Commercial Real Estate Buyers are a Dime a Dozen – Here’s Why
The buyers in this property market are a dime a dozen. Many of those buyers will tell you they can act on a property, when in reality they have no intention or the capacity of doing so. Those buyers can waste a lot of your time as a broker or an agent.
Many agents will spend far too much time chasing around the market for a buyer that tells them that a property is required and that a purchase will occur. The agent soon gets excited and starts talking all the property owners locally to see what activity can be created.
By the time they find a potential property for listing and quoting, they go back to the buyer only to find that they were not serious in the first place and or are talking with every other local property agent.
Act as a Buyers Agent?
If a commercial property buyer asks you to find a property, sign them up as a buyer’s agent. If they are genuine, they will not hesitate in the process.
Most buyers will back away as soon as you ask for that commitment on paper. Top buyers agents work at the top of the market given that buyers at that level are corporate in nature and are inclined to be genuine.
Purchasing Intentions?
So what should you do have a buyer tells you they are willing to purchase? Here are some ideas:
- Get their full details of contact and property requirement.
- Qualify their ability to act and purchase in current market conditions.
- Ask them if they have been working with other agents locally and what properties they may have inspected.
- Drill down into their property requirements including improvements, location, property configuration, cash flow, finance, and availability. Leave no stone unturned when delving within these categories.
- After you have covered the previous four things in the list, ask the buyer to sign a buyer’s agency appointment. You will soon know if they are genuine in their intentions to purchase.
No Buyers Appointment?
Let’s assume that the property buyer did not give you a buyer’s agency appointment as mentioned. On that basis you should retain their information for future reference in case something turns up; but do not waste time on chasing around the market for them.
You then get back into the normal real estate prospecting activity that you would regularly do with sellers and landlords. The agent or broker that controls the listing controls the market and the deal opportunity.
If however the property buyer did give you a buyer’s agency appointment for a lengthy period of time on an exclusive basis, then you can spend time sourcing the necessary property for them.
Work with Quality Buyers
In most cases you will get the buyers agency appointment from the larger corporate businesses and property owners in your region. Smaller scale property buyers can be a big waste of time and do not have all the real estate purchase requirements or factors organized.
When you have the quality listings from your location, the buyers come to you anyway as a direct result. Don’t spend too much time chasing around the market place for a buyer that is not clearly motivated and honest in their property requests.
Focus your prospecting activity on the Sellers of property; when you have the listings, the people will come to you anyway.
Quality Buyers and People
So the message here is quite clear. Only focus your real estate efforts on those people that will give you a genuine and legally correct appointment to act on an exclusive basis. That may be to sell, lease, buy, or rent a property in a quality location.
When you have the agency appointment, you know that your efforts and your resources will be rewarded for the efforts that you apply to the requirement.
I go back to the point that you should concentrate on controlling the property, the marketing, the listing, and the client. You can do all of that with a valid and enforceable appointment to act.