Series: PropTech Chatter.
Show Notes
Summary
Chris Moreno - Primary Venture Partners
Special mentions
Transcript
(Disclaimer: Please be advised that this transcript may contain unintentionally confusing, inaccurate, and/or amusing transcription errors.)
[00:00:00]
Matt Knight: Hey guys. Quick episode today. Chris and I are going through what’s happening in 2026. I know it’s February, we’re late to the party, but it’s still early enough that I think this counts. So enjoy this episode of PropTech Chatter.
Matt Knight: All right, man. Happy 2026. And seems like we should start with what’s happening this year. What are we looking forward to? What are the trends we’re excited about? You can go first or I can go first. Either is fine, but since we’re in a new year and we did win at the end of last year, it’s probably good to turn the page narrative wise and talk about what we’re looking forward to in 2026.
Chris Moreno: Yeah. Awesome. Matt. Thanks for having me on as always. It’s Chris Moreno and love diving in on PropTech and real estate and the issues at hand. [00:01:00] I think 2026. By far is going to be the year that operators utilize tech to improve their businesses in profitability. You’re gonna see, and you’re already seeing in the last year, two years, three years, technology making the entire.
Customer experience better whether it’s from wayfinding, placemaking, experiential partnerships, and, you’re seeing companies like Airbnb, right? Improving the experience and doubling down on experience, which is, entire focus. You’re seeing companies with integration to make the experience better.
I think you’re also seeing a major shift in real estate where real estate had taken a backseat. Too much of the how do I say it? When you do, most consumer businesses focus first and foremost on that customer experience. And I think in real estate, they never had to, they could have office hours that were shorter.
They could have a Sunday [00:02:00] closed, right? We’re not even open to rent you an apartment or to lease you a retail space. It was we’ll answer your email or your phone call. If we want to, and I always had that happen to me, Matt, when we were trying to leave space to now it’s always on, right?
How do we respond faster, quicker? And you’re seeing massive differences between the profitability and the loss between companies who utilize and technology who are quick to respond, who move with action and are very creative. I’m also seeing very creative family offices. I’m seeing creative.
Technology companies and then people who are from the tech world now investing in real estate with their family offices and really making a, an impact on the industry.
Matt Knight: Yeah I agree with that. And I, there’s this saying about the market about. The market can stay irrational longer than you can stay liquid, and I’m hoping that is not the case with deals because I think we’ve been waiting, I don’t know about you for two years, for a flood of [00:03:00] m and a and companies coming together and companies selling themselves and going public and just deals seem to be just sitting on the sidelines.
Waiting to happen and not happening. And there was a little flurry of it, but at the end of last year there was a little bit, but I’m hoping 26 is the year where companies merge, companies get acquired. Maybe a few companies that should finally give up a ghost and go bk or sell themselves for pennies, right?
There’s a little bit of a culling that makes the survivors healthier, in my opinion, which sort of mirrors the real, the property market, right? There’s been a lot of portfolios out there. At the verge of going back to the lender that have not traded, and I’m hoping some of that comes loose finally in 2026.
Chris Moreno: A hundred percent. I think one of the key things, and I, there’s very different opinions here. One of the opinions I have is that there tends to be, increased as there’s increased capital. There’s fluctuations on where that capital [00:04:00] goes, right? And there’s always a search for Alpha last year.
There were people who were thinking about selling, and obviously on people’s different people’s timelines. Some people are three year holds, some are five year holds, some are seven year holds. Some are people hold forever and just acquire. But the people who were hitting those, from purchasing in 20 20, 20 21, 20 22, have, were starting to hit those 3, 4, 5 year periods where they’re, they’ve never had a severe cycle.
And so last year in the early part of the year. People were taking deals to market, but not really marking them down to market price. And so not necessarily making the sale happen. What happened is we saw last year some folks went, into receivership or had to have forced mergers and acquisitions.
And you’ve seen a lot of consolidation over the last year. Year. What I’m hearing from folks about this year, it’s interesting, Matt, is we’re gonna see a lot more deals happen. Because people don’t [00:05:00] want the alternative of if their deal doesn’t go through, if the deal isn’t purchased. And then time is not your friend in, in, in acquiring properties and selling properties.
Generally, acquiring Yes. Selling, no. And so I’m hearing a lot of people ready to rock and roll, that this is gonna be one of the most, the biggest nm HC events ever of. The owners, asset managers, investors coming together but also on the tech side, right? Is that you’re seeing people say, I talked to someone today, an owner and an acquiring, acquisitions team.
They have a couple billion dollars under assets. And he said, for an existing asset that we’ve owned for six months or a year or two years, it’s hard to make decisions on technology quickly. That can take months, especially in multifamily or real estate, but in an acquisition. I can make a decision, he said in 10 minutes.
I was expecting him to say three weeks or a month. Oftentimes, if it fits with an acquisition, he can make that decision instantly [00:06:00] because it’s part of their story of acquiring the asset, making an investment, doing a new development, and then utilizing technology to turn it around, make an investment into the future of a year, two years, three years, whereas the existing assets, they.
