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In September, Kevin Maggiacomo, President and CEO of Sperry Van Ness International Corporation was asked to speak at TEDxOrange Coast. Watch the video below to hear his unique take on why and how we all need to wake up the American Dream.
*All Sperry Van Ness offices are independently owned and operated.
This week, our 5 for Friday features Tim House, Managing Director with SVN/Team Southwest, Inc.
1. What is your geographic market and product specialty?
My geographic market is Albuquerque and Santa Fe, NM, but I cover the US, working on net leased properties for investment clients. My focus is on NNN investment properties as well as REO disposition for several banks that are long time clients.
2. What’s your latest best practice tip that you can share?
Maniacal focus on business and personal goals and working with a coach to assist with that focus.
3. What’s been the biggest change over on how you run your business in the past decade?
The use of virtual assistants, electronic marketing and web meetings. The changes have increased my available time and decreased time to market and expenses. I work with a marketing assistant in Pennsylvania and an administrative assistant in Texas. My team has access to listings, buy side assignments, forms, etc. at all times from anywhere.
4. What business book do you like to recommend to your colleagues?
“Selling the Invisible” by Harry Beckwith
5. What’s a fun fact that not everyone knows about you?
I was a contractor and builder prior to getting active in commercial brokerage and built high end adobe homes in Santa Fe. I miss the artistic component so for relaxation I build doors and furniture in my workshop which is an old dairy barn (circa 1910). I also help family and friends with construction projects.
*All Sperry Van Ness offices are independently owned and operated.
This week, our 5 for Friday features John McClellan, CCIM, Senior Advisor with SVN/Miller Commercial Real Estate.
1. What is your geographic market and product specialty?
The Eastern Shore of Maryland and Delaware. I specialize in office, industrial and retail properties.
2. What’s your latest best practice tip that you can share?
I have found great success in 3 key areas:
3. What’s been the biggest change over on how you run your business in the past decade?
The biggest change would have to be the surge in how we use technology to connect with and update potential buyers and clients. The use of social media, websites, even apps for iPads and other devices, have become invaluable tools in how I conduct day-to-day business.
4. What business book do you like to recommend to your colleagues?
“Brokers who Dominate” by Rod Santomassimo
5. What’s a fun fact that not everyone knows about you?
I am a passionate but conflicted college football fan having graduated from Penn State but with two kids in college at South Carolina and Alabama.
*All Sperry Van Ness offices are independently owned and operated.
Matthew Rotolante, CCIM, SIOR, Managing Director of Sperry Van Ness/South Commercial Real Estate Advisors, recently authored an article for The Bankruptcy Bar Association–Southern District of Florida. In the article, Matthew explains how to create a model for valuing commercial real estate.
“In essence, appraisals are necessary to determine value, but when combined with the testimony of a credible broker, a more accurate valuation may be obtained. This is especially important when attempting to prove the legitimacy of a reorganization plan, or deciding whether a 363 sale strategy is feasible.”
To view Matthew’s article in its entirety, click here.
*All Sperry Van Ness® offices are independently owned and operated.
This week, our 5 for Friday features Bill Menish, CAI, AARE , senior advisor with SVN/Ward Commercial Group in Louisville, KY.
1. What is your geographic market and product specialty?
My geographic market is Kentucky, Ohio, Indiana and Southern California. My specialty is Auction.
2. What’s your latest best practice tip that you can share?
My latest best practice tip is that when cold calling on bank clients to help them sell their OREO, if you can offer something new, innovative, creative with a track record for success, they will talk to you. I’ve also found that inviting them to a lunch presentation works well because it helps them drop their guard and really listen to what you are pitching.
3. What’s been the biggest change over on how you run your business in the past decade?
My biggest change has been moving from selling non-distressed properties for sellers to selling distressed properties for banks.
4. What business book do you like to recommend to your colleagues?
The Success Principles by Jack Canfiel
5. What’s a fun fact that not everyone knows about you?
That I am an actor and a singer and I was Harold Hill in The Music Man.
*All Sperry Van Ness offices are independently owned and operated.
Today’s 5 for Friday features William Bosley, CCIM, Senior Advisor at Sperry Van Ness/GASC Commercial in Hilton Head Island, SC.
1. What is your geographic market and product specialty?
Our offices are located on Hilton Head Island, South Carolina and Savannah, Georgia. We cover all of South Carolina and coastal Georgia. My specialty is asset/property management along with the attendant leasing and sales that comes from management. We serve as asset managers in South Carolina, Georgia and Texas.
2. What is your latest best practice tip that you can share?
Treasure and serve your existing clients beyond their expectations. Give more than you must. Make it a habit to always deliver more value than others expect. Give unselfishly and don’t require others to acknowledge you. Your paydays will come.
3. What’s been the biggest change over how you run your business in the past decade?
Serving as a receiver. We have and are serving as receivers over several commercial properties , for several large banks, throughout the South Carolina Low Country.
4. What business book do you like to recommend to your colleagues?
I strongly recommend “Transformational Leadership in the New Age of Real Estate” by Christopher Lee. This is a phenomenal guide to real estate practice today and in the future.
5. What’s a fun fact that not everyone knows about you?
I was born and raised in Toronto Canada, moved to the United States in 1982, became a naturalized U. S. Citizen in 1992 and carry dual citizenship. I have an adopted son, now 17 years old who shares my passion for hockey. My hobby is photography.
*All Sperry Van Ness offices are independently owned and operated.
Today we get 5 questions answered by James Blake, CCIM , managing director of Sperry Van Ness/Summit Commercial in Fort Worth, TX.
1. What is your geographic market and product specialty?
My main market is the west side of the Dallas / Fort Worth metroplex focusing on Fort Worth retail, including shopping centers, retail pads and single tenant retail sales.
2. What’s your latest best practice tip that you can share?
Keep up to date on market knowledge and market trends. Clients like it when you can educate them on transactions in the market and what is happening with occupancy rates and cap rates for example. The property owners perceive a real value in a agent that has market knowledge.
3. What’s been the biggest change over on how you run your business in the past decade?
Using the tools and resources available to me. SVN allows me save time on my marketing using the BuildOut platform. I also have good advisors in my office who enjoy rolling up their sleeves and working smart.
4. What business book do you like to recommend to your colleagues?
I always like to recommend The Little Red Book of Selling by Jeffrey Gitomer, especially to new advisors.
5. What’s a fun fact that not everyone knows about you?
I really enjoy making family vacation videos on my iMac. It is fun going back after a couple years and watching highlights of our trips. And of course, to make the videos I have to take the vacations with my wife and or my two college age sons who love scuba diving and mountain climbing. Love the GoPro camera!
*All Sperry Van Ness offices are independently owned and operated.
Everyone knows we have a changing demographic: aging Boomers, unemployed Generation Y/Millennials, and the much smaller-in-size Generation X sandwiched between elder care and child care (often both at the same time). But how is this affecting real estate? Pretty drastically. Recently, commercial real estate bloggers have been writing a lot about how younger generations will affect the actual sales process, including rants about how technology and demographics are changing the industry. I’ve even written on how mobile technology is a factor.
