Advice needed for leasing a commercial building

[Guest3722A]

It's been many years since I leased a commercial place and I am about to do it again. It's really important to me and necessary for what's been going on but I'm still walking on rice paper with every decision so every step has to be as best as it can be. Perfection is never an option in this game as most of us know, but these little soldiers we call dollars still need the best advantaged set up for their use.

I'm writing this because I'm going to pull the trigger on a commercial lease and in the past I've had better luck with getting an actual lease contract when dealing direct with the owner. And never once have I gotten to the point of a lease contract when dealing with a RE agent.


Right now the building I'm looking at is very close to perfect, but has a listing agent's number on it and I need to get inside to see the real story.

But if I want it, sorry to say but agents have always messed up a deal. Whether it's their attitude or the way they present themselves or maybe the bad vibes are caused by someone they report back to who is pulling their strings unknowingly to me??

I don't know. I just want to get in, and if I want it, I don't want bs.

So, how would you go about this? Would you try to find the owner and just go around the listing agent? Maybe find an agent to represent my side of the deal (which I've tried unsuccessfully).
Or just bite the bullet and call the listing agent?

 

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[Guest3722A]

Update. As in the past, a commercial RE agent screwed up a deal. I hopped on Bigger pockets to get thoughts on my initial question that I put here and took the advice (from an RE agent) and went and found someone to represent me - as I've done in the past. The result, as usual, the agent 'sized me up' by looking at the vehicle I drove in with and then under his breath said I wasted his time for even having him meet me there. lol. And then tried his go-to tactic of high pressure sales with a statement like "these owners like these deals to go fast so I can have the paperwork to you in a couple days... Blah blah blah

As I said here, all I wanted to do was get inside to get an idea of what the real story was and move forward if it was as presented. And of course, one big ol phatty NOPE. The owner of the property had no problem breaking laws with blatant code violations that I knew of and showing photos of things that didn't work and needed to get replaced. The message here is that the landlord is not a straight shooter which from past experience = A NIGHTMARE.

Now the 'deal' that was screwed up by the RE agent was a deal somewhere else other than this place as I'm not interested in high pressure or judgement. He signed on for the game he's in. I'll keep looking...

 

[Guest3722A]

Contestant numeral 2 - The imaginary dollar counter.

Okay, so, I looked at and researched another building that fit within what I am trying to do. After getting my understanding of what the building's history is, how long it's been vacant what the zoning is and uses of and an understanding of the price per sq ft, I called the listing agent this time. HA!!!! In the first 2-3 statements of the conversation I could already sense the level of arrogance and greed in his system of "negotiation".

The place needed a ton of work and this guy assumed that I've never leased a commercial place before and locked into his 'this is how it works' spiel. LOL ooooook.

The place had piles of broken ceiling tiles throughout and no ceiling tiles up - which tells me there is/was most likely a roof issue (and possibly mold - but I didn't get a chance to get inside on this one) there was what looked like a used handicap bed in there and remnants of living and some other eyesores.

Anyway, to wrap this up the agent presented it in his marketing as a simple price conscious place to lease.

In my conversation the first thing I emphasized was that I needed an asset and not a liability to help the budding business have the type of situation that it needs to grow.

So then, laughably, this guy goes into telling me that this less than 2000 sq ft property needs $250,000 of upgrade to do what I want and that the lease would be $3500 mo!!!!! HAHAHAHA!!! My last building was over 18,000sq ft and I built and powered over 40 rooms, put 3 bathrooms in it, tapped the power lines on 8 mile road, wired boxes and ran electric, installed a 20 camera surveillance system with infrared, painted the place, added a game room (w/video poker and pool heh), cleared an acre of trees and put a parking lot in etc etc AND DIDN'T EVEN COME CLOSE TO THE IMAGINARY DOLLARS THIS GREEDY TURD WAS COUNTING

F*ckn waste of time dealing with these jackasses

BTW - The difference with now vs when I leased years ago is that years ago I would find the properties through newspapers.

Anywho, on to the next one which I will try to get in to see tonight, tomorrow or Monday

 

[jon.a]

I'm a CRE landlord. I've done a few turn overs and have gone through this process many times also to rejection. I don't like it when the prospect brings an agent, they get in the way. Things have gone better when they have let my agent do both sides. Of course he works for me but he can't lie to you either.

