36 tips and tricks
Is it not amazing how you start out on one simple path and end up going in a completely different direction? I’m referring to my last sarcastic post about staying away from Commercial Real Estate. I think my intent was to encourage people to look at Commercial Real Estate in different ways and look at it as an opportunity.
I have been asked many many times over the years, “so, how do you get into commercial or how do I do both residential and commercial?” Some may debate the correct answers to this question. Some of the answers may seem obvious or redundant. I decided to make up a good basic list.
Property Information and Research:
- GIS geographic information system Here is a nice county example.
- County records that are online and public information.
- Tax and assessment info through county and city.
- Your Local MLS plus regional Commercial MLS. Most provide free access.
- Loopnet, Costar, Commercial IQ. The old standbys. Find what’s out there.
- Web sites of brokers in your market. Most have their listings available.
- Commercialsource.com Commercial property search for every state and city from the National Association of Realtors.
Niches you can dominate with lots of data and industry connections to help:
Education and Resources Available:
- CCIM 101
- National Association of Realtors intro to Commercial Real Estate
- Research the top 5 firms in your market
- Mentors. Contact them and ask for meeting- they are more hungry for talent than you could ever imagine. They want to get next to people who are trying to create business. Send them an e-mail to introduce yourself. Start with, “I would like to possibly send biz to you”. What are they going to say? NO.
Learn These Terms and Find the Forms:
- Exclusive Tenant Rep. Agreement
- Exclusive Buyer’s Rep. Agreement
- Exclusive Listing Sale and Lease Agreement
- Letter of Intent
- Purchase Contract
- Master Leases
- Representations & Warranties of Seller
- Zoning/Governmental Approval
Most all forms are online and were created and or maintained by a state commercial board. The cost is surprisingly affordable. I have forms that are used throughout my entire state.
Social or Online Commercial Real Estate Networks- Get Connected and Learn:
- Bigger Pockets
- Crepig.com
- Realtors’ Commercial Alliance
- Real Share Conferences
- LinkedIn has over 1100 Commercial Real Estate Groups
What do you have that they don’t? Simple:
Your connection to the street and your community. Your database it is your gold mine. Think of everyone in your database that has a connection to a business owner, property owner, restaurateur etc. Ask them, who are you doing real estate business with now? Who is their go to Commercial Real Estate person? I bet if you ask, they won’t have a name or they probably haven’t done any biz with whoever they may think of in a LONG time.
Referral business- how much money are you passing up by not thinking Commercial Real Estate?
Here is one last big thought:
You don’t need a special license to sell, practice, refer, learn, get into, look at, buy, own, rehab, lease, or just make money in Commercial Real Estate.
What’s holding you back? What are you doing now to get your piece of the Commercial Real Estate business?
