As part of your commercial real estate activity, you should research your property market at least quarterly and preferably monthly. On that basis you can project what sale and leasing activity is currently underway and what will occur over the coming foreseeable future. Essentially you are looking for listing opportunity, growth of commission, and new business. You are also looking to reduce any threats from industry downturn or change.
It really doesn’t matter whether you are working as an individual sales agent, or as part of a commercial real estate team. The same rules and processes apply when it comes to researching your market. You need to know what’s going on and you do need to set some specific strategies in place to help you capture the right levels of new business.
Here are some ideas to merge into your commercial real estate market research. After gathering the information, you can apply the findings to your personal business plan.
- Determine the geographic zone where you will get most of your new business from. That will be an area where you can focus almost all of your marketing and prospecting. It can also be an area which allows you to survey and research current activity. This then becomes your primary area of focus that should produce 75% of your listing and commission income opportunity. The other 25% of business will come from outside of the zone, or alternatively referral and repeat business.
- Given that you know where the business is now going to be coming from, determine the best customer demographics set that will apply to your prospecting model. Normally you will be focusing on local business proprietors, property investors, and industry professionals. On a street by street and property by property basis, it is necessary to research these people and make the direct contact. The direct contact will involve cold calling, door knocking, and direct mail.
- Research the history of sales and leasing activity in your local area. The critical zone of activity will be over the last five years. Create a graph from the numbers that you identify. Look for the peaks and troughs when it comes to seasonal sales and leasing activity. Determine if there are any opportunities and changes on the horizon.
- Review the supply and demand projections for commercial, industrial, and retail property in your target area over the coming three years. As part of that process you can visit the local planning office and regularly update yourself with changes to the development plan and or new projects coming up. Look for those changes that could impact the market. Seize on the opportunities early before other agents find them.
- Do a competitor analysis throughout your region. Some agencies will be better than others when it comes to results and market share.. Some agents will be more effective than others. Look for the differences with the successful people, and then determine how they have achieved their market share and dominance. Successful agents leave clues as to process and system. This can be replicated.
- Do an Internet advertising count of all the listings currently available for sale or for lease with your competitors. This should be on an agency and or salesperson basis.
- Do a signboards count all the listings currently available for sale or for lease. This should again be on an agency and salesperson basis.
- Assess the factors of time on market when it comes to those properties that remain outstanding, unsold, or vacant.
- Look at the factors of marketing that apply to current listings in your local area. Look at the differences across all agencies in marketing when it comes to open listings and exclusive listings. Can you do anything more effectively and differently than the other agents?
Given your local property market, and property specialty, you may very well be able to add something to the list. You can now see the importance of understanding what is going on currently in your local area and how it can impact your future promotional activity.
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