Commercial Real Estate Brokers: Shhh! Don’t Tell Your Tenants How Much Commission You’ll Make!

An Open Letter to Commercial Real Estate Brokers

Hey, commercial real estate brokers?  Keep your compensation a secret, even from your own clients. They don’t know how much you make, they’re too dumb to figure it out, and if you don’t bring it up they won’t think about it.  NOW, REALLY!

In most commercial real estate leasing transactions, commercial brokers representing tenants receive their compensation in the form of commissions paid by landlords.  Yep, that sure sounds like a conflict-of-interest to me!  But, unfortunately, that’s the way the industry works.

Guess what?

• Your clients can figure out your compensation…and, they will!
• Why withhold information from you own client?
• When your role is to protect your client’s interests, withholding information that they can easily figure out on their own makes you look stupid and dishonest
• Are you obligated to disclose your compensation to your clients? While you may not have any legal obligation to do so, from a moral and ethical perspective, I’m pretty sure the answer is “Yes!”

Whether or not you should disclose your compensation to your clients also begs other questions:

• Why would you want to be transparent?
• Are you concerned that someone might view your situation as your being over compensated somehow?
• Did compensation discussions take place that may have negatively affected your client?
• Is something negative going on?
• Did you have to do any favors or compromise your position (or that of your client) to secure your compensation?
• Were those favors at the expense of your client?  Did you disclose them to your client?
• What might your client have lost in exchange for the compensation you secured?
• Have you compromised your client in any way?
• Do any conflicts-of-interest now exist or did they previously exist?

If all you’re doing is getting paid, fairly and adequately, why wouldn’t you disclose your compensation to your client…the one who is the very reason for which you’re able to generate compensation?

About Real Estate Strategies Corporation
Real Estate Strategies Corporation is a respected corporate advisory and transaction services firm that provides thought-leadership, decision-making, planning, project management, and transaction execution services to finance and senior executives at management team-led public, private, and portfolio companies, and not-for-profit organizations.  Under the leadership of its award-winning CEO, Andrew Zezas, RealStrat’s clients engage the firm when acquiring, disposing of, renegotiating, or enhancing occupied leased or owned real estate in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, New York, Connecticut, and throughout North America.  By creating and executing Business DRIVEN Real Estate Solutions and identifying hidden Opportunities, RealStrat drives greater operational and financial performance in support of its clients’ stakeholder objectives, M&A requirements, and exit strategies.

In the current economic environment, RealStrat’s efforts are focused on uncovering, capturing, and re-purposing hidden liquidity and minimizing risk in its clients’ leased and owned real estate.  The firm provides counsel as to competitive advantage strategies in preparation for the eventual economic recovery.  Visit www.RealStrat.com. Read about timely commercial real estate issues at RealStrat’s blog at www.CorporateAdvisor.wordpress.com.   Follow RealStrat at http://www.Twitter.com/RealStrat.

LINKS:

RealStrat News

Biographies

Articles

Properties

What Our Clients Say

Copyright Real Estate Strategies Corporation 2011.  All Rights Reserved.

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Welcome to the Men’s Room

Why commercial real estate brokers insist that tenants look at the office building men’s rooms when presenting space for relocation is a bit peculiar.

Don’t landlords know that people look at restrooms? As a result, don’t most landlords pay extra attention and keep them clean, even if they might not properly maintain other parts of their buildings?

I guess office building men’s rooms are like getting your signature notarized.  One only has a problem when you cannot get your signature notarized or when the men’s room is not clean and orderly.

Certainly, a clean men’s room should suggest the environment in which a company’s employees would work. However, is it really a true indicator of the quality of a building and how well it is maintained and managed?  What about the building’s financial circumstance and that of its landlord?

In challenging economic times where good companies work diligently to avoid financial collapse and good landlords find it difficult to attract new tenants and retain existing ones, a well-maintained building suggests that the landlord may, in fact, be focused on more than just protecting its investment. However, essential to determining the long-term viability of any potential real estate transaction is a thorough investigation of the physical condition of any property under consideration, as well as, a detailed review of the landlord’s ability to perform, not only operationally, but financially in accordance with the intended terms of a lease.

