All right, so number two in this is definitely on the bleeding edge of technology. For sure. Definitely another another thing that I think we do quite well, I do plans but we’re definitely definitely not exclusive that it plans. And it’s digital renderings in the reason why we think is super important. And why does digital renderings matter in deal velocity or render commencement or things like that.

And so, talking to so many different folks, and obviously, Chris, you know, you’re just in Vegas, I saw you briefly in Vegas, you know, there’s a few things that really came up a lot, but digital renderings was certainly one of them. And if you can take the creativity job out of the brain of the prospective tenant, and when you’re trying to move a space that, you know, it’s ugly, or has pink walls, or I mean, Chris, you’ve seen a million spaces, you’ve probably seen some pretty ugly spaces in your days.

How nice would it be to be able to, in a very beautiful experience almost like in a very Matterport type of way, show how beautiful space can be, taking the creativity out of the hands of the tenant and then really putting a, hey, here’s what the space really can be and whatever is in agreement you know, have a a non subjective and objective gold Everett is marching towards so I think that’s a such a special weapon and something that if you’re not working with these renderings, I think you need to now for sure, oh, it’s been huge and residential for a long time. And I think commercial is really starting to embrace it.

Ressa 24:29
Yeah, I think it’s a great one actually. Especially for the non-star national prototypical tenants, right because they have their prototype and this is what it’s gonna look like if you’re gonna do a deal with them. I think it’s a great point. I mean, you don’t have to go far you turn on HGTV and they have that cool. Any show any fixer upper show has this like, cool little program and they like, you know, they unrolled A wall when the they put this this you know shelving you end up and boom, boom, boom.

And all sudden, you have this like unbelievably new space that they show you on the TV. I don’t know a program HGTV is using for that. But it is fascinating. And you know, whenever we’re doing work on, on like, house, even my wife is like, I want what the program that they’re using on HGTV to do to do that.

And the contractors or architects aren’t using that locally. But I think it’s a great point. I don’t think people think about it, I think how you characterized it is a way to speed which is to take the creativity part out of the brain and the concern of that creativity out of the brain of the tenant. I think that’s a really interesting perspective. Curious, what is a digital rendering cost?

Hearin 25:54
Well, I mean, I think it’s one of those things where, I mean, if you want it to cost more, oh, cost more for sure. But in the pro theorization perspective, you know, in a, just be clear, I mean, Chris, in your inbox, you have to have a, or other in the chat, you actually have an updated rendering that we just did ID plans, which is, I think, awesome, but I’m excited to get your thoughts on that. But just doing like a plain white box nutshell, you know, we are so focused on the price.

So so low, low low, you’re talking about hundreds of dollars, when you start digging into concepts like the salon, or the Med Spa, fill in the blank, you know, those are certainly getting into the $1,500, but all the way up to 10s of 1000s of dollars for really big boxes. But it really all depends. Technology’s getting really better. We’re putting tons of money into R&D, and really making certain that we’re able to really make the cost tenable. But also the speed as well make it fast too. Because, you know, that’s also another factor as well.

Ressa 27:03
Yeah, I’m looking at this now. And it doesn’t even look like a rendering. It looks like a photograph.

Hearin 27:10
Yeah, Chris hit the top left in court and that button I know that listeners can’t see but you’re actually able to turn the rendering from a white box to a salon in a snap of your fingers. And, and obviously if we had more renderings, we could toggle very quickly from salon to chiropractor to retailer to white box for sure. So definitely some exciting stuff that that’s the that’s the the next big swing here and something that we’re all part of our commitment to sweet Elise.

Ressa 27:49
Are you seeing it now?

Hearin 27:51
Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Are you playing salon?

Ressa 27:56
Alright, so I’m sharing for those on audio only I’m sharing. So I click this button. So this was the space.

Hearin 28:08
Yeah, walk around, Chris, it hits one of the women’s circles there. And as you, as you’re walking through it, Chris, the cool part about this is it’s actually architecturally derived. So we take the two when our team goes out there in combination with them, our Leica cameras or laser measurements, all of our manual measurements put together that creates what’s called a Revit file, the Revit file, we actually are architects internally draw and create the Lisa line drawings.

