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DTZ/CW merger highlights the need for the SVN Difference

The Cushman & Wakefield/DTZ merger has dominated international commercial real estate headlines since its announcement on May 11th.  During that time, debates around the water cooler have centered on its impact and relevance to competitive firms and individual practitioners.  My staff and I have understandably been asked questions like, “What does this mean?” and “Does this matter to us?”

While the dust is far from settling on this massive merger, and while there exists a multitude of differing opinions on the topic, in the post that follows, I’ll clarify my position on the deal and share what I think it means for the SVN brand and its Advisors.

First, this consolidation is following the “Rule of 3” – over the past several years, the world economy (particularly in the developed, free market economies of Europe and North America), has been characterized by a unique economic phenomena of mergers & acquisitions at unprecedented levels.  As a result, the landscape of just about every major industry has changed in a significant way, moving inexorably toward a block of three companies that enjoy a large market presence, while still leaving a great deal of opportunity for smaller, more nimble and more client focused organizations to continue profiting in the market.  This is now in play in the business of servicing commercial real estate and comes as no surprise to many.

Second, it matters.  It matters because while the CRE brokerage industry remains remarkably fragmented, there are now fewer, bigger players.  This can prove to be tremendously advantageous to those outside of this circle, but will also send a wake-up call to many:

  • The Big 3 are increasing their revenue & profitability through market share growth and by providing a generalized “one stop shop” offering.  The growth models of the Big 3 are rooted in geographic-based market share growth and are backed by private equity or public equity giants. This can make for a disadvantage when compared to smaller firms in their ability to innovate. Much like trying to turn an aircraft carrier, these mega firms are not as nimble and swift as their smaller competitors.
  • The multi-layered firms who comprise the Big 3 will stand in sharp contrast to the more entrepreneurial firms outside of the ring.  As an SVN Managing Director said to me “Remember the commercial brokerage business when YOU determined how much you could earn; not a corporation, public entity or the stockholders?”  “That’s SVN!”  I agree – and while SVN is certainly not the only beneficiary of this dynamic, our point of differentiation just got more distinct.
  • As many have already opined, there will be considerable fallout.  Given the above, meshing the two firm’s corporate cultures is a formidable challenge for the executives involved and a strong recruiting opportunity for competitors.  You will see people moving around and significant attrition within the industry.  This is proving to be the case at SVN with our Managing Directors reporting a flurry of meeting requests from the players involved.
  • The day of the generalist is over. These larger firms are better positioned to provide more highly specialized services in every market they serve.  Regional firm and independent generalists best take heed of their better-resourced, specialized competitors.  Now is the time to focus.
  • The industry just became even more opaque. Collaborating and cooperating on investment sales and leasing transactions has not exactly been a hallmark of the big nationals.  Look for their percentage of “double-ended” deals to increase in the year ahead.

This merger matters to companies and brokerages and at both the local and national levels. Here at home, it makes the SVN Difference more stark — and even more important.  And while the opportunities stemming from the above are significant to us, what’s even more significant is that our clients need the SVN Difference more than ever.

I’ll close by sharing excerpts from an email I sent to the SVN corporate team late last week:

Our industry just went from X firms that don’t collaborate with each other to do the best for their clients to X minus one.  If you’re a seller looking to get the best price — or a tenant looking to be shown everyone’s inventory to find the right site — you won’t get better service than at SVN.

There is still only one firm that practices compensated cooperation – 50% of the fee, 100% of the time.  Only one firm that opens up all of their listings on their website and on an internationally known Monday National Sales Call — SVN. They might have gotten bigger. But, when it comes to representing our clients’ interests, we’re still better.

You can experience an alternate SVN Difference. With the mergers and the movements towards more corporate firms answering to stock markets and large equity investors, entrepreneurs are finding it harder and harder to control their own destinies in Commercial Real Estate. Here at SVN, remember that as an Advisor, you can rise as far as your talent and determination can take you with no one to stop you.

I congratulate DTZ and Cushman on their merger. But I’m even happier for our clients and for all of us.

Sperry Van Ness® | In the News |March 2015

Many of the SVN offices and advisors are regularly appearing in the news. The following is a list of some recent media coverage. It can also be viewed/shared on the SVN Blog.

 

March 1, 2015
Demetree Real Estate joins Sperry Van Ness Florida
Advisor: Jerry Anderson, CCIM, Mary Demetree & Rory Williams
Office: Sperry Van Ness Florida Commercial Real Estate Advisors (Boynton Beach, FL) & Sperry Van Ness/Demetree Real Estate Services (Winter Park, FL)

Tomorrow’s Leaders
Advisor: Nicholas Ilagen
Office: Sperry Van Ness/Rooted Commercial Management (Irvine, CA)

March 3, 2015
Harpo Studios to Shutter, Ending 200 Jobs
Advisor: Scott Maesel
Office: Sperry Van Ness Chicago Commercial (Chicago, IL)

More than 450 Attend Fourth Annual REW Women’s Forum
Advisor: Diane Danielson
Office: Sperry Van Ness International Corporation (Boston, MA)

March 6, 2015
Onetime Credit Union Site to be Converted to Day Care
Advisor: Bartow McDonald, IV
Office: Sperry Van Ness Florida Commercial Real Estate Advisors (Ocala, FL)

Is Simon Chasing Macerich Again?
Advisor: Michael Lagazo
Office: Sperry Van Ness/Finest City Commercial (San Diego, CA) 

March 10, 2015
Sperry Van Ness® Brand #6 on Lispey’s 2015 Top 25 #CRE Brand Survey
Office: Sperry Van Ness International Corporation (Boston, MA) 

On The Move
Advisor: Erik Nickelsen
Office: Sperry Van Ness/SouthLand Commercial (Pensacola, FL)

Greeley 7-Eleven Property Fetches $1.1M Sale Price
Advisor: Steve Kawulok
Office: Sperry Van Ness/The Group Commercial (Fort Collins, CO)

T.A. Cook Partners with SAP for the 2015 SAP Conference for Real Estate Management
Advisor: David Wilk, CRE, MAI
Office: Sperry Van Ness – Miller Commercial Real Estate (Salisbury, MD)

Barbara Tria Elected 2015 President of the Realtors Commercial Alliance of Miami
Advisor: John Lonardo, CCIM
Office: Sperry Van Ness Commercial Realty Group (Miami, FL) 

March 12, 2015
Sperry Van Ness Broker Wins Top Company Honor
Advisor: Alex Ruggieri, CCIM, MBA
Office: Sperry Van Ness/Ramshaw Real Estate, Inc. (Champaign, IL)

Hanna Facilitates Lease with Tokyo Seafood Buffet in Ocean City, MD
Advisor: Henry Hanna, CCIM, SIOR
Office: Sperry Van Ness – Miller Commercial Real Estate (Salisbury, MD) 

March 15, 2015
Growing Confidence in Economy Spurring Marion Businesses to Expand
Advisor: Bartow McDonald, IV
Office: Sperry Van Ness Florida Commercial Real Estate Advisors (Ocala, FL)

March 16, 2015
February Leasing & Sales Transactions
Office: Sperry Van Ness/Infinity Commercial Group (Saint Louis, MO)

Moes Southwest Grill Prepares for Grand Opening in Salisbury
Office: Sperry Van Ness – Miller Commercial Real Estate (Salisbury, MD)

March 18, 2015
SVN | Chicago Commercial Named Top Earning Office for Sperry Van Ness International Corporation
Advisor: Michael Thanasourus
Office: Sperry Van Ness Chicago Commercial (Chicago, IL)

SVN/Chicago Commercial Gets Top Ranking
Advisor: Michael Thanasourus
Office: Sperry Van Ness Chicago Commercial (Chicago, IL)

Snickerz Owner Looking for Right Buyer
Office: Sperry Van Ness/Parke Group (Fort Wayne, IN)

SVN AuctionWorks to Host Upcoming Real Estate Auctions with More Than 100 Properties
Advisor: Diane Peterson
Office: Sperry Van Ness/AuctionWorks (Chicago, IL)

March 20, 2015
Local Investors Pay $1.35 Million for Nederland Hotel
Advisor: Steve Kawulok
Office: Sperry Van Ness/The Group Commercial (Fort Collins, CO)

March 22, 2015
The Board Room for Week of March 22
Advisor: Mark Mimms
Office: Sperry Van Ness/DealPoint Merrill Properties Corporation (Fresno, CA)

March 23, 2015
Former Road Home Lots to be Sold in St. Bernard Auction
Advisor: David E. Gilmore, CCIM, CAI, AARE
Office: Sperry Van Ness/Gilmore Auction & Realty Co. (Kennar, LA)

March 24, 2015
Rehoboth Art League opens Studios on Route 9
Advisor: Bill Lucks
Office: Sperry Van Ness – Miller Commercial Real Estate (Salisbury, MD)

March 25, 2015
TOO MUCH, TOO FAST? Investment Markets Eyeing Free-Flowing Capital With Some Concern
Advisor: Jeff Albee, CCIM, Mark Alexander, CCIM & Albert Lindeman
Office: Sperry Van Ness – Rich Investment Real Estate Partners (Los Angeles, CA), Sperry Van Ness (Mark Alexander) (Miami Beach, FL) & Sperry Van Ness Chicago Commercial (Chicago, IL) 

Developer Aims to Convert Funeral Home to Retail, Apartments
Advisor: Jeffrey Baasch & Wayne Caplan
Office: Sperry Van Ness Chicago Commercial (Chicago, IL)

St. Bernard Parish Announces April 25th Absolute Auction of 153 Road Home Properties
Advisor: David E. Gilmore, CCIM, CAI, AARE
Office: Sperry Van Ness/Gilmore Auction & Realty Co. (Kennar, LA) 

March 27, 2015
Michael Procino joins Sperry Van Ness-Miller Team as Advisor
Advisor: Michael Procino
Office: Sperry Van Ness – Miller Commercial Real Estate (Salisbury, MD)

Real Estate Transactions
Advisor: Altaf Akbari
Office: Sperry Van Ness/The Pastrano Group (San Antonio, TX)

Rise Up Coffee Roasters Purchases Viva Espresso
Advisor: Bradley Gillis, CCIM
Office: Sperry Van Ness – Miller Commercial Real Estate (Salisbury, MD)

March 28, 2015
Commercial Real Estate Bounces Back
Advisor: Roger Moore, Jr., SIOR
Office: Sperry Van Ness/R.M. Moore, LLC (Knoxville, TN)

March 29, 2015
 Northeast Georgia Medical Center’s New Braselton Hospital Helps Drive Growth
Advisor: Karen Baston
Office: Sperry Van Ness/Hokayem Company, Inc. (Gainesville, GA)

P.F. Chang’s Not Eyeing Pensacola
Advisor: Michael Carro, CCIM
Office: Sperry Van Ness/SouthLand Commercial (Pensacola, FL)

March 30, 2015
The Dirt: Numerica Opens New Spokane Valley Branch
Advisor: Jeff Ottmar
Office: Sperry Van Ness/Cornerstone (Spokane, WA)

March 31, 2015
East Lakeview Mixed-Use Building Sells
Advisor: Jeffrey Baasch & Wayne Caplan
Office: Sperry Van Ness Chicago Commercial (Chicago, IL)

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All Sperry Van Ness® offices are independently owned and operated.

Sperry Van Ness® | In the News | September 4 – 17, 2014

Many of our Sperry Van Ness offices and Advisors are regularly appearing in the news.

The following is a list of some recent media coverage.

 

September 4, 2014
Commercial Real Estate Transactions
Advisor: Todd Franks
Office: Sperry Van Ness/TJF Investments (Dallas, TX)

September 5, 2014
CSP Dance’s New Studio One of Albuquerque’s Biggest
Advisor: Glenn Wright
Office: Sperry Van Ness/Walt Arnold Commercial Brokerage (Albuquerque, NM)

September 6, 2014
Sperry Van Ness Rich Investment Real Estate Partners Adds $1-Billion Broker to Burgeoning Los Angeles Team
Advisor: Joe Penich
Office: Sperry Van Ness – Rich Investment Real Estate Partners (Los Angeles, CA)

September 8, 2014
Rochester Self Storage LLC Acquires Deep Discount Mini Storage
Advisor: Nick Malagisi, SIOR
Office: Sperry Van Ness Commercial Realty (Nicholas Malagisi) (Buffalo, NY)

September 9, 2014
Warehouse Avoids Foreclosure After Sale
Advisor: Joel Kattan & Anthony Peragine
Office: Sperry Van Ness Commercial Realty (Hialeah, FL)

SVN Crossroads Management Awarded 157,000 SF of Property Management Contracts
Advisor: Kirsten Bowersox
Office: Sperry Van Ness Crossroads Management (Schaumburg, IL)

Rochester Self Storage Buys Deep Discount Mini Storage in NY
Advisor: Nick Malagisi, SIOR
Office: Sperry Van Ness Commercial Realty (Nicholas Malagisi) (Buffalo, NY)

Sperry Van Ness Launches Regional Auction Office
Advisor: Walt Arnold, CCIM, SIOR, Tim House & Larry Ilfeld, CCIM, ALC
Office: 
Sperry Van Ness/Walt Arnold Commercial Brokerage (Albuquerque, NM)

September 10, 2014
Why Gender Balanced Leadership is Good for Business
Advisor: Kevin Maggiacomo
Office: 
Sperry Van Ness International Corporation (Boston, MA)

September 11, 2014
Broulim’s, Hobby Lobby Could Join Cabela’s in Ammon
Advisor: Douglas Page, CCIM
Office: Sperry Van Ness/High Desert Commercial (Idaho Falls, ID)

September 14, 2014
Doing Business: Movers & Shakers
Advisor: Wesley Cox, CCIM
Office: Sperry Van Ness – Miller Commercial Real Estate (Salisbury, MD)

Town Sees Former Bank Building as Growth Anchor
Advisor: David Wilk, CRE, MAI
Office: Sperry Van Ness – Miller Commercial Real Estate (Wilmington, DE)

Southwest Florida Briefs
Advisor: Ed Boeder
Office: Sperry Van Ness Real Estate, LLC (Naples, FL)

September 15, 2014
Wesley Cox Honored with Community Service Award
Advisor: Wesley Cox, CCIM
Office: Sperry Van Ness – Miller Commercial Real Estate (Salisbury, MD)

Tavistock Sells Stake in The Grove Center
Advisor: Miguel de Arcos
Office: Sperry Van Ness Florida Commercial Real Estate Advisors (Winter Park, FL)

September 16, 2014
Mystery Bank Tenant Revealed
Advisor: Chris Baj, CCIM, CPA
Office: Sperry Van Ness | Imperial Realty (Allentown, PA)

Cook: Prairieville Site Purchased for New Keller Williams First Choice Office
Advisor: Justin Langlois, CCIM
Office: Sperry Van Ness/Graham, Langlois & Legendre, LLC (Baton Rouge, LA)

Attorney Helps Atlanta Investors in Hialeah Warehouse Acquisition
Advisor: Joel Kattan & Anthony Peragine
Office: Sperry Van Ness Commercial Realty (Hialeah, FL)

Sperry Van Ness Commercial Advisory Group Closes Several Lease Deals In Bradenton
Advisor: Debra Cooper, Angela Varga & Tony Veldkamp, CCIM
Office: Sperry Van Ness Commercial Advisory Group (Bradenton & Sarasota, FL) 

September 17, 2014
DFG Sells Properties
Advisor: Steve Legendre, CCIM
Office: Sperry Van Ness/Graham, Langlois & Legendre, LLC (Baton Rouge, LA) 

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All Sperry Van Ness® offices are independently owned and operated.

Sperry Van Ness® | In the News | August 21 – September 3, 2014

Many of our Sperry Van Ness offices and Advisors are regularly appearing in the news.

The following is a list of some recent media coverage.