About Real Estate Strategies Corporation
Real Estate Strategies Corporation is a respected corporate advisory and transaction services firm that provides thought-leadership, decision-making, planning, project management, and transaction execution services to financial and senior executives at management team-led public, private, and portfolio companies, and not-for-profit organizations.  Under the leadership of its award-winning CEO, Andrew B. Zezas, RealStrat’s clients engage the firm when acquiring, disposing, renegotiating, or enhancing occupied leased or owned real estate in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, New York, Connecticut, and throughout North America.  By creating and executing Business DRIVEN Real Estate Solutions and identifying hidden Opportunities, RealStrat drives greater operational and financial performance in support of its clients’ stakeholder objectives, M&A requirements, and exit strategies.

In the current economic environment, RealStrat’s efforts are focused on uncovering, capturing, and re-purposing hidden liquidity and minimizing risk in its clients’ leased and owned real estate.  The firm provides counsel as to competitive advantage strategies in preparation for the eventual economic recovery.  Visit www.RealStrat.com. Follow RealStrat at http://www.Twitter.com/RealStrat.

LINKS:

RealStrat News
Biographies
Articles
Properties
What Our Clients Say
AndrewZezas.com

Copyright Real Estate Strategies Corporation 2011.  All Rights Reserved.

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11 Intelligent Strategies to Win With Your Clients in 2011!

As this funky worldwide economy claws its way up from the depths of financial hell, your clients need your expertise more now than ever before. Alas, “business as usual” is no more.  Your clients will need your knowledge, creativity, and your resources on new and multiple levels, so that they can achieve their objectives.  After all, your clients’ success is your success!

Here are 11 strategies for 2011:
1. Be Patient. Even your most sophisticated clients are working to figure things out, too

2. Advise First, Worry About Transactions Later. As the economy recovers, albeit slowly, your clients need guidance about viable real estate alternatives that will support multiple paths to business growth, change,
exit, and otherwise

3. Provide Business Advice, Not Just Real Estate Services and Information.
If your clients are not in the real estate business, they will benefit by your ability to distill real estate into their language

4. Be Transparent. Nothing ruins a trusting relationship quicker than an unspoken concern over whether a service provider or advisor has competing or conflicted interests

5. Push Communications. Keep your clients advised and sufficiently informed, never permitting them to wonder about the status of their project

6. Give It To Them Straight…They Can Take It! Your clients need uncensored, unembellished, honest, timely, and pertinent business intelligence, whether they like the outcome or not. Only then, will they be armed to make informed decisions

7. Manage Market Stress. Never let a client enter into a transaction without guiding them to conduct proper due diligence on their transactional opponents.  In this challenging economic environment, many companies are not what they seem

8. Go! Fight! Win! Drive hard and  negotiate aggressively to achieve your clients’ objectives. Now is the time to achieve greatness on their behalf. But, know when you’re on the goal line

9. Bend, But Don’t Break. This year especially, your clients will require assistance in areas that may be new to you. Be flexible and expand your offerings. But, know your boundaries and limitations

10. Information is Powerful. But, the knowledge and skill to  intelligently interpret, plan, and execute is the path to success

11. Stay Close. Your clients’ needs will change and then, change again. If they recognize your value, accept the responsibility to maintain those relationships

If nothing else, 2011 promises to be an interesting, and likely an exciting year.  You can either watch from the sidelines or lead your clients to victory!  Good Luck!

About Real Estate Strategies Corporation
Real Estate Strategies Corporation is a respected corporate advisory and transaction services firm that provides thought-leadership, decision-making, planning, project management, and transaction execution services to finance and senior executives at management team-led public, private, and portfolio companies, and not-for-profit organizations.  Under the leadership of its award-winning CEO, Andrew Zezas, RealStrat’s clients engage the firm when acquiring, disposing of, renegotiating, or enhancing occupied leased or owned real estate in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, New York, Connecticut, and throughout North America.  By creating and executing Business DRIVEN Real Estate Solutions and identifying hidden Opportunities, RealStrat drives greater operational and financial performance in support of its clients’ stakeholder objectives, M&A requirements, and exit strategies.