I don't know how he treats prospects. I suspect, well. I know that he speaks to prospects that I wouldn't. He has in fact brought us weak players asking us to please listen with an open mind. Those prospects failed. We went through one eviction and one termination where we had to let the tenants walk owing us money. We won't rent to someone we will likely have to evict.

I say call the agents and go through the process. The owners might not HAVE TO FILL but they want to fill.

I'll answer anything I can. Let's do this in the open for all to see. Don't PM me.

 

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[Guest3722A]

I say call the agents and go through the process

Thank you very much. This is what I will do.

I'll answer anything I can. Let's do this in the open for all to see.

Awesome! I will bring the next one back here then after I see it.

 

[SteveO]

For starters, the owners of the property do not need to do the tenant improvements. You can do them. Find out what the lease amount would be if you were to setup the property. Then ask for a credit based on your anticipated costs.

Having an agent should not matter. It should help in some regards as raw responses will be filtered.

As @jon.a stated, nobody wants a tenant that needs to be changed.

My tradeoff seems to be that I want someone with cash reserves. I also want higher rent. My preference is that I do the majority of the ti's in exchange for higher rent. But, I want the tenant to share in the cost so they have a stake in the game.

It seems that I negotiate with about 10-15 groups to get one lease signed.

Not an easy process.

 

[Guest3722A]

For starters, the owners of the property do not need to do the tenant improvements. You can do them. Find out what the lease amount would be if you were to setup the property. Then ask for a credit based on your anticipated costs.

Thank you for this.

Having an agent should not matter. It should help in some regards as raw responses will be filtered.

Ok. I will keep working with them.

As @jon.a stated, nobody wants a tenant that needs to be changed.

Understood.

With the first unit I leased which was 6200 sq ft industrial 1 for $2200 mo gross lease, the landlord I only saw twice in the beginning and spoke with him on the phone occasionally, thereafter. The first time was when he showed me the building and the second was when I signed the lease. The next time I saw him was 2 years later because I was asking to buy the entire building which was 12,400 sq ft. ($350k w/$10,000 down - unfortunately I can't remember the rate offhand) and we met up at a restaurant to discuss.

He always got his money on time. This deal to purchase I ultimately passed on, which in all honesty I should have taken because the next building I ended up with, the one I discussed above, had a landlord who was a lot of trouble for my business. He was always on the property, ignored lease clauses, lied about things that I had to fix for my business to function and later I found out he was fresh out of prison. This ended up in court.

My tradeoff seems to be that I want someone with cash reserves. I also want higher rent. My preference is that I do the majority of the ti's in exchange for higher rent. But, I want the tenant to share in the cost so they have a stake in the game.

Cash reserves I have. But not like I used to. I plan things repeatedly in my mind and on paper and I know what will work financially for what I'm trying to do and what I'm working with, and, what's coming in. I never jump in unless I know I can handle it.

The last agent I discussed above didn't ask many questions. He basically went into a speech that fit me into a landlord build-out scenario. Whereas, I already knew the process of how I was going to accomplish what I needed, and to code. I just let him talk. I do understand from his perspective though as I'm thinking he probably has a specific type of client-pool he deals with.

It seems that I negotiate with about 10-15 groups to get one lease signed.

Thank you for this. On my side with what I need (I have a special use) and with the amount I am working with, I don't think my opportunities will be as plentiful.

Not an easy process.

No it isn't!

I'll answer anything I can. Let's do this in the open for all to see.

Please feel free to ask me anything as well.

 

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[Guest3722A]

So, the realtor who showed me the first building contacted me and said that the owner is willing to sell me the entire place of 5900+ sq ft commercial 1, for $30,000. What I know about it is the taxes are almost $7k a year and it supposedly has a new roof and has a basement, and, appears to have been painted recently.

There are 3 units, one used to be a beauty salon and has hardwood floors but the parking is minimal at around 14 spaces for the whole lot. It's tempting because it's on a very popular main road in one of the top counties in Michigan and runs between two extremely busy roads that, as a guess, I'd think they both each do around a million passing cars a week (not positive though). I'm thinking this because many years ago in a different part of one of these roads I got the actual data which stated over 700,000 passing vehicles a week, and it is much more crowded out here nowadays.

