Commercial Real Estate Brokers – How to Grade Your Listings for Opportunity

Some property listings in commercial real estate are better than others. You should pick and choose your listings based on their quality, the client’s commitment, and your chances of success.

Why is this so important? Poor-quality listings (and clients) can absorb a lot of your time and effort and distract you from the things that really matter in building your commercial real estate business.

Your Real Estate time is now

Understand the limitation of the resources that you have at your disposal.  There will always be limitations when it comes to your time, your money, and your knowledge.  In understanding those limitations, you can match your professional skills and resources correctly when it comes to the right property and the right client.

So the message is that you should not take on a listing for the sake of having it.  Only list a property that is correct for your skills and market conditions.  It is better to have a small number of high quality listings than 20 or more open listings of random quality.

How do you work your Current listings?

When you have found the right listing to work on, establish the right promotional strategy, and demand exclusivity as part of your listing process.  Encourage your clients to contribute marketing funds to the promotion of the property.

Control your listing stock through exclusivity so that you can attract the best levels of enquiry and bring about the best results in a timely way.  Do an opportunity assessment when it comes to each listing and each client.

Grading Your Listings

Here are some ideas to help you grade your listings for opportunity:

1. PRECINCTS: Determine the best property precincts that attract good levels of enquiry locally. Some property precincts are so popular that the method of sale or lease should be carefully considered to pull in a timely result.  For example, the auction sale process is very useful when it comes to a prime property in a top location.
2. ENQUIRIES: Understand the property types that are currently attracting enquiries. Factors of supply and demand will affect the levels of current interest in buying and leasing commercial real estate. Some property types will be more popular than others when it comes to occupancy and ownership.
3. ATTRACTING ENQUIRY: Assess every listing for particular features and factors of attraction. Both of those issues should be tuned to the target market and the location.  You can then incorporate the features of the property into your advertising campaign, its structure and the editorial.  You can create a message that is property specific that attracts the eye of the reader and the interests of the local tenants and buyers.  Relevancy is important when it comes to the marketing of any property today and pulling in the enquiry.  Real strategy is needed to optimise the promotional message and the inspection potential for any listing.
4. STRENGTHS AND WEAKNESSES: Look at the weaknesses that may apply to any particular listing. Some weaknesses may hinder and restrict property enquiry, so they will need to be addressed before the campaign commences.  It is best to remove those issues before the property is promoted and inspected by interested buyers and tenants.  Like it or not, or tenants or buyers in today’s property market are very selective and business savvy.  Any weakness in a property will give them leverage when it comes to interest, offers made, negotiation, and pricing structure.
5. MARKET CONDITIONS: Assess the market for supply and demand. Understand the locational factors that impact current and future supply and buyer, business, tenant, and investor demand.
6. COMPETITION: Look at the levels of listing competition in the location when it comes to the property type and the special factors attributable to the particular listing. If there are other buildings competing with your listing locally, then you will need to be selective and careful when it comes to your marketing campaign, the timing of the promotion, and your business strategy.
7. APPROACH: See the opportunity for what it is and explain to the client how you will be approaching the marketing of their property within the location and the target market. Confidence is the key to helping our clients see the relevant strategies and best methods of approach in marketing a property today.  Address the local levels of enquiry as part of your listing strategy, its promotion, and the subsequent negotiation.

So there are some things that you can do here when you grade your listings for opportunity, and then adjust your business processes accordingly.  You are the property expert and your client expects you to provide a clear strategy and definite ideas in resolving their property challenge.

You can determine where your best chances of success can be achieved in selling or leasing any commercial or retail property today.  Top agents always assess their listings for opportunities first, and then match their promotional efforts accordingly.  They help their clients see the road ahead.