Commercial Real Estate Agents – Important Steps to Take in Leasing Commercial Office Space
If you are working as a commercial real estate broker, office leasing can be quite lucrative when it comes to listing and commission opportunity. The leasing process can also lead to property management opportunities as well as sales opportunities over time.
From the leasing process you can quite easily grow market share at the start of your career and get to work with some very valuable clients and contacts in the local area.
So the suggestion here is that you can significantly improve your market share across your town or city from a base of leasing activity. In simple terms you can and should become the leasing specialist in commercial office property. As you do that, err on the side of ‘quality listings’ and exclusivity at all times. In that way you get reasonable results from inbound enquiry.
Here are some specific strategies to help you move into the commercial leasing market and most particularly that segment that applies to office leasing:
- Connect with tenants and businesses – You will find a lot of opportunity locally when connect with businesses and tenants in your property segment. Divide your local area or territory of focus into different segments and streets. Canvas the streets personally by door knocking and leaving your business card. In meeting with tenants and businesses ask questions about future property needs and current occupancy issues. You will soon find some tenants and businesses looking to relocate to other locations, expand or contract, or purchase another property.
- Focus on specific buildings – Review all of the buildings in your locality for both quality and occupancy. Take a list of tenants from the directory boards in each office building in town or the core central area of the CBD and in doing so look for any vacancies that could be an opportunity for leasing. The easiest way get a list of tenants in any office building is through photographing the directory boards in the foyers. Those photographs can be the raw information that you need to start cold calling tenants.
- Look for vacancies – If you can identify any vacancies, take a note of the location and the approximate size, and then approach the property owner directly to see if they would like help with finding a tenant. In providing your professional leasing services, always focus on exclusivity as a strategy on listing. When you control the listing stock, you control the tenant, the landlord, and give momentum to the marketing process for the vacancy. That is exactly what top leasing agents do.
- Rentals and outgoings – In every property type, location, and quality of building there will be certain market rentals and outgoings to watch and track. Take the time to understand the levels of market rent that apply today locally; the levels of market rent will be impacted by precinct or location, the quality of the property, and the tenancy itself. Look for the averages of market rental and track the changes when it comes to vacancies, recent lease transactions, incentives, services and amenities, and property improvements. Soon you will determine exactly what makes up a ‘market rent’.
Given these three simple facts, the value that you bring to the landlords that you serve should be centred on your tenant contact program, your leasing market knowledge, and database relevance. It is very easy to pitch for a leasing appointment with any landlord particularly when you know exactly what tenants are looking for, where they are moving to, and for what reason. Pitch and present your leasing services on that basis.