At this point for me, this isn't what I am trying to accomplish even though I know what businesses are in the area and I'm pretty sure I could put something in there that would keep the bills paid, but, I'm not big enough currently to be buying and I'm focused on something else right now. ( Plus, I just bought something else last year that I just had surveyed and am slowly working )

But, IMO, this is a smokin' deal on this C1 and I'm willing to bet the owner would sell for even less because I also know she's not in the area anymore.

Anyway, I told the CREA to put this one on the back burner for now and that I had another one I wanted to get in and see. We coordinated to go see it on Thursday this week and I'll put my assessment up thereafter.

In the meantime, I did visit it Sunday, and took some pictures of the exterior and through the front windows to share here and to maybe get some experienced thoughts on any of these images if anyone would like to chime in.

My thought is that the area is very nice. It's a small town and the city hall shares the parking lot and the police station is a block away. There's a peaceful little picnic table area in back and a little playground.

The building has a raspberry bush in the back and yes they're delicious (never pick em from the bottom! lol) but I've had a building in the past where the walls leaked, and this one appeared to have some darker bricks trailing down in one area and what looked like a bit of a bulge / warp up around the top. Also, you can see it is missing a downspout which could mean there's a foundation issue and what appears to be some loose flashing up top which could then be a roof issue. It's well water and on a septic.

Through the windows on the interior I'm not sure if this would be considered a code violation or if it is something that's grandfathered in, but seeing the business will be something new I'll look into it at the city hall when I'm there Thursday. The issue is that there are steps up right after you walk in the place. (I'm thinking handicap issue)

 

[Guest3722A]

5 more

 

[Guest3722A]

I was wrong about the first agent. Today's meeting went well.

My intention was initially to follow @jon.a 's advice (of calling the listing agents) but this first agent contacted me again, as I mentioned in my last post, and showed he was working for me, and I felt a little guilty to be honest. So, the showing of the building today was a one more chance kinda thing. And it went well.

When I got there he was out front talking with the owner who I got to meet briefly and one of the first things I asked was if those steps up were a code violation and the owner confirmed they were. He then said he would work something out to have it fixed, then he left while we took a look at the place.

This unit was not what I expected as I wanted the upstairs too and that was padlocked.

However, when speaking to the owner while waiting for me to get there, the agent found out that there was another vacant one that also included the upstairs AND for less than this first one. So, we went and took a look and it definitely needs improvements, but it will work. The upstairs is just sub-floor and also prepped for a toilet. This unit is also going to need a better hot water tank but the furnace looked solid and adequate. And, there wasn't a code violation of steps up when entering the building.

Anyway, we shook hands and I went into the bar next door to grab a beer and get a feel for the town and the owner of the bar was there and I was able to ask some questions about the prior tenants and the landlord and everything seemed positive. So much that she told me that her son leases from him just up the street and that there's two owners and they're good people. Awesome.

So, over the weekend I'm going to do my numbers and gather my thoughts and take it from there.

 

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[Guest3722A]

A quick update -

The last building I mentioned above I like enough to open discussions with the owner. Currently the agent I'm working with is going to discuss my setting up of the property, the lease, and then credits based on my anticipated costs.

Thank you @SteveO and @jon.a for your time and suggestions. Hopefully this goes through. If not, I'll be dealing with the listing agents direct for any other future finds.

I'll post an update when I have one.

 

[Guest3722A]

Well its been 5 days now and still no confirmation from the guy I was working with. Yesterday he said he would do a follow up but nothing since. I'm thinking either the owner is waiting on getting a lease drawn or what I proposed was outside the realm. Either way I found another one today that I went to take a look at this evening. What I'm looking for is a live/work. The last one was prepped for an upstairs apt and I proposed my finishing the upstairs with a bathroom and kitchenette and carpet over the sub-floor. I like this location because its out in the country and I prefer to surround myself with peace but I have to keep moving. This new one is 2600 sq ft w/ 2 buildings. 1 is basically a 600 sq ft house/office with basement and the other is a 2 unit, 2000 sq ft commercial building. There's a decent sized parking lot and the whole place is only $1000 mo.. The location is good and within 2 miles from I-75 and 696 freeways. The house appears to need cleaning as does one of the units. It looks like the roof is ok and there is a gutter issue but I'm not going to nitpick unless there's a health concern. The landscaping looks neat and there's signage.

