Sourcing leads for commercial leasing and shopping center sales

[Jameson Sullivan]

Its my first week as a commercial broker and in my brokerage we focus mostly on leasing of shopping centers, investment sales of buildings as well as shopping centers, and tenant rep. Although those are the main focuses, there is still room for wiggle as far as exactlly where I want to focus my energy (i.e. raw land for example) We don't do anything with multifamily apartment buildings.

Now, that all being said, Im struggling to figure out exactlly where to begin sourcing leads. With Apartments and even SFR it seems a little more straight forward, however alot of brokers in my brokerage are representing either one side or the other in deals with companies like Mcdonalds, Ulta, Verizon and other big multinationals. I don't expect to hop in day one and be working on these deals, of course, but as Im moving forward, what could be some good ways to source my first 18 to 24 months of deals?

Currently Im working on putting together a list of local businesses that are smaller and may not be represented. I am confident that after 12 months time and a few deals I will be able to prove myself as an effective broker and hopefully at that point will begin catching some traction through referals and repeat business but that still leaves me a little turned around on how to source a call list to begin calling tomorrow.

Any help would be awesome!

Best Regards,

Jameson M Sullivan

Tacoma, Olympia, Seattle, Puyallup, Washington, State, Oregon, Pierce county, King county, Thurston county, Bremerton, Silverdale

[Joel Owens]

You are going to have to grind like a beast the first 2 to 3 years in the business.

No free lunches in the commercial world.

Hope you have reserves as closings take longer to happen.

Does your brokerage specialize in retail? If so they should already have connections and you should be training up on a team where for example there is a senior director, director, and then you the junior broker or agent. Typically the return is small for the agent starting out.

The experienced brokers there might be able to send you (feeder deals). These are buyers typically buying stuff under 2 million in price that are difficult to work with. The established brokers are working on larger deals. They will do under 2 million but not when buyer is looking for 1 in 1,000 property. They have many clients so cannot devote all their time to such ventures but the new agent typically can work those deals hard and see if they can pull off a miracle to close it and get paid.

Good Luck