Path to make them perform. And it’s really hard to adjust those performers and those business models. So I thought that was really interesting and I think it can tie over to technology investments in m and a on the tech side as well.
Matt Knight: Yeah, I don’t I don’t disagree and we should probably, I’m sure we are contractually obligated by somebody to talk about ai.
I’m curious if you have any
Chris Moreno: Yeah.
Matt Knight: Thoughts on trends in AI this year in property and construction. Anything you think turns the corner this
Chris Moreno: year? Yes. I have, three key thoughts on AI for this year. Okay. So my, I think number one is that AI is going to be even stronger of an asset to those in real estate than many other sectors.
Many other [00:07:00] sectors have used technology in different ways, and I think as you’re seeing consolidation, as you are seeing some layoffs and you’re seeing challenges in the real estate. Operations and management and development worlds right now you are going to see a need for ai. The challenge is you’re gonna see.
Number two, need for people who can manage the change that is required with ai. Whether those are the people building the AI and the LLMs, you’re seeing a big need there. And there’s a, there’s incredible demand for those people. And then number two, the change makers within organizations and that leadership who are going to be deciding on what to.
Paths they do, they go down and training people how to utilize AI to make sure they’re understanding there will be hallucinations. So people who are not AI native, not using AI every day in their lives, how are they properly supposed to be utilizing AI in those who work with it and then make them better?
‘cause I think a big part of AI is the frustration when you talk to [00:08:00] people who. Think AI is a fad or temporary and think it’s supposed to solve everything and be perfect every time it’s trained in working with those people so that they’re educated on what does it actually mean and what, how can it help them in their roles.
And then I think number three is there’s going to be an, obviously we’re already seeing a massive amount of investment. You’re gonna see consolidation. So I think this is the year of m and a because of ai. So what I mean by that is that companies who have been around and have become great businesses may start seeing dips in their business because of the impact AI will have on them and the ability to build competitors in spaces quickly utilizing ai.
So AI can tell us, if you think about it, these models can tell us where there’s opportunities in different economic areas of the country. So when there’s, as Peter Thiel talks about. How to build a monopoly and how to not have competition. AI actually helps disrupt that. AI helps disrupt competition and [00:09:00] build, allow you to see where there’s gaps in the marketplace.
I think it’s actually a great thing for the consumer. And where I’m going with this is that my belief, Matt, is that AI. Helps companies to realize where there’s better partnerships that they never saw before because they had to make a decision on themselves. You and I had to spend 20 hours mapping a sector, mapping who we think in our network could be helpful to us or be a good partner.
Now you can utilize AI and it can bring up 800 people you never knew in the world. That could be a potential partner and then weigh each one of them in a scoring system to who they could be good partners, LPs, investors who they can disqualify people for you immediately. ‘cause you can search for things that you would never be able to spend the time on.
And then I think for acquisitions and investments I know three companies, Matt, in the last five weeks, who have gone through acquisitions and m and a and. Those time periods, which may have traditionally taken four months, five months, six months. I think with [00:10:00] ai, you’re gonna see a much faster speed to market for that.
So I’m very gung-ho on AI in our daily lives. I think what I’m most fearful about, Matt, is how AI will be used and in how can it control safety. So what I mean by this is for instance, robotics. In our everyday lives. It’s fun when we go to a show and there’s a robot and you push it and you play with it.
But what happens? How do we think about those robots being in our houses and in our apartment buildings and in our work and who controls access to those robots, who controls how those robots interact while we’re sleeping right? And policing our neighborhoods and things of that. So I think a lot about the human interaction with all of the AI and how ai we need to make sure that’s.
Trusted people are controlling that data as well as the decision making of how the models are being created.
Matt Knight: Yeah, I think that’s fair. I would, I’m curious about. The outcome of so many people using ai. I think you said this at the beginning, more people [00:11:00] are using it and they’re using it for more things, and one of the things that I saw was prototyping, right?
We have our own acquisition. Tech platform. Let’s build an ai, demographics engine and a AI psychographics engine, and let’s build a rent trending engine, right? We’re gonna build our own stuff, right? That’s where people with Vibe Coding could use. Rep or Cursor, or even Gemini or whatever, right?
Copilot and I would bet there were some lessons learned last year and to a lesser degree the year before. Around building it is one thing. Building it and maintaining it is another thing. Building it and maintaining it, debugging it and making it integrate with everything I use is an entirely another thing.
And I think that actually probably plays into the hands of our industry, where our tech companies and our tech vendors are doing it all day every. And they can do a better job and move faster and have more capabilities than our analysts and young people and [00:12:00] C-Suite guys can do over weekends on lovable, and so I would bet there is a at the tip of the spear, I would bet there is a boomerang effect back to high quality partnerships where. Basic AI building is cool and cute and a neat toy. And look at this thing that I just made Oscar the Grouch do just ‘cause it’s fun. But then when you’re actually like, does it work with my PMS?
