Residential sales agent with comercial buyer's lead

[Tim Mensch]

i am a new agent who just started picking up clients for residential sales outside of Philadelphia, PA. I recently received a buyer lead for a small commercial property.  My broker says it is small enough to take on with his assistance but i am a little skeptical about taking it on. If it was to sell a commercial property i would definitely pass up on it, but working with a buyer sounds doable.  Does anyone have experience with working with a buyer for commercial property?  What are the major differences aside from knowing the local zoning classes?  I have a meeting this week with the client so i wanted to be prepared, even if it is to turn it down.  

[Gregory H.]

@Tim Mensch - Even though commercial & residential both fall under the scope of real estate, they are essentially opposites. If you haven't yet, go on LoopNet and check the area around you for whatever class of commercial the buyer is looking into (industrial/warehouse, retail, office, etc). You can also hit the commercial section of Trend since that tends to be where a lot of the smaller commercial properties show up. Each property type within commercial has plenty of agents who operate solely within it, and they are all very different.

Without knowing the type of commercial, my main recommendation would be to freshen up the lingo. Everything is discussed in $/ft when it comes to commercial, whether you are talking about acquisition cost, rents, CAM costs, taxes, insurance, etc. 

Since this is a small commercial buyer, are they looking to use all the space themselves, or will they be leasing part/all of it out? Leases are a massively different game when it comes to commercial. Essentially anything goes in commercial leases, and it is important to have a fantastic real estate attorney. Depending on what type of property they are looking at, they may be looking at gross, net, double net, triple net, or absolute triple net leases.

Just a few of the differences, but without knowing a little more buyer specifics, its hard to provide more insight. Commercial is interesting, but I'm still amazed that we don't need a different license to sell it given the huge differences involved.