GlobeSt.com: What are some of the challenges institutional investors in CRE face today?

Renshaw: They're asking for help with more quality inventory to buy. Until then, institutional investors want to source that equity buyer and sell. The stuff you sell at the highest value point is usually sold to the equity buyer who is not as concerned about their IRR. In Southern California, when something is sold for 4-cap, usually the buyer is buying something with very low risk in buying it and is more concerned about protecting their equity than their IRR. They're really just trying to protect their family's money. Your average broker doesn't know those buyers. Often, US investment firms are seeking unknown equity buyers, and it's fascinating to see the methods they use to broaden the scope of who will pay. Everybody is trying to get money into the US for security right now, and most stateside real estate investors want to complete a 1031 exchange so as to avoid capital gains tax; how do institutional investors connect to those buyers? How do sellers connect with buyers who have never traded US commercial real estate in their life? Candidly, Ten-X is better at connecting with those folks because of our global reach and technology.

GlobeSt.com: What are the advantages to being an institutional investor in today's CRE marketplace?

Renshaw: There's a lot of regulation on deck taking public REITs out right now. A lot of the private funds and REITs right now are thrilled that they're not as highly regulated, but they have tons of capital behind them, so they can take bigger bites do bigger deals and have creative assemblages, and they have a lot of capital to do that. There are a lot of efficiencies that come with being an institutional player: you can do development, have a broader scope of geography and product type and diversify into a number of different sectors. You also have the credit to protect your underlying investment and can take bigger risks than an investor doing one deal every five years.

GlobeSt.com: What else should our readers know about institutional investors?

Renshaw: Most of them have a huge appetite right now and would love to be doing more deals. They have been in sell mode, and they have a lot of capital put aside and would love to spend it. There's a delta between sellers' and buyers' expectations; a lot of them are waiting for cap rates to go up a bit.

More than 300 of the industry's leading national investors, REITs, banks, private equity firms, asset management firms and other institutions will join us as we explore the market conditions behind the trends at this year's RealShare National Investment & Finance, scheduled for Oct. 5 and 6 at the Roosevelt Hotel in New York City. Learn more.

IRVINE, CA—Institutional investors with lots of dry powder are seeking a deeper pool of equity investors and are being creative in broadening their scope to find them, Ten-X Commercial's new head of the institutional group Camille Renshaw tells GlobeSt.com. In her new role, Renshaw will oversee the firm's growing institutional division, which works with hedge funds, private-equity groups, financial firms and large corporations to help investment managers buy and sell commercial properties on the company's online transaction platform. In light of her new appointment, we spoke exclusively with Renshaw about some of the challenges institutional investors face today. Her colleague Yan Khamish, who joined Ten-X this past October as managing director of business development, will be among the industry experts speaking at next month's RealShare National Investment & Finance conference, scheduled for Oct. 5 and 6 in New York City.

GlobeSt.com: What are you most looking forward to accomplishing in your new role with Ten-X?

Renshaw: It's exciting to serve the client better. If you do this for your whole life, your focus should be on the client, be they private or institutional. Whatever is in the best interest of the client is the best compass. Having done this for quite a while, I've noticed that there are a lot of inefficiencies in CRE sales in particular, and Ten-X is really coming after those inefficiencies with better data, faster transactions and more-transparent transactions.

I was at Stan Johnson Co. previously, and I started the New York office and had my own personal team there. I had four brokers who worked for me there, and I brought them with me to Ten-X. We collectively for years now have worked through deals together on behalf of clients, and it's frustrating when deals take too long because they can't get exposed to enough equity buyers, including foreign capital and 1031 exchanges. Stan Johnson dominates in the single-tenant market—it's an incredible brokerage firm—but if you really want what's in the best interest of the client, you need to go beyond only brokerage and utilize a great trading platform like Ten-X. Just look at Uber, Amazon, Airbnb and some other tech companies that have come into spaces and created wonderful change on behalf of the client and given them the advantages of new information and limited risk. It's the same for our clients—we reduce the risk for them because they know with whom they're doing the transaction.

GlobeSt.com: What are some of the challenges institutional investors in CRE face today?

Renshaw: They're asking for help with more quality inventory to buy. Until then, institutional investors want to source that equity buyer and sell. The stuff you sell at the highest value point is usually sold to the equity buyer who is not as concerned about their IRR. In Southern California, when something is sold for 4-cap, usually the buyer is buying something with very low risk in buying it and is more concerned about protecting their equity than their IRR. They're really just trying to protect their family's money. Your average broker doesn't know those buyers. Often, US investment firms are seeking unknown equity buyers, and it's fascinating to see the methods they use to broaden the scope of who will pay. Everybody is trying to get money into the US for security right now, and most stateside real estate investors want to complete a 1031 exchange so as to avoid capital gains tax; how do institutional investors connect to those buyers? How do sellers connect with buyers who have never traded US commercial real estate in their life? Candidly, Ten-X is better at connecting with those folks because of our global reach and technology.

GlobeSt.com: What are the advantages to being an institutional investor in today's CRE marketplace?

Renshaw: There's a lot of regulation on deck taking public REITs out right now. A lot of the private funds and REITs right now are thrilled that they're not as highly regulated, but they have tons of capital behind them, so they can take bigger bites do bigger deals and have creative assemblages, and they have a lot of capital to do that. There are a lot of efficiencies that come with being an institutional player: you can do development, have a broader scope of geography and product type and diversify into a number of different sectors. You also have the credit to protect your underlying investment and can take bigger risks than an investor doing one deal every five years.

GlobeSt.com: What else should our readers know about institutional investors?

Renshaw: Most of them have a huge appetite right now and would love to be doing more deals. They have been in sell mode, and they have a lot of capital put aside and would love to spend it. There's a delta between sellers' and buyers' expectations; a lot of them are waiting for cap rates to go up a bit.

More than 300 of the industry's leading national investors, REITs, banks, private equity firms, asset management firms and other institutions will join us as we explore the market conditions behind the trends at this year's RealShare National Investment & Finance, scheduled for Oct. 5 and 6 at the Roosevelt Hotel in New York City. Learn more.