Pushing Dirt

I haven’t seen many residential agents make the transition successfully to commercial real estate. I believe it can be done, but you need to consider the following guidelines:

1. You need to make a clean break of it. Successful commercial agents don’t do any residential work. None. Never say never, but none of the top agents in my market try to do both.

2. Take your picture off your business card, even if you are cute

3. Determine an area in which to specialize. First, sales or leasing? Next, what product type? Retail, office, industrial, etc?

4. Take some professional training. SIOR, CCIM, and ULI all offer great basic training for commercial agents.

5. Train under a senior agent. We used to call this job a runnership (run for coffee, run for dry cleaning, but mostly just run to show property again and again and again). You won’t make much money for that year of running, but if you’re working under a capable agent, you’ll learn everything you need to know.

6. Remember to think big. It takes the same time and energy to execute a 10,000 sf or 100,000 sf lease as a 1,000 sf lease. In the first year work on whatever you can get, but once you ramp up, focus on finding transactions or listing assignments that will bring in a least $100,000 in gross commissions.

7. Dial for dollars. Cold calling works wonders in commercial real estate, and business to business calling I believe is much easier and more pleasant than calling on homeowners at their houses.

8. Remember that unfortunately the commercial real estate business is still dominated by men. It’s a shame, but if you’re a woman, you may find some advantage in negotiating with men because of it if you’re not intimidated. CREW (Commercial Real Estate Women) is a great organization providing networking opportunities for women in the business.

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It pays to interview your prospective commercial real estate agent.

The biggest key in my opinion is to get the right agent for the job.

If you’re looking to lease 2000 square feet of warehouse space, it doesn’t pay to hire a top producer at a national company…if somehow you manage to get them engaged at all, the work will be carried out by a runner (ie a rookie) with little to no experience.

Believe it or not there are brokers for whom these little lease assignments are their bread and butter. Some complete 50 to 100 of these transactions a year. For the small requirement, work with one of these agents.

NEVER hire a residential agent to represent you in a commercial transaction. Ever. As the agent how many houses they’ve sold in the past 24 months. If the answer is greater than zero, move on.

Each product type — office real estate, industrial real estate, retail real estate, etc. — requires its own skill set. Find the agent with the appropriate skill set for the job. In a smaller market you may need to deal with more of a generalist, but in a major metropolitan area you will find agents specializing in one product type. Industrial and office are my focus, and I’ve turned down many multi-family disposition assignments over the years that could have potentially been very lucrative.

Be prepared to be questioned back, qualified by the agent, and don’t take that personally. They may save you significant time by helping you hone your search, and if you’re talking to a talented commercial agent you’re going to learn a lot for free.