Transitions
“There is nothing more difficult to take in hand, more perilous to conduct, or more uncertain in its success, than to take the lead in the introduction of a new order of things.” — Niccolo Machiavelli
As Realtors we take the lead in helping people to transition in all states and stages of life. Working with business owners in the pursuit of finding or divesting of homes for their business is no less monumentally impactful than discovering, or leaving forever, the family base. Commercial and industrial practitioners work with new, existing and long-established companies at every stage of professional development to approach that next step with a sense of order and purpose. Very little in life is as dreaded and more hated than change, even good change. It is procrastinated about, fought over and evaded more than just about any other human condition. Even if the situation is bad, sometimes taking the next step to correct it is just too huge a leap to consider until it absolutely has to be done. This is sometimes where the distress call goes out and in comes the Realtor on a white horse. OK, not really. The Realtor usually arrives in a nice but not too over-the-top fancy sedan or SUV . . . a Mercedes/BMW if he’s older or well established, a truck if he’s playing it casual/rustic/hands-on, or a Cadillac if she’s old-school, but I digress. The process of learning where the issues lie is key to figuring out how to fix the problem. The inevitable changes have already started in motion.
The types of customers and clients commercial, industrial and retail specialists work with may be anything from a person who makes crafty widgets in their garage to a business owner of an established small business or a growing company, partnership, conglomerate, multi-location chain store, non-profit entity, educational institution, medical facility, governmental service, boutique, store, restaurant, bar . . . the list goes on and on. Some businesses have special needs for obvious and transparent reasons. An inventor in his basement has outgrown his 300 square feet and literally must go to the next step in order to have enough room to make a go of it and realize his dream. A company with 10,000 square feet of warehouse that sits empty month-after-month needs a tenant. Each and every situation has a unique and solvable solution, even if that fix means things must change.
Every situation, just like every Realtor, is different. Often times if you get good at something, it becomes easy. At one time it was not so easy, but through trial and error you got good at it. Not that you want to brag or anything, but you are pretty much a specialist at your specialty. Change comes when your client, who you worked with in your best mode, has a friend/relative/neighbor/staffer with a need in another arena. Maybe, just for example, you are the go-to person among your set for working with automotive-related businesses. One of your biggest and best dealers really wants you to help his sister’s manicurist’s son find a place for his comic book collectors business. Attitude being everything, you may find yourself excited at this prospect as being fun and exciting, or you may be looking around for someone to hand this off to ASAP. Maybe you don’t have that luxury because there is the overriding desire to maintain the original professional relationship. Maybe you need to get back to your roots and remember what it is to be outside that niche.
In order to keep the pipeline full, we need to work with as many people as possible, stay in touch and be relevant. We do this to be top-of-mind when change does come forward. Just like the residential practitioner who farms his area by dropping off pumpkins in the fall to each house and drops by with seed packets in the Spring, commercial agents have farming practices, too, which when possible involves golf, sports or clubs, service or volunteer activities and sometimes involves adult beverages (which can be coffee . . . just saying). It can also be through the use of social media as a way to stay center-focused for when needs arise. Some savvy users may seldom even mention what they do for a living overtly, but it is known. It’s simple . . . people like to do business with friends. People like to go to their friends for help.
Dealing with a mature and established business owner who wants to sell his business and retire is a far sight different from working with a company that has outgrown its location and wants to evaluate buying or leasing in order to find that perfect building. The salon that wants to move from an at-home location to a single presence building requires a whole different mindset from the doctor’s office that has lost some partners and needs to downsize. The key to all of these is listening more than you talk. If you are to take someone forward toward their next iteration, you need to (eventually) know where they have been, where they want to go, when they need/want/wish/hope to go there and, of course, how they are going to financially contribute to this process.
There are no (only) right answers or a how-to-guide on helping people with their monumental changes. Objectivity, perspective and practicality are key tools in the Commercial Realtor’s arsenal. Often it is said that the non-residential sectors are cold and emotionless, but often they are just more about mechanics and purpose. If and when a client is overwhelmed, it is often the professional who can guide them back to the things that through early discussions were laid out as must-have items. If you have heard the phrase ‘Buyers are Liars’, it is not meant to be mean, sometimes people don’t even know what they need because they haven’t seen it yet. Maybe they aren’t capable of dreaming as big as they need to, or maybe they have champagne taste and a Boone’s Farm budget. Sometimes what they say they need is actually just what they want. Other times what they want just plain does not exist.
Transitioning takes time, and coincidentally (insert sarcasm) so does Commercial and Industrial Real Estate. Nothing is worse than having a client with unrealistic expectations and poor planning skills. It makes for stress on everyone involved, and that lack of good business acumen is often a bad omen. I’m not talking about rational, realistic and entirely possible time constraints and crunches. I mean the client who has put off the inevitable for literally years and now wants it all to be found, settled, retrofitted . . . oh and up and running, too . . . in 60 days. That is likely not going to happen, and I don’t care how good your agent is.
More and more people, however, are trying to transition by themselves. I cannot tell you how many calls I get — almost always at lunchtime or at night, because people have day jobs and think they can do this in their spare time — from unrepresented laymen and laywomen with absolutely no clue what they need or want or have to have. They have no idea how the pricing works, what zoning means, why a municipality is important or about any number of crucial details. I tell them, “You do not want to do this alone. Get yourself a broker.” And I mean that . . . being a Realtor sometimes means guiding people on their way. One way or another, it all comes back.
Althea Ramsay Carrigan, Burle Corporate Park
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