If I do end up with this one I'm definitely going to put a rehearsal spot for bands in one of the units but it'll be modified from the craziness I did in the past. The way I'm going to run this I guarantee will pay the entire rent and utilities and I wont have to modify or build any rooms. Also if I get this place I'll hire some music teachers and get lessons going in this unit. Going rate for lessons out here is $40-$50 an hour. Stack up 5-10 teachers and build up each of their schedules and that'll = a nice passive cash flow my way. The other unit will be for the business that's up and running now. I'm going to call the listing agent tomorrow and try to get in this weekend. In the mean time, here's some pictures:

 

[Guest3722A]

the rest

 

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[Guest3722A]

Quick update - The one out in the country is still on the table. I was told that the owners were out of town. And, my agent did send me the email from their agent stating this. What's interesting though is if I didn't have my agent follow up, their agent apparently wasn't going to relay the fact that they were 'out of town'. They're supposed to be back Monday. We'll see.

Anyway, about the above one that's in the city, it turns out that the listing agent is from the same firm as the imaginary dollar counter I mentioned. Yes, this guy's got arrogance too and I can't stand people like that. But, I'm going to do my best to get in THIS weekend and possibly tomorrow. Up to this point its been a game of phone tag and I'm not interested in kissing a$$ or falling in line with someone else's schedule. In my mind, I'm the customer / the one who's going to be spending thousands of dollars here - or elsewhere. We'll see what happens.

 

[jon.a]

Quick update - The one out in the country is still on the table. I was told that the owners were out of town. And, my agent did send me the email from their agent stating this. What's interesting though is if I didn't have my agent follow up, their agent apparently wasn't going to relay the fact that they were 'out of town'. They're supposed to be back Monday. We'll see.

Anyway, about the above one that's in the city, it turns out that the listing agent is from the same firm as the imaginary dollar counter I mentioned. Yes, this guy's got arrogance too and I can't stand people like that. But, I'm going to do my best to get in THIS weekend and possibly tomorrow. Up to this point its been a game of phone tag and I'm not interested in kissing a$$ or falling in line with someone else's schedule. In my mind, I'm the customer / the one who's going to be spending thousands of dollars here - or elsewhere. We'll see what happens.

Remember, that after the deal is done, the agent should be dead to you.

 

[Guest3722A]

Remember, that after the deal is done, the agent should be dead to you.

You're absolutely right. Thank you again for putting your time into this thread.

 

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[Guest3722A]

Nope on the one in the city - that firm flat out allows lying in their marketing. Assholes

The one in the country is still on the table. The agent texted to let me know he sent another follow-up this morning.

 

[Guest3722A]

Quick update-

I haven't heard anything back on the one in the country. In further following @jon.a 's suggestion I was trying to figure out a way to reach many listing agents at once. So, in my first attempt what I did was make a generic message to sent to several realtors up at loopnet.


This was the message:

I’m looking to lease a live/work commercial property preferably with frontage on a main road. *Budget is up to $XXXX mo + utilities *Minimum 1200 sq ft. (preferred) *Business is C1 level but will consider other use types *Will consider safe locations in Oakland, Macomb, Genesee, Lapeer and Livingston counties. If you have anything available, please contact me at 586-XXX-XXXX Or email me at XXXXXXXX@XXXXXXXXX.com Thank you, XXXXX XXX Managing Member XXXXXXXXX, llc



My goal was to send it out to 40 agents a day but once I got going I didn't want to stop. I believe I ended up sending it to around 90+ agents that this website had available for the areas I chose. What I learned afterwards though is loopnet cut me off at 15 (because I set it to send carbon copies back to my email and only got exactly 15. Assumption, but I'm pretty sure). Anyway, I received 4 phone calls which I screened, and 3 of them left messages. I called all 4. Spoke with 2, one wanted to sign to a contract - which tells me he doesn't have any listings - and I declined, and one sent me one of her mls listings for which we exchanged a couple emails and even though I was very specific in my budget, and reiterated in our conversations - which she confirmed but still she came back with a number that was 3x. lol (imaginary dollar counting greedy turd) ( )

I'll keep hammering away though. It's a numbers game and I'll get this one way or another.