 

August 21, 2014
Fetzer Foodservice Relocating, Selling Downtown Building
Advisor: Bob Trabue
Office: Sperry Van Ness/Ward Commercial Group (Louisville, KY) 

August 23, 2014
A ‘White-Hot’ Market for Self-Storage Businesses
Advisor: Bartow McDonald
Office: Sperry Van Ness Florida Commercial Real Estate Advisors (Ocala, FL)

August 24, 2014
Owner of Cowboys Dancehall in Arlington Looking for New Location Following Sale of Property
Advisor: Steve Fithian, CCIM, CPM, SEC & David Cook, SIOR, SEC
Office: Sperry Van Ness/Visions Commercial (Ft. Worth, TX) & Sperry Van Ness/David Cook Co. (Dallas, TX)

Tonney Insley Joins Sperry Van Ness – Miller Commercial Real Estate
Advisor: Tonney Insley
Office: Office: Sperry Van Ness – Miller Commercial Real Estate (Salisbury, MD)

August 25, 2014
This 48-Unit Deal in Baltimore is Great News for Apartment Owners
Advisor: Justin Verner
Office: Sperry Van Ness/RealSite Commercial Group (Baltimore, MD)

August 26, 2014
Marcus Pointe Golf Club Closing at End of Year
Advisor: Rodney Sutton
Office: Sperry Van Ness/SouthLand Commercial (Pensacola, FL)

Harley Davidson Stays Put in Green Oaks, IL
Advisor: Vincent D’Amico
Office: Sperry Van Ness Chicago Commercial (Chicago, IL)

August 27, 2014
Uptown Remains a Strong Market for Investors of Multifamily
Advisor: Dawn Overstreet, Ph.D.
Office: Sperry Van Ness Chicago Commercial (Chicago, IL)

NAI Isaac Facilitates Lease with Smyth Automotive
Advisor: Matt Stone
Office: Sperry Van Ness/Bronaugh & Pulliam (Lexington, KY)

Indiana: A Family Affair with Steve Martin of Sperry Van Ness Martin Group
Advisor: Steve Martin, CCIM, CPM
Office: Sperry Van Ness/Martin Commercial Group (Evansville, IN)

August 28, 2014
Former Arlington Hts. Applebee’s sold
Office: Sperry Van Ness. LLC (Phoenix, AZ)

Developer Finally Closes on Without Walls Site in Westshore
Advisor: Bill Gross & Kenny Anderson
Office: Sperry Van Ness Commercial Real Estate, LLC (Tampa, FL)

August 29, 2014
Alder Land Group Lists Agricultural & Hunting Land Lease Project of Over 3500 Acres
Advisor: Ben Alder
Office: Sperry Van Ness – Miller Commercial Real Estate (Salisbury, MD)

Home Builders Association Pays $4.35M for New Memphis HQ
Advisor: Holice Jeffries
Office: Sperry Van Ness/Investec Realty Services (Memphis, TN)

Trinity Partners Leases 176KSF at Shopton Ridge; Trinity Capital Buys Two Office Buildings in Toringdon
Advisor: Harry Cole
Office: Sperry Van Ness/Percival Partners, LLC (Charlotte, NC)

There’s Always Tomorrow
Advisor: Patti Peixotto
Office: Sperry Van Ness/Walt Arnold Commercial Brokerage, Inc. (Albuquerque, NM)

August 30, 2014
Palm Beach County Business Notes
Advisor: Robert Hamman
Office: Sperry Van Ness Florida Commercial Real Estate Advisors (Jupiter, FL)

August 31, 2014
Business and Professional Briefs
Advisor: Alex Ruggieri, CCIM, MBA
Office: Sperry Van Ness/Ramshaw Real Estate Inc. (Champaign, IL)

September 2, 2014
Local Brokers Open New Sperry Van Ness Firm
Advisor: Steve Legendre, Ben Graham & Justin Langlois
Office: Sperry Van Ness/Graham, Langlois & Legendre (Baton Rouge, LA)

‘Without Walls’ Set for Massive Redevelopment
Advisor: Bill Gross & Kenny Anderson
Office: Sperry Van Ness Commercial Real Estate, LLC (Tampa, FL)

Tenants Sign Leases for 176,000 Square Feet at Shopton Ridge
Advisor: Harry Cole
Office: Sperry Van Ness/Percival Partners, LLC (Charlotte, NC)

Leases/Leasing Contracts
Advisor: Hugh Kennerk
Office: Sperry Van Ness/Sycamore Commercial Real Estate (Indianapolis, IN)

September 3, 2014
Home Builders Group Buys Building for Headquarters
Advisor: Holice Jeffries
Office: Sperry Van Ness/Investec Realty Services (Memphis, TN)

 

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All Sperry Van Ness® offices are independently owned and operated.

 

Sperry Van Ness® | In the News | August 7 – 20, 2014

Many of our Sperry Van Ness offices and Advisors are regularly appearing in the news.

The following is a list of some recent media coverage.

 

August 7, 2014
Mid-Year Commercial Real Estate Review
Advisor: Jonathan Tuttle
Office: Sperry Van Ness Chicago Commercial (Chicago, IL)

Sperry Van Ness International Corporation Appoints Solomon Poretsky Vice President of Organizational Development
Advisor: Solomon Poretsky
Office: Sperry Van Ness International Corporation (Boston, MA)

DealPoint Merrill Closes Escrow On 15.9 Acres In St. Charles, Missouri
Advisor: David Frank, Sterling McGregor, Mark Mimms & Mike Gustafson
Office: Sperry Van Ness/DealPoint Merrill Properties Corporation (Fresno, CA) & Sperry Van Ness, LLC (Phoenix, AZ)

Former Daymar Campus on Fern Valley To Be Sold
Advisor: Bill Menish, CAI, AARE, BAS
Office: Sperry Van Ness/Menish Auctions (Louisville, KY)

Bill Luck Attends Realtors Environmental Summit
Advisor: Bill Lucks
Office: Sperry Van Ness – Miller Commercial Real Estate (Salisbury, MD)

Retail Building in Erie Sold for $1.4 Million
Advisor: Steve Kawulok, Dan Leuschen & Cobey Wess
Office: Sperry Van Ness/The Group Commercial, LLC (Ft. Collins, CO)

August 8, 2014
Drowning in Regulations: EPA Could Have a Much Bigger Say in Arizona’s Future Because of Clean Water Act Proposal
Advisor: Mary Ridberg
Office: Sperry Van Ness, LLC (Phoenix, AZ)

Downtown Apartment Building Saratoga Lofts Sells for $3 million
Advisor: Justin Verner & Tony Casalena, CCIM
Office: Sperry Van Ness/RealSite Commercial Group (Baltimore, MD)

August 11, 2014
SVN-RICORE Receives Two CoStar Power Broker Awards
Advisor: Joe Gilligan
Office: Sperry Van Ness – RICORE Investment Management, Inc. (Cincinnati, OH)

SVN-RICORE’s Dan McDonald Receives CoStar Power Broker Award
Advisor: Dan McDonald
Office: Sperry Van Ness – RICORE Investment Management, Inc. (Cincinnati, OH)

August 12, 2014
 SVN Auction Services Announces Sealed Bid Auction of a Louisville College Campus
Advisor: Bill Menish, CAI, AARE, BAS
Office: Sperry Van Ness/Menish Auctions (Louisville, KY) 

St. Matthews Lots Up for Auction After Decades of No New Construction
Advisor: Bill Menish, CAI, AARE, BAS
Office: Sperry Van Ness/Menish Auctions (Louisville, KY)

August 13, 2014
Bill Lucks of SVN-Miller Attends NAR Environmental Summit
Advisor: Bill Lucks
Office: Sperry Van Ness – Miller Commercial Real Estate (Salisbury, MD)

Forno Rosso Joins West Loop Pizza Invasion
Advisor: Scott Maesel
Office: Sperry Van Ness Chicago Commercial (Chicago, IL)

Former Applebee’s in Arlington Heights Sells
Advisor: Tim Rasmussen & Olivia Czyzynski
Office: Sperry Van Ness Chicago Commercial (Chicago, IL)

August 16, 2014
West Side Marble Taproom Expanding
Advisor: Richard Gallegos
Office: Sperry Van Ness/Team Southwest (Albuquerque, NM)

August 17, 2014
More Than Half of FoCo Restaurants Owned by Locals
Advisor: Cobey Wess
Office: Sperry Van Ness/The Group Commercial, LLC (Ft. Collins, CO)

August 19, 2014
My Best Friend’s Closet Opening at Campus West Shops
Advisor: Cobey Wess
Office: Sperry Van Ness/The Group Commercial, LLC (Ft. Collins, CO)

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All Sperry Van Ness® offices are independently owned and operated.

 

Sperry Van Ness® | In the News | July 24 – August 6, 2014

Many of our Sperry Van Ness offices and Advisors are regularly appearing in the news.

The following is a list of some recent media coverage.

 

July 24, 2014
CRE Is Still an Uphill Climb for Women, but the Effort is Worth It
Advisor: Kirsten Bowersox
Office: Sperry Van Ness/Crossroads Property Management (Schaumburg, IL)

Pork Shoppe Barbecue Opening in Former Kingfisher Restaurant
Advisor: Tim Rasmussen
Office: Sperry Van Ness Chicago Commercial (Chicago, IL)

Sperry Van Ness Represents the Buyer in Sale of Commercial Land in Mesa
Advisor: Shari A. Tucker-Gasser & Trenton McCullough
Office: Sperry Van Ness, LLC (Phoenix, AZ)

Local Company Acquires Transit Friendly Property
Advisor: Rodrigo Gonzalez Velarde
Office: Sperry Van Ness – Rich Investment Real Estate Partners (Los Angeles, CA)

SVN Crossroads Bowersox: Giving the Keys to a Successful Property Management Division
Advisor: Kirsten Bowersox
Office: Sperry Van Ness/Crossroads Property Management (Schaumburg, IL)

Palmer’s Namesake Palmer Plaza Expected to Sell for About $50M
Advisor: Anthony Lopes, CCIM, CPM
Office: Sperry Van Ness/Investec Realty Services (Brentwood, TN)

July 25, 2014
Mall Makeovers Face Varied Challenges
Advisor: Steve Kawulok
Office: Sperry Van Ness/The Group Commercial, LLC (Ft. Collins, CO)

July 27, 2014
Junior Achievement Gets Expanded Space in Salisbury
Advisor: Brent Miller, CCIM, CPM & Rick Tilghman, CCIM
Office: Sperry Van Ness – Miller Commercial Real Estate (Salisbury, MD)

July 28, 2014
Harbor Freight Tools Moves into Former Boaters World Location
Advisor: Wesley Cox, CCIM
Office: Sperry Van Ness – Miller Commercial Real Estate (Salisbury, MD)

Real Estate Deals
Advisor: Linda Emery & Bruce Dilges
Office: Sperry Van Ness Commercial Advisory Group (Sarasota, FL)

The Deal Sheet
Advisor: Olivia Czyzynski, Wayne Caplan, Vince D’Amico & Joel Miller
Office: Sperry Van Ness/Crossroads Property Management (Schaumburg, IL), Sperry Van Ness Chicago Commercial (Chicago, IL) & Sperry Van Ness/Landmark Commercial Real Estate (Geneva, IL) 

July 29, 2014
Harbor Freight to Open Store in Salisbury
Advisor: Wesley Cox, CCIM
Office: Sperry Van Ness – Miller Commercial Real Estate (Salisbury, MD)

July 30, 2014
SVN Auction Expands, Opens Office in Columbus
Advisor: Richard Kruse & Sean Parker
Office: Sperry Van Ness/Gryphon Parker (Columbus, OH)

Leadership Brentwood to Begin 2015 Class
Advisor: David W. Creed, Jr.
Office: Sperry Van Ness/Investec Realty Services (Brentwood, TN)

Advocate Offices May Relocate Downtown
Advisor: Doug Wilson
Office: Sperry Van Ness/Wilson Commercial Group, LLC (Columbus, OH)

Fort Collins/Loveland Air Park Property Sells for $1.25 Million
Advisor: Larry Hawe
Office: Sperry Van Ness/The Group Commercial, LLC (Ft. Collins, CO)

July 31, 2014
AuctionWorks to Host Real Estate Auction August 25-27
Advisor: Diana Peterson
Office: Sperry Van Ness/AuctionWorks (Chicago, IL)

August 1, 2014
Space Still Available at Achievement Park
Advisor: Bradley Gillis, CCIM & Joey Gilkerson
Office: Sperry Van Ness – Miller Commercial Real Estate (Salisbury, MD)

August 3, 2014
Taylor, Bean & Whitaker: Five Years Later
Advisor: Bartow McDonald, IV
Office: Sperry Van Ness Florida Commercial Real Estate Advisors (Ocala, FL)

August 4, 2014
The Sperry Van Ness® Brand Recognized Nationally as 8th Top Property Manager
Office: Sperry Van Ness International Corporation (Boston, MA)

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All Sperry Van Ness® offices are independently owned and operated.

Office Spotlight: Sperry Van Ness/BlackStream Commercial, LLC in Greenville, SC

This week, we turn the spotlight on Sperry Van Ness/BlackStream Commercial, LLC with offices in Greenville and Columbia, South Carolina.

Ford Elliott | Managing Director | SVN/BlackStream Commercial, LLC
Ford Elliott | Managing Director | SVN/BlackStream Commercial, LLC

What has been your strategy for growing your firm and also your market share?

From day one, our strategy at SVN/BlackStream Commercial, LLC has been providing premiere service to our clients. We always go the extra distance to satisfy their needs, making them feel they are getting more by working with us.  Over time, we have built a nice reputation in our market. Our level of service has spread by word-of mouth and business has flourished as a result, garnering more referrals than by any other marketing means. We are generally a 100% referral program, though we are always looking to get new leads through additional avenues. Another strategy we utilize is staying informed, and on top of, trends in the market place. We try to be very innovative and think outside of the box, often presenting sites to our clients that most people may not know about, i.e. The city has plans to put a new park at a certain location.  It is necessary that we have a pulse on our market in order to help our clients understand where the value is, and where it is headed. We also look to the Sperry Van Ness platform whose systems and name recognition have been extremely beneficial for business.

What are some of the unique activities you do to motivate your team? 

Our number one motivation is helping our team understand and hone their respective talents. Once defined, we aim to help them stay focused and specialized by utilizing their best strengths.  We hold a staff meeting every week where we collaborate and share ideas. On the horizon, we plan to have more team building activities.

What’s been the biggest challenge in running your business in the last few years?

The biggest challenge has been recovering from the commercial real estate market downturn. It was difficult with banks not loaning money to investors and the market just not being where it needed to be. As the market has recovered, more and more opportunities have been presenting themselves.

How many Advisors/Staff did you have when you joined SVN? How many (in total) do you have now? 

When we joined Sperry Van Ness we had a staff of  6: 2 Managing Directors, 3 Advisors and an Administrative Assistant. We recently added another Advisor, bringing our team total to 7.

Contact:
Ford Elliott
Managing Director
Sperry Van Ness/BlackStream Commercial, LLC
Greenville & Columbia, SC

*All Sperry Van Ness® offices are independently owned and operated.

Sperry Van Ness® | In the News | July 9 – July 23, 2014

Many of our Sperry Van Ness offices and Advisors are regularly appearing in the news.

The following is a list of some recent media coverage.

 

July 11, 2014
Sperry Van Ness Gryphon Parker and Parker Kruse Asset Management Open For Business
Advisor: Richard Kruse & Shawn Parker
Office: SVN/Gryphon Parker (Columbus, OH)

Albany Park Apartments Fetch $1.7 million
Advisor: Dawn Overstreet, Ph.D.
Office: Sperry Van Ness Chicago Commercial (Chicago, IL)

Packaging Properties For Profit
Advisor: Alex Ruggieri, CCIM, MBA
Office: SVN/Ramshaw Real Estate, Inc. (Champaign, IL)

July 12, 2014
Strawberry Fields For Sale
Advisor: Alex Ruggieri, CCIM, MBA
Office: SVN/Ramshaw Real Estate, Inc. (Champaign, IL)

Peek Honored with Wicomico Executive’s Fitness Council Award
Advisor: Chris Peek, CCIM
Office: SVN/Miller Commercial Real Estate (Salisbury, MD)

July 14, 2014
Self-Storage Brokerage Firm Sperry Van Ness Adds Franchise in Greenville, SC
Advisor: Ford Elliott & Carlos Salgado
Office: SVN/BlackStream Commercial, LLC (Greenville, SC)

Real Estate Deals
Advisor: Angela Varga
Office: Sperry Van Ness Commercial Advisory Group (Bradenton, FL)

Developers Circling Around Last 1,500 Undeveloped Acres in Carolina Forest
Advisor: Joe Garrell & Andrew Vicens
Office: SVN/Founders Group (Myrtle Beach, SC)

July 15, 2014
Rosemont’s Sycamore Office Plaza Listed for $8 million
Office: SVN/Walt Arnold Commercial Brokerage, Inc. (Albuquerque, NM)

July 16, 2014
BB&T Sells Foreclosed Offices to Kislak
Advisor: Caroline Camus, MBA
Office: SVN/South Commercial Real Estate Advisors (Miami, FL)

Nearly 500 Apartment Units Planned in Firestone
Advisor: Bill Reilly
Office: SVN/The Group Commercial, LLC (Ft. Collins, CO)

Sperry Van Ness Reports Recent Summer Transactions
Advisor: Mary Ridberg, Rommie Mojahed, Judy Jones, Erin Schrauth, Peter McQuaid, Greg Vanierberghe, Barbara McKenney, Ryan Mojahed, Beau Flahart, Justin Horwitz, Nicole Ridberg, Neil Sherman & Michael Gaida
Office: Sperry Van Ness, LLC (Phoenix, AZ)

July 17, 2014
Why is Content Marketing Important for B2B Marketers? Part 4
Advisor: Diane Danielson
Office: Sperry Van Ness International Corporation (Boston, MA)

SVN | Chicago Commercial Welcomes Tim Franz
Advisor: Timothy Franz
Office: Sperry Van Ness Chicago Commercial (Chicago, IL)

Sperry Van Ness Launches Greenville CRE Franchise
Advisor: Ford Elliott & Carlos Salgado
Office: SVN/BlackStream Commercial, LLC (Greenville, SC)

July 18, 2014
Denver Couple Buys Full Circle Ranch B&B in Cave Creek
Advisor: Carrick Sears
Office: Sperry Van Ness, LLC (Phoenix, AZ)

July 19, 2014
Achievement Park Leased in Easton
Advisor: Bradley Gillis, CCIM & Joey Gilkerson
Office: SVN/Miller Commercial Real Estate (Salisbury, MD)

July 21, 2014
SVN Auction Services Expands Presence in Midwest with Addition of New Office in Ohio
Advisor: Richard Kruse & Shawn Parker
Office: SVN/Gryphon Parker (Columbus, OH)

Office Market Vacancies Leap Higher in Q2
Advisor: Patti Peixotto
Office: SVN/Walt Arnold Commercial Brokerage, Inc. (Albuquerque, NM)

July 23, 2014
Undisclosed Bank May Enter Valley Market on Airport Property
Advisor: Chris Baj, CCIM, CPA
Office: SVN/Imperial Realty (Allentown, PA)

Lipsey_2014_Badge

All Sperry Van Ness® offices are independently owned and operated.