Yet, these are only tips of the same iceberg; at least according to the new book by Leigh Gallagher, The End of the Suburbs: Where the American Dream is Moving. How Americans live and where they live will greatly affect commercial real estate in the next few decades. In The End of the Suburbs, Gallagher gathers some of the most recent statistics and studies on the changing residential landscape. Here are just a few items to ponder.
If those are the trends and things to watch in residential real estate, what does that mean for commercial real estate? Perhaps that’s something to think about on your next commute home to the ‘burbs.
Diane K. Danielson is the Chief Platform Officer of Sperry Van Ness International Corporation.
*All Sperry Van Ness® offices are independently owned and operated.
Five for Friday turns the spotlight on John Brandhorst, a senior advisor at Sperry Van Ness/Bluestone & Hockley in Portland, OR.
1. What is your geographic market and product specialty?
My geographic market is the Portland MSA and my product specialty is office and industrial sales and leasing.
2. What’s your latest best practice tip that you can share?
I can’t emphasize enough the power of a team. Studying Mike Lipsey’s material and reading Rod Santomassimo’s book, “Brokers Who Dominate” recently, a common thread among highly successful brokers is that they were able to break through to the next level by building strong teams. I’ve teamed up with Steve Hagan in our office and we brought in Matt Simpson to help round out the team. Our skill sets complement each other well and we’re quickly realizing the efficiencies of working within a team environment. We’re excited about what we can do together in 2013! The best advice I found was to be patient and seek out team members who have differing but complimentary skill sets so that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts.
3. What’s been the biggest change over on how you run your business in the past decade?
Things are so much different in this business than they were when I started just ten years ago and I’d say that the majority of those changes are directly related to the advent of new technologies – smart phones, iPads, new software programs and the like. They’ve allowed us to become so much more efficient than we used to be.
4. What business book do you like to recommend to your colleagues?
From above, “Brokers Who Dominate“ by Rod Santomassimo.
5. What’s a fun fact that not everyone knows about you?
When I was supposed to be a freshman in high school, I dropped out for a year to hang out in Thailand with my dad, who was on a Fulbright exchange as a professor at Mahidol University and I spent a year traveling and having fun in Southeast Asia. I had to make up the year of school but it was well worth it – it was an incredible opportunity and definitely helped develop my love of travel and exploring other cultures.
*All Sperry Van Ness® offices are independently owned and operated.
This week, our 5 for Friday focuses on Henry Hanna, CCIM, SIOR, senior advisor with Sperry Van Ness/Miller Commercial Real Estate in Salisbury, Md.
1. What is your geographic market and product specialty?
The eastern shore of Maryland and Delaware and I specialize in industrial.
2. What’s your latest best practice tip that you can share?
Get to know the economic development officers on a local and state level in your market and have lunch or a meeting with them once a quarter.
3. What’s been the biggest changeover on how you run your business in the past decade?
Ten years ago I focused on a much smaller area. I considered myself a general commercial broker in one county. Today my market is seven counties and I brand myself as an industrial specialist.
4. What business book do you like to recommend to your colleagues?
Brokers Who Dominate by Rod Santomassimo.
5. What’s a fun fact that not everyone knows about you?
My first job out of college was as a high school librarian.
*All Sperry Van Ness® offices are independently owned and operated.
John Johnson, CCIM, ALC, managing director of Sperry Van Ness/Interstate Auction Management is in this week’s 5 for Friday spotlight.
1. What is your geographic market and product specialty?
I guess you could say that I have two specialties. I work nationally on real estate auctions. I’ve worked with SVN advisors all across the country—from Washington, Oregon and Nevada to the northwest, Maryland, Virginia, and both Carolinas to the east, and many other states in between (so far, real estate auctions in 38 states). As far as traditional brokerage is concerned, while I am based in Atlanta, GA, I am and have been licensed in five other states (VA, NC, SC, TN, and AL) for many years. Most of my traditional activity has been investment sales—several product types.
2. What’s your latest best practice tip that you can share?
Since it is the beginning of a new year, I’ve been the beneficiary of planning advice and strategy from several respected sources, including Verl Workman, Rod Santomassimo, Alan Lipsey, Brian Tracy, and others how is that for a list of guru’s!?!) The best tip is “Plan your work, and WORK your plan”.
3. What’s been the biggest change over on how you run your business in the past decade?
It’s hard to pinpoint just one, but since you said decade, I have to say that the biggest change was my affiliation with Sperry Van Ness almost exactly 10 years ago. Certainly the recession/depression beginning is 2006 caused drastic changes in the type and motivation of auction sellers. Until the last few years, it had been over a decade since we did “short-sale” real estate auctions (also called voluntary foreclosure auctions), but we have been involved in many recently. In our brokerage operation, we grew to over 15 associates in the boom times, but really scaled back over the past six years, and are just now gearing back up to grow the office again.
4. What business book do you like to recommend to your colleagues?
I am re-reading Robert Potter’s “Selling Real Estate Services—Third Level Secrets of Top Producers.” The author addressed us at a National Conference a few years ago. It is a great sales guide, stressing the need for building strong personal relationships with prospects to turn them into clients. He writes about accumulating and using the kind of information that is needed in a good CRM system (such as ClientLook, which I am now trying to use). When I am in the car, I like to listen to the audio collection that I purchased from Terri Sjodin, another of our former National Conference speakers, titled “Wired to Win”. 10 DVD’s of some of the very best business and motivational writers and speakers. Outstanding collection of wisdom, and highly recommended!
5. What’s a fun fact that not everyone knows about you?
When I was in the U.S. Air Force as a Missile Launch Officer, secure in my deep underground bunker in North Dakota, I had a pistol on my hip and the key and codes to launch up to 50 ICBM’s, each with 3 to 5 separately targeted warheads.
You can follow John on Twitter.
*All Sperry Van Ness offices are independently owned and operated.
It’s Friday and we are asking five questions of Don Erler, CAI, AARE of Sperry Van Ness/Ward Commercial Group in Louisville, Kentucky.
1. What is your geographic market and product specialty?
My partner Bill Menish and I work primarily in Kentucky, Indiana, Ohio, Illinois, Missouri and Tennessee, but have often conducted auctions throughout the country. Erler Menish Auctions as part of SVN Ward Commercial Group conducts real estate auctions only, with primary emphasis in recent years on bank owned and troubled properties. In the more than 25 years that I have been in practice, I have been able to establish great relationships with banks and bankers, which in today’s market have accelerated (no pun intended) my practice to new levels of production.
2. What’s your latest best practice tip that you can share?
If you love what you do, you will never work a day in your life. If you love people, you will love what we are doing: STP, see the property; see the people. Get out of the office and enjoy where you live, who you can work with and how you can solve their real estate problems and goals. When I got into the real estate auction business in 1987, my mentor told me to spend time with creative people and I would never be bored.
What’s been the biggest changeover on how you run your business in the past decade?
