Smith Commercial Real Estate
This column is offered to help educate agents new to commercial and investment brokerage and serve as a review of basics for existing practitioners.
You got a good listing and it is priced right, now what? Where do you find the buyer or tenant?
First do some research, check the zoning, what are the permitted uses. You may find the zoning for the warehouse building you listed, also allows manufacturing use. In contrast, you listed a retail store used as a restaurant. Ten years ago they received a variance because they did not have enough on-site parking, problem is the variance ends when they vacate. You have a retail store to lease, future restaurant use would require going through the process of trying to get another variance.
Once you determine all the possible uses for the property, prepare really good marketing materials and get signs strategically placed on the building or property.
Next let the world know. Post your listing on every Internet site possible this includes local MLS, commercial listing sites (some are free but others require a subscription – a necessary investment in your business), your company web site, your personal website, social media, linkedin and facebook. This is all going to take time, but this is where 80% + of buyers and tenants go first.
Print media may be helpful depending on the type and size of the property this could include local papers, regional newspapers, ethnic papers and trade publications like the New York Real Estate Journal (NYREJ) or the New England version (NEREJ).
Now we wait for the phone to ring or an email response. No, now we aggressively seek out our buyer or tenant.
Let’s look at our other “customer base,” clients of other commercial brokers. Another agent may already have your buyer or tenant. Offer to co-broke your listing with all the other commercial firms and agents in your area. Consider having a commercial reception (open house) for the property. You should belong to any commercial organizations in your area, talk about your listing at their meetings, many groups also
have web sites you can post on or the ability to blast listing to their members.
Next is “target” marketing. Make sure every business owner in the immediate proximity (1-2 mile radius) knows about your listing. A great “tool” is provided by the U. S. Post Office, “Every Door Direct Mail” where a flyer can be delivered by carrier route at a discounted cost. (https:www.usps.com/business/every-door-direct-mail.htm).
Also target market by the type of use. For example if it were retail space, list all the types of businesses in the area, to determine what business is missing. No dry cleaners in the area, that’s your target. In larger industrial buildings, what other businesses currently use 50,000 s/f of space, there are your targets.
Search the Internet by your “targets.” I have listed medical office space in Anytown, CT.
I searched for doctors in Connecticut and found an extensive list of the best doctors by Connecticut Magazine, including contact information. “Card stores on Long Island” was my search to fill retail space it produced several lists of existing stores, who may want an additional location. For some properties consider purchasing a Standard Industry Classification (SIC) list or the North America Industry Classification System (NAICS) list. Businesses are grouped by industry; list providers give you the names and contact information of companies within that group for specific geographic areas.
Talk to everyone about your listing. “By the way I just listed a terrific investment property, do you know anyone who might be interested in it?”
Edward Smith, Jr., CREI, ITI, CIC, GREEN, MICP, CNE, is a commercial real estate consultant, instructor and broker at Smith Commercial Real Estate, Sandy Hook, CT.
Sign up is quick, easy, & FREE.