How much research should you do on your commercial real estate prospects before you finally pickup the phone and call them? Because there are some brokers I've encountered over the years, and they're oftentimes with the larger brokerage companies, who believe that they need to spend a significant amount of time researching and learning about a company or an organization, before they ever pick up the phone and call them...

So when you encounter an owner who is interested in selling, but they tell you that the tenant has the first right of refusal to purchase the building, I recommend that you say something like the following to the owner...

Years ago I interviewed a woman who is a member of CCIM, and she told me what she had been doing during the last economic downturn that generated such tremendous income for her...

On the residential side of the real estate brokerage industry, there are people known as transaction coordinators who will work along with the agents on their sale transactions, and basically do most of the follow-up once the agreement to sell a home has been signed by both buyer and seller...

Here are two key questions to ask your sellers to determine whether they are for real, or whether they will be totally wasting your time.

When I was brand new in commercial real estate brokerage, the man who was my broker, a wonderful man named Al Rose, told me that if I ever needed to sue someone to collect a commercial real estate commission, to do everything that I could to settle the matter first, rather than go the entire distance through our court system. And of course, with me being the young broker without the decades of experience that Al had within our industry, I was convinced that justice would ultimately prevail within our legal system, and that I would be vindicated, if necessary, and receive my full commission in the end...

Sometimes when you come across an off-the-market property as a commercial real estate broker, the seller will tell you that they're interested in selling the property, but they're not willing to pay you a commission. So in this situation, you'll then want to ask the seller...

When you've been around the commercial real estate industry for more than 40 years, you ideally then clearly understand that our industry moves in cycles. And as much as we don't ever want to believe that a hot market will ever slow down again, reality over the years has proven otherwise...