Wow. Years ago I hoped I could retire before I had to learn how to use a PC. Little did I know how modern technology was going to change my life and my business. The ability to reach out and communicate with anyone, anywhere, anytime makes this an incredible world. It’s still a bit scary to think what it will look like in 10 or 20 more years. It’s hard to imagine where this is all going, but the ride is incredible!
4. What business book do you like to recommend to your colleagues?
My daily focus is my health and fitness, both physical and mental. You are only as old as you think and feel, but if your health fails, you have nothing left. It’s not a business book, but Younger Next Year: Live Strong, Fit, and Sexy – Until You’re 80 and Beyond by Chris Crowley & Henry S. Lodge, M.D., is a great read and offers great advice. Also, if you need to continue to be motivated, the Canfield books and classes are fabulous.
5. What’s a fun fact that not everyone knows about you?
I have two children (33 and 20), both out of the house, so our “children” are and have always been our four-legged friends. Right now we have two large dogs and seven cats of all flavors. I can’t image what life on our farm would be like without animals in our life. When I met my wife in the late 1970s I had 27 animals: six dogs, four cats, six chickens, and 11 horses. She only objected to the large number of horses. But when you live on a farm in Kentucky, horses are almost a necessity to fill in the area behind the black board fences.
*All Sperry Van Ness® offices are independently owned and operated.
It’s time for Five for Friday! This week we ask five questions to Neal Bowman of Sperry Van Ness/Parke Group in Fort Wayne, Indiana.
1. What is your geographic market and product specialty?
My market is northeast Indiana / Fort Wayne and my specialty is sales and leasing for retail and industrial.
2. What’s your latest best practice tip that you can share?
Listings bring opportunity and driving your market is the best way to prospect. If the parking lot is bare then the business may be struggling and may need to sale and/or downsize. If the parking lot is at capacity, then they may need to sale and/or secure more space.
3. What’s been the biggest change over on how you run your business in the past decade?
I plan each day the night before and stay focused and organized.
4.What business book do you like to recommend to your colleagues?
Winning In Commercial Real Estate Sales: An Action Plan for Success by Thomas Arthur Smith
5. What’s a fun fact that not everyone knows about you?
Upon graduating from college, I enrolled in the Peace Corps in West Africa.
*All Sperry Van Ness offices are independently owned and operated.
It’s Friday and we are asking five questions of Mike Norris, managing director of Sperry Van Ness/Norris Commercial Group LLC in New Braunfels, Texas.
1. What is your geographic market and product specialty?
I am in the San Antonio market covering New Braunfels, Seguin, San Marcos and San Antonio; specializing in land developments.
2. What’s your latest best practice tip that you can share?
We have team meetings twice a week. All the staff comes together to discuss what we are working on- this help creates a collaborative atmosphere where everyone is working together.
3. What’s been the biggest change over on how you run your business in the past decade?
Integrating technology into my daily business routine.
4. What business book do you like to recommend to your colleagues?
“Think and Grow Rich” by Napoleon Hill
5. What’s a fun fact that not everyone knows about you?
I served in the U.S. Navy for 5 years residing in the Panama Canal Zone and Homestead, FL
*All Sperry Van Ness offices are independently owned and operated.
This Five for Friday turns the spotlight on Terri Dean, an advisor at Sperry Van Ness/AVAT Realty, LLC in Huntsville, AL.
1. What is your geographic market and product specialty?
North Alabama is my geographic area and I live in Huntsville. I specialize in sales and leasing of office and retail properties with a special emphasis in STNL deals.
2. What’s your latest best practice tip that you can share?
Be available. Answer the phone when possible and if you can’t, call them back immediately. People tell me all the time, I can’t believe I actually got in touch with someone. Prompt and professional customer service is so important.
3. What’s been the biggest change over on how you run your business in the past decade?
Social Media – you have to keep up with the latest technology and use it to your advantage to reach the largest number of people. However, some still want the old fashioned personal touch. You have to know your customer.
4. What business book do you like to recommend to your colleagues?
There’s No Such Thing as “Business” Ethics by John Maxwell. Actually anything by John Maxwell is wonderful.
5. What’s a fun fact that not everyone knows about you?
I was the top female shooter at my local citizen’s police academy.
*All Sperry Van Ness® offices are independently owned and operated.
Five for Friday this week is featuring Tony Veldkamp, CCIM, Managing Director of Sperry Van Ness/Commercial Advisory Group in Sarasota, FL.
1. What is your geographic market and product specialty?
I’ve worked my entire 22-year real estate career here on the Sun Coast of Florida, just south of Tampa. Our market includes three counties and many cities and towns including Bradenton, Sarasota, Venice, Englewood, North Port, Port Charlotte and Punta Gorda. My specialty has always been land. I started in the business selling large acreage tracts, farms and orange groves and moved into development sites as our area grew. I say if you can sell land, you can sell anything. To sell land you have to know what apartments rent for, office buildings sell for, and what industrial space leases for. You have to understand all parts of the commercial real estate market to sell land.
2. What’s your latest best practice tip that you can share?
You need to listen more and talk less. You have to understand your client’s needs before you can help them, and to do that you have to listen. I have several stories through the years of agents I negotiated against who would not stop talking long enough for me to tell them that my client would agree with what their client wanted. So consequently, their client lost out.
3. What’s been the biggest change over on how you run your business in the past decade?
Email and smartphones, without a doubt, as they have led to staying in quick, continual contact with my clients. Years ago I would send out letters once a month with an update on their listings and the activity that we’ve had. Now I email or text them every time I have a showing. I want them to be tired of hearing from me so they understand how often I’m working on their property. So when it is time to renew a listing, there is no question in their mind that I’m working hard for them.
4. What business book do you like to recommend to your colleagues?
I’ve had all of my advisors read Brokers Who Dominate by Rod Santomassimo. I highly recommend it to anyone in real estate, even residential agents.
5. What’s a fun fact that not everyone knows about you?
I’m a first generation American and native Floridian. My parents emigrated here from Holland in 1958. They were in Holland as teenagers during the occupation by Nazi Germany, and later moved from there to Tallahassee, Florida where I was born.
*All Sperry Van Ness® offices are independently owned and operated.
This week, our 5 for Friday focuses on Chris Davis, advisor with Sperry Van Ness/Investec Services in Jacksonville, Fla. and Sperry Van Ness/Miller Commercial Real Estate in Salisbury, Md.
1. What is your geographic market and product specialty?
My market area is the mid-Atlantic in Maryland and Delaware. I am also licensed in Florida and do business in the Jacksonville market. I specialize in self-storage and hospitality.
2. What’s your latest best practice tip that you can share?
Make sure you have a strong presence in your market and strive to keep it. Utilize all your contacts, and you will be surprised how fast your database will grow.
3. What’s been the biggest changeover on how you run your business in the past decade?
Technology has really changed this business – so embrace it. I am trying to keep up with it and learn how to use it effectively. It will make you more efficient and productive.