Office Spotlight: Sperry Van Ness/Fortune Real Estate in El Paso, TX

Karen Hurd, Vice President of National Franchise Development for Sperry Van Ness International Corporation, recently sat down with Laura Salome, CCIM, Managing Director of Sperry Van Ness/Fortune Real Estate out of El Paso, Texas.  Karen is the host of the Sperry Van Ness (SVN) CEO Roundtable Webinar and invited Laura to join the June Roundtable discussion as a guest speaker. Below is what Laura had to say about SVN.

Laura Salome, CCIM | Managing Director | SVN/Fortune Real Estate
Laura Salome, CCIM | Managing Director | SVN/Fortune Real Estate

Laura, Please tell me about yourself, SVN/Fortune Real Estate and how you came to Sperry Van Ness.

I joined Sperry Van Ness two years ago in December. My father has had Fortune Real Estate for 40 years and when I joined him full time, I knew we were was missing something….I was searching for something bigger than what our little local firm could accomplish. I wanted bigger and national deals, and I knew that an affiliation with a national flag was the answer.  I spent 13 years in California and remembered that Sperry Van Ness was a well recognized brand among a few others.  So I decided to call a few.  In an exhausting interviewing process of several companies, I ultimately chose Sperry Van Ness because it was a national CRE firm where the people make the company.

What did you find different about our SVN Brand versus the other firms you were talking to, and what have you found since you joined?

The model and the culture is different than other models, in that the environment at SVN is much more entrepreneurial in nature.  Of course, we want to stay consistent in our look and there are franchise policies to which we must adhere, but it is very much MY business.  Being affiliated with SVN has empowered me to grow into the direction I want to go.  I have felt empowered since the day I joined and continue to feel that way. There is a high level of professionalism that comes with the Sperry Van Ness name.  There is a certain culture within this organization that is contagious. I joined the group shortly before a national sales meeting which was in Miami.  That trip reaffirmed that I had made the right decision.  The friends and colleagues I met on that trip I still talk to and work on deals together.

What do you find working with other SVN Advisors in other markets?

Collaboration is the key component to get the most you want out of this franchise. Each week I try to talk to at least one SVN colleague either by phone, text, or email…or personal visit, even when I travel. I am a bit of a generalist here in El Paso and partnering up with experts in other cities has most definitely won listings for me.  Mark Alexander from Florida, who is on our Medical Product Council, and I joined forces a little over a year ago on a medical building. I would not have gotten that listing without Mark’s expertise in medical office.  Mark prepared a colorful slide presentation showing the physician medical investment cap rates and the SVN national reach and we won the listing.

This week we just signed a new $2 million dollar listing for a NM Nursery and I partnered with Tim House in Albuquerque.  It was my relationship with a banker here in El Paso that started the lead, but it was the fact that I told him I would partner with a SVN NM colleague that got us the listing.  The client felt comfortable that he was getting a local boots on the ground with a national “army” behind me. It’s fun to partner, and clients feel that we have “reach” , “national appeal” and that we are a “unit”.  This SVN fraternity is a very strong selling point to win listings.

I know you believe in the Compensated Cooperation model and actively participate in our National Sales Call each week.  What do you find most important about these calls?

The National Sales Call is like the backbone of SVN — the SVN Difference.  It’s a 30 minute national sales call held every Monday morning that highlights recent sales made, and Advisors pitch their properties for sale.   Promoting a client’s listing on these calls is a key selling point when I compete for a listing.   No other firm offers these calls!  It’s rare that I don’t get on one of these calls.

How useful have you found the CRE tech tools, systems and platforms offered by SVN?

The tech tools within the company are efficient and streamline marketing efforts.  Each time I need to do a proposal or put a new listing online, I jump on BuildOut which syndicates real time to multiple commercial search engines with a single point of entry automatically.  Our brochures look consistent and professional.  It’s very simple to use and my clients are happy.

Client Look I’ve used from the beginning.  It has the ability to categorize your contact by type.  This feature I find very useful.  If I want to narrow my marketing efforts to “retail developers” or “multifamily”, I can do so.  Virtual Assistant is another very useful feature of Client Look that enters contacts into the system.  You can do this with a phone call while you are driving or even snapping a photo of a business card and emailing it to them.  All of this syncs to your phone and iPad which is great!

SVN Resource Portal is the center of information gathering and posting.   There I can blog on the SVN blog, create postcards for marketing, customize newsletters, see the calendar of events, or just log on to my email.  It’s colorful and easy to navigate.  In today’s world where speed and simplicity is coveted, this tool fits right in.

What SVN Product Councils do you participate in regularly?

There are 14 product councils within the company that are lead by veterans and experts in that asset class type and I am involved in several.  Once a month or so, there are product council calls where ideas are shared, challenges are discussed, and deals are made.  I make it a point to participate each week on the 15 minute Single Tenant Net Lease one that happens right before the Monday Morning Call.  I like it because Peter Colvin creates an environment where everyone feels comfortable to share a quick thought and I always hang up learning something new and it helps create value for my clients, especially the 1031 exchange clients.

Bottom line, the tech systems and tools are some of the best available in the industry, and I leverage them all so I can be more efficient, visible and productive in my business.

What do you like best about SVN?

What I’ve realized is that it’s the people within SVN that make the company.  I’m the kind of person that works best in a collaborative environment and I like to be known within in the company.  SVN is a national CRE company where collaboration thrives — it’s like a family. Clients’ interests are ALWAYS placed above everything else and I like that because reputation is very important to me.  If I can ever help anyone on the call, I’m available anytime for help, advice, deal making, market insight in El Paso or SVN.  Happy to be a resource.  I can be reached at laurasalome@svn.com  or 915.474.0306.

To view the most recent Sperry Van Ness CEO Roundtable Webinar, click here.

To learn more about franchising opportunities, or to join an existing SVN Team, please contact Karen Hurd at karen.hurd@svn.com or 781.812.4272.

*All Sperry Van Ness® offices are independently owned and operated.

Sperry Van Ness® | In the News | June 26 – July 9, 2014

Many of our Sperry Van Ness offices and Advisors are regularly appearing in the news.

The following is a list of some recent media coverage.

 

June 26, 2014
Former Seahawk Brady Quinn Helps Wounded Iraq Vet
Advisor: Tom Hoban & Blake Stedman
Office: Coast/Sperry Van Ness (Everett, WA)

June 30, 2014
SVN Sells Multifamily/Mixed-use Building for $1.7M in Offmarket Deal
Advisor: Dawn Overstreet, Ph.D.
Office: Sperry Van Ness Chicago Commercial (Chicago, IL)

Longtime San Mateo Chili’s Becoming Retail Store
Advisor: Rusty Lober
Office: Sperry Van Ness/Walt Arnold Commercial Brokerage, Inc. (Albuquerque, NM)

Leases & Sales: Week of June 30, 2014
Advisor: Martin Perlmutter
Office: Sperry Van Ness/MG Property Advisors, Inc. (San Rafael, CA)

July 1, 2014
Percival McGuire Joins Sperry Van Ness, Rebrands as Percival Partners
Advisor: Joey Godbold & Bob Percival, SIOR, CPM
Office: Sperry Van Ness/Percival Partners, LLC (Charlotte, NC)

Retail’s at a Crossroads in the Recovery
Advisor: Shari Tucker-Gasser
Office: Sperry Van Ness, LLC (Phoenix, AZ)

Sperry Van Ness/Gilmore Auction to Auction New Homes, Lots & Gulf Shores Beach House for New Orleans Bankruptcy Case
Advisor: David E. Gilmore, CCIM, CAI, AARE
Office: Sperry Van Ness/Gilmore Auction & Realty Co. (Kennar, LA)

July 2, 2014
BB&T Sells Miami Lakes Office Condos at 18% Discount to Foreclosure
Advisor: Matthew Rotolante, CCIM, SIOR
Office: Sperry Van Ness/South Commercial Real Estate Advisors (Miami, FL)

Sperry Van Ness International Corporation Adds Franchise in Charlotte, NC
Advisor: Joey Godbold & Bob Percival, SIOR, CPM
Office: Sperry Van Ness/Percival Partners, LLC (Charlotte, NC)

Presbyterian’s North I-25 Move Bumps City’s Office Vacancy
Office: Sperry Van Ness/Walt Arnold Commercial Brokerage, Inc. (Albuquerque, NM) 

July 5, 2014
Doing Business: Movers & Shakers
Advisor: Will Moore, Bob Rich & Chris Peek, CCIM
Office: Sperry Van Ness/Miller Commercial Real Estate (Salisbury, MD)

July 6, 2014
Bulk Office Condo Portfolio Trades For $6,200,000
Advisor: Matthew Rotolante, CCIM, SIOR, Eric Amat & Caroline Camus, MBA
Office: Sperry Van Ness/South Commercial Real Estate Advisors (Miami, FL)

Optimism On the Rise for Buzzing Nokomis Strip
Advisor: Brad Lindberg
Office: Sperry Van Ness Commercial Advisory Group (Sarasota, FL)

July 7, 2014
CSP Dance Studios Boogies into Former Laffs Space
Advisor: Glenn Wright
Office: Sperry Van Ness/Walt Arnold Commercial Brokerage, Inc. (Albuquerque, NM)

Real Estate Deals
Advisor: Tony Veldkamp, CCIM
Office: Sperry Van Ness Commercial Advisory Group (Sarasota, FL) 

July 8, 2014
Bob Rich of Sperry Van Ness-Miller Earns Real Estate License for Delaware
Advisor: Bob Rich
Office: Sperry Van Ness/Miller Commercial Real Estate (Salisbury, MD)

July 9, 2014
Office Still Lags Outside Energy, Tech Markets
Advisor: Albert Lindeman
Office: Sperry Van Ness Chicago Commercial (Chicago, IL)

In Focus: Four Tips for Renewing Your Office Lease
Advisor: Stephen F. Graw
Office: Sperry Van Ness/Investec Realty Services (Brentwood, TN)

Former Marigold Indian Restaurant Could Be Replaced by Ramen, Comfort Food
Advisor: Tim Rasmussen
Office: Sperry Van Ness Chicago Commercial (Chicago, IL)

Lipsey_2014_Badge

All Sperry Van Ness® offices are independently owned and operated.

Sperry Van Ness® | In the News | June 11 – June 25, 2014

Many of our Sperry Van Ness® offices and Advisors are regularly appearing in the news.

The following is a list of recent media coverage.

 

June 11, 2014
Sperry Van Ness Brokers Sale of Development Site in Chicago
Advisor: Wayne Caplan
Office: Sperry Van Ness Chicago Commercial (Chicago, IL) 

Commercial Corner: What is Placemaking?
Advisor: David Wilk, CRE, MAI & Alex Ruggieri, CCIM, MBA
Office:  Sperry Van Ness Miller Commercial Real Estate (Wilmington, DE) & Sperry Van Ness/ Ramshaw Real Estate, Inc.  (Champaign, IL)

June 12, 2014
Bank-Owned Property Sales Increasing
Advisor: Wayne Caplan
Office: Sperry Van Ness Chicago Commercial (Chicago, IL)

Sperry Van Ness International Corp. Adds Franchise in Holland, Michigan
Advisor: David de Maagd & Peter Colvin
Office: Sperry Van Ness/Investment Property Advisors (Holland, MI) 

June 13, 2014
Dormant Office Building Sees Fresh Activity with Renovation Project
Advisor: Tom Skeans, CCIM
Office: Sperry Van Ness | Imperial Realty (Allentown, PA)

Hundreds Expected For Realtor Event
Office: Sperry Van Ness International Corporation (Boston, MA)

June 14, 2014
Sarasota Investor Buys Bradenton Cardiology Building
Advisor: Mark Alexander, CCIM & Bob Morris
Office: Sperry Van Ness (Mark Alexander) (Ft. Myers, FL) & Sperry Van Ness Commercial Advisory Group (Sarasota, FL)

June 17, 2014
How DTZ’s $1.2B Sale Could  Shake Up Chicago
Advisor: Jeffrey Baasch
Office: Sperry Van Ness Chicago Commercial (Chicago, IL) 

DealPoint Merrill Closed Escrow on 325,500 SF for Redevelopment in Columbus-Ohio, Tucson-Arizona and Saginaw-Michigan
Advisor: Mike Gustafson & Mark Mimms
Office: Sperry Van Ness, LLC (Phoenix, AZ) & Sperry Van Ness/DealPoint Merrill Property Corporation (Fresno, CA)

Leases/Leasing Contracts
Advisor: Ben Andrews
Office: Sperry Van Ness Chicago Commercial (Chicago, IL)

June 18, 2014
Done Deals: Dirt and retail in Brandon; new restaurant lease in Carrollwood
Advisor: Enon Winkler, CCIM Jad Richa, Deucie Bies & Brian Hunsicker
Office: Sperry Van Ness Florida Commercial Real Estate Advisors (Boynton Beach, FL) 

Sperry Van Ness International Corporation Appoints Diane Danielson Chief Operating Officer
Office: Sperry Van Ness International Corporation (Boston, MA)

NAIOP Arizona Reports Philanthropic Efforts, Achievements
Office: Sperry Van Ness, LLC (Phoenix, AZ)

June 19, 2014
DealPoint Merrill Targets Redevelopment Properties
Advisor: Mark Mimms
Office: Sperry Van Ness/DealPoint Merrill Property Corporation (Fresno, CA) 

June 20, 2014
Business briefs: BB&T selects clubs for Lighthouse project
Advisor: Reid Bennett, CCIM
Office: Sperry Van Ness Chicago Commercial (Chicago, IL)

Candelaria Business Center For Sale
Advisor: Joel White, MAI, Patti Peixotto & Hunter Green
Office: Sperry Van Ness/Walt Arnold Commercial Brokerage, Inc. (Albuquerque, NM) 

June 21, 2014
Heron Mural Makes Second Landing
Advisor: Rick Tilghman, CCIM
Office: Sperry Van Ness – Miller Commercial Real Estate (Salisbury, MD)

The Ticker
Office: Sperry Van Ness International Corporation (Boston, MA)

June 22, 2014
Wesley Cox of Sperry Van Ness-Miller presented with Humanitarian of the Year Award
Advisor: Wesley Cox, CCIM
Office: Sperry Van Ness – Miller Commercial Real Estate (Salisbury, MD) 

Walworth County Subdivision, Condo Project Revived After Bank Sells Land
Advisor: Jay Hintze
Office: Sperry Van Ness/The Hintze Group (Glendale, WI)

June 23, 2014
Apartments: Watch the Numbers in Jobs and Units
Advisor: Tony Veldkamp, CCIM, Angela Varga, Linda Emery & Bruce Dilges
Office: Sperry Van Ness Commercial Advisory Group (Sarasota, FL)

Historic Brennan’s Trade Name, Registered Service Marks, Wine Collection & Remaining Assets to be Auctioned July 9
Advisor: David E. Gilmore, CCIM, CAI, AARE
Office: Sperry Van Ness/Gilmore Auctions & Realty Co. (Kennar, LA)

Lipsey_2014_BadgeAll Sperry Van Ness® offices are independently owned and operated.

