Why This Austin Real Estate Firm Caters to VC’s, C-Suite, HNW, & Successful Founders, Featuring: Tarek Morshed
Tarek Morshed is the Chief Realty Officer for The Morshed Group at Sotheby’s, in Austin, Texas. He is also a Founding Committee Member of the Texas Venture Alliance and sponsor of Texas Venture Crawl’s “Venture House” in Austin.
Tarek talks to us about their unique entrepreneurial approach to real estate, covers new trends that startups and investors should know about when buying commercial and residential real estate, shares more about their impressive company milestones being top 5% in the industry, and other personal accomplishments.
Successful entrepreneurs, C-Suite, VC’s and HNW clients go to The Morshed Group at Sothebys as y’all are the go-to partner for real estate amongst our community. Why is that and how do you think this plays into the current state and potential of Austin as well as Texas?
We are a very different experience in every facet - what we call “an entrepreneurial approach to real estate”. We come loaded with data, analytics and our own proprietary formula to forecast the market with accuracy so as to show and lead clients great decisions. This is critical for who we specialize in as their careers and businesses are often not a straight line.
Second, we approach every client as a strategic advisor, not their salesperson. It’s like having an amazing Wealth Advisor in real estate. We get to know every facet of a client including their business so deeply that we are able to guide and look out for their best interest when it comes to real estate in ways others in real estate brokerage simply can’t. For the Entrepreneur, C-suite or VC this approach is invaluable.
Finally we’re able to value-add through our proven process and such that our clients are saving massive amounts of time - in real estate and well beyond. Time is critical for this demographic with so many facets of business to run not to mention managing personal life. Whether its our incredibly streamlined process or our business connections in the Austin ecosystem we’re going to save them massive amounts of time and help hack their growth.
What are the new trends in real estate that you can help solve for startups, established companies, and investors?
- I think the biggest trend in a very commoditized field is how to bring value well beyond the traditional real estate model. Buyers/Sellers, investors, startups need value well beyond that.
-Using AI to culminate even more powerful data and insights to make strategic decisions
-Using technology for more powerful site selection on commercial side
- Lending solutions. We are going through the great reset in interest rates. We don’t believe they will be much lower than 5% (if at all) for a long time after they finally settle down sometime next year. This will require a lot of creativity in getting deals to the finish line as well as non-traditional lending sources that aren’t exorbitant in costs. We’re ahead of the curve on both.
What are some popular resources you offer startups, established companies, investors, C-Suite, and HNW clients, or potential clients, and why did The Morshed Group at Sotheby’s decide to create these offerings? How have they been useful to your clients?
-Partnering with companies to guide their growth needs - when does it make sense to buy (vs leasing) real estate for the company?
-Helping with their HR department by being part of the interview process - at least the part that speaks into all things Austin and real estate. Folks joining a growing company need this information
-We do an annual assessment on each clients real estate holdings - this has been a powerful tool for them to understand their portfolio and strategies they should consider
-We do a powerful market update each quarter (here is 2023’s Q2 Report) providing deep insight around market timing and where things are heading. It is often chock full of insights and effective contrarian advice they won’t find in other updates in the industry. Real estate markets are so dynamic, it’s important to stay abreast and cut through all the noise that general media puts out there which is often wrong nor truly tapped into whats happening on the ground level. Everyone basically says the same thing.
We created these offerings because we saw big gaps in what our clients/companies need vs what most in our industry provide. We saw a huge need for thought leadership, being cabinet members in peoples lives or a company’s journey and all backed up with intelligence, connections and data.
You’ve been in the business for just over 25 years now! Congratulations growing The Morshed Group at Sotheby’s into what it’s become. What are some professional accomplishments are you proud of about the company?
Most of all the authentic relationships and life journey we’ve taken with so many clients - we’ve had clients that date back to the beginning and still to this day swear they have never experienced value like we bring all the other folks they’ve come across in the business. More importantly, the personal relationships those have become. Many become lifelong friends which I love. We believe in deeply impacting our clients’ lives with real estate being the gateway to all the ways we can do so. It’s fulfilling to see that mission come to fruition
Our involvement and impact on so much of Austin’s real estate landscape in terms of all the sectors. It’s fulfilling to see growth come alive in areas we forecasted many years before others did.
From a pure measurement perspective, I’m proud of being Top 5% in volume and production year in and year out. I thinks its a result of our deeper commitment to provide excellence and unique value as we certainly don’t make it a goal to be Top 5% in production every year though we do have internal growth goals.
Being involved in additional organizations like Opportunity Austin, COC, EO where we get to impact our entrepreneurial ecosystem in Austin!
What milestones have y’all reached in terms of number of homes sold, clients worked with, kind of or most unique houses y’all have sold, etc?
We’ve sold $500M in real estate - thats a bit profound to know we’ve actually represented on ½ a billion in real estate, and we’ve helped over 650 entrepreneurs and C-Suite folks. In terms of unique homes…I think we lost count a long time ago :) but I can tell you right now a very unique offering is the first luxury modular spec home in Austin in Deep Eddy. Close to our launch - 2413 W 9th. It’s such a unique and cool new product in housing.
What type of information do you like to know when taking on a client, and how do you create a plan around their needs?
We do a full 360 audit on every facet of their life like a great FA or WA would, not just the part that needs property sold or bought. Questions like where do you see the company going in next few years? What are your financial goals in next 5 years? Where will family (if applicable) be in 5 years? This kind of deeper information beyond just the RE needs allows us to tie-in a much more global picture with our market data/analytics. It helps us produce a strategic plan for them to execute around their real estate needs.
Sometimes we’re advising people to not move forward at all based on this, other times we’re showing why it’s critical to move quickly and maybe even others we’re suggesting waiting a bit from a timing perspective and why it’s important for them in our opinion. A great example of a case study with this approach here.