4. What business book do you like to recommend to your colleagues?
“Brokers Who Dominate” by Rod Santomassimo. It’s a great book for all brokers to read.
5. What’s a fun fact that not everyone knows about you?
Even though my body lets me know I have gotten much older, I still try to play soccer with the kids I coach. In the early 80’s I received a full soccer scholarship to play for the nationally-ranked division one Philadelphia Textile (now Philadelphia University and division two). Our program dominated during that time and a lot of great players played there. I still stay in touch with them even though we all have moved on.
*All Sperry Van Ness® offices are independently owned and operated.
Today’s 5 for Friday features Nashville’s Carnell Scruggs, CCIM, Managing Director at Sperry Van Ness/The Genesis Group.
1. What is your geographic market and product specialty?
I’m licensed in Tennessee and Alabama and work the Southeast.
2. What’s your latest best practice tip that you can share?
I recommend communicating with your clients regularly, either on a weekly or monthly basis. Always look for the opportunities that nobody else wants.
3. What’s been the biggest change over on how you run your business in the past decade?
I have become more efficient by using technology. Also, forming alliances and joint ventures throughout the country to obtain more business.
4. What business book do you like to recommend to your colleagues?
Dig Your Well Before You’re Thirsty by Harvey Mackay
5. What’s a fun fact that not everyone knows about you?
I was a competitive baseball player through college and semi-pro.
*All Sperry Van Ness® Offices are Independently Owned and Operated.
Bartow McDonald IV, an advisor with Sperry Van Ness Florida, reads the tea leaves about how the expansion of the Panama Canal affect commercial real estate and other business ventures in port cities of the Southern United States, especially in Florida. Bartow believe there is great opportunity in the expansion of services in both port cities and cities near ports like Ocala. Bartow’s article appears in the Ocala Star Banner.
The expansion of the Panama Canal, dubbed “Panamax,” will significantly affect trade routes and supply chains for generations to come. Florida, including Ocala, business and commercial real estate stand to benefit greatly as our state becomes more incorporated into global supply chains.
What is Panamax?
Panamax is the term given to the expansion of the lock systems located along the Panama Canal scheduled for completion in 2015. The idea here is that larger locks allow larger ships to transport exponentially larger quantities of product at less cost. According to David Hummels, professor of Economics at Purdue University, ocean shipping constitutes 99 percent of worldwide trade by weight and volume. In the big picture, scale clearly matters.
All Sperry Van Ness Offices Independently Owned and Operated.
Five for Friday this week turns its sights on Bob Lovelace, CCIM, MAI, Senior Advisor at Sperry Van Ness Florida, at the New Smyrna Beach, FL location.
1. What is your geographic market and product specialty?
I have specialized in East Central Florida commercial real estate for 30 years with a particular focus on the Interstate 4 corridor between Orlando and Daytona Beach. I have worked with a broad variety of property classes and client types. Over the past five years, I have worked primarily with distressed assets and lender REO including large land tracts, office, and retail properties.
2. What’s your latest best practice tip that you can share?
Jerry Anderson, CCIM, recently noted that SVN Advisors’ access to Real Capital Analytics data is one of our organization’s most powerful tools to identify opportunities. I was guilty of overlooking it.
3. What’s been the biggest change over on how you run your business in the past decade?
Ten years ago I set a goal to transition my full-time appraisal practice to one of a full- time brokerage. I completed the CCIM program, affiliated with some good brokerages along the way, and feel as though the transformation has culminated in my association with Sperry Van Ness Florida.
4. What business book do you like to recommend to your colleagues?
Because of a recommendation by Bo Barron, CCIM, I just finished Michael Hyatt’s “Platform: Get Noticed in a Noisy World”. As promised, the book delivers great guidance on how to better structure and leverage one’s marketing in the social media universe.
5. What’s a fun fact that not everyone knows about you?
I was drawn to New Smyrna Beach and Ponce Inlet many years ago because of surfing, and I haven’t left yet. Through surfing, I met and married a local girl in a ceremony at the top of the Ponce Inlet Lighthouse. This little beach town has been good to me.
*All Sperry Van Ness® offices are independently owned and operated.
This week’s 5 for Friday features Justin Horwitz, Senior Advisor, Sperry Van Ness, LLC in Phoenix, AZ.
1. What is your geographic market and product specialty?
I exclusively focus on office and industrial properties in the metro Phoenix market.
2. What’s your latest best practice tip that you can share?
I have been utilizing post cards much more than in the past to reach out to owners and market myself and my team. Additionally, I have made it a point to actually drive to more properties to familiarize myself even more with my market in addition to cold calls from the desk.
3. What’s been the biggest changeover on how you run your business in the past decade?
Being in the business for just over eight years now, my biggest adjustment has been transitioning my role as a junior agent into a leader that is more vocal about how the team operates.
4. What business book do you like to recommend to your colleagues?
Neil Sherman in my office recently encouraged me to read Value Added, Successful Strategies for Listing & Selling Investment Real Estate, a book written by a previous Sperry Van Ness advisor, Brad Umansky. It is a great book if you are looking to simply get back to the basics.
5. What’s a fun fact that not everyone knows about you?
I began working in the business directly out of college. Commercial Real Estate is my first and hopefully my last career.
*All Sperry Van Ness® offices are independently owned and operated.
Neil Johnson of Sperry Van Ness/Landmark Commercial Real Estate in Geneva, Ill. talks about the benefits that come with the team approach – and the move from hitchhiker to advisor in this week’s Five for Friday.
1. What is your geographic market and product specialty?
The focus of my brokerage work for 15 years has been in Kane County, Ill. and the surrounding suburban areas about one hour west of downtown Chicago. As an office, our advisors handle retail, office, and industrial properties – plus vacant land. We do quite a bit of leasing, which has created relationships for some of our best investment sale opportunities.
2. What’s your latest best practice tip that you can share?
Collaboration on listings with the other advisors in my office has proven to be particularly productive. There are many benefits to the team approach, including better service to our clients. We get the benefit of multiple eyes looking at each stage of the listing or transaction. It is also more fun to work as a team.
3. What’s been the biggest changeover on how you run your business in the past decade?
We are trying to be more selective on the quality and size of opportunities that we take on. Otherwise, it is too easy to race around chasing every small deal that turns up. We are working hard to increase our focus on investment sales, and larger lease deals, especially now that the market is picking up again.
4. What business book do you like to recommend to your colleagues?
I try to spend some time reading the Bible every day. Scripture can be helpful in addressing the challenges of human relationships.
5. What’s a fun fact that not everyone knows about you?
In my early 20s, I hitchhiked more than 20,000 miles, across the U.S. and Europe. To the casual observer, I’m sure I appeared to be a typecast hippie.
*All Sperry Van Ness® offices are independently owned and operated.
Learn how a West Point education is still helping John Snyder, CPM, SIOR, with his business at Sperry Van Ness/Investec Realty Services today in this week’s Five for Friday blog.
