Commercial Real Estate Agent Advertising Rules
When you work as an agent in commercial real estate, it is really important that you set some rules that can apply to marketing and promoting of your listings. You only have one chance to send the right message about the property and capture the enquiries. You must do your property promotions the right way and at the right time.
At this time the commercial property market has some challenges and the enquiry coming from buyers and tenants is quite selective and limited. This then says that you have to ‘do more with less’.
Fewer people calling from your advertising means that you must be prepared to capture the prospect and help them move towards inspecting your listing. It is also a fact that the average deal is taking much longer to close; the prospective buyer or tenant is looking around at other properties before they make an offer; any counter offer from the property owner is likely to be unsuccessful as the tenant or buyer can easily to move on to another listing of better price or rent.
We need to become the specialist agents that the market requires. Clients need top agents that understand how to work with slower levels of enquiry and the existing selective tenants and or property buyers.
So let’s go back to setting some advertising and marketing rules for a property market like this. Here are some ideas to help you:
- Inspect the property comprehensively so you understand the factors that will hinder or encourage a prospective buyer or tenant to talk to you.
- Walk through the property with the client so that you can talk to them about their perceptions of the property. Ask them about the history of the ownership, and how they came to acquire the property.
- There will be some features and improvements within the asset that will allow you to feature the property. You should have four or five selling points that can be merged prominently into the advertising process and encourage enquiry. It is likely that those points will also set the target market. Get the client to agree on your choice of target market.
- Have the client agree with your perceptions of the property and the key selling factors. If you have any weaknesses to deal with, it is best that they are removed prior to the commencement of the campaign. The property must look and feel at its best at the commencement of marketing.
- Get professional photographs taken to use in the marketing campaign. You can always see the difference between professional photographs and those taken by the real estate agency. These photographs will improve your enquiry rate.
- The first four or five weeks of the marketing campaign will be the most critical. It is during this time that you will get the inspections if the market is interested in the property.
- Ensure that the campaign is suitably structured to build the levels of enquiry and encourage inspections. The best method of sale or lease should also be chosen to match the target market.
You can add to this list based on the property, the location, the client, and the selected method of sale or lease. Top agents always focus their marketing and drive the enquiry in the best way possible. That is exactly what this market requires.