So, but this actually is a digital twin of the space. So if you look at the ceiling tiles, and everything else, it’s actually real to the space, this isn’t Geysir, make believe, this is truly a digital twin of that space. And so when we start adding demising walls or things like that, it’s actually able to manifest in reality.

Ressa 28:55
Okay, and so and then when I click this button, it shows me if I’m a salon owner, what a salon could look like?

Hearin 29:00
Correct, correct.

Ressa 29:03
This is the exact space really cool.

Hearin 29:12
Yeah, we’re, we’re super excited. And this is something that we really think the industry is going to start embracing soon. And we have, I mean, honestly, Chris, we have some some executives at some of the big REITs that just called it a no brainer, you know, and actually one special situation, we had a space. It was a, I think the GLA was like 8000. So not a small space, it was a strip center, and it was just a wreck.

And the REIT was in a bit of a quagmire in that well, do you want to spend all this money to clean up the space to get it ready to lease, but the tenants gonna make such an investment in the space anyway, what a waste of money that would be so we actually white box the space on there for them and they’re able to push it out. And without having to spend a $10,000 to pick up the space?

Well, they spent, you know, a handful, you know, $2,000 or something to digitally do it. And it’s just as good, if not better, it’s architecturally derived, and they’re able to really move the deal along without having to make such a capital investment.

Ressa 30:18
Yeah, that is excellent. And that salon rendering that we just saw, what did that cost?

Hearin 30:26
Oh, man, I, we’re going back in time here a little bit. If memory serves, I think that was like, I think it’s around $3,000. But don’t quote me on that. All right.

Ressa 30:38
Okay. Very cool stuff, though. I mean, very cool stuff. Let’s move on. Last one. Number three, what is the third one?

Hearin 30:49
Okay, so the third one, and I think it’s kind of the economistic of everything altogether. And I think, Chris, this is something that I think most people would certainly agree with, but is really keeping your eyes on the macro timing, right? Kind of, oftentimes, when I talk to folks, and even if I’m just in care, but just in general, when you’re looking at edit lifecycle, or flow, people get zoomed in on the micro level, like working with just one problem at a time.

And you kind of don’t see the bombs ahead, right. And that’s, those are the things that really start killing deals. So if you’re able to zoom out a little bit, and set timing mixer in that expectations are set across everybody working on the deal, sort of like centralization, collaboration and visualization, if you’re able to make sure that the architect and the tenant, the property manager, everybody understands the recommend some date, really in their head, and they can sort of plan.

Whether it’s hopping on a zoom call together, even though I know that’d be a pain, but doing something like that, to really making certain that everybody understands what the expectations are. And also everybody understands what the equity expectations of the tenant is, which really matters to what is their goal, like criteria? And you know, how do we really get the RCD as quick as possible. And you do that by really make certain that every key date milestone really ever is on the same page?

Ressa 32:15
Yeah, I think that’s a great point, that everyone’s on the same page with the milestone, because oftentimes, people don’t know how long things are going to take, whether it’s how long will it take to get plans drawn? How long will it take the attorney to get the lease back? And when you start compiling those different things, the end date might be different than what the two business people thought the end date would be.

And that causes friction and a deal, and potentially causes people to take pause and slow down the deal. And we’re talking about speeding it up. So getting everyone on the same page of the timelines I think is a great point.

Hearin 32:55
Yeah, yeah, it sounds obvious, but I think it’s, I think some people do it well. And just as a shout out, DLC, I work with a lot of the guys there. They they seem to have a route taken care of and, as do a lot of people we’ve worked with, but generally speaking it seems obvious, but it’s something that’s just a reminder that like, hey, keep the big prize in mind.