In the current economic environment, RealStrat’s efforts are focused on uncovering, capturing, and re-purposing hidden liquidity and minimizing risk in its clients’ leased and owned real estate.  The firm provides counsel as to competitive advantage strategies in preparation for the eventual economic recovery.  Visit www.RealStrat.com. Read about timely commercial real estate issues at RealStrat’s blog at www.CorporateAdvisor.wordpress.com. Follow RealStrat at http://www.Twitter.com/RealStrat.

LINKS:

RealStrat News
Biographies
Articles
Properties
What Our Clients Say

Copyright Real Estate Strategies Corporation 2011.  All Rights Reserved.

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11 Important Steps to Achieving Commercial Brokerage Success in 2011

Happy New Year!  It’s time to make your business resolutions for 2011.

Here are my recommendations to better serve your clients’ needs and to achieve your own realistic success in the coming year:

1. Determine which client types best fit your expertise and service offerings, and then focus the majority of your efforts on those sectors

2. Develop a business-centric approach to advising your clients and delivering real estate services

3. Customize your service model to one that achieves your target clients’ business objectives, while satisfying their real estate needs

4. Develop an approach to serving your clients that is transparent in all you do, with “Honesty is Our Only Policy!” as your motto

5. Make conflict-of-interest identification and resolution an integral part of your service offering

6. Be crystal clear in your compensation expectations to minimize confusion, especially if yours is a performance and risk based commission model

7. Always put the needs of your client first, without fail, so long as your client recognizes that you are entitled to fair, reasonable, and timely compensation

8. Resolve to agree to no compensation bonuses, but accept no discounts

9. Recognize that, as a service provider, you have your own business risks, and that your role does not include discounting, delaying, or risking your performance based compensation as a means of guaranteeing the creditworthiness or performance of either tenant or landlord

10. Negotiate on your clients’ behalf like you and your client don’t need any particular deal, that you have multiple alternatives, and that you’ll always walk away in the absence of a favorable, but reasonable transaction

11. Recognize that as a service provider and advisor, your only role is to protect your clients’ and satisfy their needs first, that your job is to maintain relationships that your clients permit you to have with them, and that without sustainable relationships with great clients you will not achieve your own success objectives, those of your company, or those of your clients.

Are there more important steps to take to achieve commercial brokerage success in 2011?  Let me know.

About Real Estate Strategies Corporation
Real Estate Strategies Corporation is a respected corporate advisory and transaction services firm that provides thought-leadership, decision-making, planning, project management, and transaction execution services to finance and senior executives at management team-led public, private, and portfolio companies, and not-for-profit organizations.  Under the leadership of its award-winning CEO, Andrew Zezas, RealStrat’s clients engage the firm when acquiring, disposing of, renegotiating, or enhancing occupied leased or owned real estate in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, New York, Connecticut, and throughout North America.  By creating and executing Business DRIVEN Real Estate Solutions and identifying hidden Opportunities, RealStrat drives greater operational and financial performance in support of its clients’ stakeholder objectives, M&A requirements, and exit strategies.

In the current economic environment, RealStrat’s efforts are focused on uncovering, capturing, and re-purposing hidden liquidity and minimizing risk in its clients’ leased and owned real estate.  The firm provides counsel as to competitive advantage strategies in preparation for the eventual economic recovery.  Visit www.RealStrat.com. Read about timely commercial real estate issues at RealStrat’s blog at www.CorporateAdvisor.wordpress.com. Follow RealStrat at http://www.Twitter.com/RealStrat.

LINKS:

RealStrat News
Biographies
Articles
Properties
What Our Clients Say

Copyright Real Estate Strategies Corporation 2011.  All Rights Reserved.

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