1. What is your geographic market and product specialty?
Our firm has offices in both Memphis and Nashville, Tenn., serving those regions as well as areas of Mississippi. We service a variety of clients from large institutional owners of office parks to local investors and regional banks. On the tenant representation side, our clients range from Fortune 100 firms with needs of 275,000 square feet to small not-for-profit organizations. Due to our SVN affiliation, we have been able to partner with other SVN professionals to add value to our clients’ portfolios. We also offer property management and consulting services.
2. What’s your latest best practice tip that you can share?
As referrals and relationships are the focus of our business, we strive to develop personal relationships with our clients. Being in a smaller market and providing a wide range of real estate services, establishing that personal relationship is paramount to our business. We also try to qualify our clients early in the process, following Patrick Lencioni’s Getting Naked business fable. When we match with our clients, our successes expand and referrals grow.
3. What’s been the biggest changeover on how you run your business in the past decade?
With the explosion of real estate information that is readily available to clients, we are faced with a re-education and prioritizing of data that is germane to a successful transaction. The experienced, knowledgeable, ethical real estate professional who continues to study, improve skill sets, and collaborate will remain a sought after advisor from the owners and users of real estate.
4. What business book do you like to recommend to your colleagues?
Napoleon Hill’s Think and Grow Rich is a basic primer for personal development and goal setting and it has never failed me! John C. Maxwell offers a library of leadership and team development education. His latest, Everyone Communicates, Few Connect provides invaluable techniques for business practice improvement. Lencioni also has several books that help with improvements in teamwork, consulting, leadership, and personal development, including Death By Meeting.
5. What’s a fun fact that not everyone knows about you?
Here’s a few. I learned to accurately determine distances for measuring real estate (office buildings and golf courses) while walking more than 50 hours of punishment tours prior to graduation from the United States Military Academy at West Point. As a U.S. Army Corps of Engineer officer, I was qualified to both jump out of perfectly good aircraft and deploy and detonate tactical nuclear devices. For fun, I continue to officiate soccer matches at the collegiate, high school, and youth competitive levels. With more than 2200 matches completed, I have run farther than Forrest Gump – and I appreciate all the unsolicited advice and expertise provided by the uninformed coaches, players, and spectators!
*All Sperry Van Ness® offices are independently owned and operated.
This week, Five for Friday features Don Ellwanger, senior vice president at Sperry Van Ness/Don Ellwanger in Sacramento, Calif.
1. What is your geographic market and product specialty?
I work in the greater Sacramento area and I specialize in retail investment sales and leasing, and agriculture land.
2. What’s your latest best practice tip that you can share?
Get out of the office more. Make it a priority to meet with more clients and do more cold calls.
3. What’s been the biggest change in how you run your business in the past decade?
I’ve been keeping in constant contact with my investors, and lately, I’ve been doing a greater number of smaller deals ($500,000 to $2 million).
4. What business book do you like to recommend to your colleagues?
The Magic of Thinking Big by David Schwartz
5. What’s a fun fact that not everyone knows about you?
When I’m not working, I enjoy trout fishing and duck hunting.
*All Sperry Van Ness® offices are independently owned and operated.
This week, our Five for Friday focuses on Wesley Cox, senior advisor with Sperry Van Ness/Miller Commercial Real Estate in Salisbury, Md.
1. What is your geographic market and product specialty?
I cover most of Maryland’s eastern shore. I have experience in all product types with a specialty in dealing with people.
2. What’s your latest best practice tip that you can share?
Be visible in your community. This often means getting involved with non-profit organizations, your local chamber of commerce, and/or attending local charity events. Many of the folks you’ll meet and get to know are CRE stakeholders. We just won a large buyer rep assignment almost solely from being involved in the community.
3. What’s been the biggest change over on how you run your business in the past decade?
I just hit the decade mark in business and I would have to say the biggest change I’ve made in the last few years is to make more calls. Coming out of college I relied a lot on technology but nothing replaces actually talking to people.
4. What business book do you like to recommend to your colleagues?
Books I recommend are: Everyone Communicates, Few Connect by John Maxwell, Risk Only Money by Jack DeBoer, How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie, and Cold Calling Techniques (That Really Work!) by Stephan Schiffman.
5. What’s a fun fact that not everyone knows about you?
Here are two fun facts:
Growing up I never missed a day of school and I had 13 years of perfect attendance. And for the last two years, I’ve been an assistant coach for a high school varsity soccer team that won the Maryland State Championship last season.
*All Sperry Van Ness® offices are independently owned and operated.
This week, our Office Spotlight focuses on Sperry Van Ness | First Guardian Group based out of San Jose, CA
1. What has been your strategy for growing your firm and also your market share?
Our Silicon Valley location gives us exceptional access to many wealthy people who are interested in diversifying into real estate. We offer a full services approach that includes ongoing management of real estate investments through our in-house property management team. We have developed deep expertise in assisting our clients with obtaining attractive financing, completing 1031 exchanges, and assisting them in turning around troubled assets.
We have also developed skills in working with specialized ownership structures such as Tenant in Common (TIC) and Delaware Statutory Trusts (DST). This knowledge and experience provides us with significant differentiation that sets us apart from most commercial real estate companies. Finally, from day one, we have embraced the Sperry Van Ness philosophy of collaboration with other commercial real estate and management firms and split fees and commissions with other brokers in order to broaden our resources to better assist our clients. Through collaboration with other brokers, we are also able to expand our services nationwide and offer our clients “best of class” resources outside of local area. Our affiliation with SVN two years ago has proved to be a highly successful move to increase our branding resulting in two of our most successful years. Through SVN, we have also developed many new friends and business associates that have generously shared helpful ideas with us leading to greater business success.
2. What are some of the unique activities you do to motivate your team?
Nothing unusual. We treat all of our employees as insiders and fully share details of all deals in our weekly staff meetings. We also provide bonuses to employees for every closed transaction plus annual bonuses based on our annual net profit. We celebrate our successes with special lunches and have a refrigerator that includes chilled champagne that is shared on each closing.
3. What’s been the biggest challenge on how you run your business over the last few years?
Finding good talent. We are competing with some the best, highest paying companies in the world and finding and retaining good people is our biggest challenge. We have been very fortunate to recruit excellent people who have a passion for commercial real estate and have been successful in retaining them. However we have also experienced undesired turnover which causes us to be constantly thinking about ways to keep our current folks happy and also attract talented new people.
4. How many Advisors/Staff did you have when you joined SVN? How many (in total) do you have now?
We have generally maintained a core staff of about 8-10 people at our corporate offices. However we manage several hundred service providers across the US who work closely with us on various projects in addition to working with many third party sales and leasing agents across the US. Through frequent conference calls and use of screen sharing and video via WebEx, we are able to significantly expand our resources and develop a close-knit large team that greatly expands our capabilities.
*All Sperry Van Ness® offices are independently owned and operated.
This week we feature John Williams, Managing Director, Sperry Van Ness / Delta Group Realty Inc., in Novato, CA.
1. What is your geographic market and product specialty?
Marin and Sonoma Counties in Northern California are my primary market areas. I specialize in office and retail sales and leasing.
