How to Find Buyers of Commercial Real Estate Today

When the commercial real estate market gets slow or becomes tougher, you still need buyers to act on any property that is taken to the market.  Unfortunately there are fewer buyers around today and on that basis most negotiations are slower and more protracted.  Qualified buyers are at a premium and highly desirable contacts to constantly network.  Here are some tips from our weekly newsletter for Commercial Real Estate Agents.

It should be said that better quality properties will always produce better prospects and potential buyers.  If you selectively work on the better listings, your chances of success as the local commercial agent will be greater even in a slower market.

Local Area Focus

At times it is best for the commercial real estate agent to focus on locating qualified buyers in the local area.

Providing the property is suitably structured and attractive, there will always be buyers available; the packaging of the marketing process becomes very important here to activate the enquiry and leverage more inspections. To find buyers in this property market today, the following are some important ideas to implement.

1. If you undertake any inspection on existing property, the full details of the inspecting party should be maintained for future reference and opportunity.  After the initial contact with this person, and presuming they did not buy the first property they inspected, you should be in contact with them on a regular basis to maintain the momentum towards property purchase.
2. Attend the auctions of other agents in your local area.  You will then see some other buyers that may be considering a purchase currently.  If the property was sold under the hammer, you can directly approach the unsuccessful buyers to see if they are willing to work with you to find another property.  If the property was not sold under the hammer, the same process should apply.
3. Your existing clients and prospects will be a source of referral business.  Maintaining contact with them will allow you to expand your database through their referrals.  It is far easier to convert new business from a referral than it is to undertake cold call prospecting on a new person.  Always be prepared to ask for the referral business at every opportunity.
4. Existing property investors in the local area will buy more property from time to time to strengthen their local property portfolio.  On average they do so about every four or five years.  These investors understand the local area, the prices, the rents, and the opportunity from the business community.  Keep in contact with property investors locally on an ongoing basis so that you can tap into this portfolio growth.
5. Local businesses that occupy premises as tenants are always a source of good buying opportunity.  They understand the local area and have already established their business profile.  Providing their business is reasonably successful and active, they will be good candidates for purchasing a property at the right time in the future.  Always stay close to the local businesses and tenants.

All of these above categories should be entered into a personally maintained database.  This allows you to keep in contact on a regular basis.  It has been shown that contact made directly with your prospects at least every 90 days or less is highly effective in converting new business.  You can get our Newsletter here.  You can check out our main website here at http://www.commercial-realestate-training.com/