Tomorrow I'm going to sign up to Loopnet with 5 email addresses (due to the 15 message limitation) and continue with the message.

If loopnet can't help me, next in line will be in person office visits, unless someone has a better suggestion?

Otherwise I'll do that along with gathering more emails. There's thousands of agents out there. Somebody's gotta have something, right?

 

[jon.a]

How about relocating to Ramona, Ca. We have 4000 sqft empty.

Quick update-

I haven't heard anything back on the one in the country. In further following @jon.a 's suggestion I was trying to figure out a way to reach many listing agents at once. So, in my first attempt what I did was make a generic message to sent to several realtors up at loopnet.


This was the message:

I’m looking to lease a live/work commercial property preferably with frontage on a main road. *Budget is up to $XXXX mo + utilities *Minimum 1200 sq ft. (preferred) *Business is C1 level but will consider other use types *Will consider safe locations in Oakland, Macomb, Genesee, Lapeer and Livingston counties. If you have anything available, please contact me at 586-XXX-XXXX Or email me at XXXXXXXX@XXXXXXXXX.com Thank you, XXXXX XXX Managing Member XXXXXXXXX, llc



My goal was to send it out to 40 agents a day but once I got going I didn't want to stop. I believe I ended up sending it to around 90+ agents that this website had available for the areas I chose. What I learned afterwards though is loopnet cut me off at 15 (because I set it to send carbon copies back to my email and only got exactly 15. Assumption, but I'm pretty sure). Anyway, I received 4 phone calls which I screened, and 3 of them left messages. I called all 4. Spoke with 2, one wanted to sign to a contract - which tells me he doesn't have any listings - and I declined, and one sent me one of her mls listings for which we exchanged a couple emails and even though I was very specific in my budget, and reiterated in our conversations - which she confirmed but still she came back with a number that was 3x. lol (imaginary dollar counting greedy turd) ( )

I'll keep hammering away though. It's a numbers game and I'll get this one way or another.

Tomorrow I'm going to sign up to Loopnet with 5 email addresses (due to the 15 message limitation) and continue with the message.

If loopnet can't help me, next in line will be in person office visits, unless someone has a better suggestion?

Otherwise I'll do that along with gathering more emails. There's thousands of agents out there. Somebody's gotta have something, right?

 

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[Guest3722A]

How about relocating to Ramona, Ca. We have 4000 sqft empty.

Thank you for this kind offer. It wouldn't work though. What I have going is a service business with a list of repeat customers. All have been word of mouth referrals and new ones get referred almost weekly. The service can be automated, but it's not something that can be done online.

However, I did some research last night out in your area on rehearsal halls for musicians and with your 4000 sq ft, I'm almost positive I could build something up in that space that would generate a minimum of $9900 mo.(gross) + additional income streams, and about 90% passive. It would need 50 parking spots though because 4000 sq ft would yield around 20 rooms. On a side note, people who use these places for the most part are 9-5ers looking for an alternative to bowling.

If this is something you would be interested in, it would be my pleasure to come out and set this up for you. I would need to get my situation out here organized first though and stabilized. But after that, my soon to be was raised in an entrepreneurial family and outside of seeing something in me, she's very smart. She would hold the reins while I was out on your side of town.

 

[jon.a]

Thank you for this kind offer. It wouldn't work though. What I have going is a service business with a list of repeat customers. All have been word of mouth referrals and new ones get referred almost weekly. The service can be automated, but it's not something that can be done online.

However, I did some research last night out in your area on rehearsal halls for musicians and with your 4000 sq ft, I'm almost positive I could build something up in that space that would generate a minimum of $9900 mo.(gross) + additional income streams, and about 90% passive. It would need 50 parking spots though because 4000 sq ft would yield around 20 rooms. On a side note, people who use these places for the most part are 9-5ers looking for an alternative to bowling.

If this is something you would be interested in, it would be my pleasure to come out and set this up for you. I would need to get my situation out here organized first though and stabilized. But after that, my soon to be was raised in an entrepreneurial family and outside of seeing something in me, she's very smart. She would hold the reins while I was out on your side of town.

We don't have that much parking.

 

[Guest3722A]

Update-

Over the last week and a half or so I did as I said I was going to do and sent the above message out to every broker at loopnet that worked the areas I was interested in. What I learned from this is that there are more residential agents posing as commercial agents than there are actual commercial agents, at least in my area. I also learned that many of the messages I sent went to the brokers spam folders, and I'm still getting emails and calls.

