Basis Play.
b
AI consulting for
real estate investment management
San Francisco

Applied AI for real estate investment management.

Basis Play helps real estate investment teams that want to become more technically sophisticated build real capability with AI — led by a practitioner who's managed institutional portfolios and ships the software herself.

$20B+
Assets Under
Advisory
$116B
CIRM Debt Under Advisory,
past three years
$2.5B
Levered debt portfolio
managed at PCCP
13 yrs
Institutional
CRE finance
01  The approach

For teams that want to build the capability — not outsource it.

I'm not here to evangelize AI or sell a transformation. The teams I work with already know they want to be more technically sophisticated. They want to understand what these tools actually do, where they actually help and where they don't, and how to use them with judgment.

There's a difference between using AI tools and understanding what these tools actually are and what they can build. I work on the second. I've sat on both sides of the table in real estate finance, advising institutional clients on rate risk, then managing a $2.5B levered debt book at PCCP. I also build production software myself. So I can tell you where AI genuinely fits an investment workflow, separate signal from hype, and leave your team more capable than I found it.

The measure of a good engagement isn't dependence on me. It's that your team is sharper and better prepared after we work together.

02  Offerings

Three ways to engage.

Built for institutional teams, matched to where your team actually is.

i
AI strategy
assessment
A focused diagnostic of where AI actually pays off across your investment and capital-markets workflow — adoption framework, vendor and data-protection evaluation, and a prioritized opportunity audit, delivered as a written strategy on what to build, what to buy, and what to ignore.
ii
AI practice
& enablement
A working session for principals and teams: what AI can and can't be trusted with, practical decision frameworks, a vendor rubric, and a documented practice policy — designed to raise the whole team's fluency, built for how an investment firm actually operates.
iii
Standing
advisory
Ongoing advisory as your team builds capability — a steady hand on tooling decisions, technical judgment calls, and the analytics that connect AI to real investment outcomes. The precision on the technical side you already expect on the deal side.
play
The thesis
The tools institutional real estate runs on are overdue for a rebuild.
Laurie Sartain · Founder
03  Credentials

The track record underneath the advice.

Capital Advisor
Managing Director at CIRM, a leading institutional interest-rate advisory firm.
Investment Manager
VP, Debt Asset Management at PCCP — managed a $2.5B levered real estate debt portfolio.
Software Developer
Experienced in delivering fully custom, production-grade software for the institutional CRE market.
Industry Leader
Four first-place AI hackathon finishes. Claude Ambassador, Real Estate — selected by Anthropic.
Quantitative Thinker
B.A. Mathematics & English Literature, University of Chicago, FRM.
Start a conversation.
Book a call
laurie@basisplay.com
San Francisco
lauriesartain.com  ·  LinkedIn