Real Estate Brokers – How to Condition the Client to Accept Commercial Property Market Conditions
If you have taken on a commercial real estate listing for selling or leasing, it’s important to note that even if the marketing of the property has begun, you must still ensure that the client is aware of the current market conditions.
It’s common for clients to have unrealistic expectations about their property’s potential in the current market. It’s important to address these expectations early on to avoid any issues down the line.
A client under exclusive listing conditions should be helped by the agent through the facts of the local area when it comes to prices, rents, and inquiries. There is only a short period of time to attract inbound inquiry and create inspections; the start of the property marketing campaign is the best time to do that.
A ‘fresh property’ creates ‘fresh inquiry’, and from that you can build the momentum for an offer or negotiation.
Property Market Perception
The property buyers and tenants that are out there already today have a very good perception of what the prices and rents are doing. They also have a budget to work to in keeping with the economic and investment cycles.
The property owner on the other hand is the person that generally thinks that their property is better than all the others on the market. That is where conditioning becomes critical to the end result.
Here are some ideas to help with ‘client conditioning’ when it comes to ‘exclusive listings’:
- Comments from inspections – Every person that you take to the property will have perceptions relative to what they see in the listing and what they need in a property. Take notes from what they tell you during the inspection; pass those comments on to your client.
- Inquiry rates – The inquiry rates for any listing will in many cases be limited to a small number of people. Track the level of enquiry coming in from the different types of media, both online and offline. Understand the things that are working from a marketing perspective, and repeat those activities. Give the client an update of inbound enquiry every few days.
- Comparable property results and activities – Some of your other listings will have factors to watch that can be shared as ‘feedback’ with other property owners. Factors such as enquiry rates, time on market, methods of sale or lease, and finance terms and conditions are key indicators in any deal or negotiation.
From these 3 things you can make some solid recommendations to your clients about prices, rents, inspections, negotiations, and marketing.
That is how you condition your client to the existing property market pressures. That is how you can convert more commercial real estate clients and deals over time.