THE ROCK COMMERCIAL REAL ESTATE BLOG

Marketing is meant to make the phone ring, email ding, and search engines ping.  So how has commercial real estate marketing strategies changed to keep the lead funnel pouring into sales?

Firms move to new space or buy new office furniture infrequently. In general this process is done every 5-10 years, usually at the end of lease term or because the layout and the furniture are no longer relevant to the work processes and interactions. More regularly the office manager purchases an extra desk here, a new chair there, and these purchases are usually the “least expensive stop gap” solution.

GIS (Geographic Information Systems) has become a widely used and highly demanded tool in a variety of industries and organizations including commercial real estate. The capacity to collect, store, manipulate, analyze, manage, and display data, is a key driver in the demand for GIS.

Around the holidays we start to think about gifts we need to purchase, food we need to make, holiday greeting cards, visiting family members, you name it.  There is a lot of planning, and a long list of things to accomplish in a short period of time.  Stress is high and you may find yourself anxious for the holidays to end.  Do you manage your commercial property projects the same way? 

As director of marketing for a commercial real estate firm I have been asked, "What is the #1 commercial real estate marketing tool" more than I can count on two hands and two feet. 

It is no secret that the U.S. economy has seen many low points over the last 5 years. On a daily basis, we hear everything from slow growth in employment, to mortgage rates at all-time lows, slow rising home sale prices on the National and International news. There is so much “stuff” going on all the time that it is hard to keep track of the positives and negatives.

What to do with a commercial real estate property that is still for sale.  It is a dreadful feeling.  I am anxious and edgy.  Automatic notifications have been hitting my email inbox every day for a week.  I have a listing agreement that will soon expired and I need to make that call.  I swallow my pride, pick up the phone, and explain to my client that things did not go as we had hoped.  Although we had optimistically anticipated that a transaction would have been completed by now, it did not happen.  Now what?

Like most people in today’s business environment time management and balance play an important role in my career and also in my sanity.   I make a point to be active in networking opprotunities and in my community.  I get excited about these opportunities for what they are because I make it work for my schedule.  

As a property owner, are you getting what you are entitled to from your lease agreements?  Many leases call for payments to be made to the landlord that sometimes go unnoticed, such as utility reimbursements or additional maintenance fees, especially when these payments relate to self-managed properties.  Not to mention rent or CAM (Common Area Maintenance) increases which may or may not occur, unless those leases are closely monitored by lease administration professionals.

It's easy, and expected, to include some sort of due diligence inspection period in a purchase agreement, and even lease agreements.  Every buyer wants to know what they're buying.  No one wants to be surprised by an unexpected major building component failure that will not only be costly but could interrupt business activity at the same time.