Honestly, I confess that if you’ve used this expression “I’m just looking for a deal that makes sense,” to share what you’re looking for, it’s not your fault. It’s ours–the commercial real estate broker community.
Here’s a real estate investing tip.
In the real estate investing advisory business, we believe that there are no bad prospects, only bad salespeople. This means that if you’ve been frustrated with the lack of performance and results you’ve achieved from your conversations with commercial real estate brokers, then it’s our fault for not asking you to be more specific about what you’re looking for.
Unfortunately, commercial real estate brokers accept that statement because it’s easy. They’ll add you to their database, possibly send you a list of properties from one of the commercial real estate listing services such as CoStar or Loopnet, and then leave you to fend for yourself. After a few weeks, you haven’t heard anything , so you repeat your investment property search–frustrating.
Next time you call our office, we pledge to ask you to be more specific. If we can help you locate what you’re looking for, we will. If not, we’ll tell you and refer you to someone who may be able to satsify your requirement.
And the next time you call on a commercial real estate broker, try this experiment. Don’t use the words deal, sense, cash flow, creative, good, add value, or upside. Instead, describe the property type, location, type of owner, yield requirement and price range you’re looking for and see what happens.
Your specificity will produce more commercial real estate investing opportunities for you to consider and your commercial real estate investment broker will have a clearer picture of what you’re hunting for and who to call first when they see it.
About the Author: Jeremy Cyrier, CCIM is the President of MANSARD, a market research driven commercial real estate brokerage and advisory firm, and member of the CCIM Institute faculty. You may reach Jeremy at Jeremy@Mansardcre.com.
Get a free copy of The Essential 7 Step Guide to Filling Commercial Vacancies.
Contact MANSARD’s Brokerage Services here.
