As a Commercial Broker You are a Work in Progress

In commercial real estate brokerage, consider yourself a work in progress.  Every day new steps need to be taken towards building better personal market share and improving skills.  It would be incorrect for even the best agents in the property market to consider themselves totally complete and skilful.  The industry is based on knowledge and self-improvement and there are always changes to the marketplace to consider.  Even the best agents need to improve their skills and focus.

It is a fact that you have all the required talent, the resources, and the position to make a very good impression as a commercial real estate agent within the market.  It is a matter of how you develop those factors and grow them over time.

Consider the segments of the market that offer the best opportunity to you.  Here are some of the main ones:

• Leasing – the leasing process is complementary to sales and property management activity.  You can certainly find many businesses and landlords looking for leasing assistance.  The key issue here is to focus on the quality properties, the best tenants, and the good landlords.
• Sales – the sales of commercial real estate locally will be somewhat seasonal based on your town or city.  To make things work for you, understand the selling seasons so that you can be prepared with the right properties and the correct clients.  Your prospecting process will help you greatly in gathering sales listing opportunity.
• Property management – the best way to get property management appointments will be through sales and leasing activity.  Understand the linkage, and provide the necessary property management services to the property owners.
• Tenant advocacy – look around the market to find those tenants and those businesses looking for relocation, expansion, or contraction.  The tenant advocacy process can be very rewarding, but make sure you focus on the quality end of the market.  In most circumstances the tenant will be paying your fee.  Your task is to find the right property.
• Buyer’s agent – the role of a buyer’s agent will get traction when you connect with the larger businesses and property investors.  In this role reversal, they are your client rather than the property owner, and on that basis your services are focused entirely on finding the property location and outcome they as buyers require.  They will be paying your commission, and for that reason focus on the quality clients.
• Seller’s agent – a big message needs to be made here.  When you work for Sellers, focus on exclusive listings wherever possible.  In that way you control the listing stock and everybody else then needs to talk to you as part of putting a transaction together.
• Project leasing – if you check out the property developments that are coming through the market, you will find some opportunities for project leasing.  There will be a degree of work involved as the project takes shape, however the numerous commissions will in the end result be very rewarding.  You may wish to charge a fee as part of the preparation work in project leasing.
• Project sales – the same rules apply here when it comes to project sales opportunity.  A new property development with numerous titles and separate sale requirements can bring in great volumes of commission over time.  The groundwork and preparation work can be extensive and for that reason you should seek an exclusive listing to protect the early involvement you have at no or little fee.  Some agents will charge a basic fee for the preparation work; there is nothing wrong with that, however the property developers may be reluctant to factor that costing to the development.  It is your choice as to whether you work for those property developers on that basis

Taking all of these categories into account there will be plenty of opportunity within the office, retail, and industrial property segments.  It’s just a matter of how you to pick the right segments and activate the opportunity.  That’s where a systematic process of prospecting will help you greatly.

So the key message here is that you are a work in progress when it comes to building opportunity and results in both real estate commissions and listings.  It really doesn’t matter how successful you are today or have been over the last 12 months; it does matter what you do today and how you improve your results over time.  Develop a plan of attack to take you forward as a professional agent or broker.

When you fully accept that you are the main project in your life, you can understand the necessity for self-improvement and skill development.  Every segment of our industry has unique requirements when it comes to negotiating, presenting, prospecting, and closing.