Solving Problems in Commercial Real Estate Brokerage Attracts Better Clients

Many of the clients that we work with in commercial real estate sales will have issues when it comes to property performance. As the specialists locally with commercial investments, we are well placed to provide unique services and timely solutions.

So the message here is that you can be a solution provider when it comes to helping property investors with asset performance. You can help resolve many of the property challenges across aspects of physical and financial performance for the asset.

Here are some of the specific processes that you can offer to local property investors, and that are likely to be quite valuable to the clients that we serve:

1. Solving vacancy problems – Look around your market to identify high quality investment properties. From time to time they will have issues with tenancy change and pending vacancies. The best way to handle vacancy problems in any investment property is through a forward-looking tenant retention plan and income optimisation or planning process. Connect with all of the tenants in the tenancy mix regularly, so that you can understand their intentions when it comes to lease expiry and or renewal. There is nothing wrong with negotiating a lease renewal 12 or 18 months early with an anchor tenant or important tenant, if it suits the landlord to do so. Lease incentives can be provided to give some momentum to the lease renegotiation process. When you have an important tenant coming to the end of their lease, it is critical that occupancy be protected and maintained.
2. Tenancy mix changes – Look for the opportunities of change within the tenancy mix. You can move tenants around to improve lease and tenant stability. Understand the requirements of each tenant when it comes to expansion and contraction. Certain parts of the property may be more suitable to different tenants. A relocation strategy can be very useful when it comes to tenant retention and planning.
3. Outgoings controls and reductions – The cost of occupancy will change throughout the year subject to the impact of building maintenance and rates and taxes. Generally speaking, you will find that occupancy costs rarely go down and on that basis careful management is required to maintain things at a sensible level. An investment property needs to retain its financial viability from an occupancy perspective. The levels of outgoings will have an impact on lease negotiations, vacancy management, and tenant retention. When negotiating on a property, many tenants will compare occupancy costs between properties before making a final lease decision. Ensure that your properties are correctly managed financially for that very reason.
4. Refurbishment and renovation – Over a period of years, any large investment property will go through phases of refurbishment and renovation. That can be a staged process and be merged into the lease management and tenancy plans for the property. You can help your investor clients when it comes to planning the required tenancy movements around renovation and refurbishment. There may also be issues of lease renegotiation as part of that process.
5. Lease management and income performance – Many properties will have challenges when it comes to lease documentation. In any large property, you will find that the complexity of lease documentation can be overwhelming for many property investors.  The lease obligations of the tenant and the landlord should be checked and administered over the lease term. Any high quality investment property should have a standard lease process to support the investment. When it comes to time of sale, the quality of the lease documentation will help attract buyers and investors to the property.

So there are some very specific processes that you can bring to your local property investors as part of a professional commercial real estate service. Understand exactly how you can help those investors given the current property market situation in your town or city. Package your services accordingly and feed that strategy into your prospecting model.