We don’t want you in
Simple. It’s too hard to understand. It’s too complicated. There is too much money. You have to be really smart. You can’t be emotional. It’s REAL business. I’ve busted my ass for the last 10 years to establish myself…what makes you think you can do any better and so on and so on. Well, how’s that for a friendly (“did you get your residential license online?”) statement?
Let’s not compare
Let’s not waste each others time going into the technical comparisons between Residential and Commercial Real Estate. We’ve heard all the different arguments for and against each type for… EVER.
Your local market
Think about where you practice real estate NOW. Is it a Top 50 market? Why waste your time? Look at the business journals for your local area. They most likely have lists of the top 10 firms and the big hitters, their deal stats,(biz glam shots) resumes and college affiliations (god forbid the old school be forgotten.) along with the pet projects you can’t understand. If you are in a smaller market you know the “guys” who have been around forever and own everything and do all the deals. Oh, and their son’s are being “brought along” in the business too.
You don’t have the skills
Check out the resumes of the boys above. What makes you think that anything but a degree in Econ, Business, Poly Sci, Marketing, or the old MBA is going to give you the business basis to compete? How about networking? The little neighborhood events are fine …ya know, keeps the face in front of the community. The real networks have a hierarchy that takes years to establish. Which is exactly what you have not been doing?
We’re not really worried
We’ve heard little rumblings, but truly it’s not really any different. Do you think the internet levels the playing field? There is a lot of data out there and most of it is free data too. We keep most of the real stuff to ourselves anyway. Mapping makes it easy to find a property these days. So you can see a pretty picture of a property. What good is that? That new Social Media…. Thing. We are hearing a lot about that stuff and so tell me what the ROI is on that. Show me one real deal that comes from that stuff. Who has time for that? Marketing of listings or deals? We have assistants for that. Maybe we need to create a special Commercial Real Estate license. Or maybe look at that Raise the Bar thing. Make it harder to get in the business. How many of you in Residential would pass a Commercial Real Estate test? Hell, I went to a good school …I could pass the thing…me and my buddy’s could help each other. Yes, we’ve heard of the ladies CREW but, they only do deals with themselves. Not the big stuff, we get to those first. How about the Market in general? Think the residential market sucks…jump in ours…90% drop in volume of sales? Come on in. Hey and why not take the 5 years it takes to get established in Commercial Real Estate and starve doing it?
How about doing it anyway!
Not really interested in the how, what, where, when, and why you can’t do Commercial Real Estate. That’s the attitude I like. Most of the comments and statements above are from conversations I have had fairly recently. Amazing isn’t it? Why not look at all of the preconceived ideas of Commercial Real Estate and turn them into opportunities.
A couple of suggestions
- BLOG your market for Commercial Real Estate. No one is doing it..as in not at all. Period.
- Start a Realbird search for Commercial Real Estate and just refer. Again, no one is doing it. Period.
- Social Media. Look for Commercial Real Estate people. They are not there…everybody else is. Period.
- Brokerage Model for Commercial Real Estate is Broken. Period.
- Follow the CREW. Period.
Create your own list
There are many many more suggestions that I could make. Of course the readers of Agent Genius are some of the best (blatant ass kissing from me) Real Estate peeps out there. I can’t wait for you responses.
