How To Showcase Your Commercial Real Estate In A Digital World

Posted by Trashcans Unlimited on 6th Sep 2017

Facing the challenge of selling commercial real estate is easier if you follow a well-prepared path to success. A few important steps taken in the right direction will enhance all your efforts and make the process faster. The following checklist offers a convenient guide for successfully showcasing your commercial real estate. Covering all of these steps will help you earn far better results, especially if you decide to take on the task yourself without the help of a commercial real estate broker.

1. Gather and Prepare Necessary Documents

The following documents are crucial for a faster sale. Having all of this information immediately available for a potential buyer to review will facilitate a quick preliminary mortgage approval from a lender. This first step may ultimately lead to a speedy offer and contract to buy your property, so gather these documents in a convenient portfolio ASAP:

Copies of title deed and mortgage information

Copies of property appraisals/survey/blueprints/environmental studies or certificates

Copies of recent tax and utility bills

Copies of permits and records of any major improvements during your ownership

Copies of the rent roll and leases

2. Determine if This is a Good Time to Sell

Before deciding to sell your commercial property, it is important to determine if this is the best time to sell. No matter what type of commercial real estate you are interested in selling, certain considerations will help you decide:

Recent major rent renewal. This is the right time to showcase your commercial property because a potential buyer will view the purchase as a stable investment.

Major rent expirations. With several years' advance notice, major rent expirations may offer a strong consideration for selling the property sooner rather than later. You are more likely to achieve a better sale with two to five years left on a major lease. Potential buyers may not wish to deal with a sudden tenant turnover, so if a major lease is expiring within the next year this may not be the best time to sell.

Non-market considerations. Perhaps you have non-market considerations impacting your decision to sell, such as unmet long-term goals that leave you feeling unhappy about the current timing. Consider requesting a commercial property valuation to help you fully understand your property's current market value and its future potential. This information can help guide your decision to sell now or wait for those long-term goals to be met.

3. Make Necessary Repairs

Selling commercial property is very similar to selling a home. A potential buyer does not want to purchase a property in need of multiple repairs. Naturally, the most important repairs are those necessary to pass the property inspection. Seek out a licensed commercial property inspector for advice tailored to the needs of your property.

4. Make Aesthetic Improvements

Even if your building is in top shape and passes all the necessary inspections, aesthetic improvements can significantly enhance a potential buyer's first impression. Showcasing your commercial property means cleaning the windows and freshening the overall appearance. Take a critical look and clear out the clutter. If the paint looks dull and chipped, call a professional painter. Once the paint is dry, enlist a local nursery to brighten up that first impression even more with beautiful new landscaping.

5. Get an Updated Appraisal

It is vitally important to set a sale price that is fair and reasonable. If the price is set too high, your property could linger on the market for an extended period; a sale price set too low may achieve a speedy sale but may represent a financial loss for the seller.

Speak with a commercial real estate appraiser about getting an updated appraisal, and explain that you are the owner, interested in selling your property. Be sure to have the documents gathered in step one, and point out any recent improvements performed in step three. Choosing to share an appraisal report with a potential buyer may enhance your credibility and speed up the closing process for a highly successful sale.

6. Take Quality Photos

Showcasing your commercial property for a successful and speedy sale calls for great photographs. Remember that most investors will view your property for the first time in a real estate database maintained by a commercial real estate broker. Because real estate photography is notorious for poor quality, having great photographs of your property may be the key to helping your listing stand out in a sea of mediocre ones. Contact professional real estate photographers and ask to review their portfolios before selecting the one you will hire.

7. Prepare Your Listing: Tell Your Story

Now that you have all your documents, reports, and photos, it's time to build your virtual showcase by creating a great listing. Potential buyers want to know why your property is the best property for them. Tell your story! Along with all basic information, remember to highlight several features or advantages that set your property apart from other similar ones. Highlighting building improvements can be a successful strategy, according to one key study on commercial real estate.

8. Create a Unique Property Website

Real estate agents are continually embracing new ways of selling to buyers on internet platforms. While property-search websites are not new, the trend toward social media and mobile apps for property searching is growing quickly. Creating a unique property website, or microsite, is catching on as a great solution to utilize social media and mobile applications. Having your own exclusive microsite lets you showcase your property, enhanced by all your great photos from step six, away from annoying advertisements and competing listings that may distract your potential buyer.

9. Get Listed on Top Commercial Real Estate Sites

Getting listed on top commercial real estate websites is a clear step to success. The National Association of Realtors reports that 51 percent of home buyers found their home online and 91 percent of realtors use the internet/social media for work purposes. The following is a great list to get you started:

42 floors: With 54,000 listings in the U.S. alone, 42 Floors offers both free and paid listing services specializing in commercial office space, subleases, and coworking spaces.

