Pushing Dirt

I use any number of means to market my commercial properties: costar, loopnet, google base, craigslist, washington post ads, direct mail, email blasts, cold calling, etc. etc. When it comes to selling buildings, there’s still nothing that beats brokers.

When I market empty buildings, I need to reach out to cooperating brokers. Larger users of space got successful by leaning on trusted advisers. They are represented by brokers 95% of the time.

When I market larger investment property, I start with my own relatively conclusive list of owners and investors across the mid-Atlantic. Once I’ve gotten the word out to that list, I expand my efforts to include the cooperating brokerage community.

Most of the buyers the internet brings me are still “small potatoes:” they might buy a $300,000 condo from me, but rarely are they in the market for that $10 million free standing warehouse. I’m not worried about being disintermediated yet (a word we real estate brokers made up I think). The process of buying real estate is still complicated…a lot more complicated than buying a stock.

costar and loopnet leave a lot to be desired. there’s room for a free advertising driven solution. bring it on and it will thrive.

If you’re in the commercial real estate business, you’ve probably heard of Loopnet.

Unfortunately, Loopnet is for a large part a morass of unsaleable real estate. If you’ve ever panned for gold, you’d have an idea how difficult it is to find a worthwhile investment opportunity on Loopnet.

One reason? It is loaded with property that is unlisted and that agents have no right to be offering. Why? Loopnet isn’t in business of qualifying these listings. They’d prefer to be able to brag about having “$425 billion of properties for sale.”

I have never sold a property in 10 years through Loopnet. I continue to use it because I feel like I owe it to my clients to give their properties the widest possible exposure.

Here are 10 better ways to make deals, whether you’re looking to to buy or sell property:

1. Craigslist

2. Direct mail

3. Costar - they do a better job qualifying listings

4. Contact owners directly by mail or phone

5. Newspaper advertising

6. Email blasts to broker lists like ccim.com

7. Door to door canvassing

8. Build your own web site and buy google adwords to promote it

9. Contact the top investment sales brokers in your market, meet them and court them

10. Track foreclosures