Housing industry veteran Ben Myers has launched a boutique residential real estate advisory firm called Bullpen Research & Consulting Inc.

Ben Myers has launched a boutique residential real estate advisory firm called Bullpen Research & Consulting Inc.

“We’ll be concentrating on residential market studies, working with builders, developers, land owners and lenders on underwriting new projects, finding the right mix of units, the appropriate suite sizes, pricing and amenities,” said Myers.

“We’ll also do surveys and focus groups on future projects to assist in making those decisions as well. I am going to be launching a couple of reports in the next month as well, so look out for those.”

Myers is a one-man show for now, but will collaborate with Urban Logic Research & Advisory in Ottawa and will have its help on larger and more complex assignments. Toronto-based Bullpen offers services on both an individual project and monthly retainer basis.

Bullpen can help with purchase decisions

“I’ve been working on these types of studies for over a decade, and I know that everyone wants a second opinion and someone to look at the numbers in greater detail to ensure they’re not missing anything,” said Myers.

“With changes coming to the Ontario Municipal Board, and new home prices spiking by 40 per cent in 2017, there is additional risk and uncertainty today that wasn’t present in the recent past. The development industry will have to be that much more certain about their purchase decisions because they might not get the density they want and they might not have a value spike to bail them out of a bad buy.

“Research and analysis is going to be that much more important moving forward.”

While Myers is keeping Bullpen’s client base confidential, he expects to work with anyone buying or planning a new residential development in Ontario.

“I’ve worked with many of the industry’s biggest players in the past, and many of them have already contacted me about Bullpen,” he said.

Myers’ housing industry experience

Myers has more than 15 years of housing industry experience. He started his career in Dallas at the largest market research company serving the American homebuilding industry at the time.

He’s since headed the research arm of a real estate brokerage in Vaughan, Ont. which produced a monthly report on the new single-family housing market in the Greater Toronto Area and Kitchener-Waterloo area.

Myers was a member of the urban economics team at Clayton Research Associates in Scarborough, Ont., specializing in residential demand studies. He also served as senior-vice president of market research and analytics at Fortress Real Developments in Richmond Hill, Ont., where he provided due diligence on more than 1,000 residential opportunities across Canada and published a bi-annual housing and economic trends report.

“I’ve worked at three real estate research companies and have had the opportunity to collaborate and learn from some of the smartest folks in the industry,” said Myers, “I’ve also continued updating my education at MIT and Columbia over the past couple of years.

“Having worked the last few years for a development company, I’ve gained a much better sense of what developers and financiers need, as I’ve been in their shoes. I’ve been working on new ways to splice and dice the housing data to better answer the questions that I’m going to be asked to answer.”

Myers has also been, and will continue to be, a contributing columnist to Real Estate News Exchange.