Office Spotlight: Sperry Van Ness l RICORE Investment Management, Inc. in Cincinnati, OH

This week, we turn the spotlight on Sperry Van Ness | RICORE Investment Management, Inc. with offices in Cincinnati, Ohio.

Rickert_John1. What has been your strategy for growing your firm and also your market share?
We do this by understanding our clients’ investment objectives and formulating strategies to achieve these objectives in the context of the current and anticipated market forces. Specifically, our clients will experience SVN-RICORE’s superior real estate investment modeling, strategic thought process, rent collection and operating expense escalation management, attention to detail, prompt and accurate financial reporting.  We are enhanced by having the brightest and hardest working people join our firm who bring with them their expertise in the market and their specific disciplines.  Having seasoned professionals, we are able to position ourselves as a full service real estate firm, where we can provide professional services for Receivership, Property Management, Investment Brokerage, Leasing and Construction Services, with “Maximum Value and Minimum Risk” for our clients.

We have also implemented the use of our website www.svn-ricore.com for marketing our services and staff along with our properties, and have complemented it with our daily postings of property sales and lease listings on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google+, Instagram and Tumblr.  We also regularly advertise in the local Business Journals, Midwest Real Estate News and National Real Estate Investor publications. Our social media marketing initiative has opened up our client base to new avenues of advertising our services from listings to Property and Facility management.  It allows our firm the ability to have interaction with clients in the ‘new media market’ and the property owners are ecstatic to see their properties appear in this medium, along with case studies, well researched market reports and client testimonials.

RICORE2. What are some of the unique activities you do to motivate your team? 
We hold monthly birthday and anniversary cake tastings and go to and participate in events as a group.  We recently held an open house for our new space and invited clients, past, present and future, along with public dignitaries for an evening of food, social time and entertainment.  We have gone bowling, trap shooting, a vineyard and plan on attending a Cincinnati Reds games for team building events.  SVN-RICORE is also pleased to corporately sponsor and participate in many civic, community and philanthropic organizations that make a difference.

 3. What’s been the biggest challenge in running your business in the last few years?
With the downturn then recovery of the Commercial Real Estate market, weathering the storm has been a challenge, however, with well positioned managed properties, accounting services, receivership services, along with a few good investment sales opportunities completed, we have been able to maintain and grow our staff in anticipation of the full boom currently beginning in our market. Bringing in additional staff in this economy for some firms could not have happened, but for us, it was a necessity in order to keep up with the business lines as they were expanding during these years.

RICORE Team4. How many Advisors/Staff did you have when you joined SVN? How many (in total) do you have now? 
In the beginning of our SVN Franchise in 2010 we started with 3 Property Managers, 2 Property Services Administrators, 1 Facilities Manager,  2 Advisors, 1  Brokerage Administrator/Office Manager/Marketing,  2 Construction Staff, and 2 Accounting personnel.

Currently we have 4 Property Managers, 5 Property Services Administrators, 5 Facilities Managers, 9 Advisors, 2 Brokerage Administrators, a Marketing Manager, 3 Construction Staff, and 5 Accounting personnel. We also have a CFO  & Controller to round out our services staff, in addition to the Executive Managing Director.

Increasing our staff has been an integral part to create an environment for well-rounded commercial real estate professionals the ability to provide services to clients that are world class in nature.

Contact:
John Rickert
Executive Managing Director
Sperry Van Ness | RICORE Investment Management, Inc.
Cincinnati, OH

*All Sperry Van Ness® offices are independently owned and operated.

5 for Friday with Mark Alexander of Sperry Van Ness (Mark Alexander)

This week, our 5 for Friday features Mark Alexander, CCIM, Managing Director of Sperry Van Ness (Mark Alexander) based out of Ft. Myers, Florida.

Alexander_Mark1. What is your geographic market and product specialty?
I specialize in NNN medical office sale/leaseback closings and have been the National Director of MOB sales for SVN for many years. I currently host the SVN National Medical Call where I teach fellow Advisors how to work with doctors and list their MOBs. I have closed 87 MOB sales in my career to date located in six different states. Due to working with such a specific product specialty, I do not have a ‘defined’ geographic market, but rather work nationally across the United States, though most deals are in my home state of Florida.

2. What’s your latest best practice tip that you can share?
Get involved, both in communication and collaboration! First, no one will hear from you, and subsequently think of you, if you do not reach out. If you are not comfortable with that, than I suggest you get comfortable.  My two recent listings came about from me sending monthly post cards and a monthly e-newsletter called the “Alexander Medical Report” to my database of doctors who own medical office buildings. To collect additional content for my e-newsletter, beyond my own closings, I set-up a Google alert that sends me links each day to articles published with keywords “Medical Office”. Due to my research, I am able to share news of MOB closings from around the country, in addition to my own, each month. Second, get out there and collaborate with your fellow Advisors! The sales of my two recent listings (in Sebring and Bradenton totaling over $11 million combined) closed due to collaboration with SVN advisors who provided the buyers in each case. For additional information on those deals, see here and here.

3. What’s been the biggest change over on how you run your business in the past decade?
I joined Sperry Van Ness eleven years ago. When I first joined I had a 2000 SF office where I managed multiple Advisors (including the former Mayor of Ft. Myers) and personally did a good amount of office leasing and property management in addition to working on my MOB sale/leaseback specialty. I was spread too thin, in too many directions, all at once.  At one of my first SVN national conferences I was attending a session on “How to grow your SVN business” and I happen to sit next to Mark Van Ness. I mentioned to him that I did a little bit of leasing, property management and sales. Van Ness said, “Property management can be a decent profit center if you have critical mass”. In other words, you need a lot of it to make money. I realized that my dabbling in property management and leasing was eating up my most important asset – my time. It had created an artificial income ceiling for me.  Shortly after that national conference I started outsourcing my leasing and property management to focus on my specialty and passion…which is medical office sale/leaseback.

Before joining SVN, I had been so busy running my business as a small independent boutique firm, I had really not taken the time to look back and analyze my business and how I might improve it. Over the past ten years, thanks to things I learned from SVN, I slowly phased out my office and now work out of my home and focus solely on MOB sale/leasebacks. My model of business in not for everyone but it works for me. I am more happy now and making more money than I ever did in the past.  Thanks to coaching from SVN at national conferences, I had finally realized that I had been a reluctant manager of sales people in my office and my true passion was just working on deals.  SVN gave me the national network and support to compete on the national stage to provide the best possible service for my doctor clients.

4. What business book do you like to recommend to your colleagues?
It can never be just one book. Our business is constantly evolving with changes in the economy and technology so it is important to consistently read as much as you can to keep your finger on the pulse of our industry and your specialty. Earlier this year, I helped an SVN Advisor in Milwaukee list a $35M MOB solely because I had recently attended two national conferences (one in Scottsdale, AZ and one in Miami, FL) on the medical office market. During a conference call, when the Wisconsin MOB seller started telling me what he thought was the state of the MOB market, I was able to correct him and quote national speakers (who were CEO’s of National Health Care firms) from both conferences on topics that countered this seller’s pre-conceived opinions. The seller grew suddenly quiet, and shortly after we signed the listing. That deal is under contract now with a 1031 buyer and due to close near the end of June for $33.5 million. Interestingly, after we signed the contract, the seller admitted to us that every other competing broker who had pitched this listing before SVN had said it would never sell over $30 million.

5. What’s a fun fact that not everyone knows about you?
my new viewAs a shameless sharer of news and family pictures on Facebook, there is probably little that people don’t know about me already. But I can say, the best part of my day is taking our dog buddy for a walk out our front door along the Miami Beach Marina each morning. I enjoy looking at boats while Buddy intently studies the bushes.  The picture to the right shows the view from the 17th floor condo where I live and work. I moved here in April after spending the previous 33 years in Ft. Myers. My daughter Lauren starts college in the fall at FIU in Miami.

*All Sperry Van Ness offices are independently owned and operated.

Office Spotlight: Sperry Van Ness Commercial Realty in Ft. Lauderdale, FL

This week, we turn the spotlight on Sperry Van Ness Commercial Realty with offices in Ft. Lauderdale and Hialeah, FL.

Keith Kidwell | President | Sperry Van Ness Commercial Realty
Keith Kidwell | President | Sperry Van Ness Commercial Realty

1. What has been your strategy for growing your firm and also your market share?
For over the past 11 years our strategy has not been to grow the firm, it has been to keep the firm small with seasoned commercial brokers and to run a highly efficient office to better serve our clients.

2. What are some of the unique activities you do to motivate your team? 
We have goal challenges with rewards.  If agents meet their goal challenges we will offer free or discounted trips to our state and national conferences, gift certificates, etc.  In addition, we sponsor golf and sporting clay teams for charity fundraisers.

 3. What’s been the biggest challenge in running your business in the last few years?
The biggest challenge has been in ensuring our agents have all the tools necessary to be as productive and as efficient as possible.  This includes keeping up with the latest in technology, social media, etc. and training them to use these tools.

4. How many Advisors/Staff did you have when you joined SVN? How many (in total) do you have now? 
We started the company 11 years ago with 5 agents and 1 staff member and currently have two offices, 6 agents and 2 staff members.  Small and efficient.

Contact:
Keith Kidwell, SIOR, CCIM
President
Sperry Van Ness Commercial Realty
Ft. Lauderdale, FL

*All Sperry Van Ness® offices are independently owned and operated.

Sperry Van Ness® In the News

Many of our Sperry Van Ness® offices and Advisors are regularly appearing in the news. The following is a list of recent media coverage.

May 28, 2014
Jonathan Levy Joins Sperry Van Ness
Advisor: Jonathan Levy
Office: Sperry Van Ness, LLC (Phoenix, AZ)

People on the Move –  Professional Recognition
Advisor: Rommie Mojahed
Office: Sperry Van Ness, LLC (Phoenix, AZ)

May 29, 2014
Four Multi-family Transactions in Metro Phoenix 
Advisor: Neal Sherman & Carrick Sears
Office: Sperry Van Ness, LLC (Phoenix, AZ)

May 30, 2014
Delayed Recovery
Office: Sperry Van Ness Commercial Advisory Group (Sarasota, FL)

June 1, 2014
H&R Block Leases Former Quiznos Building in Salisbury
Advisor: Brent Miller, CCIM, CPM
Office: Sperry Van Ness – Miller Commercial Real Estate (Salisbury, MD)

June 2, 2014
MF Buyer Inks Healthcare Triple Net Sale-Leaseback
Advisor: Mark Alexander, CCIM
Office: Sperry Van Ness (Mark Alexander) (Ft. Myers, FL)

Business Winners
Office: Sperry Van Ness/Parke Group (Ft. Wayne, IN)

The Wood Shed Restaurant Coming to Central Station’s Retail Space in Evanston
Advisor: Ben Andrews
Office: Sperry Van Ness Chicago Commercial (Chicago, IL)

Big Deals: CRE leaders Talk Key Transactions at OBJ Industry Outlook
Advisor: Miguel de Arcos
Office: Sperry Van Ness Florida Commercial Real Estate Advisors (Orlando, FL)

June 4, 2014
Industrial Trends: E-commerce, Reshoring, Post-Panamax
Advisor: Matthew Rotolante, CCIM, SIOR
Office: Sperry Van Ness/South Commercial Real Estate Advisors (Miami, FL) 

Verizon Effect: 5 Businesses Coming to Lake Mary
Advisor: Miguel de Arcos
Office: Sperry Van Ness Florida Commercial Real Estate Advisors (Orlando, FL)

Group Buys Windsor Tract for Development
Advisor: Craig Hau & Robert Hau
Office: Sperry Van Ness/The Group Commercial, LLC (Ft. Collins, CO)

Sperry Van Ness South’s Harrison Klein Earns CCIM Designation
Advisor: Harrison Klein, CCIM
Office: Sperry Van Ness/South Commercial Real Estate Advisors (Miami, FL)

June 5, 2014
Sperry Van Ness International Corporation Adds Franchise in Oklahoma City, OK 
Advisor: Johnathan Russell, CCIM & Drew Dozier
Office: Sperry Van Ness/LandRun Commercial (Oklahoma City, OK)

Sign(s) of the Times as Bank Banners Compete at Chantilly Office Building
Advisor: Kayvan Mehrbakhsh, CCIM, MBA
Office: Sperry Van Ness/SVNMA (Herndon, VA)

June 6, 2014
Investor Buys Bradenton Cardiology Building
Advisor: Mark Alexander, CCIM & Bob Morris
Office: Sperry Van Ness (Mark Alexander) (Ft. Myers, FL) & Sperry Van Ness Commercial Advisory Group (Sarasota, FL)

Storage Firm Buys Vacant Parcel for $1.2 million
Advisor: Wayne Caplan
Office: Sperry Van Ness Chicago Commercial (Chicago, IL)

June 10, 2014
Done Deals: A Big Lease in St. Pete; Retail in Wesley Chapel; Prime Dirt in Clearwater
Advisor: Mark Alexander, CCIM & Bob Morris
Office: Sperry Van Ness (Mark Alexander) (Ft. Myers, FL) & Sperry Van Ness Commercial Advisory Group (Sarasota, FL)

Wesley Cox Named Sperry Van Ness’ 2013 Humanitarian of the Year
Advisor: Wesley Cox, CCIM
Office: Sperry Van Ness – Miller Commercial Real Estate (Salisbury, MD)

June 11, 2014
New Medical Look for SW 17th Street
Advisor: Bartow McDonald
Office: Sperry Van Ness Florida Commercial Real Estate Advisors (Ocala, FL)

Lipsey_2014_BadgeAll Sperry Van Ness® offices are independently owned and operated.

Sperry Van Ness® In the News

Many of our Sperry Van Ness® offices and Advisors are regularly appearing in the news. The following is a list of recent media coverage.

May 1, 2014

Awards and Accolades
Advisor: Justin Horwitz, Neal Sherman, Danny Lee, Rommie Mojahed & Mary Ridberg
Office: Sperry Van Ness, LLC (Phoenix, AZ)

Deli 620 moves to PNC Center in downtown Fort Wayne
Advisor: Whitney Peterson
Office: Sperry Van Ness/Parke Group (Ft. Wayne, IN)

Deal Makers
Advisor: Ryan Imbrie, CCIM
Office: Sperry Van Ness /Imbrie Realty, LLC (Portland, OR)

Done Deals: Apartments sold for $12.3 million
Advisor: Larry Starr & Brad Lindberg
Office: Sperry Van Ness Commercial Advisory Group (Sarasota, FL)

Tomorrow’s Leaders in Retail 
Advisor: Rommie Mojahed
Office: Sperry Van Ness, LLC (Phoenix, AZ)

May 5, 2014

Broward Bank of Commerce Invites Small Business Owners to Learn, Grow and Prosper from Complimentary Event Series Celebrating Small Business Week 2014
Advisor: Les Byron, SIOR, CCIM
Office: Sperry Van Ness Commercial Realty (Ft. Lauderdale, FL)

 Hot Real Estate Office Notches $43 Million in Sales
Advisor: Tony Veldkamp, CCIM
Office: Sperry Van Ness Commercial Advisory Group (Sarasota, FL)

Sperry Van Ness Welcomes Sayavedra
Advisor: Jimena Sayavedra
Office: Sperry Van Ness Chicago Commercial (Chicago, IL)

May 6, 2014

Sperry Van Ness sells 26 of 49 condo units in Evanston development
Advisor: Jim Sears & Reid Bennett, CCIM
Office: Sperry Van Ness Chicago Commercial (Chicago, IL)

May 7, 2014

Local Sperry Van Ness® Office Ranked #3 in the Nation
Advisor: Larry Starr
Office: Sperry Van Ness Commercial Advisory Group (Sarasota, FL)

$7.25M Evanston Illinois Bulk Condo Sale
Advisor: Jim Sears & Reid Bennett, CCIM
Office: Sperry Van Ness Chicago Commercial (Chicago, IL)

Sperry Van Ness® Announces Property Management Survey Results
Office: Sperry Van Ness International Corporation

The Deal Sheet
Advisor: Jim Sears & Reid Bennett, CCIM
Office: Sperry Van Ness Chicago Commercial (Chicago, IL)

May 8, 2014

Why Illinois Leads In Sustainability
Advisor: Jimena Sayavedra
Office: Sperry Van Ness Chicago Commercial (Chicago, IL)

Providing Value and Increasing Income Through Corporate Real Estate Services
Advisor: David Wilk, CRE, MAI & Alex Ruggieri, CCIM, MBA
Office:  Sperry Van Ness Miller Commercial Real Estate (Wilmington, DE) & Sperry Van Ness/ Ramshaw Real Estate, Inc.

