Insights from the Retail Real Estate Industry
Tips, tutorials, and observations from the world of retail CRE deal management published several times a week.
Turn a Gut Call Into a Defensible Decision
You do not replace judgment with a spreadsheet. You give it a structure: weighted criteria that turn an instinct into a decision you can defend to committee and reconstruct a year later.
Because It Felt Right Won't Survive the Committee
"Why this site over the other one?" In the committee room, a gut answer does not carry. What survives is a decision the team can see reasoned: the criteria, the weights, the tradeoffs.
Decisions You Can't Reconstruct
A site chosen on instinct alone fails three tests: you can't defend it to a committee, reconstruct it a year later, or teach it to anyone. The fix is not replacing judgment. It is capturing it.
The Audit Trail You Can't Reconstruct
A year later: which term did we agree to, and who signed off? With versions scattered across inboxes, the answer lives in nobody's memory. A real audit trail is one current version plus the full history of who changed what.
The LOI Nobody Resent
A term gets agreed in one thread and never propagates to the rest. The deal moves on a stale version, and the gap surfaces late. It is not carelessness. Email simply has no way to resend the change to everyone.
Version Roulette
On a retail deal, which version of the terms is actually current? You act on one and hope it is the latest. That is roulette, and eventually the stale number comes up at the worst possible moment.
Guest Access Isn't Collaboration
Single-org tools noticed the partner problem and bolted on a guest link. But a visitor badge is not membership. Real collaboration means the partner has a scoped seat on the deal, not a link that expires.
Managed by Attachment
"I'll send it over." That is how partners get managed on most retail deals: by attachment. Every file is stale the moment it leaves your outbox. Here is what that quietly costs a leasing deal.
The Org Wall
Every deal tool ends at the edge of your company. Everyone beyond it, the broker, the landlord, the partner, becomes a second-class citizen managed by attachment. That wall costs you real leasing deals.
You Can't Put AI on a Junk Drawer
Everyone is adding AI to retail real estate operations. But AI pointed at a junk drawer of spreadsheets and PDFs just automates the chaos faster. AI needs a structured, shared record as its substrate.
What's Actually in the Junk Drawer
Open the drawer and the same leasing artifacts fall out every time: the emailed rent roll, proforma-v3-FINAL, the LOI nobody can version. Each one carries a hidden cost. Here is the itemized list.
The Junk Drawer Is the Real Operating System
Every CRE team runs on a junk drawer of spreadsheets, PDFs, and email. It outlives every platform you buy, and the reason is not sloppiness. It is the only tool the whole coalition already shares.
Whose System of Record Is the Deal On?
A retail deal has no single owner, so it has no obvious system of record. The neutral ground is not another company's CRM. It is a structured evaluation the whole coalition can see.
The Seven-Tool Broker: The Deal Nobody Sees Whole
The average broker runs a deal across roughly seven tools, and none of them agree. When a director asks what the pipeline looks like, the answer takes a meeting to assemble.
A Deal Team Is Not a Company
Your CRM belongs to one company. The deal belongs to five. Almost every tool in the category is built for a single org, which is exactly why the coalition still runs on email.
The Rollout Is Back On. Don't Run It on Email.
Store openings are rising and closings are slowing for the first time since the pandemic. The teams winning the best boxes are not the ones with the most data. They are the ones who can move as a coalition.
More Data Didn't Fix Site Selection. Here's What Did.
The industry keeps buying more location data, and site selection keeps feeling just as hard. The bottleneck was never the data. It was the decision, made by a coalition that does not share a system.
We Built the Tools That Could Only See Half the Deal
We spent twenty years building retail real estate tools that worked but still couldn't see the other half of the deal. Here's why that gap is the reason MYDealTeams exists.
Partner Sharing Without the Leaks
Email attachments are how confidential CRE deal data ends up in the wrong inbox. There is a better way.
Reports That Build Themselves
Manually-assembled reports are one of the largest hidden costs in CRE deal teams. Here is how to tell whether yours are.
Site Selection Discipline at Scale
When site selection becomes ad-hoc, every cycle costs more and decisions get harder to defend.
Why CRE Deal Data Goes Stale: What to Do About It
Property data drifts faster than most teams realize. The fix isn't more spreadsheets: it's structured, connected records.
Best Practices for Retail Portfolio Management
Industry insights and best practices for managing retail real estate portfolios effectively with MYDealTeams.
Customizing Your Dashboard
Learn how to personalize your MYDealTeams dashboard to surface the information that matters most to you.
Tracking Critical Dates and Deadlines
Never miss a lease expiration or important milestone with MYDealTeams' date tracking and reminder system.
Document and File Management
Keep all your property-related documents organized, secure, and accessible with MYDealTeams file management.
Effective Team Communication
Discover how integrated chat and email features keep your team connected and conversations organized.
Collaborating with Deal Team Partners
How to invite partners, scope their access with trust levels, and run a deal with people who don't work at your company.
Project Management for Retail Real Estate
Master the art of managing development projects, renovations, and capital improvements with MYDealTeams.
Building Effective Portfolios
Discover how to organize your properties into customizable portfolios for better asset management and reporting.
Getting Started with Location Management
Get your retail locations out of spreadsheets and into one place: individually or by bulk CSV import.