The Important Facts of Qualifying Tenants and Buyers

In commercial real estate brokerage it is very tempting to work closely with tenants and buyers when it comes to their property activities and requests.  It can even be exciting when you get a new or fresh property enquiry with these people.  That being said, they can also waste a lot of your time particularly when they are unqualified and or you may not have the listing(s) they require.

When you haven’t got many controlled listings to work with, it is very tempting to focus your efforts into the buyer and tenant general enquiry coming to you.    Listings are the big priority in commercial real estate today.  Build your listing bank and the higher quality enquiries will come in faster and more directly than ever before.

Qualify before you act

Qualify the people that connect with you and understand what they know about property locally and what they have seen.  Find out if they have been looking at other listings with other brokers or agents.  Question these people about the listings that they have already inspected and what impressions they have of the local property market.  When you have the answers to these questions, you can decide how you will help them further and if you will spend your valuable time and resources in showing them other properties.

Focus your efforts into your listings

The agents and the brokers that control the listing stock, always control the enquiry.  That is why a focus on listing generation will be far more productive from a new business perspective.  When you control the listing from an exclusive perspective, all the buyers and the tenants locally must come to you with their property needs because they want to see your listed property.  The message here is quite simple; focus on building your listing stock and controlling it exclusively.  You will get plenty of enquiries when you promote exclusive listings of high quality.

Who are they?

The facts of the matter are that tenants and buyers will shop around with many agents and brokers at any one time to find the property that they need; exclusivity really does matter for you personally as part of a new business generation model.  Unless they appoint you exclusively as their agent or broker to find a property, then you should expect that they will be shopping around with many agents and brokers at any one time.  Your time is precious.  Protect your time.  Use it wisely.

Don’t waste your time

The efforts that you apply to helping these people can be wasted, as they can rent or purchase a property at any time through any of the other local agents and brokers.  Apply some limitations to your services when working generally with tenants and buyers.  Certainly quote relevant listings to them, but as part of that process qualify their property needs extensively and directly.

The rules to work to

Get the real facts before you act.

Here are some rules to the process of working with buyers and tenants:

  1. Determine who you are connecting with and where they come from. Are they a decision maker? Get the full contact details of the person you are talking to before you provide property information.  If they are reluctant to tell you who they are or where they are coming from, you should restrict the amount of property information you provide them with.
  2. Ask them about how they are coming to you and what has prompted them to make the property enquiry. Find out if they have seen any particular property promotion as part of that process.  Have they come to you as result of any particular internet advertising, newspaper promotions, editorials, property signage, or referral?  As part of that you can relate to how your marketing efforts are working with certain listings and in certain locations.
  3. Have they seen any other properties locally with any other brokerage group or agent? If they have been looking around the local area at other properties, you should expect that they could close on a transaction with any other agent or broker at any time.  Their value to you will be limited.
  4. What do they know about the local property market as to rentals and or prices, and are their budget expectations realistic? Only quote the properties that they can afford, and or qualify them on the fuller conditions of the local property market before you go too far.

These simple strategies will help you work with the buyers and the tenants that come to you with local listings and local property enquiry.  You can then understand if you should be going further with them over time.  Protect your time and protect your resources in commercial real estate brokerage sales and leasing.

(N.B. these ideas are also sent out to regularly to our friends in Commercial Real Estate Online Snapshot to help amplify brokerage results…. Get your access here)

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