May 9, 2014

Commercial real estate transactions
Advisor: David Dunn, CCIM, SIOR
Office: Sperry Van Ness/Dunn Commercial (Arlington, TX)

May 11, 2014

Sunday’s real estate roundup
Advisor: Mark Alexander, CCIM
Office: Sperry Van Ness (Mark Alexander) (Ft. Myers, FL)

May 12, 2014

MiBiz Growth Report
Advisor: Peter Colvin
Office: Sperry Van Ness/Investment Property Advisors (Holland, MI)

The Deal Sheet
Advisor: Jacquelyn Faranso
Office: Sperry Van Ness Chicago Commercial (Chicago, IL)

May 13, 2014

A Trail Helps Open Up a Dallas Neighborhood to New Development
Advisor: Todd Franks
Office: Sperry Van Ness/TJF Investments (Dallas, TX)

Real Estate Briefs
Advisor: Stan Snipes, CCIM, David W. Creed & Stephen F. Graw
Office: Sperry Van Ness/Investec Realty Services (Nashville, TN)

​Sperry Van Ness Advisors Close Several New Retail and Office Transactions
Office: Sperry Van Ness, LLC (Phoenix, AZ)

Positive First Quarter
Advisor: Mary Ridberg
Office: Sperry Van Ness, LLC (Phoenix, AZ)

May 14, 2014

Golden Hill apartment on A Street sold
Advisor: Jim Taylor & Shelly Bird
Office: Sperry Van Ness/Finest City Commercial (San Diego, CA)

May 16, 2014

Family farm expands to Caroline
Advisor: Ben Alder
Office: Sperry Van Ness – Miller Commercial Real Estate (Salisbury, MD)

May 17, 2014

Scene: Budding musicians celebrate at CMS brunch
Advisor: Deborah Skeans, CCIM, MAI
Office: Sperry Van Ness | Imperial Realty (Allentown, PA)

May 18, 2014

Rangers owners buy more land near ballpark from Tom Hicks
Advisor: Clint Montgomery, CPM, RPA
Office: Sperry Van Ness/Visions Commercial (Ft. Worth, TX)

May 19, 2014

USDA to Auction Nine Michigan Apartment Complexes
Advisor: John Johnson, CCIM, ALC & David Gilmore, CCIM, CAI, AARE
Office: Sperry Van Ness/Interstate Auction Management (Atlanta, GA)  & Sperry Van Ness/Gilmore Auction & Realty Co. (Kennar, LA)

May 21, 2014

Vacant industrial building in Alsip sells for $1.1 million
Advisor: Beverly Hayes
Office: Sperry Van Ness Chicago Commercial (Chicago, IL)

May 22, 2014 

Add Value by Using 1031 Exchanges
Advisor: Alex Ruggieri, CCIM, MBA
Office: Sperry Van Ness/ Ramshaw Real Estate, Inc.  (Champaign, IL)

May 23, 2014

Cobblestone Inn & Suites going up in Eaton
Advisor: Cobey Wess & Dan Leuschen
Office: Sperry Van Ness/The Group Commerical, LLC (Ft. Collins, CO)

May 27, 2014

AuctionWorks to Host Real Estate Auction June 23-25
Advisor: Diana Peterson
Office: Sperry Van Ness/AuctionWorks (Chicago, IL)

May 28, 2014

Bankruptcy Trustee Files Motion to Sell Brennan’s Trade Name, Seek Competing Bids
Advisor: David Gilmore, CCIM, CAI, AARE
Office: Sperry Van Ness/Gilmore Auction & Realty Co. (Kennar, LA)

 

2014 Lipsey

All Sperry Van Ness® offices are independently owned and operated.

Top 5 Things That Keep Property Management Executives Up At Night

Running a business can often be a thankless job.  When you couple that with the business being a property management company, the things that can keep you up at night are endless.  In January, the Sperry Van Ness® property management team conducted a survey of 100 commercial property management executives across the country to identify the issues with which they were struggling in their business.  The results overwhelmingly identified 5 issues that challenge property management executives in 2014.  Overwhelmingly, the executives surveyed stated that:

  1. We need a better pipeline for future business.
  2. We lack referrals for new business.
  3. We are not considered a preferred provider for larger or institutional landlords.
  4. We need more/better access to larger or institutional landlords.
  5. We lack marketing.

At Sperry Van Ness International Corporation our independently owned and operated Sperry Van Ness® franchisees tackle these issues and are able to sleep better at night knowing that they have a national brand with tools, resources, training and an entire community of real estate advisors standing behind them. Not only is Sperry Van Ness® a nationally recognized brand[1] with over 40 million square feet and 22,000+ multifamily units under management, our property management franchisees integrate seamlessly with our brokerage platform, which in 2013, participated in over $8 billion in transactions. This national platform provides our franchisees with multiple opportunities for:

  • Costs savings through our Master Insurance Program and other discounted services;
  • Unique offerings for your prospects and clients like SVNGreen for energy efficiency;
  • National account business; and
  • Expansion into brokerage through our SVN System for Growth™.

Download the “Top Five Things that Keep Property Management Executives Up at Night” white paper for free by clicking on the image below and take the next step in a better night’s sleep.

SVN-Upatnight-1

 

 

 

 

Want to learn more about Sperry Van Ness® property management franchises? Visit https://svn.com/cre-franchising-opportunities/ or contact us at pmfranchise@svn.com.


[1] Sperry Van Ness® brand was ranked the 12th largest Property Management firm for 2013 by Commercial Property Executive magazine.

Relating “The Extra Mile” by Glenn Morshower to the SVN Core Covenants

How does “The Extra Mile” by Glenn Morshower correspond and relate to the SVN Core Covenants?

We had the distinct pleasure of being exposed to an outstanding keynote speaker, Glenn Morshower, recently at our SVN National conference in San Antonio. As always our Executive team, Advisory Board and conference team hit a home run in my opinion with Glenn; certainly entertaining, definitely memorable and hugely credible. I think he hit on all facets of our SVN life, our business and our sense of community. For fun, I overlaid his “Extra Mile” concept over our Core Covenants. See if you agree that they line up very well.

[slideshow_deploy id=’5754′]

Cooperating proactively with all brokers and agents and always placing my client’s interests above my own.

“Do unto others as you would have life do unto you”.

Showing respect and support to my clients and colleagues.

“Who I am anywhere is who I am everywhere”.

Honoring my commitments.

“There is no boundary on good or truth”.

Personifying and upholding the Sperry Van Ness® brand.

“We are winners by design”.

Creating tangible benefits for my clients, colleagues and community.

“It’s not I’ll believe it when I see it, but rather I will see it when I believe it”

Resolving conflicts quickly, positively and effectively.

“I am no longer disposed to be in conflict with myself or anyone”.

Taking personal responsibility for achieving my own potential.

Like the “Circle of Habit” for Gill in the Fish Bowl…we know how to find and fill a bathtub…no limits.

Excelling in my market area and specialty within the firm.

“What do I want to do most?”

Focusing on the positive and possible.

“Impossibilities become possibilities; possibilities become probabilities; probabilities become inevitabilities”; it is up to you.

Nurturing my career while valuing the importance of family, health and community.

The balance of life is Spiritual, Emotional, Financial and Physical. Is what you are doing a “contribution or a contamination?”

Four Essential Qualities of a Highly Successful Commercial Real Estate Advisor

Four Essential Qualities of a Highly Successful Commercial Real Estate Advisor

There’s a lot more to being a successful commercial real estate Advisor than just having a few good suits and spending a lot of time with a cell phone glued to your ear. While it starts with thinking of yourself as an Advisor instead of just a broker that gets a deal done and moves onto the next one, after closing thousands of transactions, we’ve identified four must-have qualities that set the best Advisors apart.

An Allergy to No
To a large extent, commercial real estate Advisors make their living by being told “no.” It can take hundreds or thousands of unsuccessful cold calls to get to a single paycheck. For most people, “no” is an ending. Successful Advisors, on the other hand, take a “no” as a reason to go ask another question – or ask another prospect. And they keep going until they hear “yes.”

An Add-Value Attitude
We deal with highly sophisticated clients. Traditional sales tricks won’t work on them, while transactions are rare enough that you also can’t simply show up and hope that business will fall in your pocket. With this in mind, exemplary Advisors know that the key to building relationships that turn into transactions is to continually add value to prospects. Great Advisors earn relationships and loyalty by continually helping their clients. Whether they’re sharing a great piece of information to open up a prospecting call, sharing important market information or helping a client to better manage their operating expenses, they put in the work in the near term to earn the fees in the long term.

An Ability to Find Wins
Commercial real estate negotiations are some of the most complex in the business world. Good Advisors keep their client’s interests at heart. The best Advisors also understand what the other side in the negotiation needs. That way, they can find issues that will allow that party to win while still giving their client what she needs to successfully consummate the transaction.

An Absolute Sense of Integrity
Here’s a shocker. You don’t need integrity to get into commercial real estate. You don’t even need it to make money in the field. Where you need it is if you want to stay in the industry.
Above and beyond simply being the right thing to do, Integrity serves two important business purposes. The first is that it keeps you out of court. In a business where everyone can afford legal representation, it makes no sense to play fast and loose. The second is that real integrity is the most powerful brand-building tool you have. As clients see proof of your ethics over a period of years, you earn their loyalty and their referral business. If they learn that you lack it, on the other hand, your brand becomes irreparably tarnished.

Do you think we missed anything? Let us know what you think makes a great commercial real estate Advisor below by leaving a comment!


5 for Friday with Jimena Sayavedra of Sperry Van Ness Chicago Commercial

This week, our 5 for Friday features Jimena Sayavedra, an Associate Advisor with Sperry Van Ness Chicago Commercial based out of Chicago, Illinois.

Jimena Sayavedra | Associate Advisor |SVN Chicago Commercial
Jimena Sayavedra | Associate Advisor |SVN Chicago Commercial

1. What is your geographic market and product specialty?
My geographic focus is Metropolitan Chicago industrial corridors and my product specialty is Industrial sales and leasing.

2. What’s your latest best practice tip that you can share?
I believe that targeted well-planned networking is a very powerful tool to grow connections not only for career advancement but especially to grow our real estate practice. Either face-to-face networking or via social media, It creates opportunities to initiate conversations to connect with people and discuss problems and solutions with sellers, buyers, landlords, and tenants.

Another foundation of any real estate practice is cold calling, which goes hand-and-hand with networking, since both require excellent communication skills, industry knowledge and confidence. Tackling these two tasks I think are fundamental steps to develop and maintain a strong database of clients, which is the groundwork for my practice as a commercial real estate advisor.

3. What’s been the biggest change over on how you run your business in the past decade?
Since I am newer to the brokerage business, I would say definitely social media is a game changer in all that we do. It makes us more efficient because it allows us initiating or following up on connections and relationships  with more people.  For us in the commercial real estate business, it is a great advantage to connect digitally with members within companies, groups, associations where we can start conversations and find leads. I think it is a great complement to the permanent cold calling that is part of our daily practice.

I am now focusing on prospecting and will follow with developing my “presence.”

4. What business book do you like to recommend to your colleagues?
“Lean In” by Sheryl Sandberg. I think Sandberg with this book has opened up so many issues related to women and  work and how women tend to hold back when we actually have everything to succeed in the business world and bring more women to leadership positions. I think a lot of what she says in her book is very applicable to women in the male dominated real estate sector, where we women bring skills that add great value to this profession.

5. What’s a fun fact that not everyone knows about you?
I am a marathon runner, I have completed 18 marathons, including 2 Boston, 10 Chicago, 1 New York among others. I just finished Boston.

*All Sperry Van Ness offices are independently owned and operated.

Office Spotlight: SVN/Walt Arnold Commerical Brokerage, Inc. in Albuquerque, NM

This week, we turn the spotlight on SVN/Walt Arnold Commercial Brokerage, Inc. with offices in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

Walt Arnold | Managing Director | SVN/Walt Arnold Commercial Brokerage, Inc.
Walt Arnold | Managing Director | SVN/Walt Arnold Commercial Brokerage, Inc.

1. What has been your strategy for growing your firm and also your market share?
The strategy has been to create an environment for brokers to have the tools to compete, fulfill and win business, employing brokers and staff that are committed to showing up and working hard, hiring quality brokers that fit into the culture of Sperry Van Ness, whether new to the business, mid-career or established veterans. And to have fun in the process, realizing that so much of our careers and life is about the journey. Sperry Van Ness has provided an outstanding platform to recruit high quality individuals to SVN/WACB, Inc. and the Sperry Van Ness story has been instrumental in growing my company and market share.

2. What are some of the unique activities you do to motivate your team? 
Almost every Monday is a “Lunch and Learn” and these sessions encompass not only title underwriters, attorneys, contractors, bankers and many other businesses associated with CRE, but we also work on sales skills and other activities that help us all grow in the CRE business. A recent series of Mondays involved going through Terri Sjodin’s tape series title, Small Message, Big Impact, which was about creating an elevator speech. We capped it of by bringing in a local expert on the subject and everyone developed a 30 seconds elevator pitch and presented it. It was a great exercise for everyone regardless of the years of experience.  We also schedule events (baseball games, football tailgate, bowling, billiards, non-profit events, etc.) outside the office quarterly to get out and spend some time together.

 3. What’s been the biggest challenge in running your business in the last few years?
Obviously on of the biggest challenges has been to manage cash flow the past several years, which hopefully is starting to improve as we come out of the pit of recession. Another is our goal of continuing to create an environment that’s a great place to work. I mention this as a challenge because it has to be top of mind and takes some detailed effort and energy to continue to improve and to ask how we can do things better for our clients, customers and each other.

SVN/Walt Arnold Commercial Brokerage, Inc. Staff at Halloween
SVN/Walt Arnold Commercial Brokerage, Inc. Staff at Halloween

4. How many Advisors/Staff did you have when you joined SVN? How many (in total) do you have now? 
When I started with Sperry Van Ness 7 years ago, I had an assistant, a property manager and one broker. Currently now in the office are 8 brokers, a property manager, a property management accountant, a marketing director, and 3 part-time support staff in property management, brokerage and accounting.

Contact:
Walt Arnold, CCIM, SIOR
Managing Director
SVN/Walt Arnold Commercial Brokerage, Inc.
Albuquerque, New Mexico

*All Sperry Van Ness® offices are independently owned and operated.

Sperry Van Ness In The News

Many of our Sperry Van Ness offices and Advisors are regularly appearing in the news. The following is a list of some recent media coverage.

