How and Why You Must Control Your Commercial Real Estate Sale

Some commercial property sales are difficult and protracted. Some properties are large and complex.

Many things need to be covered correctly and documented accurately.

(N.B. these ideas are also sent out to regularly to our friends in Commercial Real Estate Online Snapshot to help amplify brokerage results…. Get your access here)

What is happening here?

Even when the deal seems to be ‘done’, the whole thing can fall apart later, especially if you don’t watch the important facts and stages of the transaction.

So the message here is clear for you as a broker or agent. If you are involved in a commercial property sale, stay with deal to the very end. The signing of the contract is not the end of the process; it is the beginning of some very intense monitoring and checking.

What is the worry here?

A neglected sale contract can soon fester and fall apart. There are vested interests at play; there are large amounts of money to be exchanged.

The parties to the deal have to be helped and pushed to the stage of finality and settlement. The deal is not done until all the monies are paid and settlement has occurred.

Stay with the deal to the end

Here are some rules to the process:

1. Accuracy of documentation – The golden rule in commercial real estate brokerage is that the documentation created and used for the deal must be correct and accurate in all respects. If you have any doubts about the facts, or do not know how to put the transaction together, stop what you are doing and find someone that does know. Small errors in contract preparation invariably lead to arguments and potential negligence claims. Protect the position of your client with accurate documentation.
2. Supporting material – Many investment properties today that are going under contract will have supporting documentation to integrate into the deal agreement. The facts provided and the claims made in the supporting material must be accurate in all respects. Don’t let the existence of any incorrect supporting information for the property slow or frustrate your contract and or the negotiation.
3.  Actions of the parties – You will never really know the full intentions of the parties to a sale contract. Some parties to a sale deal will slow the progress of the deal, or try to avoid it entirely through lack of action. Make sure that all parties are doing what is required of them in moving a sale or contract forward.
4. Subject clauses – Some contracts of sale in commercial real estate require specific actions and responses from the seller or buyer to move the deal ahead. Make sure that those things happen. Push the deal along and keep the parties to the agreement that is made.
5. Property Attorneys – It is interesting to note and remember that many property attorneys working on behalf of their client(s) will have alternative agenda’s at play; that can be to position things more favorably for their client(s). If you have put the transaction of sale together for your client, stay with the deal to the very end, and watch and or question the responses and actions of the property attorney as they move towards settlement.

Simple controls will help you move a property sale forward in the right way. Professional control of the transaction to the very end is required; your commissions depend on it.

(N.B. these ideas are also sent out to regularly to our friends in Commercial Real Estate Online Snapshot to help amplify brokerage results…. Get your access here)