Ressa 33:16
Yeah, man. All right. Well, listen, this was great. I really appreciate it. Jordan, I want to take us to the last part of the show. We call it ‘Retail Wisdom’. I got three questions for you. Are you ready? Great. All right, here we go. Question one. What extinct retailer do you wish would come back from the dead?

Hearin 33:36
Oh, man. You know, I remember how much fun it was as a kid going to Toys R Us. You know, and in the future, I don’t have any kids yet. But in the future, I would love for my kids or my nephew to have that same experience. So I think for, that I think, you know, Toys R Us, I know it didn’t work out for them. But you know, how much fun was that going into as a kid? You know?

Ressa 34:02
Sure. Okay, question two. What’s the last item over $20 you bought in the store?

Hearin 34:10
So one little quirk about me is obviously, I am traveling all the time. But for work, wherever I travel to one, the first thing that I do when I’ve off time is go I like going to smaller watch stores, and I’m a big watch guy. And so whenever I go, I always go home with a new watch or something like that. So I always do something. So I think the last item would be in a store. I was actually in Vegas, I think, and I picked up a new watch.

Ressa 34:41
Are you, are there more watches than meets, watch stores, than meets the eye? You said small watch store. So I’m assuming you’re not going to the branded watch companies. You’re going to a local watch dealer.

Hearin 34:53
Yes, sometimes. There’s nothing, there’s no issues with any of that stuff. Retailers, but some of the smaller watches where the smaller retailers are able to sell Psycho and some of the other brands I’m a huge fan of. I really enjoy that for sure. So I think next, wherever I can find some watches, I’m there. That’s, that’s where you’ll find me.

Ressa 35:17
I got a question for you. Great. Do you tell, do you tell the time to yourself more on your watch or your phone?

Hearin 35:28
Man, I have this conversation all the time. And because people I know who I’m talking to, I’m gonna force a way to talk about watches into the conversation. And people ask me that all the time. But the truth is, it’s probably a 50/50 mix, you know, and what I tell people actually, anyway, internally, there’s no practical reason for somebody to wear a watch today is that, you know, they tell poor time, then your phone, for sure. But the thing of it is, is that anytime you see somebody wearing a watch, that’s not an Apple Watch.

You, they’re trying to tell you something, right? If you really understand people, what a conversation starter it is to free up somebody’s watch. Tip to anybody out there, anybody. If you want to talk to somebody, if you’re going to borrow a loan or a new spot or whatever, just compliment the watch, I guarantee you that the person we’re in is going to talk about it because it’s not about the time, it’s about something much deeper or meaningful.

Maybe it’s, their dad bought them that watch, or they got it at graduation, or from their wife. They are a huge fan of that or whatever. I’m telling you, I think it’s a cheat code.

Ressa 36:36
It’s a great cheat code. It’s not about the time.

Hearin 36:41
Nothing to do with the watch

Ressa 36:43
It has nothing to do with the time. That’s a great. Okay. Last question. Jordan, if you and I were shopping at Target, and I lost you what aisle would I find you in?

Hearin 37:00
Man, honestly, I think I find myself, I always, and my wife gets incredibly angry at me for this too. I always love looking at kitchen appliances. It would be KitchenAid, maybe the vacuum cleaners and stuff like that. But I’m a tech guy. So we wouldn’t really like the newest tech forever. So looking at the espresso machines or something like that. We’re always looking for the kitchen utilities.

Ressa 37:24
Excellent. Well, Jordan, this is great. Thank you so much for coming on the show. I think you dropped some really good insights, even that little cheat code at the end, I think was a great insight. So thanks so much. And looking forward to continuing to work with you guys.

Hearin 37:42
Chris, thank you so much, and definitely appreciate your time.

Ressa 37:48
Thank you for listening to Retail Retold. If you want to share a story about a retail real estate deal that you were a part of on our show, please reach out to us at retailretold@dlcmgmt.com This show highlights the stories behind the deals from all perspectives. So it doesn’t matter if you are a retailer, broker, entrepreneur, architect or an attorney Also don’t forget to subscribe to Retail Retold so you don’t miss out on next Thursday’s episode.

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