Commercial Real Estate Brokerage – Key Strategies for Working with Overpriced Listings

It is a fact in commercial real estate brokerage that some listings will be overpriced when it comes to asking price or asking rental.  Do you want listings that are considerably above market?  The question will also be whether you should spend some more time on the listing, refresh the listing, or remove it from the market.

Overpriced listings and unrealistic clients can waste a lot of your time.  So any overpriced listing should be assessed for market and enquiry potential, and the potential should be tested against the realism of the client in today’s property market.

The Client Listens?

If the client is not listening to the realities of today’s market conditions, then you have a few choices to make and the most important choice is to whether you should spend any more time in promoting the property.

Market evidence from the locale will help you with client conditioning.  You will need to format that market evidence into different presentational forms including case studies, price graphs, rental graphs, time on market assessments, and enquiry rates.  All of the information you present to your client should be differentiated between open listings and exclusive listings.

Some clients have factors of motivation and choice that are not easy to define or understand as they will not tell you everything that they are trying to achieve; to understand these clients you will need to master the art reading of body language, communication, and negotiation.  Every presentation, listing pitch, negotiation, and inspection will involve elements of each skill base.

Portfolio Clients

If the client owns a comprehensive property investment portfolio including different buildings in different locations, they are quite likely to be less motivated or realistic when it comes to accepting a lower price or a lower rental.  Some clients will also limit what they tell you about the property and their intentions to move to a successful sale or lease.  Top agents interpret clients comprehensively as part of the listing process including what is said, what they see, and what the clients do.

If you must work with listings that are above market, consider the following advertising and marketing questions:

• Why has the property been on the market for a long time attracting very little enquiry?
• Have you refreshed the listing a number of times?
• Has the property been marketed with other agents previously and that could be impacting your current marketing campaign?
• At what stage will the group of targeted local buyers or tenants become disinterested with the listing?
• If offers and negotiations have been presented to the client, what factors reduced or stifled a successful result?
• How realistic is the client today with their property, their marketing, and the negotiations?
• Can you tell the client more about the local property market that has not yet been discussed?
• Has the property been comprehensively promoted to the target audience in your town or city?
• Have you spent enough money on the marketing campaign? Has the money been spent correctly and efficiently through the right media channels?
• Given that you should have been tracking the results from the marketing campaign, can you show your client the strengths and weaknesses of the campaign? Are the strengths in marketing the property still active and of interest to buyers or tenants as the case may be.
• Are there any similar properties in the same location that can be cross marketed to your listing?
• Are there more people and the property market that you have not reached out to as part of the property promotion?

The answers that you get with these questions will help you understand whether you should spend any more time on the client and their listing.