Innovating real estate investment & management

Joining Hines

In May 2021, I joined the application development team at Hines —one of the largest privately held real estate investors and managers in the world. Our team is responsible for building a suite of applications that help Hines manage its $81.7B Portfolio of Assets Under Management, serving 27 countries worldwide, and doing so successfully for over 64 years.

Transforming the industry

At Hines we believe strongly in pushing the boundaries to shape the future and build a better world by getting into a state of mind of innovation. It is a goal to tranform the real estate industry by placing innovation at the very core of the company. Best said by the company’s founder:

I believe we can always improve—either by rethinking existing ways of doing things or by thinking outside the box. This is innovation—it is a state of mind.

What differentiates Hines

The following is what sets us apart from the competitors:

• A tailored approach to global real estate investing. We continue to evaluate and incorporate new technologies, as opposed to only using cookie-cutter solutions.

• We believe great buildings prioritize people, communities, and our planet. Committed to creating long-term value by protecting the environment and developing new ways of reducing our carbon footprint. (ESG)

• Vertically integrated services that create lasting value across different sectors. By leveraging our big data, sophisticated trend analysis, unmatched local market knowledge we can capitalize on opportunities and optimize every aspect of real estate.

My direct contributions

Working with Hines has allowed me to work with some of the most talented and passionate people in the industry. Let’s take a look at some of the things I’ve done at Hines: Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. My Contributions to the team includes

let’s take a look at some of the things I’ve done at Hines: Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit

• Software Engineering

• Product Design

• Design Systems (UI/UX)

Holistic Design

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Fullstack web development

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By going the Django way we can use a classical MVT (Model View Template) approach to build our applications, and create robust and scalable applications that are easy to maintain and extend.

Note that the following code snippets are note real code, as showing proprietary intellectual property could get me into trouble 😅.

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1from django.db import models
2from datetime import datetime
3from realtors.models import Realtor
4
5class Listing(models.Model):
6  owner = models.ForeignKey(Realtor, on_delete=models.DO_NOTHING)
7  price = models.IntegerField()
8  title = models.CharField(max_length=200)
9  address = models.CharField(max_length=200)
10  description = models.TextField(blank=True)
11
12
13  def __str__(self):
14    return self.title

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1from .models import Listing
2
3def index(request):
4  listings = Listing.objects.order_by('-list_date').filter(is_published=True)
5  paginator = Paginator(listings, 6)
6  page = request.GET.get('page')
7  paged_listings = paginator.get_page(page)
8  context = {'listings': paged_listings }
9
10  return render(request, 'listings/listings.html', context)

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1<section id="listings">
2  <div class="container">
3    <div class="row">
4      {% if listings %}
5        {% for listing in listings %}
6          <h2>${{ listing.price | intcomma }}</span>       
7          <h4>{{ listing.title }}</h4>
8          <p>Description: {{ listing.description }}</p>
9        {% endfor %}
10      {% else %}
11          <p>No Listings Available</p>
12      {% endif %}
13    </div>
14  </div>
15</section>

The result

In the end we have a fully functional application that is responsive and works on all devices. Furthermore, Django allows for future proofing our applications and taking a RESTful approach and incorporating a JS framework. lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit.

Making a global impact

Our Embodied Carbon project, Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Nulla ornare consequat aliquam. Nulla condimentum eros et arcu tristique, vitae sollicitudin libero elementum. Mauris nec tincidunt urna. Praesent malesuada diam quis leo maximus consectetur. Praesent at dapibus elit. Donec vitae orci eu nisi efficitur facilisis.

Conclusion

Exciting things are happening at Hines. And, it comes at a greate pleasure to have theopportunity to work with some of the most creative, forward-thinking people in the industry, and contribute to the progress and development of the company. Only time will tell what awaits us in the future, but the best way to predict it is by creating it in our present.