How can I be a bird dog to this off market commercial property?

Question

Greetings everyone. I have been learning/working SFH in Tacoma WA and ran into this deal. So this commercial property consists of one 3 story building of rented office and retail spaces, one 3 story building with entire top floor rented as one office space and lower stories are ready to be leased, one 30-unit apartment building and one parking lot. This current off-market estate portfolio is being sold as one group, will not be sold individually, with asking price of 23 million. I know nothing about commercial buildings. I do know that I can bird dog this portfolio to an investor.  I was advised not to give out address or contact info unless I have a signed bird dog contract with the investor first, so would really like to know how to write the bird dog contract. What would be an acceptable bird dog fee? Any and all help is greatly appreciated. Thank you very much.

Adrian Chu · Answer

$23 million sounds very expensive for Tacoma.  You should consider getting a broker license if you want to transact real estate.

Mary Morgan · Answer

Greetings everyone. I have just returned home from my J.O.B. (just over broke) and have read all of your wonderful comments. Greatly appreciated!!!!  I had a work place accident resulting in 6 fractured ribs. While recovering I started learning about wholesaling SFH's. The biggest thing I have been doing so far has been the direct mail campaign to single family homes in certain neighborhoods.  The phone call that came in early this week was one of the descendants of this guy who had died, as my letter had showed up in his mail, he responded thinking I knew about the commercial properties.  He was telling me about this portfolio, that it was not yet on the market as they were making up the brochures but would be soon,and if we wanted to get into the bidding... and I told him I did not know anything about commercial properties only about single family homes.This phone call was a major surprise to us and we didn't know what to do with it, so we put it out here to BP with high hopes of learning from some great teachers. And I did say in my first post that I do not know anything about commercial properties. I did not want to purchase it, I wanted to know how to bird dog it to an investor. And I can see by your informative posts, that there is more to bird dogging a commercial property than merely "announcing" it to an investor. Thanks! I know that information is going to keep me from a lot of mistakes!  I will be learning more about the process of buying and selling commercial properties. Bigger Pockets has been extremely beneficial for us in gaining knowledge about SFH's , and we are very thankful for these forums. We have 2 very clear goals established, to own half-way houses for people coming out of prison who have nowhere to go, and secondly, to own manufactured home parks and RV parks. Those are the two areas we have started focusing on. We started with SFH's because they are so abundant and could help us build up the financial reserves to buy into our goals. We have much to learn. Thank you for your very informative responses! Again, greatly appreciated! Thank you also for the opportunity to call you, I will.

Gabriel Graumann · Answer

Mary,

I agree with the previous comments. What I would ask is what your goals as an investor/broker are? Regardless of the numbers on this deal, are you looking to learn the industry of commercial investment deals, how to analyze them, comp them against others, find additional deals, etc.? If the answer to the above is "yes", then I'm happy to talk with you about the process and point you in the right direction. You've got to look beyond the fee of one or two or three deals, especially when the deal is not in your area of expertise. The value you bring to a client/buyer is found in your understanding of the deal, why its better than other available options, how the deal works, pointing out the value-add opportunity, determining the exit strategy, etc. Aim for providing true value to potential buyers and the fees will take care of themselves.

Jameson Sullivan · Answer

I don't think that there's enough information to make a judgment on price yet. That said, the contract you would need is a purchase and sale contract - anything else would require a RE license. In order for you to earn a fee you would need to put the portfolio under contract and then find a buyer who would pay more than 23 million for the property and it sounds like, admittedly, you don't have the right skill set to be able to handle this properly. Simply knowing of someone who would sell their portfolio doesn't make the deal good. GENERALLY, someone with a portfolio worth in the neighborhood of $23 million knows exactly what it's worth. You likely got the "Well if I were to get $23 million I would definitely sell" which means its priced at a 4.5% cap and no one is going to want it.

I don't mean to shatter your hopes here and I would be happy to talk it over with you if you want over the phone tomorrow, it's just not likely that you stumbled across the 7-figure fee, holy grail deal by accident.

How can I be a bird dog to this off market commercial property?

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