April 30, 2014

Deli 620 moves to PNC Center in downtown Fort Wayne
Advisor: Whitney Peterson
Office: Sperry Van Ness/Parke Group (Ft. Wayne, IN)

April 29, 2014

Broker: ‘Distressed’ Silver Springs hotel sold
Advisor: Bartow McDonald
Office: Sperry Van Ness Florida Commercial Real Estate Advisors (Ocala, FL)

Extraction Oil & Gas leases property in Greeley
Advisor: Dan Leuschen & Steve Kawulok
Office: Sperry Van Ness/The Group Commercial, LLC (Fort Collins, CO)

Premium Valve Services takes space in Loveland
Advisor: Craig Hau
Office: Sperry Van Ness/The Group Commercial, LLC (Fort Collins, CO)

April 28, 2014

Firm gets new $4M home, complete with big rig in the sky
Advisor: Mark Motley
Office: Sperry Van Ness/Motley’s (Richmond, VA)

Justice Brandeis’ boyhood home auctioned for $880,000
Advisor: Bill Menish & Don Erler
Office: SVN Auction Services | ErlerMenish (Louisville, KY)

April 25, 2014

SVN Sarasota Office Receives Award
Advisor: Larry Starr
Office: Sperry Van Ness Commercial Advisory Group (Sarasota, FL)

Sperry Van Ness brokers deal for Midtown Title, INETCO
Advisor: Stan Snipes & David Creed
Office: Sperry Van Ness/Investec Realty Services (Brentwood, TN)

People On The Move
Advisor: Alex Ruggieri
Office: Sperry Van Ness/Ramshaw Real Estate, Inc. (Champaign, IL)

Timeco Systems moves to downtown office
Advisor: Angela Varga & Debra Cooper
Office: Sperry Van Ness Commercial Advisory Group (Sarasota, FL)

April 24, 2014

SVN Awarded at Conference
Office: Sperry Van Ness, LLC (Phoenix, AZ)

Sperry Van Ness closes deals
Advisor: Brad Lindburg, Larry Starr & Gail Bowden
Office: Sperry Van Ness Commercial Advisory Group (Sarasota, FL)

April 23, 2014

Brandeis childhood home up for sale to highest bidder
Advisor: Bill Menish
Office: SVN Auction Services | ErlerMenish (Louisville, KY)

NNN Burger King Trades for $1.65 Million in South Carolina
Advisor: Adam C. Wells
Office: Sperry Van Ness/South Commercial Real Estate Advisors (Miami, FL)

April 21, 2014

Brandeis home being sold at auction
Advisor: Bill Menish
Office: SVN Auction Services | ErlerMenish (Louisville, KY)

April 20, 2014

Louis Brandeis Boyhood Home Up For Auction
Advisor: Bill Menish
Office: SVN Auction Services | ErlerMenish (Louisville, KY)

April 18, 2014

Kevin Maggiacomo, Sperry Van Ness CEO, Delivers a Diversity Idea Worth Spreading at TEDx Orange Coast
Office: SVNIC

April 17, 2014

Sperry Van Ness Pushing Auction Services Program
Advisor: Jerry Anderson
Office: SVN Auction Services

Sperry Van Ness ramps up auction program
Advisor: Jerry Anderson
Office: SVN Auction Services 

April 16, 2014

Patty McClimmans Named as a ‘Top Achiever’
Advisor: Patty McClimmans
Office: Sperry Van Ness Real Estate, LLC (Naples, FL)

Sperry Puts Foot on CRE Auction Pedal
Advisor: Jerry Anderson
Office: SVN Auction Services

April 15, 2014

Sperry Van Ness advisors and staff attend national convention in Texas
Office: Sperry Van Ness/Miller Commercial Real Estate (Salisbury, MD)

 

5 For Friday with Gail Bowden of Sperry Van Ness Commercial Advisory Group

Gail Bowden | Senior Investment Advisor | Sperry Van Ness Commercial Advisory Group
Gail Bowden | Senior Investment Advisor | Sperry Van Ness Commercial Advisory Group

This week, our 5 for Friday features Gail Bowden, an Advisor with Sperry Van Ness Commercial Advisory Group based out of Sarasota, Florida.

1. What is your geographic market and product specialty?
My major geographic market is Florida, with Manatee, Sarasota, and Charlotte Counties being my sub-markets. I have also co-listed with other SVN Advisors on various projects outside of Florida. My specialty is in coordinating and completing complex commercial transactions with multiple players and many moving parts, such as when dealing with a 1031 exchange. I find this type of transaction interesting and challenging at the same time. It is always very rewarding to bring a complicated deal together for my clients. I have a significant amount of experience in dealing with venture capital, project finance, construction, and development.

2. What’s your latest best practice tip that you can share?
My best practice tip for Advisors is to utilize innovative thinking and collaboration. From a client relations perspective, I would recommend finding ways to nourish your relationships through embracing all the tools technology has given us, such as social media as a means for establishing greater relationships with existing clients as well a strong web presence for attracting new clients. If you are not very tech savvy, outsource it. You have to be where your clients are, and the importance of making yourself visible on the web will only increase with time.

3. What’s been the biggest change over on how you run your business in the past decade?
I would have to say technology has had the biggest influence on how I run my business as well as being a great contributor to my success. In fact, technology is changing the way everyone does business and has become a driving factor behind the shifting landscape of the commercial real estate industry as a whole. Technology has caused a major paradigm shift in regard to just about every aspect of our lives.

4. What business book do you like to recommend to your colleagues?
“Feel the Fear and Do It Anyway”, by Susan Jeffers

5. What’s a fun fact that not everyone knows about you?
Not everyone knows that I am a grandmother of two amazing grandchildren in Utah. They are an absolute joy and I frequently travel to see them just about every two months. It may also come as a surprise to most that I recently completed a 120-mile ride from Orlando to Sarasota on a Tandem bike with one of my SVNCAG coworkers, Bruce Dilges. I like challenging myself and trying new things. I always say that I will try just about anything at least once.

*All Sperry Van Ness offices are independently owned and operated.

Office Spotlight: Sperry Van Ness Commercial Advisory Group in Bradenton & Sarasota, FL

This week, we turn the spotlight on Sperry Van Ness Commercial Advisory Group with offices in Bradenton and Sarasota, Florida.

Tony Veldkamp, CCIM | Managing Director | Sperry Van Ness Commercial Advisory Group
Tony Veldkamp, CCIM | Managing Director | Sperry Van Ness Commercial Advisory Group

1. What has been your strategy for growing your firm and also your market share?
We are very fortunate in our tertiary market to not have any other national commercial brokerage brands with a presence here.  The big firms dabble in our market from Tampa, but our biggest competition is three strong independents and a Coldwell Banker firm.  Commercial agents in our market were seeking a pure commercial real estate firm with national strength and power, but that was still very entrepreneurial and could adapt to the local market.  So Sperry Van Ness was a great fit for them.

My advisors are my best recruiters.  When they are out in the market they keep their ears open to hear of any agents with good talent, who might be looking to make a move.  They all believe in synergy and “activity begets activity”.  So they do not hesitate to bring someone of good quality, and reputation, to my attention.  Reputation and dealing fairly are very important attributes at our office.

Our market area consists of three counties with ten different cities to work in.  So while we have our main office in Sarasota and a branch office in Bradenton to show good market presence in those two counties, we will expand to add a branch office in our third county so no property is further than 30 minutes from any office.

2. What are some of the unique activities you do to motivate your team? 
Well you have to be self-motivated to be in this business for sure.  But I do believe in accountability.  I’m constantly questioning my team on their deals, market area, and specialty to have them constantly thinking about how to improve their business.  I also introduce “out of the box” ideas to get them thinking about alternative ways to seek new business.  I make prospecting suggestions and show them potential holes in the market that they can take advantage of.  But ultimately it is up to them.

 3. What’s been the biggest challenge in running your business in the last few years?
Since we are only in our 3rd year as a group working together, one of the biggest challenges has been budgeting.  Determining what services we can afford to provide to our agents based on the split arrangement we agreed upon.  We are now able to look back at the past two years and arrive at something everyone is comfortable with.  Also since we only take on experienced agents, and we’ve had tremendous growth there in the past two years, a challenge has been trying to figure out how much coaching each agent will accept, what they need, and what they don’t need.  Some folks you just need to stay out of their way, but be there when they need to bounce ideas off of you.

4. How many Advisors/Staff did you have when you joined SVN? How many (in total) do you have now? 
When I joined the group there were nine advisors and two staff in one office.  Now we have 15 advisors, with 3 staff, in two offices.  Interestingly 4 of the original 9 left us due to poor performance.  So we’ve recruited 10 new advisors in two years.

Contact:

Tony Veldkamp, CCIM
Managing Director
Sperry Van Ness Commercial Advisory Group
Sarasota & Bradenton, Florida

The Sperry Van Ness Florida Team consists of experienced Commercial Real Estate Advisors in 22 offices throughout the State. For more information on Tony Veldkamp, CCIM and his team, visit http://suncoastsvn.com.

*All Sperry Van Ness® offices are independently owned and operated.

Sperry Van Ness In The News

Many of our Sperry Van Ness offices and Advisors are regularly appearing in the news. The following is a list of some recent media coverage. 

March 20, 2014
Westlake Village Building Sells for $7.7 Million
Office: Sperry Van Ness – Rich Investment Real Estate Partners
Advisor: Jeff Albee, Travis Albee

April 2, 2014
Micro Apartments Reflect Macro Trends
Office: Sperry Van Ness | Bluestone & Hockley
Advisor: Steve Morris

Historical College Sees Hope In Sale
Office: SVN Auction Services | Motley’s
Advisor: Patrice Carroll, MBA

SVN | Chicago Commercial Completes Sale of Walton on the Park South
Office: Sperry Van Ness Chicago Commercial
Advisor: Jerry Goldner

Woman of the Year
Office: Sperry Van Ness Chicago Commercial
Advisor: Jacquelyn Faranso

Future of Saint Paul’s is Sealed
Office: SVN Auction Services | Motley’s
Advisor: Patrice Carroll, MBA

April 3, 2014
Sperry Van Ness® Launches National Expansion Initiative for Auction Services Program
Office: SVN Auction Services

TopGolf, Jimmy John’s Scope Out El Paso at Conference
Office: Sperry Van Ness/Fortune Real Estate
Advisor: Jacob Quinn

Culture | Owl Photographer
Office: Sperry Van Ness Chicago Commercial
Advisor: Jerry Goldner

April 4, 2014
People On the Move
Office: Sperry Van Ness Chicago Commercial
Advisor: Jacquelyn Faranso

On The Move | Phoenix Business Journal
Office: Sperry Van Ness, LLC
Advisor: Beau Flahart

April 7, 2014
Hampton Courts Auctioned Off for $1.95M
Office: SVN Auction Services, SVN Auction Services | Gilmore
Advisor: Louis Fisher, David Gilmore

April 8, 2014
Sperry Van Ness-RICORE Adds Investment Advisor to Team
Office: Sperry Van Ness – RICORE
Advisor: Nathan Murphy

April 10, 2014
Overview and Outlook for the Hospitality Industry
Office: Sperry Van Ness/Ramshaw Real Estate, Inc.
Advisor: Alex Ruggieri, CCIM

April 11, 2014
Real Estate Brokerage In Good Company
Office: Sperry Van Ness Commercial Advisory Group
Advisor: Tony Veldcamp, CCIM

Boyhood Home of Brandeis To Be Auctioned Off
Office: SVN Auction Services | ErlerMenish
Advisor: Bill Menish, CAI, AARE

Sperry Van Ness Phoenix Takes Home Several Awards at the SVN National Conference in San Antonio has been published on CEM
Office: Sperry Van Ness, LLC

Industry Professionals in the News
Office: Sperry Van Ness, LLC

S

2Q Self Storage Market Update by Nick Malagisi, SIOR

Self storage fared better than every other commercial real estate sector during this past recession. However, the sector was not recession-proof, rather it was recession-resistant. After two years of losses (nine consecutive quarters), the four publicly traded REITS turned the corner and now have reported eight consecutive positive quarters. Occupancies are up; concessions are down; and rental rates are finally climbing back to pre-recession levels. REITS, in general, have outperformed the S & P and Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) for all of 2011 and 2012.

The self storage industry has finally begun to consolidate as the number of new construction starts diminished each of the last five years from their peak in 2006. The industry doubled in size from one billion to two billion square feet from 1995 to 2006. The top twenty operators in the USA control less than 20% of the total market. That will change as the REITS, flush with investment cash, acquire and increase their market share in select markets. Similarly, other new sources of institutional monies have been watching the sector and have concluded that self storage returns are as dependable, or even more secure, than the other traditional commercial real estate asset classes. These new funds/buyers are very competitive with the REITS and have forced Cap Rates down to the 5.5-6.5% range for stabilized, class “A”-good quality facilities located in the top 10 markets. Cap rates in secondary and tertiary markets remain in the 7-10% range depending on the age of the facility, location of the property and its demographics.

In terms of financing, self storage continues to enjoy the lowest default rate of any other sector in the CMBS market.  While banks and life insurance companies are more conservative in their underwriting than they were pre-recession, interest rates for refinancing are in the 4.50% to 5.75% range, with an expected 30-35% equity contribution.

Banks and Special Servicers are beginning to foreclose on borrowers that can’t make their mortgage payments or  meet new debt/equity requirements. We should see more lender sales of under-performing assets and notes later on in 2013. Or, the lenders may decide to package their bad loans and sell them via auctions to get them off their books and leave the buyers of the notes to proceed to foreclosure and/or re-sell the notes to the original borrower or the open market. At the end of 2009, the Sperry Van Ness National Self Storage Team participated in a bulk sale when Key Bank was selling a construction loan portfolio with a face value of $32M.

As we look ahead to the remaining half of 2013, we should see industry performance continue to improve; increased consolidation from the larger operators; and financing from the CMBS market become an option for smaller deals; all factors which will narrow the spread between the amount buyers are willing to pay and the amount sellers are willing to accept.

 

Prepared by:

Nick Malagisi
Nick Malagisi, Self Storage Council ChairContributed by:

Nick Malagisi

Chair of  the Self Storage Product Council

 

 

 

*All Sperry Van Ness® offices are independently owned and operated.

 

5 for Friday with Mary Ridberg of Sperry Van Ness, LLC

This week, our 5 for Friday features Mary Ridberg, an Advisor with Sperry Van Ness, LLC based out of Phoenix, AZ.

1. What is your geographic market and product specialty?
My product specialty is Retail Leasing, Tenant Representation, and Investment Sales in the Phoenix market with a special focus on my own backyard in the East Valley including Gilbert, Chandler, Ahwatukee, Tempe, and Mesa.

2. What’s your latest best practice tip that you can share?
The power of team work. My partner Rommie Mojahed and I have found that team work extends our business plan beyond where we could reach as individuals. We have found that the male/female team has allowed us to serve the needs of many of our clients’ communication styles. We collaborate, continuously cross check, divide and conquer when necessary, and gain strength from each other’s prospective. We serve as Directors of Leasing for Sperry Van Ness, LLC in Phoenix. We use team work within our office and meet to collaborate twice each month as a group. We find these group meetings a great strategy for producing results internally.

3. What’s been the biggest change over on how you run your business in the past decade?
The past decade has presented the greatest dichotomy to our industry. There was a time of what seemed to be limitless potential followed very closely by a time of great challenge. Survival and compassion for those around us gave way to navigating strategies with colleagues, clients, institutions, and asset managers. Collaboration with individuals we may never have had the chance to serve in such a powerful way took place and as we look back we cherish the place we are today in the journey and the contribution we were able to offer.

4. What business book do you like to recommend to your colleagues?
Strengthsfinder 2.0 by Tom Rath. I find this extremely helpful especially when working in teams to identify individual strengths and how to complement one another. I also recommend The Fred Factor by Mark Sanborn.

5. What’s a fun fact that not everyone knows about you?
I traveled for a few years at the beginning of college performing with a group that toured with Doc Severinsen, Sergio Mendez, and Carlos Santana. I was in two T.V. commercials in New York and modeled in Chicago. I lived in Wisconsin at the time and all travel for our performances was by bus. After two years on the road I welcomed the chance to go to college and live in a dorm.

*All Sperry Van Ness offices are independently owned and operated.

What a Deal … SVN Chicago Commercial Closes Largest Sale in Sperry Van Ness History

A huge congratulations to Jerry Goldner, Vice President of Investment Sales at SVN Chicago Commercial, for recently closing the largest single deal in Sperry Van Ness history.

The property, Walton on the Park South, is located in Chicago’s Gold Coast at 2 West Delaware Street. The sale consisted of 160 units of the 201-unit high-rise rental condominium tower and an adjacent 17,180 square-foot development site zoned for 261 residential units. It was purchased by Miami developer, Crescent Heights, Inc.

Not only is this the largest deal in SVN history, but the largest for Goldner who, acting as sole broker, closed the deal with an unsolicited offer. Goldner has over 34-years of commercial real estate experience in the Chicago market and proved that when you work hard and offer the SVN Difference, you can do anything you set your mind to. Click here for full transaction details.

“This transaction started over 4 years ago when I represented the previous owners. It has been the most challenging and rewarding experience of my 34- years as an investment Advisor.”

 

Sources
The Broker List

*All Sperry Van Ness offices are independently owned and operated.

Kevin Maggiacomo's State of the Company Address

The following are the closing words of my State of the Company address at our National Conference in San Antonio on March 13, 2014. I wanted to write them down so that even those who didn’t join us this year could reflect on them. The video of the full speech was circulated to the all Sperry Van Ness® Advisors and Staff on April 7, 2014.

Kevin Maggiacomo, President & CEO
Kevin Maggiacomo, President & CEO

“I want to close out by reminding you of something very special and unique that exists here; something that separates SVN Advisors and the brand from any other firm in the industry, and that’s the SVN culture.  It’s special, almost tangible. It’s real. And as long as we use the Core Covenants to guide everything we do with and for SVN, our unique culture will remain intact.

There are people who don’t fit our culture. Those will always exist. There are advisors who break the rules, and that will happen from time to time.  But from the way in which we collaborate to market properties, to the way in which we clearly place our clients’ interests first, the unique SVN culture is real, is present…and I don’t want to sound like an evangelist but I can feel it in this room.

A company’s culture is one of the only true sustainable advantages SVN or any company has, if you think about it.

