Bridging the Gap: Conditioning Landlords to Real-Time Market Conditions in Commercial Real Estate Leasing
In the dynamic world of commercial, retail, and industrial property leasing, landlords and tenants constantly seek the best deal for their premises. The leasing agent plays a pivotal role in bringing these parties together.
Conditioning the landlord, a term we use to align their expectations with the actual market conditions is a big part of achieving transaction progress. It’s all about bridging the gap between leasing requirements and proven market intelligence.
Client Conditioning Tips
So, where can you start the process of client conditioning in leasing, and what would be your strategy? Here are some thoughts to consider.
1: Local supply and demand changes:
Consider the supply and demand factors related to the property type and location. As part of that, understand the vacancy rates applying across the area and how those vacancy rates should be absorbed or changed over the coming months. There will be specific pressures regarding the number of developments and the types of tenants looking for premises.
The upcoming developments will likely impact market rental and incentives to be offered as part of any lease transaction. Given that your property is part of a property investment portfolio for the client, you may have multiple tenants to consider, as well as the pressures of vacancies across the tenancy mix. What does the client need to know about the property market pressures relating to their property?
2: Market Rents and facts:
As the property market changes, such as with the rise of remote work, e-commerce growth, and shifts in consumer sentiment, landlords must adapt. By monitoring market rentals and understanding how these trends affect their client base, landlords can effectively respond to these market pressures.
3: Leverage the technology around you:
Economic indicators and data-driven insights will help you with your client engagement and conditioning processes.
Use the technology on your computer, websites, and databases to build a story of results and trends in today’s property market. Data will help you show what is working and what is not.
4: Appraisals are valuable tools:
Professional appraisals and market comparables will provide objective evidence that you can use.
When you are conditioning clients as part of a sale listing scenario, use graphs and statistics from comparable transactions as evidence, and do that in a visual form. It will help show clients what is happening and where their property is positioned.
5: Communicate and Connect:
Regular communication is not just a task, it’s a crucial part of the property leasing process. Every client, regardless of the size of their listing, should feel valued and involved.
Keeping them updated on trends, enquiries, inspections, and results shows them that their property is a priority and that you are actively working towards their leasing goals.
6: Exclusivity Matters:
Exclusivity is not just a marketing strategy, it’s a way to make your client’s property stand out in a competitive market. Every client with a quality property should seriously consider exclusivity as part of their property marketing campaign strategy.
Show them why that initiative is so important in this ‘day and age’ of commercial real estate investment and occupancy, and how it can make their property feel unique and in high demand.
7: Set the Target Market for the Listing:
Lock into a target market, and tell the client what that is. There is no point in generically marketing vacant premises for lease.
Be clear and precise about your target audience of tenants and how you will reach out to them to tell the story about the property. Show the client how you will do that personally and professionally.
8: Flexible lease terms and lease incentives and concessions:
Every successful lease transaction results from negotiation and compromise between the parties. Landlords and tenants will have priorities and pressure points you can work with.
Somewhere in there will be your client with their instructions about the ‘non-negotiables’, which could be things like the lease term, rental rate, or maintenance responsibilities.
Develop strategies for every lease listing so you can get some progress every day and extend that over time. A successful transaction is a product of taking small steps forward each day and at every chance.
9: Repositioning strategies:
There are reasons to investigate if something is not leasing. It could be the property, the location, the pricing, or the market. When any marketing factors are frustrating your lease marketing, look at what you can do with repositioning.
A property listing will become stale if you do not reposition it, and you can do that by conditioning the client to what is happening in the location and with the property types.
10: Virtual tours and digital marketing:
Given the impact of online marketing today on all property listings, do more with your listings to enhance the visual effect online. Think about photography, professionally written advertising copy, drone shots, and video clips of external and internal parts of the property.
You can also add to those strategies the priority placement of adverts in the marketing portals. When you pay more for property advertising in the portals, you can compete more successfully as buyers, business owners, tenants, and landlords search for a location for the activity.
Do More with Leasing Premises
These ideas will greatly help you get more results with your lease listings.
When you control all these factors, you can increase interest in your property listings and boost inspection levels. Improve your leasing services in that way. Get more potential tenants to visit the property for a physical viewing.