2. What’s your latest best practice tip that you can share?
Collaborating with two other SVN brokers on a proposal, we used Mike Lipsey to help us craft our proposal on a large office property for sale. Mike helped us craft our presentation to help us get the listing and we refined it several times before our meeting. It was well worth the time and effort and this was the most professional presentation that I’ve made in my 32 years as a broker. The Lipsey videos can be found on the SVN Resource Portal.
3. What’s been the biggest change over on how you run your business in the past decade?
We have increased our reliance on technology over the past ten years without changing our primarily listing side business model. We market our listings electronically much more than ten years ago when the telephone was our primary method of selling or leasing properties. I’m still a belly to belly guy but LoopNet and CoStar have helped us make big changes in how we run our business.
4. What business book do you like to recommend to your colleagues?
Like most busy brokers, organizing my time and prioritizing my daily activities into dollar productive activity is a real challenge. I continue to read and re-read Brian Tracy’s “Eat that Frog” which is a follow up to his book “Goals” that was presented at the Sperry Van Ness 2012 National Conference. It helps me to stop procrastinating and get more done on a daily basis. My focus is sharpened and it has helped pay my dividends.
5. What’s a fun fact that not everyone knows about you?
I live just north of San Francisco in California’s wine country. For the past 35 years, wine tasting, wine research and wine drinking have been hobbies of mine. I’ve shared wine information and recommendations with many of my SVN colleagues. It’s a fun hobby to have!
*All Sperry Van Ness® offices are independently owned and operated.
This week, Five for Friday features David Gilmore, CCIM, CAI, AARE, Managing Director at Sperry Van Ness/Gilmore Auction& Realty in Kenner, LA.
1. What is your geographic market and product specialty?
Product specialty: Accelerated marketing which includes open outcry auctions, dual bid events (sealed bid + auction), online auctions and sealed bids. Geographic market: Much of my auction business takes place in our home state of Louisiana, however, in the last 18 months my team has handled auctions in Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Florida, Iowa, Nebraska, Michigan, California and Washington.
2. What’s your latest best practice tip that you can share?
Using www.1hour2plan.com , which is an inexpensive platform that can quickly help you create an annual plan to include mission, vision, values, objectives, strategies and priorities.
3. What’s been the biggest change over on how you run your business in the past decade?
Technology, Technology, Technology: Ten years ago we were sending 5 pound paper PIP’s (property information packages) to auction bidders. Now it can be downloaded or e-mailed in seconds. We used to register auction bidders by hand. Now we scan your driver’s license in less than a second and it’s in our database. In 2002, bidders were required to be at the auction to bid. Now you can bid from your laptop, iPad or smartphone from anywhere in the world. On some platforms the system can bid for you up to a pre-set limit so you don’t even have to be at your computer. Paperless transactions are already here. Sign the purchase agreement on an iPad or tablet and it is e-mailed to all parties within seconds. Cloud computing, Dropbox. All Technology.
4. What business book do you like to recommend to your colleagues?
“You Can’t Teach a Kid to Ride a Bike at a Seminar” by David Sandler, founder of the Sandler Sales Institute. An effective but unconventional sales training book.
5. What’s a fun fact that not everyone knows about you?
Played inside linebacker at Nicholls State University many years ago. Also, have always wanted to be a drummer in a rock and roll band. I don’t think drums are practical at 52 so I just bought a guitar but can’t play a lick, yet!
*All Sperry Van Ness® offices are independently owned and operated.
This week, Five for Friday is all about Jeff Baasch, a senior advisor at Sperry Van Ness, LLC in Chicago, IL.
1.What is your geographic market and product specialty?
As Director of Multifamily sales, I specialize in the sale of multifamily assets in the greater Chicago land area, concentrating on six to 200-unit apartment buildings.
2. What’s your latest best practice tip that you can share?
Provide superior execution of the transaction. In a challenging economic and real estate environment, having the experience to identify potential issues/hurdles, manage seller and buyer expectations, and remain extremely tenacious – deals will get closed.
3. What’s been the biggest change over on how you run your business in the past decade?
Real estate investors have become more sophisticated over the past decade and so I have worked to increase my role, from not only offering transaction services, but providing comprehensive advisory services. I am able to assist property owners in developing comprehensive strategies and maximizing the value of their assets.
4. What business book do you like to recommend to your colleagues?
The Next 100 Years and The Next Decade by George Friedman. These books explore a fascinating analysis of the major geopolitical events and trends of the 21st century how the United States became an empire and looks at the conflicts and opportunities that lie ahead.
5. What’s a fun fact that not everyone knows about you?
Love a good joke!
*All Sperry Van Ness® offices are independently owned and operated.
This week’s Five for Friday travels to Raleigh, North Carolina to spotlight Jay Taylor, CCIM. Jay is the managing director of Sperry Van Ness Tarheel Commercial Realty, Inc.
1. What is your geographic market and product specialty?
Raleigh-Durham and eastern North Carolina with specialization in income properties, primarily multi-family and single tenant net lease.
2. What’s your latest best practice tip that you can share?
It might sound old-fashioned, but hand-written notes. With so many forms of electronic communication bombarding us daily, these notes seem to stand out more with my clients and prospects. Also, especially during the holiday season, taking time to thank clients for their business with a personal visit and gift. This is also a great opportunity to listen and uncover other avenues to serve.
3. What’s been the biggest change over on how you run your business in the past decade?
Adapting to the market and synthesizing a much greater volume of information in order to give clients the best possible advice based on their specific circumstance.
4. What business book do you like to recommend to your colleagues?
I am an avid reader, so I don’t know that I could recommend just one! Certainly a good starting point would be the Jim Collins trilogy of Built to Last, Good to Great and How the Mighty Fall. I would also strongly recommend The True Measure of a Man by Richard E. Simmons, III.
5. What’s a fun fact that not everyone knows about you?
My two primary pastimes (after family) are sailboat racing and retriever training.
*All Sperry Van Ness® offices are independently owned and operated.
Five for Friday features Catherine House, CCIM, director at Sperry Van Ness/ SV Advisors in San Francisco, CA.
1. What is your geographic market and product specialty?
I sell medical office as well as neighborhood commercial buildings. My geographic area is the city of San Francisco and also the nine-county San Francisco Bay Area. I regularly team up with other Sperry Van Ness advisors when listing outside of San Francisco. Fun fact: I have also sold more office condominiums (both vacant and investment) than any other broker in San Francisco.
2. What’s your latest best practice tip that you can share?
Putting into practice the ideas generated from the R.A.M.P. Challenge educational course. I found the course useful a few years ago. As a result of this year’s course, I’ve already made plans for organizing a March CCIM Broker Forum in San Francisco as well as my first investor forum for local building owners and bank asset managers.
