Interviewing a Commercial Realtor to Find the Best!!!

Now that you know what a Realtor is going to expect from you, let’s talk about what you should expect from your commercial Realtor. There are always varying levels of experience and knowledge in every profession. You are going to find people who are cutting edge and know everything there is to know about a topic including current technology and you are going to have the old school people who have been there and seen that. They may not know the cutting edge technology, but they know the pitfalls to avoid. Your job is to try to find a perfect match for you and your situation.

Prepare a list of questions that you can ask the agent. Leave space to take notes. If you are talking to a lot of agents back to back, you may mix up who said what if you don’t take notes. Practice your questions before you ask them. You want to make sure that it sounds like you have asked them before. You don’t want to stumble and be awkward. You should never take a question from someone else and read it word for word. It will sound like you are reading a script. Make the question yours. For example. How long have you been a commercial Real Estate Agent specializing in self-storage? That is a mouthful. Instead, you could break it up. How long have you been a commercial Realtor? When did you start specializing in self-storage? Rewrite the following questions in your own words so that it feels natural to ask them.

How long have you been a commercial Agent? Do not work with someone who has never done a commercial transaction before. You do not want them to train on your dime. They will make a mistake and it will cost you money. Instead, find an agent that has already made all of the mistakes and learned how to avoid them. Find someone who knows what pitfalls to watch out for so they can help you save money.

What area of Real Estate do you focus on? You want someone who knows self-storage inside and out. You want someone who lives and breathes self-storage. You want someone with connections in the community. You want someone who has been marketing to self-storage owners for a long time. You want someone who has a lender that specializes in self-storage. Now, there are some of you who live in a small enough market that you can’t find that. In that case, make sure that they have experience in commercial real estate. Make sure that they have worked with rental properties. Make sure that they have worked with commercial construction if you are doing a conversion. You want someone who has experience.

How many transactions have you done in the last 12 months? You want someone who knows the current market inside and out. You want someone who is actively involved in commercial real estate. They need to know without hesitation what the CAP rate is in your area, what the value of a property should be and whether or not you can get any upside potential.

Where is the self-storage market heading right now? This is always a guess for your agent, but it should be an educated guess. They should know if prices are trending up, holding even, or going down. They should know if self-storage is staying on the market for hours, days, or months. You need to be able to predict what is going to happen when it is time for you to sell your property.

What is a typical CAP rate for self-storage in this market? If they don’t know what you can expect to find as an average, find someone else. The CAP rates will vary, but there will be a trend. You can’t price a property without knowing what the market will bear.

What are the current occupancy rates for self-storage in this market? You need to know if the market is oversaturated or if there is still room for growth. If every self-storage facility is at a 30% occupancy level, it is unlikely that you will be able to get a higher occupancy level. The market is probably oversaturated. On the other hand, if every self-storage facility has a waiting list, this is a great market to start building.

What lenders do you work with? Always let them know that you are open to working with their team. If they don’t have a commercial team, then they are not experienced enough for you to want to work with them. You may have your own team and have no intention of switching. The idea is to find out what their team is like. Who knows, they may have someone you want to add to your team.

Are you willing to present an offer for less than the listed price? If your agent is unwilling to make an offer on a property, move on. You will not be offering full price on most of the properties that you look at. There will be a few gems that you can pay full price for, but most of the time, sellers overprice their properties.

This is not a comprehensive list of questions, but it is a good starting point. You want to know their experience level. You want to listen to their answers to see if this is someone that you would enjoy working with. If you don’t feel comfortable with them, call the next agent. You want a good Realtor on your team. The best way to find one is to start interviewing them. As always, happy investing