This action (for me) turned out to be a bust. I say this because I was looking to access commercial brokers who have been in and out of commercial buildings and knew what was out there. I wasn't so interested in an infestation of residential brokers brought on by high competition. Loopnet's commercial, right?

If I hear another residential agent ask me if I want to buy I'm going to drive my truck off the edge of a sled hill.

So from here, I hit the streets to talk face to face with people and walked into the doors of commercial offices, (and yes) residential offices and a property management office. What was interesting about this was that it was a residential office manager that referred me to a property management company and gave me a dated brochure (with old addresses). He said that he always referred people to them who were looking for specific types of situations outside of what his office had to offer.

Anyway, to cut this down, I found a place through this company that wasn't perfect as it was a house on a busy main road (right by the Palace of Auburn Hills) that has a zoning that will let me do what I need to do over the next 12 months and I went to see it yesterday and applied immediately thereafter. It's surrounded by commercial use properties all with signage on the main road. Again not perfect, but at this point if I get in, I'll have 12 months to kick some a$$ here and build up to more choices.

What I didn't realize was that there was an approval process with the management company that could take a few days but it is what it is. Hopefully no one else snags this up before I'm able to.

 

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[DustinH]

Quick update-

I haven't heard anything back on the one in the country. In further following @jon.a 's suggestion I was trying to figure out a way to reach many listing agents at once. So, in my first attempt what I did was make a generic message to sent to several realtors up at loopnet.


This was the message:

I’m looking to lease a live/work commercial property preferably with frontage on a main road. *Budget is up to $XXXX mo + utilities *Minimum 1200 sq ft. (preferred) *Business is C1 level but will consider other use types *Will consider safe locations in Oakland, Macomb, Genesee, Lapeer and Livingston counties. If you have anything available, please contact me at 586-XXX-XXXX Or email me at XXXXXXXX@XXXXXXXXX.com Thank you, XXXXX XXX Managing Member XXXXXXXXX, llc



My goal was to send it out to 40 agents a day but once I got going I didn't want to stop. I believe I ended up sending it to around 90+ agents that this website had available for the areas I chose. What I learned afterwards though is loopnet cut me off at 15 (because I set it to send carbon copies back to my email and only got exactly 15. Assumption, but I'm pretty sure). Anyway, I received 4 phone calls which I screened, and 3 of them left messages. I called all 4. Spoke with 2, one wanted to sign to a contract - which tells me he doesn't have any listings - and I declined, and one sent me one of her mls listings for which we exchanged a couple emails and even though I was very specific in my budget, and reiterated in our conversations - which she confirmed but still she came back with a number that was 3x. lol (imaginary dollar counting greedy turd) ( )

I'll keep hammering away though. It's a numbers game and I'll get this one way or another.

Tomorrow I'm going to sign up to Loopnet with 5 email addresses (due to the 15 message limitation) and continue with the message.

If loopnet can't help me, next in line will be in person office visits, unless someone has a better suggestion?

Otherwise I'll do that along with gathering more emails. There's thousands of agents out there. Somebody's gotta have something, right?

How about calling or trying to meet with some of the bigger listing agents face-to-face. I bet some rapport building would help with them sending you some as it hits the market or if they hear of anything available. Your attitude toward the agents, warranted or not, could improve if you want them to find something for you. I'm not so sure that sending a bunch of e-mails will be as helpful as calling them or going to lunch. Agents don't check e-mail as much as they check their phone.

I know you're the person paying for the lease and that the agents get paid commission from your lease but you still need to sell yourself on them. You said it yourself, they size you up the first time they meet you. So, instead of complaining about something that you're not going to change (i.e. the agents' first look judgment), how about playing the game, dressing up, and selling yourself to them. Sell yourself to the point where they would be missing out on a commission check if they didn't work with you.

I'm not trying to defend the agents. Are they liars... probably. Every commercial listing is a lie. Every pro forma is a lie. That's why you have to do your due dilligence, but having an agent work for you would be more helpful. Are they shallow... probably, but who cares? My advice is to stop complaining about the agents' behavior. Sell yourself on one of them. Have them go to bat for you and get what you really want. It's only short term relationship if you want it to be. So, play the game until you get what you're looking for.