Given enough time and money, our competitors can duplicate almost everything we do (they can but they can’t).  They can attempt to hire away some of our best people. They can try to reverse engineer our processes. But the only thing they can’t duplicate is the way in which we live our culture.

The culture to change the industry–we are a company of professionals. Professionals willing to share information and fees, because that’s how we achieve maximum value for our clients.

The SVN brand–synonymous with all of that, and being driven by our firm owners – local ownership – with ties and vested interests in our communities.

Our culture is unique, our culture is brave and I’d like you to give yourselves a round of applause to celebrate each other and company of which you are a part.”

Kevin Maggiacomo
CEO & President
Sperry Van Ness International Corporation

 

*All Sperry Van Ness offices are independently owned and operated.

5 for Friday with Henry Hanna

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.

Henry Hanna, CCIM, SIOR, senior advisor at Sperry Van Ness/Miller Commercial Real Estate
Henry Hanna, CCIM, SIOR, senior advisor at Sperry Van Ness/Miller Commercial Real Estate

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.

 

The story behind the Sperry Van Ness Monday Morning Call

One of the hallmarks of the Sperry Van Ness® (SVN) brand is our Monday Morning Sales Call. While almost all commercial real estate teams have a weekly sales meeting of some sort, the SVN call is not only national in scope, but it’s open to the entire brokerage community.  Why do we do this? Because we believe in basic economic fundamentals:

The greater the exposure, the bigger demand; the bigger the demand, the higher the sale price of an asset.  It’s economics 101.

To find out more, view our SVN Difference video.

At SVN we believe that achieving the highest and best price is always in our clients’ best interests. We practice compensated cooperation where we pay equitable co-brokerage fees on all properties to not only our own Advisors, but to any and all outside brokers.  This is where the Monday Morning Sales Call comes in.

Sperry Van Ness National Call
SVN Parke Group watches the Sperry Van Ness national call as an office in their conference room.

With co-brokerage fees motivating the marketplace, compensated cooperation guarantees that more buyers view our clients’ properties, pumping up demand, and ultimately the purchase price.

When an SVN advisor receives a new listing, it’s immediately entered into our innovative cloud-based system, creating instantaneous marketing materials and websites as well as syndication links to multiple listing services.

Qualified properties are then featured on our weekly Monday National Sales call, which is attended by our SVN advisors and other guests who are potential partners for a deal. Following the call, SVN publicizes those properties across the Internet to thousands of more potential purchasers.  The result? Here’s what our advisors have to say:

“I’ve done 4 or 5 deals … with other SVN Advisors and most of them came from the Monday morning call.”

“Sold two [NNN Investment] properties in 2012 [due to Monday morning call].”

“I’ve closed many transactions as Buyer’s broker or Seller’s broker due to the Monday Morning Call.”

“Just this week, I sent a property to my buyer, and that buyer is looking hard at it.”

By exposing listings to not only SVN advisors across the country, but also members of the outside brokerage community our advisors have more opportunities to find the right partner to close more deals.   You may think that Advisors are giving up some by splitting the commission 50/50, but they gain a lot more when they close more deals, more quickly and at a higher price.

This dedication to transparency and collaboration is something we work into every facet of SVN services from investment sales to tenant representation, from property and asset management to corporate, leasing and auction services.

To register for our Monday Morning Sales Call click here.

To find out more about franchise opportunities click here.

5 for Friday with Bob Lovelace of SVN Florida

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.

Bob Lovelace
Bob Lovelace, MAI, CCIM, Senior Advisor, SVN Florida

 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.

 

Sperry Van Ness is Hot on LinkedIn

One of the core values of the Sperry Van Ness® brand is that our clients get the most value when we create the most demand. It’s basic market fundamentals and collaboration at its best. This is why we open up our weekly National #CRE Sales Call to the entire brokerage and investment community and we encourage our Advisors and guests to share this information by email and social media.

Apparently, our Advisors did such a great job this week, that we received the following note from SlideShare (where we post new listings each week)!

Sperry Van Ness featured on Slideshare and LinkedIn

While our “Hot on LinkedIn” fame was short-lived, we’re hoping to make it up on the SlideShare leaderboard again!

Want to learn more about the Sperry Van Ness Difference when it comes to commercial real estate? Sign up for a call and join us on any Monday.

 

*All Sperry Van Ness® offices are independently owned and operated.

 

1Q 2013 Northern Colorado CRE Market Sets Stage for a Strong Year by Steve Kawulok

Steve Kawulok
Steve Kawulok, Managing Director, SVN/The Group Commercial

In a detailed Northern Colorado commercial real estate market report and analysis, Steve Kawulok, Managing Director of Sperry Van Ness/The Group Commercial says the first quarter sales volume of 2013 was less than 4Q 2012, but with high activity levels, foretelling a strong year ahead.

Other key findings about the Northern Colorado market in this report are:

  • Retail properties were sought after although investors paid slightly less for investment properties in general.
  • Vacancy rates continued to decline, particularly in the industrial category.
  • Rents are projected to increase in 2013.
  • Land meant for residential development has started to sell if located in an infill area, and oriented to smaller lot, affordable homes.
  • Medical office and clinical properties are in high demand from investors.
  • Industrial properties, especially those with yard space, are in high demand from the energy industry.

Read the entire Tri-County Northern Colorado 1Q 2013 Commercial Real Estate Market Trends and Commentary.

 

Steve Kawulok

Sperry Van Ness/The Group Commercial 

Fort Collins, CO

 

*All Sperry Van Ness® offices are independently owned and operated.

 

Tips and Tricks for a Successful ICSC RECon Convention

ICSC LogoThe International Council of Shopping Center  (ICSC)  RECon event takes place every year in Las Vegas, Nevada. This annual event  brings together more than 30,000 developers, brokers, tenants and owners from all over the world to the Las Vegas Convention Center. If you (or anybody you know) do anything involving retail shopping centers, it’s a must-attend event.

Attending the conference can be expensive, but well worth the cost as an investment in your business. With some advanced planning, you can minimize the cost, and still have a positive impact on your business.   In fact,  just going to ICSC RECon says that you take the business seriously.

As an experienced attendee, let me give you some pointers.

  1. To reduce attendance costs, consider bunking up with a friend or co-worker to save on hotel cost. Book your airline flight early to get the best rate. Make certain to attend the lunch and breakfast sessions where you’ll get a free meal (included in the registration fee) while getting to hear insightful and educational speakers talk about some of the challenging issues facing retail environments.
  2. Wear comfortable shoes. You can always tell the first timers– it’s the women in high-heels and the men in leather soled penny loafers.
  3. Bring lots of business cards, more than you think you might need.
  4. Get on the phone now and start booking appointments with the folks you want face time with.  That’s what the convention is all about.  Go to the 2013 RECon website and access the list of registrants, which includes their contact information. Don’t assume that if they’re not registered, that they will not be attending. Call them!
    The convention is spread out over several different halls– North Hall,  Central Hall and two levels in the South Hall. Walking through thousands of people and going from one hall to the other can take 30 minutes. Try and book together all your appointments in one hall.
  5. Do not bring lots of flyers, brochures, or marketing packages. Bring one copy, maybe two, to show folks that you’re meeting with, but don’t leave a copy with them, since it will never make it back to their office and it gives you a reason to follow-up afterward.  Also, this will eliminate the need to lug around a briefcase. It may be even better to bring along a tablet, since you can use it to show important information to your contacts.
  6. Stay focused, stay hydrated and stay sober. Being in Las Vegas brings about all kinds of distractions. If you’re making the costly investment to attend, be smart and use your time wisely.

Need more information? More pointers? Download floor plans? See who’s attending the event? Visit the show website by clicking here. See you in Las Vegas!

 

Prepared by:

Shari Tucker-Gasser, Council Chair of Retail Properties
Shari Tucker-Gasser, Council Chair of Retail Properties

Shari A. Tucker-Gasser

Council Chair of Retail Properties

Sperry Van Ness, LLC

Phoenix, AZ

 

 

 

 

 

 

*All Sperry Van Ness® offices are independently owned and operated.

 

Office Spotlight with Sperry Van Ness | Rich Investment Real Estate Partners

This week, our Office Spotlight focuses on Sperry Van Ness | Rich Investment Real Estate Partners based out of Los Angeles, CA.

1. What has been your strategy for growing your firm and also your market share?

Like any brokerage company, recruiting is the key to both organizational and market share growth and I spend most of my time doing that.  There are three types of agents I target:

  • New-to-the-business. The new-to-the-business advisors are easiest to hire, but require sufficient training and mentoring and, in general, are “lower-probability” producers. I source leads for these types of agents through newspaper ads, local campus recruiting, and intern programs. While they’re typically more challenging to manage, they tend to more easily adapt and adhere to our work standards and the SVN culture.
  • Seasoned (or senior level). Mid-level and senior lever producers have been far more challenging to recruit, but often begin producing within a their first few months with the company.  I try to target agents that will complement our existing advisors. Thus far, I have agents that specialize in 5 of the major asset categories so we’re aggressively searching for a hospitality specialist who can round out the team. I also try to choose agents that are a fit to both our franchise’s and Sperry Van Ness’ culture.
  • Satellite.  Hiring satellite agents has enabled us to penetrate into territories where there is insufficient transaction volume to support a brick and mortar office. I often find little to no competition from national brokerage companies in these areas. And given that these locations are in outlying secondary and tertiary areas to our primary market, we are able to access higher yielding investment opportunities without having to go out of state.

2. What are some of the unique activities you do to motivate your team?

I provide the training, resources and support while setting challenging performance expectations then try to take a hands-off approach and let agents find their own system that works for them in accomplishing their goals. So I’m there when they need me but not there when they don’t need me.  I conduct quarterly and annual business plan meetings and try and connect on daily basis with the agents in the office and on a bi-weekly basis with my satellite advisors.

3. What’s been the biggest challenge on how you run your business over the last few years?

Fortunately, we’re past most of the branding issues we struggled with initially and are now gaining traction  in our market once again.  Recently, our challenges have been mostly market related: seller’s hesitant to sell for lack of viable uplegs, cap rates approaching sub-5 levels, and political and economic uncertainties on the horizon

4. How many Advisors/Staff did you have when you joined SVN? How many (in total) do you have now?

When I started the office in May 2010 we had 4. Today we have 37 and growing!

 

 

Sperry Van Ness | Rich Investment Real Estate Partners

David Rich, Managing Director of Sperry Van Ness | Rich Investment Real Estate Partners
David Rich, Managing Director of Sperry Van Ness | Rich Investment Real Estate Partners

David Rich

Managing Director

Sperry Van Ness | Rich Investment Real Estate Partners

Los Angeles, CA

 

 

 

 

 

*All Sperry Van Ness® offices are independently owned and operated.

Sperry Van Ness® 2012 Humanitarian of the Year, Walter Helm

Walter Helm, 2012 Humanitarian of the Year with SVNIC President & CEO, Kevin Maggiacomo
Walter Helm, 2012 Humanitarian of the Year with SVNIC President & CEO, Kevin Maggiacomo

Walter Helm was an easy choice for the Sperry Van Ness® 2012 Humanitarian of the Year award. This award is given to the advisor who makes an extraordinary effort to give back to his or her community. Walter, managing director of Sperry Van Ness/Walter Helm in Sacramento, California, has truly shown extraordinary leadership in SVN’s Leads for Good initiative and in a wide range of other humanitarian work.  Walter has made an incredible impact through his commitment to training dogs for the Canine Companions for Independence program. A dedicated Rotarian, Walter has been involved in many local and regional fundraisers.

Walter Helm has a lifelong commitment to philanthropic activities. He has been actively engaged in volunteer fundraising for various organizations in the Sacramento area; he has served as a volunteer emergency medical pilot; a volunteer fireman; and even spent six weeks on a motorcycle ride fundraiser around Australia for Rotary’s Polio Plus program.

Perhaps Walter’s most interesting philanthropic effort was being a board member and a volunteer pilot for Airlifeline. Walter completed numerous charity flights using his own airplane and paying all expenses. On short notice, Walter was able to deliver small pox serum from San Jose to Yuba City, starting the flight from Cameron Park at 2:00 a.m. to complete the flight in four hours. He also flew a liver transplant team back and forth from Sacramento and Concord to Santa Rosa.

As a long-time active member of his Rotary Club, Walter ran a tutoring program, which had more than 80 volunteers helping 7th and 8th graders one-on-one to learn to read. In 2011, Walter was awarded the Rotarian of the Year Award by the Point West Rotary club in Sacramento.

Walter Helm
Walter Helm and a service dog from Canine Companions for Independence (CCI).

Walter truly enjoys training service dogs for Canine Companions for Independence (CCI), something he has been doing for the past ten years. The dogs transform lives of kids and adults by providing physical assistance and emotional support. Walter works with each dog for 18 months. Nalani, a Yellow Lab/Golden Retriever, was the dog he trained most recently. She now “works” at Children’s Hospital in San Francisco helping kids cope with pain and provide motivation to get out of bed after surgery

Currently, Walter is working with the SVN Leads for Good™ program to help Community Benefit Organizations (CBO). The program is very simple: once a lead comes from the CBO for the sale or lease of real estate, 10% of the commission is given back to the organization upon close of escrow.

 

Sperry Van Ness | Walter Helm

Walter Helm

Managing Director

Sacramento, CA

 

*All Sperry Van Ness® offices are independently owned and operated.

Why We Collaborate

Kevin Maggiacomo, President & CEO of Sperry Van Ness Internationa
Kevin Maggiacomo, President & CEO of Sperry Van Ness International Corp.

I’m often asked why we give away some of the (otherwise proprietary) Sperry Van Ness®  systems, tools and resources. I’m further asked why SVN is investing in the development of new tools if only to hand some of them out to the brokerage community at large. “Aren’t we aiding our competitors?” “Are we losing pieces of our differentiated value proposition in doing so?” These are a few of the questions often posed to me. 

While losing market share and eroding gross margin are obviously not the extirpative goals of the aforementioned strategy, in this post I’ll attempt to clarify why we have taken our culture of collaboration up a notch, and how doing so is facilitating growth across all key performance indicators while helping to improve the fractured state of the commercial real estate (CRE) industry. 

By way of background, SVN was founded on the premise that proactively cooperating and collaborating with our brokerage brethren – sharing our fees 50/50 in the process – is the right thing to do for the client and is the only way to ensure maximum value for a property.  Debating the merits of that ethos is a topic for another day, and last month we released the SVN Difference Video, which scrutinized the CRE industry and its asset disposition practices, and was met with strong emotional reaction. 

In terms of opening-up and creating new SVN products for the benefit of the brokerage community, we’ve rolled out the following in the past 12 months, which can be categorized and described as follows:

  • Compensated Cooperation:  The SVN Monday Morning Sales call is now open to the public.  There, we showcase new listings procured by our SVN Advisors over the previous 7 days.  Every listing includes a buy-side commission which is always ½ of what the SVN Advisor stands to earn as a matter of policy.

  • Education:  We collaborated with more than 10 commercial real estate firms and industry organizations to launch www.CREvine.com, an open resource platform for CRE professionals to acquire new skills, gain knowledge, and “level-up” their practices.

  • Marketing:  Lastly, and as a BETA test, we’ve opened up a good portion of our (now retired) OnlinePublisherTM system.  Called CRElaunch, owners and brokers alike can use the tool to create brochures and market their properties (a word of caution here – the product is in BETA and has a long way to go).

But back to the topic at hand.

We collaborate not to merely suggest that “we’re the good guys,” but because we truly believe that making the otherwise dysfunctional commercial real estate market more efficient will benefit all stakeholders, including Sperry Van Ness.

Simply put, collaborating – harnessing the power of broad horizontal networks of participants to achieve a better outcome – will drive market efficiency and liquidity, while simultaneously increasing revenue and profitability to those who collaborate.  At SVN, we’ve aggressively grown our business by subscribing to this ethos and receive direct benefit in the following manner:

  • Recruiting:  As a CRE advisory, one of our biggest economic generators is recruiting talented, ethical and productive advisors.  Our opening-up certain components of SVN has allowed us to create relationships with thousands of brokers and we’ve recruited or awarded a brokerage position or SVN franchise to a small percentage of this new constituency.

  • Retention:  Just as strong as recruiting is a vital key performance indicator of growth, attrition (of producing Advisors) can have devastating consequences for an organization.  Through thought leadership, the contemporary nature of our collaborative growth strategy, and via a transparent business model, our attrition rate is at a 5-year low.

  • Sales:  When one harnesses the power of the entire brokerage community to market a for sale asset, organized competition is generated, multiple offers are posited, the market speaks, and the highest price is achieved.  Our compensated cooperation strategy, coupled with our core covenants, define SVN while moving inventory faster and at a higher price.

