Things I Have Learned About Commercial Property Pain
When you know the factors of ‘pain’ in your commercial real estate market, you will see how you can help property owners and businesses from a professional perspective. That is how commercial real estate brokerage works.
The message here is that you should tap into the ‘pain’ of the market promote yourself into the segments of property owners and business leaders that need help. The difficulties and the challenges of the property market will be your fresh opportunities with clients and prospects. Understand how to tap into those property challenges and the churn factors that they create in the local area. These are commonly the issues that you can work with:
- Businesses looking to relocate
- Investors looking for growth of income
- Landlords struggling with vacancy factors
- Tenants wanting to reach some savings on occupancy costs
Too many agents just market themselves throughout the year, and they do that without much variation into the local market conditions. Self-promotion and direct marketing are important parts of commercial real estate brokerage. You want the people of the property market to remember you as the top agent to solve a challenge.
Personal Marketing as a Solution Provider
Promote yourself directly and specifically throughout the year as the industry expert that people can come to when the need arises. Use all of your closed and completed transactions as reasons to talk to others. Tell stories about the market and how you have helped other people.
Relevance is everything in capturing a property listing and marketing it today. Work the ‘pain factors’ of the market in your town or city, and provide some real and valuable ideas to fix problems. Sell your services into that concept.
So you have to start somewhere with this idea. You have to know what is really happening in the location from a property perspective. Specifically, that is to see where you can help business owners, tenants, and investors with the pressures that they are struggling with. To do that well, a good level of local area awareness is essential together with property knowledge for the segment and for the disciplines of sales, leasing, and property management. Here are the ways I would apply that:
- Assess vacancy factors – look at the factors of supply and demand for the location. Understand where the next property developments will be occurring and why. They will have an impact on rentals, sales, and negotiations.
- Redundant properties – there will always be a number of properties in the location which would be regarded as redundant and ripe for redevelopment. Understand the project opportunities that may exist with those older and less attractive properties. Work with some developers and landlords to see where you can help with a new project or redevelopment.
- Time on market – at different times of the year properties will take longer to shift through either a sale or lease strategy. Look at the seasonal trends in the location when it comes to optimizing a marketing campaign and moving the listing in a timely way. Business cycles and local economic factors will also have an impact on the time on market for any listing and property marketing campaign.
- Market rental shifts – as the rental market changes, so will the achievable prices and opportunities. Watch the rental rates as they apply to property types and locations.
- Stale listings – some listings will be slow to move and attract interest. There are various strategies to work with that problem. Some stale listings should come back onto the market at a later time. You can reposition the listing with fresh marketing, marketing messages, and media choices.
- Businesses moving – watch the local media for situations where businesses will be moving or relocating. Any business change, expansion, or contraction is a reason for property reassessment.
- Inquiry rates – when you receive an inquiry for a property or a property type, it is an opportunity for further activity. Capture your inquiries into your database so that you can action the opportunities when the right property or situation is identified.
So what can you do with these things? You can optimize your professional marketing activities with the people that need property help. That is where you will find the new business you are looking for.
