How to Help Your Commercial Real Estate Clients Find Better Property Solutions

Some properties are better than others in commercial real estate investment.  The elements of property performance are unique in every city and will shape investments over time.  When you get to know your clients in a comprehensive way you can really help them match their property choices and needs to their investment targets.  That’s where the ‘fun’ in the industry begins.  That’s where the listings and commissions start to evolve.

What are the choices?

So there are very different and specific processes to work with in assessing a client’s situation and property choices.  The closer you are to your better clients and their property needs, the better it can be for you and your real estate career.  Give your good clients reasons to talk with you and listen to you.

Top agents and brokers work with their better clients most of the time in an effort to find the right properties in the best locations.  In that way they can create more new business and that business is generally of a substantial nature in value, variation, and frequency.

A well serviced client will generally open up new opportunities of referral and repeat business.

Asking important questions?

So there are some valuable questions here to address with each of your good quality clients.  You almost need a checklist approach to help you work with these clients.  Try some of these questions with the better quality clients in your database:

• What is the best property type? – In any city or town, some property types will offer a greater future from an investment perspective. The growth and stability of the local business community will have something to do with that.
• When will they need to change or upgrade investments? – Timing is everything when it comes to selling or changing a property investment. The leases, vacancy factors, property use factors, and tenant occupancies can influence the timing of changing property investment.
• Are the clients looking for short or long term holdings? – Some investors like to hold their properties for over ten years; others like to upgrade and change investments every 5 or so years when the investment market is primed for change. The supply and demand factors for property locally will have something to do with that.
• Will those clients be looking for income growth or capital gain as an investment outcome? – There are differences to understand.
• Why will they choose one property over another? – Some clients understand one property type more than another. That preference will be quite clear in their property ownership and investment activity.
• Are they risk averse or risk selective? – Every property will bring with it a degree of risk. Can your client absorb risks and changes to property performance in rent, occupancy, and return?  The size of their existing property portfolio will have something to do with that.
• What do they own now? – Always understand what your clients own now. That will be important as they seek to grow their property portfolio and change investments into the future.  You can expand on this point to ask key questions like, ‘What will they need in the future?’

Get to know your clients really well.

Determine how many other agents are they working with now in your town or city, as that will have an impact on your client approach, relevancy, and conversion.  How can you offer better services and skills than those offered by your competition?  Don’t be ordinary in commercial real estate today.  Stand out as the agent of choice.

Most property owners and investors will know and talk to a few local property agents and brokers.  That being said, they will still prefer to sell, buy, or lease most of their property through one of those agents more than the others.  Put yourself in a place of preference with your key clients.