I sat down with Charlie Kellogg, the COO & CFO of Singerman Real Estate to learn more about how the firm is embracing Pereview as their asset management solution. His firm, based in Chicago, began licensing Pereview in 2018.

First, a little about Singerman. Singerman is an opportunistic real estate investment firm that has deep experience executing complex transactions and unlocking embedded value through the ownership of properties, real estate loans, and operating companies.

Their investment focus is on maximizing risk-adjusted returns through investments in both debt and equity across all major assets classes including office, retail, hotel, industrial, and multifamily, in addition to secondary real estate asset classes including student housing and senior housing. SRE invests on behalf of institutional investors, including pension, endowment, foundation, and money management firms. Since its formation in 2010, SRE has sourced and executed, with partners, over $1 billion of investments across all major property types.

Daryl Pitts, Pereview: Charlie, can you compare and contrast business before adopting Pereview to now with Pereview?

Charlie Kellogg, Singerman Real Estate: “When you talk about Life of the Asset and usage of existing portfolio data, acquisitions process, portfolio management – that used to be a very, very ad hoc process for us. In the pre-Pereview days, when you’d have a potential acquisition or something in any asset class, you’d have to say “OK, what can we expect? What have we seen in our own portfolio?” And then you’d have to start diving into PDFs and extrapolating data. It was just a lot of ad hoc work. 

“Post-Pereview, you now have one place to get your historical data and historical information –and within that, you’ve got the ability to filter, split, and cut to get even more data. In addition, you also have your future-focused information, too – again, all in one place. Previously, you’d have to say “Oh, this is similar to this other asset and then someone would have to go into those individual Excel models and pull out information. Now it’s integrated; it’s at your fingertips; it’s real-time.

DP: What is the single most important value that you believe Pereview has delivered for Singerman? 

CK: “I would say it’s having all your data in one place. At the beginning, I was thinking [of Pereview] more as a repository of information – something for looking backward in time. And we do use it for “point-in-time” statistics. But it’s also for forward-looking information like asset assumptions, budgets, and projections. That’s what really surprised me, that ability to look forward, which may even be more valuable than the historical capability.”

DP: Tell me an interesting memory or experience you’ve had with the software or our team over the past few years.

CK: “I can think back to a couple of situations during implementation where we were running into a decision or a roadblock with how to do something. The team and I  would be sweating it out, saying ‘How we’re going to do this? If Pereview can’t come up with a solution, there’s going to be this roadblock or manual add-on we’re going to have to deal with going forward.’”

And then we’d get on the phone with [Pereview’s] Andrew Chumley or Craig Tareilo and ask them, ‘All right, what do you think?’ And the answer was always ‘Oh, yes, we can do that.’ And on our side we’d immediately say in unison, ‘Oh, thank God!’”

DP: What are some of your favorite industry events and functions to attend?

CK: “On the CFO side, I like the IMN events. I particularly like the ones on the west coast because it gives me a chance to get away from Chicago and go somewhere warm.

“With our involvement in hospitality, ALIS is a big one for us. And finally, related to retail, ICSC in Las Vegas is another one that’s important to us.”

DP: And finally, it’s our favorite question to end on: What are your favorite sports teams?

CK: “Oh, it’s Chicago sports – Cubs, Bears, Bulls. I lived in California for a while, and while I was there I used to get the extra TV sports packages so I could watch the Chicago teams out there – it was that important to me! Being a Cubs fan goes back at least four generations for me, and I had many lean years until 2016. But 2016 was a magical year [when the Cubs won the World Series]. I went to Cleveland for the last two games and it was the experience of a lifetime.”

DP: Thanks Charlie. We at Pereview are big fans of Singerman and we thank you.