If you ask the big money, the only certainty the election results provided was that well, election season was over. With the continuing gridlock on Capitol Hill and fiscal issues to be dealt with, those who control the nation's institutional capital aren't making their investment decisions based on politics.

Rather, they're looking at simple fundamentals—economic, capital market and geographic—to determine where, and when, to place capital. And by the looks of it, competition in the highly sought-after core markets has led these decision makers to find some interesting ways in which to play their hands.

Representatives from seven of the nation's largest institutional investment companies convened at the New York Palace late last year for Transwestern and Real Estate Forum's Eighth Annual Capital Markets Symposium. For nearly two hours the experts spoke candidly about their view of the investment market, the debt and equity opportunities that are out there and what they intend to do with their firms' capital this year.