Successful Commercial Brokers, marketing kings?

What makes commercial real estate brokers so busy? Why do some do so well and others just kind of get by? In today's commercial real estate market, what role do the commercial brokers play? Are they just the listing agent or the buyer's agent? Do they not market for commercial properties?

While it is true a commercial real estate broker is one who has the client with the property that needs to get sold, how did they get that client? They have personal and business contacts and bird dogs that do the looking for their next client. They also advertise their business and all the things that make them different then the next broker. Some brokers work hard at networking and building a client base and other do not, making it clear that some make more money then other brokers.

In today's commercial real estate market, what role do the commercial brokers play? Commercial brokers do provide a great service and get paid very well for their expertise. They work with buyers and sellers of commercial properties and close the deal.

Do they not market for commercial properties, seller and buyers? Whether it be by full page ads or word of mouth, is it marketing (aka scouting for prospects)?

How do they find a buyer for the property? Broker's can advertise locally in the paper, nationally in real estate magazines and on the world wide web on places like Loopnet and other commercial property web sites depending on the property. They can go through their customer list and see if there is a match. They can contact fellow brokers and pitch the property to them. At the end of the day, they are scouting.

So I see a new niche in the commercial real estate world. Professional Commercial Real Estate Property Scouts.

There is one forward thinking groups that has established an association for commercial property scouts. It is called the National Association of Commercial Real Estate Property Scouts, NACREPS.

NACREPS is a true association that provides training on how to scout, what to look for in a commercial property. They provide the guidelines for the scout to look for and evaluate each property. They provide a place to get coached on the finer points of analyzing a property.

They also have investors that will take the deals that meet the criteria for the various types of properties.

If you are interested in finding out more about the Association, go to http://www.nacreps.org

Professional Commercial Property Scout
Ted Stevens

Commercial Scouting? for Apartments

The apartment market is a place to focus in the commercial world of real estate. You can have income to pay for the property, while you turn the property around.

Where do you look? How do you know the best places are to look? It is called research, whether you do it personally or get it from other sources. You can search the web, you can listen to the guru's of real estate, you can subscribe to newsletters and buy books or pay for someone to do the research for you. The information is available and the properties are advertised one way or the other. You can look at the statistics, like the ones following this paragraph, but you need to look in order to find commercial properties.

Nationwide, the numbers of renters is projected to increase by 4.3 million households over the next decade, said a spokesperson for the National Multi Housing Council. Additionally, apartment demand is forecast to increase by 430,000 units ANNUALLY!

Wow! Those are BIG numbers!

Just a month ago, there was concern that the possibility of a national recession would drive down sales and returns for investors. But the official ruling is that we are NOT in a recession. That’s good news for us.

Unfortunately, the housing market in many areas of the country has suffered so much because of the sub prime mortgage debacle. This naturally drives the increases in the rise of the number of apartment dwellers. Much of the country can no longer afford home ownership.

Some experts, with ties to Washington are hearing rumors of putting the empty houses back to work. While that’s a great strategy for some, and while it may ultimately impact the number of apartment dwellers, we still see apartments being a strong investment.

People continue to point to problems in the financial markets and the tightening of credit as being responsible for a downturn in activity. But in actuality, total volume for 2007 exceeds $91 BILLION.

Overall apartments performed well as an investment with returns to privately held apartments, in the first nine months of 2007 achieving an annualized rate of 12.6%. That rate is off from the 2006 return of 14.6% and down significantly from the 21.2% returns of 2005.

Still, in this current market a 12.6% return is a respectable showing. I wish some of my other investments would have done as well!

The nation’s apartment stock of buildings with at least five units is valued at $1.6 trillion, and rental revenues from apartments total more than $120 million per year. With this much inventory around, it is likely there are many units which will fit our buying criteria.

Apartments are a solid investment strategy - especially when we can buy it right.

I have talked to several Property Scouts are among the best trained folks in the country, and they are sniffing out the great properties. One's that need a problem fixed, whether management, remodel or both. They are looking for value add and finding the super deals that are out there. They were trained by the National Association of Commercial Real Estate Property Scouts (NACREPS). Visit http://www.nacreps.org if you are looking to start scouting.

Till next time.

Ted

http://visit.dirtintocash.com

Are you still commercial property scouting?

Why would you want to be scouting for commercial properties in this market? Where do you look?

To answer the first question, it is real easy. You want to look because commercial property is everywhere. Even in this market of doom and gloom, if you believe the news media. For those of you who do not listen to the news or just do not care, know the answer is the commercial market is going strong.

The one area that is not moving is raw land for residential development. Raw land for commercial in the path of progress is still going strong. Apartment houses are doing well, as are mobile home/RV parks and self storage.

Where do you look? Again, you look everywhere there are building and there is a pattern of growth. You do research to find the growing areas and look in those areas. Or areas that are starting to turn the corner from having bottomed out.

So now is a great time to be scouting. You just have to look, look, look and look. The ask for the information about the property to see if it fits the needs of you investor.

visit http://visit.dirtintocash.com

Happy scouting to you all.