Commercial Agents – What Should You Do in Slow Leasing Markets?

The leasing market will become difficult and slow from time to time.  It really doesn’t matter what property type you work on, you simply need to be sensitive to the pressures of supply and demand that impact your local area.  Here are some tips from our bulletin for commercial property agents.

As property leasing experts, we need to see the rental and leasing market changes before they take a real hold and then impact our clients property.  That foresight would normally involve ongoing research with rental levels, lease incentives, tenant enquiries, property improvements, and new developments in the local area.

So if you are experiencing a slow property leasing market the following strategies will be very useful.

1. Local businesses will always be a valuable source of market intelligence and future leasing needs.  Business people talk to each other and share information about property changes, business pressures, and landlords.  When you connect with the local businesses on a regular basis you will see and experience a goldmine of opportunity and information.
2. Competing properties exist in your local area and will have impact on the marketing of your listings.  When you are marketing a property or tenancy for lease, you really do need to know about the competition that you are up against.  Compare the rentals, the lease terms, and the property improvements.  Advise your landlord accordingly so they can make adjustments in their marketing of vacant space.
3. Tenancy schedules should be obtained for as many large quality properties that you can get your hands on.  The quality properties will contain larger and successful businesses.  Over time you can build your own tenancy schedules within the targeted buildings by talking to the tenants and inspecting the properties.  Enter the information into a database so you can maintain ongoing contact in a relevant way.
4. Accountants in the local area will normally serve the local business proprietors when it comes to issues of business performance and taxation.  On that basis you will find that accountants are very good sources of lease leads and opportunities.  Build relationships with these accountants so they come to respect your skill as a leasing expert.  Very soon they will let you work with the business pressures of occupancy that can apply to some of their clients.
5. Franchise groups are always looking for new space to occupy subject to their business type and lease requirements.  Get to know the franchise groups that are active in your area and location.  Further to that you can identify franchise groups that have not as yet moved into your territory.  They will all require particular property types and lease terms and conditions.  You simply a matter of understanding the needs so that the appropriate properties can be provided at the right time.

Database tools and technologies are integral to making inroads into the local business community.  Prospects and business proprietors should be entered into the database given their property types and needs.  Over time your database should grow to at least 1000 qualified people.  When you grow the database through continual daily effort, the leasing opportunities will start to grow, as will your commissions.