3. What’s been the biggest change over on how you run your business in the past decade?
Moving from institutional investment portfolio work in the United Kingdom to the US in 2001 was the biggest culture shock. In the UK, the senior partners bring in the business and the rest of the company executes. Of course everyone is on a salary plus bonus so it is a very different environment. The US model seems to involve both more risk (and stress) but more reward for the broker. The biggest change for me over the last decade has been moving from being a generalist to my current focus on the disposition of commercial buildings (mainly office and industrial). I’m still surprised at how many people call me asking for help looking to lease their building or find space to lease.
4. What business book do you like to recommend to your colleagues?
This may be really old school but I really do recommend The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People by Steven Covey to colleagues and even random strangers.
5. What’s a fun fact that not everyone knows about you?
I’m a drummer in a local rock band playing 70’s, 80’s, and 90’s cover songs, as well as the occasional original. I’m also a Chartered Surveyor and the Northern California Chair of the RICS (the largest global international commercial real estate organization; www.ricsamericas.org) which comes in handy when dealing with clients from Asia or Europe.
*All Sperry Van Ness® offices are independently owned and operated.
This week’s Five for Friday turns its focus on Carlton Dean, CCIM, Managing Director of Sperry Van Ness Southland Commercial in Tallahassee, FL.
1. What is your geographic market and product specialty?
My team specializes in multifamily properties, 200 units and fewer. We specifically focus on student housing investments and currently are working the Southeastern United States with a focus on approximately ten major universities. I am based in Tallahassee, FL and some of our other office teams works retail, office and land deals in the North Florida Panhandle and into the lower rural markets of South Alabama and South Georgia.
2. What’s your latest best practice tip that you can share?
Always spend time to prospect and fill your funnel, prospect smart with technology and outsourcing of labor. Always attempt to provide something of value to your prospect, even if it comes with no promise of immediate business. We closed deals this year with two groups that held on to something from our prospective efforts previous years and also picked up another active assignment because the property owner kept a newspaper article about us from three years ago. You never know what will stick with a prospect.
3. What’s been the biggest change over on how you run your business in the past decade?
We have a tremendous focus on technology and the use of it for all aspects of our business. We are constantly trying new things, some of it works, some of it doesn’t. One of the biggest changes for our business was the realignment of support staff. We eliminated over $80,000 in salaries, and have used technology to replace most of those functions. Not only is our bottom line better, my personal productivity has gone way up because I am not spending time ‘telling’ that staff what to do and how to do it.
4. What business book do you like to recommend to your colleagues?
I like Jim Collins’ Good to Great. Out of all the books I have read, the one takeaway I try is “treat others how you would want to be treated.” Mutual respect, even in a heated negotiation, is paramount to the ultimate ‘win win’ we all seek in our business.
5. What’s a fun fact that not everyone knows about you?
I was a disc jockey for more than ten years. I started when I was in college and the ‘night work’ allowed me to pursue the commercial real estate ‘commission only’ career right out of college. Also, I am an amateur stand-up comedian (and no, it’s not because many sellers think I am funny when I break the news of what their property is really worth).
*All Sperry Van Ness® offices are independently owned and operated.
This week, Five for Friday features Diane Lawson, CCIM, Senior Advisor, Sperry Van Ness Commercial Advisory Group in Sarasota, FL
1. What is your geographic market and product specialty?
The geographic area that I cover is southwest Florida, specifically Sarasota and Manatee Counties and I work mostly in the sales and leasing of office and retail.
2. What’s your latest best practice tip that you can share?
It’s really about getting back to the basics. Stay in touch – keep in constant contact with clients. After all, if your clients don’t hear from you, they may think you’re not working their product. Stay informed – you have to be knowledgeable about your market and stay on top of recent activity, movers and shakers. Remain flexible and patient–every client has a different personality, different approach to business and different motivations. It’s important to understand those and work with them accordingly.
3. What’s been the biggest change over on how you run your business in the past decade?
You certainly can’t talk about changes in business practices over the last decade without bringing up technology. Commercial information exchanges, websites, email campaigns, etc., etc. have taken over the old school way of doing business. Planning and budgeting for me personally has also changed.I know my average transaction size, average number of transactions per year, average transaction costs and these things help me to stay on course throughout the year.
4.What business book do you like to recommend to your colleagues?
Who Moved My Cheese by Spencer Johnson is an excellent book and a quick read. In contrast to a quick read, but a must for everyone (in my opinion) is Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand. I would also recommend The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People by Steven Covey.
5. What’s a fun fact that not everyone knows about you?
I like to re-purpose old things; an old railroad cart for a coffee table, school desks as end tables, tractor seats as bar stools, an old ice box as a storage cabinet, etc.
*All Sperry Van Ness® offices are independently owned and operated.
Five for Friday travels to Fort Collins, Colorado to feature Steve Kawulok , managing director at Sperry Van Ness/The Group Commercial, LLC.
1. What is your geographic market and product specialty?
I cover Denver and north to Wyoming. My personal product specialty is industrial commercial real estate
2. What’s your latest best practice tip that you can share?
Always be able to answer the question “how’s the market doing?” with a good grasp on commercial real estate demand drivers and activity.
3. What’s been the biggest change over on how you run your business in the past decade?
The financial stability of advisors during the recession that we’ve been through.
4. What business book do you like to recommend to your colleagues?
Brokers Who Dominate by Rod Santomassimo of the Massimo Group.
5. What’s a fun fact that not everyone knows about you?
I am a dual citizen, through blood, of Poland.
*All Sperry Van Ness® offices are independently owned and operated.
Today’s Five for Friday turns the spotlight on Miguel de Arcos, managing director at SVN Florida in Orlando, Florida.
1. What is your geographic market and product specialty?
My primary geographic market is the Five County Central Florida market, and I’ve done deals in every corner of the state thanks to the availability and collaboration with other SVN Advisors.
2. What’s your latest best practice tip that you can share?
Being a connector and building relationships is my key to repeat and new business. When you’re the go-to for market information your phone rings with the best type of new prospects, referrals.
3. What’s been the biggest change over on how you run your business in the past decade?
Running a low overhead business model and focusing on distressed assets.
4. What business book do you like to recommend to your colleagues?
The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business by Charles Duhigg.
5. What’s a fun fact that not everyone knows about you?
I am an Ironman triathlete.
*All Sperry Van Ness® offices are independently owned and operated.
This week, our Five for Friday features Tony Yousif, based in San Diego, CA, and is a Vice President at Sperry Van Ness Finest City Commercial.
1. What is your geographic market and product specialty?
We service financial institutions and private firms that acquired large portfolios from the FDIC and failed banks. We are assisting them with the management, lease up, recommendations and disposition of their foreclosed real estate throughout the United States. We are currently servicing their properties in 22 states nationwide. Asset types range from land, to specialty real estate like Winery’s, to more traditional real estate like multi-family and industrial assets. This is all accomplished through partnerships and collaboration with our fellow SVN advisors nationwide.
2. What’s your latest best practice tip that you can share?
I would say that maintaining a consistent flow of communication with the client and all parties that are involved is most important to me. This allows me to keep things from falling through the cracks and an understanding, at all times, of everyone’s perspective and position on a deal. Maintaining a very quick response time to all is always key in communication.
