Professional Report - 3rd Quarter 2011

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and enrich the commercial real estate community.

Daniel Cawley, SIOR

A broker has to sell the prospective client on the
fact that you know the market, know what’s going
on, and know the local politics, adds John Skoglin,
SIOR, a vice president with CB Richard Ellis in
Baltimore, Maryland. “You have to impress them by
showing them you know what you’re doing in that
market so you can help them sell a building.”
Skoglin tells this story: “I was going for a listing
with an international company that flew a real estate
specialist into Baltimore to do the interviews. The
other firms went in with three or four guys and tried to
overwhelm this fellow. I went in by myself. During the
interview, the specialist would ask who would handle
the real estate in the different parts of town. The other
companies said, ‘X would handle this area, Y would
handle this area, etc.’ He said to me, ‘Who will handle
this part of town?’ I said, ‘I would.’ ‘And this part of
town?’ ‘I would.’ ‘And this part of town?’ ‘I would; I
will handle it all.’ He said to me, ‘You got the listing, I
only want to deal with one guy.’”

Andrew Jaffe, SIOR
By Steve Bergsman

Tim Mills, SIOR, CCIM, a director with Cushman & Wakefield in San Diego, CA, has a neat little gim mick. After he closes a deal, he heads to the local Office Depot and buys a fancy pen, which he then gives his client who, hopefully, is basking in the glow of a successful transaction.

The memento might be worth a recommendation or a listing at some point in the future.

This year, Mills has been giving away a lot of pens.
It’s been a good year, he tells Professional Report.
“Right now, I have five escrows. That’s more than any
one else in central San Diego.”
To get to escrow, one first has to have listings, and
San Diego is as competitive for brokers as anywhere
in the United States. So what’s Mills’ secret sauce?
Actually he doesn’t have any; he sticks to the basics:
professionalism, preparation, and problem solving,
and he does them well.

Barbara Johnson,
SIOR, CCIM
Professionalism

It’s who you are, what your credentials are, and how well you present. You can’t be the person who squeaks into town and doesn’t really know the market. You can’t give the impression that you are a broker who is still wet behind the ears and whose professionalism is in question.

“Your designations are important,” notes George McCutchen, SIOR, CCIM, an industrial special ist with Grubb & Ellis/Wilson Kibler in Columbia, South Carolina, who recently became a LEEDGreen associate to better understand energy efficiencies of buildings.

Preparation

You have to do your homework before a meeting. You have to know the market every different way, and know every company. “You have got to go in and look at the property, look at the person, the company, the history, and all of the background, so when you walk in there, you are not starting flatfooted,” McCutchen cautions.

These days, a broker also has to show good prepa
ration, often with a presentation. On a first meeting,
Mills is often armed with a complete brokeropin
ionofvalue, or BOV, on the property in question.
McCutchen recently got the listing for a vacated Coca
Cola facility, partly because he came into the initial
discussion with a marketing plan. “You are not going
to get a listing just by planning to throw up a sign,” he
says. “They want to understand what actions you are
going to be taking.”
One of the key things you have to do in Baltimore,
especially when working with large companies, is put
together a decent proposal. Skoglin notes, “Everyone
wants a proposal today. And it has to be fairly com
prehensive. It has to cover a lot of things people
don’t sometimes think about, such as tax situations,
government incentives, and political environment.”