Choosing the right commercial real estate agent is something that should take careful thought and consideration. After all, a good CRE agent is your window to understanding important factors that might affect your purchase, which means that they must be proficient in performing environmental and demographic research, as well as understanding statistics and financial data.

The prevalence of Internet of Things (IoT) technology has changed the way we live and work, and few industries have felt it more than commercial real estate. After all, modern businesses rely on smart technology to help their companies work more efficiently and effectively in ways that you may not have thought of.

Co-working office spaces are changing the way millennials go to work, and in the process, influencing the way cities grow and develop. These unorthodox workspaces have become a hot commodity over the past couple of years, but how exactly are affecting the CRE industry?

Part of President Trump's new plan for the U.S. economy is to spend billions of dollars in infrastructure construction to repair, replace and retrofit many aspects of the U.S. transportation system. Many bridges, roadways and tunnels are close to a hundred years old, and showing signs of deterioration. President Trump promises to address many of these unsafe issues, and launch a huge amount of construction spending to repair and replace these worn out parts of the transportation system.

Amazon Go is set to make a huge impact on retailers across the United States, whether they are ready for it or not. Amazon rolled out the new technology that allows shoppers to go into stores, put the items they want in their cart, and simply walk out the door and be automatically charged for the items. The new Amazon Go uses a combination of a virtual shopping cart, sensor technology and deep learning algorithms, that will track shopper's every move, and charge them for what they purchase.

More and more firms are choosing to use the open office format in order to create productivity and improve collaboration among workers. For workers unfamiliar with this format, it can be a big change from the traditional offices and cubicles of the past. A study by design firm Gensler found that only one in four workers are in the optimal workplace environment.

Twitter is transforming the way that people communicate and network, and commercial real estate is taking note. Whether you’re looking for inspiration on how to grow your social following or just want to network with some of the best CRE firms in the game, follow these 20 NAI Global firms on Twitter to start exploring:

Retailers are pulling out all the stops in 2017 to attract new customers and keep existing customers coming to their brick-and-mortar retail locations. New and innovative marketing ideas are going to flood consumers email boxes in 2017, as retailers try to catch up with online businesses, such as amazon.com who have already mastered this approach to direct marketing the consumer. Traditional retailers have to catch up in terms of marketing to consumers, but their locations also must attract today's modern consumer in terms of offering the best price and selection options.

In today's competitive multifamily market, apartment communities are looking for more advantages than ever to attract new tenants to their complexes. Landlords are looking to add value to their properties by adding new features and amenities that not only attract new tenants, but that also help increase rents.

The high cost of developing commercial real estate has started to impact the amount of parking developed with new office buildings, thanks to the popularity of rideshare services Uber, Lyft and others. Employers have begun to offer incentives to keep their employees from driving to work, such as discount cards, passes and other financial incentives. And, apartment communities are offering a rental discount to renters that use the ride sharing services, opposed to parking a personal car on the site.

Hot office markets traditionally follow cities that have the hottest housing markets, since new home buyers need jobs to make their mortgage payments. Here are a few of the cities that look to be hot in 2017 in providing office space for new businesses, in addition to having strong housing growth according to Business Insider.

The largest generation in the workforce, Millennials impact everything from commercial real estate to media, food and more. If you’re not keeping an eye on this demographic, you’d do well to brush up on your research.