3. What’s been the biggest change over on how you run your business in the past decade?
I went from specializing in multifamily locally in San Diego to assisting institutions with their needs throughout the country. Acting as a single point of contact who is essentially a project manager for these clients is very challenging but rewarding at the same time. It is tough to coordinate everything with so many individuals, and stay on top of it all without losing focus. But it has magically worked out and I look to keep going down this path in the future.
4. What business book do you like to recommend to your colleagues?
There are many books I recommend to colleagues and friends, but the one I recommend most is an older book that many of you probably have already read. How to Win Friends & Influence People by Dale Carnegie is a classic that helps people succeed in their professional and personal lives. A great perspective on how to communicate and be diplomatic and fair with everyone you interact with.
5. What’s a fun fact that not everyone knows about you?
Not too many people know this about me, but I used to play video games competitively when I was in my teens. I would travel throughout the United States to competitions, in which I won lots of cash and other prizes.
*All Sperry Van Ness® offices are independently owned and operated.
For the last Friday of 2012, we are giving SVN’s Five for Friday spotlight to Justin Verner, Advisor, Sperry Van Ness RealSite Commercial Group in Baltimore, MD.
1. What is your geographic market and product specialty?
I am active in the Baltimore Metro and specialize in multifamily.
2. What’s your latest best practice tip that you can share?
Unwavering focus and comprehensive knowledge in your area of specialty. Direct mail pieces to targeted owners have been particularly successful in 2012.
3. What’s been the biggest change over on how you run your business in the past decade? Having started my career in Jan 2009 amidst the economic downturn I learned quickly that working very hard and smart, embracing technology, quickly developing an area of focus, along with going the extra mile and being detail-oriented were the only ways I would be able to make it in this business. Continuing those practices in an improving CRE market have proved to be successful.
4. What business book do you like to recommend to your colleagues?
Brokers Who Dominate by Rod Santomassimo.
5. What’s a fun fact that not everyone knows about you?
I am a very active tennis player during the warmer months. Also, I have a passion for travel, particularly internationally.
*All Sperry Van Ness® offices are independently owned and operated.
It’s Friday, and this week we are spotlighting Joel Kattan, Senior Advisor, Sperry Van Ness Commercial Realtyin Fort Lauderdale, for our Five for Friday.
1. What is your geographic market and product specialty?
My market is South Florida and my product specialties are Industrial and Office.
2. What’s your latest best practice tip that you can share?
Create and implement a business plan. Over the last couple of years, I’ve found that having a business plan has helped me tremendously in terms of keeping me focused. It also helps me identify which strategies grow my business, and which need to be revaluated. It may seem like a small thing, but it’s very effective.
3. What’s been the biggest change over on how you run your business in the past decade?
The South Florida industrial market, particularly in the last couple of years, has been very much driven by international buyers looking to position themselves in Miami ahead of the Panama Canal expansion completion, in order to benefit from the increased business it will steer our way. When I first started out, the majority of my clients were owner/users that had businesses or properties within a five mile radius of the subject property. That is no longer the case. As a result, the days of simply canvassing an area to find a buyer are over. Instead, the focus is on getting maximum exposure for each property via various websites, social media, and direct email campaigns.
4. What business book do you like to recommend to your colleagues?
The Happiness Advantage: The Seven Principles of Positive Psychology that Fuel Success and Performance at Work. It’s a great read. I was turned on to this book by a TEDTalk, check it out: Shawn Achor: The happy secret to better work
5. What’s a fun fact that not everyone know about you?
I have coached numerous basketball teams that my eight-year old son has played on. I’m a pretty good coach and I’m passionate about it. Also, I am a true Florida native, born and raised here, and with no plans on leaving!
*All Sperry Van Ness® offices are independently owned and operated.
It’s Friday! We continue our Five for Friday series with Linda Emery, Senior Investment Advisor at Sperry Van Ness Commercial Advisory Group in Sarasota, Florida.
1. What is your geographic market and product specialty?
My geographic market is the Florida Sun Coast, specifically Sarasota and Manatee Counties, on Florida’s west coast. I specialize in sales and leasing of office and retail properties with an emphasis on medical leasing and sales.
2. What’s your latest best practice tip that you can share?
Feel and show empathy – I’ve always listened to my clients and strived to understand their requirements, concerns and overall strategy. Over the past few years, this has become increasingly important. Transactions for businesses, small and large, are more complicated and require more intense due diligence and vetting. This is the most important service I can provide my clients.
3. What’s been the biggest change over on how you run your business in the past decade?
I’ve found that teaming with colleagues on property listings has been instrumental in the growth of my business. As in any business, volume is essential for success and, even more so when your core business is office and retail leasing. By teaming with experienced colleagues, I enhance the services I provide my clients by tapping into the valuable knowledge of my colleagues and expanding our marketing network. This increases the volume of listings that each of us can manage, our inventory is substantially increased, and this, in turn, provides greater income opportunities for me, my colleagues and our franchise. A win-win no matter how you look at it.
4. What business book do you like to recommend to your colleagues?
Brokers Who Dominate – Our Managing Director gave each of us a copy of this book and assigned us chapters to present “book reports” on at our Monday morning sales meetings. The tips and techniques shared by top brokers throughout the country made us all review our marketing and business plans.
5. What’s a fun fact that not everyone knows about you?
I love bay and inland fishing on the beautiful Gulf Coast of Florida and regularly outfish my husband and our fishing buddies.
*All Sperry Van Ness® offices are independently owned and operated.
Every Friday here on the Sperry Van Ness® blog, we’ll be spotlighting one of our commercial real estate advisors who is game to answer our Five for Friday questions.
We start off with Ryan Imbrie, from Sperry Van Ness/Imbrie Realty, LLC in Portland Oregon.
1. What is your geographic market and product specialty?
I am based in Portland, Oregon and focus on retail investment sales in Oregon and Southwest Washington.
2. What’s your latest best practice tip that you can share?
Although it is common sense, the best practice that has been fruitful for me in the past year is re-engaging with past clients. I have been reaching out to clients I have represented in buying or selling property in the past and asking what I should be working on for them. This practice has led to several new listings as well as uncovering quite a few buyer needs.
3. What’s been the biggest change over on how you run your business in the past decade?
I don’t quite have a decade in the business (only 8 ½ years) but the biggest change has been building a strong team in the office. When I started my career in 2004, I took the one-man-team approach. Now, sellers want to hire a team of agents rather than one individual.
4. What business book do you like to recommend to your colleagues?
A book I just read has helped me re-focus on my goals in business and life: Train Your Brain for Success by Roger Seip
5. What’s a fun fact that not everyone knows about you?
In my free time (not that I have much with three daughters – ages 7, 5 and 1) I am an avid woodworker. Some of the projects I have completed are a sleigh bed, bedside table, dresser, buffet table, hope chest, bookcase, picture frames as well as several jewelry boxes.
*All Sperry Van Ness® offices are independently owned and operated.