 

[Guest3722A]

How about calling or trying to meet with some of the bigger listing agents face-to-face. I bet some rapport building would help with them sending you some as it hits the market or if they hear of anything available. Your attitude toward the agents, warranted or not, could improve if you want them to find something for you. I'm not so sure that sending a bunch of e-mails will be as helpful as calling them or going to lunch. Agents don't check e-mail as much as they check their phone.

I know you're the person paying for the lease and that the agents get paid commission from your lease but you still need to sell yourself on them. You said it yourself, they size you up the first time they meet you. So, instead of complaining about something that you're not going to change (i.e. the agents' first look judgment), how about playing the game, dressing up, and selling yourself to them. Sell yourself to the point where they would be missing out on a commission check if they didn't work with you.

I'm not trying to defend the agents. Are they liars... probably. Every commercial listing is a lie. Every pro forma is a lie. That's why you have to do your due dilligence, but having an agent work for you would be more helpful. Are they shallow... probably, but who cares? My advice is to stop complaining about the agents' behavior. Sell yourself on one of them. Have them go to bat for you and get what you really want. It's only short term relationship if you want it to be. So, play the game until you get what you're looking for.

In my experience with things that are entrepreneurial related, I've learned that sometimes you have the path to get to where you're going and sometimes you have to find the path. In this particular situation, I've had a fair share of experience with locating a common use commercial building (with and without agents) , but what I need for this current situation is a hard to find use. Few and far between. This is the very reason why I wanted to make the best use of my time by initially putting something together that had a form of automation. A written and specific request to copy and paste to a list of folks who represent themselves as being able to help with these types of requests.

It's a numbers game. If you ask enough people, sooner or later someone's going to have what you need or at the least lead you in the right direction. Now, the problem I found with loopnet is that the majority there are representing themselves as commercial specialists. Which is what I wanted. And, as an entrepreneur who doesn't have the path, but looking, I had no idea that loopnet doesn't thoroughly vet those who sign up as 'commercial' re agents. I do now.

The reasoning I had I believe was correct, but that 'at bat' was a strike out. Now I will add though that I did find a residential agent who I could speak with, with a high level of rapport, and he had a former client who had what I was looking for and had a conversation with this former client, but the client wasn't in the market for this at the time. This agent is now on the back burner because now he's "buyer's side". And if you read the rest of this thread, you'll see why I'm trying to avoid this.


Now take a look at the last half of the message I posted yesterday. In there you'll see my 'pivot' from my last at-bat strikeout. And, you'll see that in my path finding adjustment I walked right into all kinds of re offices - without appointments - and sat down with managers. Currently it appears that I may get on base, as this is by no means a homerun. But it may also turn into another out. If it does, I've learned more which I will use in my continuing search.

BTW , I may come across as angry, but this is all laughable to me because I know how the struggle of the game is, and I'm not angry at all. This is fun to me.

Thanks for commenting.

 

[Guest3722A]

What I didn't realize was that there was an approval process with the management company that could take a few days but it is what it is

Denied. I'll get a letter letting me know why. Sigh

 

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[SteveO]

I always expect my management company to evaluate the potential tenants. The management company does not get paid without a tenant so they want one in there. I'm assuming that there will be a reason that comes back to you. It will either be financial or your company's fit with the unit and other tenants.

 

[Guest3722A]

I always expect my management company to evaluate the potential tenants. The management company does not get paid without a tenant so they want one in there. I'm assuming that there will be a reason that comes back to you. It will either be financial or your company's fit with the unit and other tenants.

As always, thanks for commenting.

I'm pretty sure its financial side. I just wish I knew where right now because I have another company who wants an application from me and I want to know if there is a simple correction or if I didn't communicate thoroughly something that needed written explanation. The application seemed to only allow a square peg to square hole applicant.

What concerns me about this system is I'm pretty sure each one of these puts a soft pull on my credit and I work hard to keep my credit up. And, it makes me feel like a bit of a peon. Its this red tape right here that contributes to me wanting to avoid the broker system as I've mentioned I've had better luck with meeting an owner face to face followed up with a handshake, signature and an exchange of money for a key.

