Sep 13, 2011: I wasn’t sure how I would go about this but I’ve had the entire weekend to mull this over in my mind. I attended a seminar last week for a landlord that currently has a few office units that need to be filled with some good tenants. Most of the articles I have written in the last month or so focused on brokers and how they could improve their service both to a tenant and to a landlord. In some of my interviews I touched on landlords and their role so perhaps it’s time to look at it in depth.
From an Information Managers’ point of view, I can say that brokers rely heavily on the information given to them by landlords. Nine times out of ten, when a landlord sends any information it’s all very basic; the unit, the size and the rental rate. Whether or not anything is up for negotiation, well that’s another story. Then there’s also the chance that any information that is sent to brokers could be wrong.
The thing I like most about this particular landlord is that with their schedules they offer options on a 3 year or 5 year lease. A landlord offering something like this makes a broker’s job easier; it lets the broker know that the deal is negotiable; it means the broker hands the right information to the tenant right from the start.
The approach links the earnings of the properties more directly to a specified time frame, in the way an airline seat is sold at a premium if it’s one of the last ones left.
When a landlord invites brokers to their premises and sits in a room with them it actually shows a landlords’ faith in you and they show that they are willing to work with you. It certainly is the respectful thing to do and it makes a broker more inclined to work together with that particular landlord.
Let’s face it, when you don’t get desirable service from a landlord or if you as broker get treated in an unprofessional manner you wouldn’t want to work with that landlord and you certainly would leave his stock as a last resort.
When I had my interview with Tony Galetti, I did ask if he thinks that landlords deal with brokers in good faith and he mentioned that landlords are starting to understand the value of brokers in the market. That’s all good and well if a small portion of them do but what about the rest of them? Do all brokerages have to go corporate for a landlord to take them seriously? Is this the Markets way of getting rid of the small guys?
Most people would agree that there is a shortage of tenants in the market, especially with so many businesses closing down or downsizing. So what needs to change in order for good tenants to come forward? The economy, the market itself or the way people work together?
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