BizBuySell: With 45,000 current listings of business properties and franchises, BizBuySell offers paid services for listing, showcasing, broker matching, and financing assistance.

Brevitas: A real estate collaboration and workflow platform, Brevitas offers a membership model marketplace for private, open, and off-market property listings.

BuzzTarget: With free and paid memberships available, BuzzTarget offers access to over 150,000 property listings. Paid membership includes access to a wide suite of popular professional products.

Catylist: With thousands of listings for office, industrial, shopping, retail, land, multi-family, and hospitality properties across the U.S., Catylist offers free membership to search only. Paid membership is required for listing, gathering leads, or using the marketing tools.

CIMLS: (Commercial Investment Multiple Listing Service) represents over 320,000 registered members and over $500 billion in available properties throughout the U.S. Listing is free, but paid membership provides enhanced services.

CityFeet: owned by Loopnet, CityFeet focuses on New York City but offers paid access to office, retail, and industrial space and property listings for every state in the U.S. For New York alone, there are currently 13,200 listings.

CommercialCafe: With nearly 45,000 listings across all commercial real estate property types, CommercialCafe offers free listings for brokers and a paid model for property owners.

Commercial MLS: Featuring over 20,500 commercial properties from eight counties in Washington and Oregon, Commercial MLS currently represents 3,850 member brokers and 1,045 offices. An application and $350 fee are required to join as an office, associate, or appraiser.

CommercialSearch: a spin-off from Xceligent, CommercialSearch includes basic and premium services offering Xceligent listings as well as listings from hundreds of Associations, CIEs, and MLSs.

Craigslist: One of the largest free listing and search engines online, Craigslist offers free access to tens of thousands of office and commercial property listings for most major regions of the world.

CREXi: With over 16,000 listings, CREXi offers a suite of tools for brokers to manage the full process from listing to closing.

Instant Offices: Offering over 8,200 listings of offices spaces around the world, Instant Offices charges a success fee but no further pricing information is available on the website.

Land and Farm: Specializing in farm land, ranches, and properties with land attached, Land and Farm offers paid subscriptions and access to 490,200 current listings organized by state.

Loopnet: Among the more popular CRE search engines, Loopnet offers over 800,000 listings representing 6.3 billion square feet for lease around the world. Free membership allows listing, but paid membership is required for access to other services and pro tools.

OfficeSpace.com: With listings in most major U.S. cities, OfficeSpace offers both free and paid listing services specializing in all types of office spaces. Paid or "featured" listings offer enhanced listing placement as well as broker profile upgrades and online connections with tenants.

OffMarket: Offering a free subscription plan to a database of over 50,000 pre-screened private real estate investors, developers, and institutions across the U.S., OffMarket provides buyers and sellers with access to "off market" deals, thus cutting out middleman transaction costs.

RealMassive: Covering almost four billion square feet of industrial, office, and retail space, RealMassive streamlines the marketing efforts of CRE professionals. Users can list, search, and share data via an online platform optimized for digital marketing, inventory management, and performance analytics.

RetailMLS: A free MLS service for the retail real estate market serving landlords, brokers, and tenants.

Rofo: With 30,000 current listings representing one billion square feet, Rofo offers paid membership plans to list office space, warehouses, retail locations, and investment properties.

SearchOfficeSpace: Representing over 10,000 business centers and 50 consultants around the globe, SearchOfficeSpace acts as a broker rather than a search engine, charging a 10 percent rate for successful leases.

Showcase: Owned by CoStar Group, Showcase focuses on the U.S. and U.K., offering thousands of commercial properties to review. Listing is free, but paid options are required to access the full range of services available.

Spacelist: Based in Canada, Spacelist offers free and paid access to over 20,200 commercial properties across the country.

The Square Foot: Featuring around 10,000 listing for office space throughout the U.S. with a focus on 12 major cities. Fee for listing is not indicated on the site.

Total Commercial: Online since 1995, Total Commercial offers a paid membership model for full-featured commercial real estate listing services.

10. Get Seen on Social Media

Finally, with all the above steps accomplished, you are ready to make a big splash on the top social media sites. Keep track of the addresses (URLs) of all your online listings, and increase your property's exposure by posting links, sharing images, and creating other appropriate content for Facebook, Youtube, Twitter, Google+, Instagram, Pinterest, Tumblr, LinkedIn, and any other social media sites you may already be a member of. With access to online commercial property listings and platforms to vet deals at an all time high, this is the right time to build a strong social media presence.

Achieve Success

Showcasing your commercial real estate entails a few challenges in planning and creating your successful marketing presence, both physically and in the virtual world of online communities. The steps outlined above are designed to help you meet these challenges. Here’s to your speedy success!