Steve, this place was only $835 a month. I showed two accounts. One with some of my reserves which was more than adequate and the other account showed the money coming in, also more than adequate. My credit score is also more than enough and I pay cash for everything. The only debt I have is revolving which is always paid off immediately and always kept at less than 10% utilization. This is frustrating because I know for an absolute fact that I could've handled this.

Now the new broker I'm speaking with says he can't stand that last management company. It could be a sales ploy but he sounds sincere. But man, this sure is alot of noise for renting something so cheap. My last apartment was $1200 mo and I had just started a new job! lol. My girlfriend's last apartment was a cash for key exchange and this place was in a mixed use live/work. I wish we were still there but I moved us out for safety reasons just over half a year ago.

Anyway, I'm pretty sure its obvious why I have frustrations with agents. I won't give up but I also won't be a pawn in this antiquated game that I'm pretty sure with enough pulls will have the potential to ding my credit.

Thoughts?

 

[Guest3722A]

Ok I finally was able to look at the letter and two things stood out to me:

1) The TU credit score they pulled is almost 50 points higher than I thought it was. Very cool. I've been working hard on this and that is one heck of a payoff.

2) The broker gave me a bit of misinformation and now that I see where the bottleneck is, I'm going to game the game slightly and make an adjustment. Then, I'll see if that makes it to the finish line with the next company I'm going to apply with. Now this might change but right now to get through this I'm going to use the government provided benefit of limited reciprocity via the use of an entity other than a human. At least that's where the thought is at the moment and then, win or lose, I'll take it from there and learn as I go.

But first I have the right to obtain the report on me this last management company acquired and I'm going to do this so that I know exactly what they looked at.

To be continued...

 

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[Guest3722A]

It's been a little bit since I updated here but since my last post I've been at it researching and looking and learning. If you've been following along you'll see that I had one out in the country that I liked and made an offer on it but was told by 'my' agent that the owners were out of town, blah blah blah, and since I haven't heard anything. Anyway, no thanks to my agent, I had to make the phone calls to get down to the bottom of what was going on and come to find out that the city was on the owners for having to redo their septic. They apparently were maxed as far as capacity. Eww.

This takes me to yesterday where I met with another management company (who was 20 minutes late) to see another house zoned business. Now this was a friggin joke. Where do I start... How about the basics -- the foundation was shot, there wasn't a single floorboard in the entire house that wasn't soft and spongy, the "Michigan basement" was on dirt! And the driveway was completely cracked up. But the clincher was that the owner wanted a $200 cleaning fee (the place was filthy) and also a $100 application fee and then had in capitals on the application that the owner reserves the right to pick and choose who he wants in. So, I read this as he was going to stack up a bunch of application fees whether you passed or not. And folks, this wasn't in Detroit or Pontiac or Wasteland or Roachville (Westland Roseville) this was in a high dollar area by West Bloomfield and Commerce. Again my original experience that I claimed in my opening post is still holding true. Brokers don't have MY best interest at heart.

So, last week I had a discussion with an actual owner and it went very well. He's a nice guy who actually called me back a couple times and I went out to see what he had to offer, which I liked, but it's a 40 minute drive from the core of where the work is (30 the way I drive...but still...). In calculating fuel expense, wear and tear on the vehicles and drive time it became a moderate discouragement as compared to what he was asking. However, he said he would work with me. AND, as many of us know, the goal is to get 'out' of the business and 'on' it. Plus, the business keeps growing! 2 new customers in the last two days plus customers are starting to throw side jobs that are unrelated. This thing is starting to break out of the seams.

I think what I'm going to do is gamble and spend the next month saving more to cover these initial additional expenses in hopes that this owner doesn't fill the place. Now what is a positive about this location is that I purchased a property last year, that's tied into this whole crazy idea of mine, and it's located only ten minutes away. And the goal is to start working on it slowly as I'm able and as this business goes through some transformations. So there are benefits with the location.

Anyway, here's some photos of this one. I'm not going to give any numbers yet until I know for sure but it's over 5000 squares and the owner will let me take little pieces at a time, provided they're still available, of course. The first part I would take would be the apartment which is twice the size of what I need, as it is, and the owner doesn't care if I convert it around a bit to what I need.

BTW I somehow lost a few of the photos but these will give an idea:

 

[Guest3722A]

the rest