Does it work with accounting? Does it update and debug itself? No. And who does startups, people that work on it till midnight every night. And so I’m hoping there’s a bit of a regression to. What you said, just understanding your partners and partnerships better. It’s not a replacement of tech partnerships.
It is a clarifying, and another culling, back to my theme earlier on 2026. 2026 is the year of the culling or the reaping where we are getting to great partnerships versus a lot of partnerships or no partnerships, right? It’s not, I’ll build it myself and it’s [00:13:00] not all, tech vendors are overcharging me.
The right ones are amazing and the wrong ones aren’t worth my time, and AI can help me with both. Does that make sense?
Chris Moreno: Completely. I think, and it is maybe as you’re describing, one of the trickiest things about partnerships in real estate is that partnerships can take years to develop.
And they have between people and when someone disappears, that can be a challenge. And the same thing with ai, right? People don’t necessarily trust AI and systems. They trust people and they trust the leadership. And that’s probably one of the most common questions I get. From decision makers when they’re looking at tech or venture capitalists from private equity firms, when they’re doing diligence on someone to invest in them or back them or go with them, is, will this person do what they say they’re gonna do?
Number one if I give them capital today, will they give me capital back in a year, three years, five years, 10 years? But also, are they gonna say what they’re gonna do on the technology and be [00:14:00] around? So reputation, I think, is the most important thing in real estate. I think it’s, I think it’s the most important thing in life.
Beyond money is reputation. Because what good is money if you don’t have friends, colleagues, family who trust you and that. Then parlays into what you said, Matt, which is these models of AI as well as trust in doing business and with your partners in real estate. So that’s hands down, like the most important thing I’ve learned around the partnerships and making decisions
Matt Knight: maybe is our last point before we wrap today is what are you looking forward to most this year?
Can be an event or a deal or something like that. Just tell me what you think you’re looking forward to most in 2026.
Chris Moreno: Yeah, if I had to, jot down my, the top things that Jesse Ler talks about, like his mini adventures. So for number one, for me, Matt, it’s getting to be a dad while my kids are still young and spending time with them on many adventures on the weekends.
That’s a key thing for me. I’ve cut my travel from probably 50. Trips a year. 40, 40 trips, [00:15:00] down to, probably about 20 trips a year. So it’s still a lot. But I think Matt I’m really excited for more IRL whether that’s IRL in, in real life here in Atlanta, and getting to know many of the developers, owners, advocates in real estate and technology.
We just have a really solid prop tech community here now that continues to grow and infrastructure is a big focus. So that’s. Really exciting for me. I’m excited about your summit coming up, which will be fun. I think we’ll both be together. You have the nm HC annual meetings in two weeks.
So seeing all the deal that is gonna be, I think the greatest barometer of the economy for me is that. And then of course, going down to Miami for the Retz Tech Summit with 250 companies leaders of some of the top CTOs and CISOs and leaders. That’s exciting. And of course, your event in San Diego.
So I think for the first part of the year, that, and then, and one more. Retcon is always a fun one too. And seeing a lot of the technology folks across housing data centers office, you name it. But but [00:16:00] your summit is a fun one, Matt. So I think you bring together a great cross section of investors and owners and LPs and family offices who know real estate, but also have built technology companies in a really number one confidential environment, but also a curated environment.
Matt Knight: I appreciate you saying that. And maybe I’ll add to this, I think the two, maybe I’ll do it first of the year and back of the year. Like I really like the Rezi Summit. That’s a small, intimate group of cool people I really enjoyed in Dallas last year, and I’m looking forward to Miami this year.
And then I’ll say Blueprint, I always something about Blueprint where you’re we’re all coming back from summer, I think it’s usually September. It’s kinda the first big conference of the fall. And there’s people I only see at that event. As much as I hate Vegas, it is always just well done.
And so shout out to those guys that do a good show. So those are probably the two that I’m looking forward to the most, just because they tend to I don’t know what you’d call that vibe with what I want, just hanging out with people, the right kind of people that are just fun to talk to and have a collaborative spirit.
That’s probably the two I like the best. [00:17:00]
Chris Moreno: That’s such a great word to end us on. Matt is vibe is in, you got the vibe and the vibe coding and the AI and there’s nothing like getting together in real life. And I’m excited to see you and I’m gonna see you in Phoenix. I can’t wait to, I think one of the best things, Matt, is being around people.
Who get really passionate and we can choose to be pessimistic. But I found the most successful people, and myself included, when you have clarity, calmness, and optimism the world is your own oyster. The world is so abundant and and there’s so many great opportunities. So that’s my thing, Matt, for this year, is really paying it forward living in a world of abundance and working with people.
I enjoy being around and who I just feel great around. So thank you for that.
Matt Knight: Agreed man. It’s gonna be a good year, man. That’s happy 2026. Let’s go get it.
Chris Moreno: Let’s do it. Cheers.