  • New Business Development:  It’s tough to argue against the growth strategies of the likes of Google, Skype, and Innocentive in suggesting that their “Freemium” business models don’t create raving fans, loyal customers, and a myriad of cross-selling opportunities (each of these companies offer a free “attraction” product while simultaneously offering paid premium products).  As described above, the SVN story – rooted in harnessing the power of collaboration to affect a better outcome – has been kicked-up a notch, shared with clients/prospects, has enhanced our point of differentiation, increased our “batting average,” and reduced the cost of sales.  We are winning new listings, doing more business – all while putting the clients interests’ first.

Mass collaboration, while not ubiquitous in CRE brokerage, is now a staple of the new economy and it’s here to stay.  As the members of Generation X & Y grow to positions of increasing power and control, collaboration and Freemium business strategies will become the norm in CRE as well.  Until then, I’ll continue to invest in the creation of new products and to share some of those we previously created.

Kevin Maggiacomo is the President and CEO of Sperry Van Ness International Corp.

*All Sperry Van Ness® offices are independently owned and operated.

 

2013 Hospitality: Q1 Review & Q2 Outlook by Tom Hamm

Hotel occupancy rates

Nationally, hotel occupancy is currently running about 64%, up from 62% last year, while Average Daily Rates (ADR) continue to climb: $110 versus $105 last year.

Viewed from a chain scale perspective, Luxury is the most robust both in terms of absolute numbers and the rate of increase. In this segment, occupancy stands at 79% versus last year’s 76% and ADR is at $297 versus $278.  Luxury is followed  by Upper Upscale, Upscale, Upper Midscale and Independents. Midscale and Economy are at the bottom, with occupancy for economy properties of only 55% versus 54% and ADR of $53 versus $51 last year.

The strongest locations  are urban and resort, followed by airport. Among the top 25 markets, Miami is a standout with more than 89% occupancy presently and a $235 ADR (no doubt contributed to by the Sperry Van Ness 2013 National Conference). Other markets enjoying more than 80% occupancy include: New Orleans, New York, Oahu, Orlando Phoenix and Tampa.

Norfolk was at the bottom with only 48% occupancy, representing a 3% decline.  San Diego lost 3.2% occupancy points, down to a still healthy 71%. These markets  are heavily influenced by military and defense contract business,  and thus, are beginning to feel the effects of sequestration.  Sequestration also mean automatic spending cuts, including all non-essential government travel,  making the pinch felt in places like San Antonio, where the September National Defense Forum and Expo was cancelled, and in Northern Virginia and Washington, DC, where more than 30% of the market is government and government contractor business.

Transactions

From a transactional viewpoint, 2013 looks promising. Smith Travel Research (STR) projects hotel transactions of between $15 and $20 billion, up from about $12.5 billion last year but down from 2011’s $19 billion, which was driven by major hedge fund and REIT transactions. To give some perspective, five of the last ten years’ volume was under $15 billion.

Until now transactions were powered by cheap debt and commensurately low cap rates. This was coupled with very limited lending for new hotel construction that kept supply growth at only about 0.3%, which in the face of increasing demand, allowed hotels to increase their average rates. However, according to STR’s latest numbers, hotels in construction are up 39.9% year-over-year. The active pipeline includes  more than 320,000 new hotel rooms, equal  to a whopping 10% increase. Nevertheless, STR predicts that demand growth will continue to outpace supply growth through 2014, with RevPar increasing between 5.7% and 6%  through next year.

The bottom line is that hotel owners who have enjoyed a rebound, even if not to the extent of 2007 peak levels, should consider the opportunity to sell in the near term on the strength of improved revenue before the effects of sequestration, supply growth and inflation bring down hotel values.

 

Prepared by:

Tom Hamm
Tom Hamm, Council Chair of Hospitality Properties

Tom Hamm

Council Chair of Hospitality Properties

Sperry Van Ness/Hamm & Company

 

 

*All Sperry Van Ness® offices are independently owned and operated.

Sperry Van Ness® 2012 Trainer of the Year, Mark Alexander

Mark Alexander, 2012 Trainer of the Year with SVNIC VP of Organizational Development, Bo Barron
Mark Alexander, 2012 Trainer of the Year with SVNIC VP of Organizational Development, Bo Barron

The Sperry Van Ness® Trainer of the Year Award is bestowed to the advisor who most exemplifies the qualities of a high-caliber mentor. In 2012, that advisor was Mark Alexander, CCIM. Mark provides training and shares knowledge with advisors throughout the United States in one-on-one mentoring opportunities, speaking engagements, a monthly newspaper column and by conducting monthly Medical Office Product Council calls.

The Managing Director at Sperry Van Ness/Mark Alexander Commercial Realty LLC, in Fort Myers, Florida, Mark specializes in helping doctors do sale/leaseback transactions on their medical office buildings. Mark has sold more than 79 medical office buildings between Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, and Illinois. He also represented numerous banks selling retail, office and industrial properties in southwest Florida.

As the SVN Medical Office Product Council Chair, Mark regularly shares his knowledge and time with more than 100 people who call in to his monthly council calls. These calls prove Mark’s focused expertise in medical office buildings, as well as his leadership in helping others in the field.

Mentors are people who use their hard-earned experience and insight to help newcomers to a profession. Mark Alexander was a mentor when he used his knowledge, gleaned from years working with medical real estate, to assist one of SVN’s newest franchisees, Laura Salome. Laura, who has a background in pharmaceutical sales and is based in El Paso, TX, was new to the medical real estate arena. Although Laura had secured an appointment with a doctor who owned three medical office buildings (MOBs), she was not sure how to best give a listing presentation to him. Laura reached out to Mark, who put together a custom listing presentation, which he provided to Laura prior to her meeting. Laura and Mark double-teamed the presentation, with Mark on a speaker phone and Laura showing slides and materials in person. This joint presentation was successful, resulting in a signed listing, and has lead to Mark and Laura continuing to collaborate on other listing presentations.

Mark often speaks to groups about commercial real estate. He was the featured office market speaker at several annual CCIM Outlook Conferences in Ft.Myers. He has also hosted and spoken at dinner seminars for doctors in San Francisco, Chicago, Kansas City, Raleigh, Charlotte, Charleston, Atlanta, Orlando, Naples and Fort Myers.

Additionally, Mark writes a monthly column for the Sunday edition of the Fort Myers News-Press on commercial real estate issues.

 

Sperry Van Ness | Mark Alexander Commercial Realty LLC

Mark Alexander, CCIM

Managing Director

 

*All Sperry Van Ness® offices are independently owned and operated.

 

Office Spotlight with Sperry Van Ness | Property Investment Advisors, LLC

This week, our Office Spotlight focuses on Sperry Van Ness | Property Investment Advisors, LLC based in Birmingham, MI (Detroit metropolitan area).

1. What has been your strategy for growing your firm and also your market share?

A few of our key strategies that allow us to be strongly poised for future growth and should assist other SVN offices include:

  • Knowledge: We feel knowledge is power!  We have probably the best access to information in our Detroit and Michigan market than most of our local competitors.  Not only do we have data supplied by the normal informational sources as Real Capital Analytics, CoStar, LoopNet, SVN market updates and SVN training, but this knowledge is supplemented by over 25 trained local area product type specialists connected nationally with 60 other offices.  This is through our adjacent office “partner” Integra Realty Resources, one of the largest appraisal firms in our local market and the country.
  • Technology: We have a great toolbox of all the latest technology in commercial real estate – Tablets/Smartphones, commercial property apps, databases, BuildOut ™ (SVNIC is an enterprise user of BuildOut’s single point of entry online marketing and tracking system), SVN app (SVN Connect), etc.  With this technology, we can operate from anywhere and effectively market our services to and for our client.
  • Website: We have a highly active local Detroit metro and Michigan website with blogs, news and listings supplemented by online/real time Twitter feeds.
  • Social Media: We are active in social media with thousands of followers on LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook (currently more than 8,000 connections). This provides the added advantages of  keeping us instantly updated with current market trends; providing great search engine optimization; and giving us an exceptional marketing tool for maintaining high visibility and close relationships.
  • Individual Visibility: We are highly visible both locally and nationally not only on the internet but on a personal one-on-one basis. We are members of  numerous local and national boards and committees, including individuals on our team serving as president of the Commercial Board of Realtors, as committee members with the Counselors of Real Estate of the National Association of Realtors, on the  boards of local and national CEO/business groups and the boards/committees of many non-profit groups. All this is supplemented with speaking engagements, publications, articles, press releases, and other outreach.
  • Connections: Our 40 years of strategic networking have led to us being connected to most of the movers and shakers on the local and national levels.  
  • National and International Access: We achieve national and international access through our association with Sperry Van Ness International Corporation (175 locations nationwide), Integra Realty Resources (60 locations nationwide), the Counselors of Real Estate (1,100 high level executives in most markets) and our national CEO group (80 locations nationwide).
  • Location: We are located in Birmingham, Michigan, which is a north-central suburb of the Detroit metropolitan area. Our strategic and central location allows us to reach most of the  Detroit metropolitan area in 20 minutes. That’s easy access to more than 4.5 million people!
  • Demographics: Being in the Birmingham/Bloomfield market allows us to be near the wealthiest individuals in Michigan. These are the people that can purchase real estate on an investment basis or CEOs and high level executives that can lease or purchase properties for their companies.

 

2. What are some of the unique activities you do to motivate your team?

Enthusiasm! Motivation for us comes from liking what we do and liking the people we do it with. It has been said that if you love what you do, you don’t have to work a day in your life.  It is always exciting, for example, to deal with the top ½% of wealth in the population and work with them to achieve their goals, whether it is for investment purposes or helping them with their companies.  We have access to all the credentials and people needed to solve our clients’ problems and properly market their properties (e.g.:  Counselors of Real Estate (CRE’s) , CCIM’s, MAI’s, CPA’s, CPM’s, MBA’s, SIORs, etc.).  We pride ourselves on working and “playing” with our clients to achieve together what we consider the four key elements of a successful great life:  family, faith, business and social.

 

3. What’s been the biggest challenge on how you run your business over the last few years?

Our biggest challenge was the difficulties faced by the  Detroit market from 2008 to 2011. The auto industry was in the worst shape it had ever been in, impacting the health of  local businesses.  This was compounded by one of the worst real estate markets nationally.  Since then, there has been a tremendous turnaround in the auto industry and the area, causing a large potential of new business and many outstanding opportunities both for us as an office, and for our clients.  Now our challenge will be to close new business, which can take some time to finalize, and replenish what was previously a deteriorated cash flow.

 

4. How many Advisors/Staff did you have when you joined SVN? How many (in total) do you have now?

Our SVN office’s intent has been to maintain quality not quantity.  We may not be the biggest but we are one of the best! As mentioned above, we use everything possible, including the latest technology,  to give the best service to our clients.  We subcontract out to specialists when necessary to reduce unnecessary overhead. We have adjacent office space with Integra Realty, which not only provides quality information and synergy, but great conference facilities, audio visual, printers, administration, copy machines, distribution services and a great professional office setting.

 

Sperry Van Ness | Property Investment Advisors, LLC    Birmingham, MI

Robert Pliska, Managing Director of Sperry Van Ness/Property Investment Advisors, LLC
Robert Pliska, Managing Director of Sperry Van Ness/Property Investment Advisors, LLC

Robert Pliska

Managing Director

Sperry Van Ness | Property Investment Advisors, LLC

 

 

 

*All Sperry Van Ness® offices are independently owned and operated. 

SVN State of the Company: Change or Die by Kevin Maggiacomo

Kevin Maggiacomo, President & CEO of Sperry Van Ness Internationa
Kevin Maggiacomo, President & Chief Executive Officer of Sperry Van Ness International Corporation

As President and CEO of Sperry Van Ness International Corporation, my role, aside from addressing the perennially evolving needs of the organization, is to spend a good percentage of my time on strategy and “second wave growth.” Creating a real estate services platform, scaling-up new offerings like property management and auction, but also on expanding upon the disruption that our compensated cooperation model has had on the industry is where I spent a considerable amount of my time. In this post I’ll share with you why we’ve funded and embraced such an “innovation lab” at SVN, and describe why it’s an important cause.

Inspired by the Motley Fool, whose two founders I recently spent time with at the Conscious Capitalism conference, let us consider the following notion: Becoming a leading company in an industry requires the right people, and I’m not talking about at the executive level, but at every level. An appetite for change has to be in a company’s DNA.  But being an industry leader also requires a tremendous amount of imagination… imagining a different world. A world almost like the one we live in now, but more efficient.  Becoming a laggard in an industry requires a lack of imagination. And just like any industry on the planet, there are forces that will disrupt commercial real estate brokerage and we are not immune.

Change happens to industries. Just ask a newspaper publisher, or anyone who invested in that industry in recent years. We still read newspapers – in fact we read them more today than in previous generations – but we don’t read them in quite the same way. And without a bridge loan from the then richest man on the planet, even the patriarch of the publishers – The New York Times – would have filed for bankruptcy protection. Were there warnings this would happen? You bet.

Back in 1993, a man named Gordy Thompson worked for The New York Times, and his job title was “Internet Services Manager.” Rest assured that in the C-Suite at The Times, no one knew what the role included, much less understood that it was arguably the most important position at the newspaper. As the story goes, Thompson tried – and failed to deliver the following message to The Times execs: “When a 14-year old kid can blow up your business in his spare time, not because he hates you but because he loves you, then you’ve got a problem.”

Thompson was in the habit of hanging out on Internet message boards, if you remember those from back in the day. There, Thompson noticed that fans of the Miami Herald columnist Dave Barry were re-posting Barry’s columns on the 2,000 person strong Usenet so that people who couldn’t read the Herald now could. In other words, the greatest competitive threat for newspapers was the popularity of their own content.  People wanted more of it where and when they wanted – on their terms.

This same trend has occurred in the financial industry when we began facilitating our own trades online – and the list goes on. Did people stop traveling? No, they stopped paying travel agents. And you better believe there was a Gordy Thompson every time, sounding the alarm, telling the corporate executives to use a little imagination. Saying “people want what they want, when they want it, where they want it and how they want it.  And if we don’t figure out a way to give it to them, they are going to get it somewhere else.”

Innovating to develop new methods of providing Commercial Real Estate (CRE) advisory services, working towards making the opaque and antiquated CRE industry more transparent and efficient are a few of the causes which drive the SVN innovation lab’s purpose – embracing the disruptive economic forces inherent in other industries is a big focus of our leadership team. When we talk about opening up parts of SVN – our Monday Morning Sales Calls to anyone who wants to listen or the previous version of our OnlinePublisherTM (www.crelaunch.com) – we’re focusing on increasing our productivity through collaboration with the entire industry, making it more efficient in the process.  This is the Sperry Van Ness® Difference. To learn more check out our SVN Difference Video.


Kevin Maggiacomo is the President and CEO of Sperry Van Ness International Corp.

*All Sperry Van Ness® offices are independently owned and operated.

 

Looking Below the Surface of Farmland Values by Ben Alder

Ben_Alder
Ben Alder, Advisor with Sperry Van Ness | Miller Commercial Real Estate

Ben Alder, an advisor from Sperry Van Ness/Miller Commercial Real Estate out of Salisbury, Maryland, is a contributing author for LandThink. By bring together various components of the land industry, LandThink is able to provide knowledge, ideas and networking opportunities to land professionals and investors to create a stronger land marketplace.

In a recent article, Ben takes a closer look at farmland values and the economic principles driving the value.

The last serious decline to farmland value occurred in the 1980s. Since then, annual growth in some states has risen in the double digit range, while between 1994 and 2004, the national average farm real estate value increased between 2 and 4 percent. Contrasting this to 2005 and 2006 they increased by 16 and 10 percent, respectively. The recession of 2008 to 2009 did bring some modest dip in farmland value, the hardest hit states were those with greater levels of suburban development and urbanization, a factor very well understood on the Eastern Shore of Maryland and other Mid Atlantic States. In 2010 to 2011 states in the Corn Belt and Great Plains experienced significant growth in cropland values including a 31 percent spike in Iowa. While prices sky rocketed in these bread basket States, areas of the Southeast and Northeast experience declines in value as transitional influences changing land use in these more urbanized markets continued to trail off. Greater detail on this research can be garnered from the September 2012 edition of the Economics of Food, Farming, Natural Resources and Rural America Journal produced by USDA’s Economic Research Service.

To view Ben’s article in its entirety, click here.

Ben Alder

Sperry Van Ness/Miller Commercial Real Estate

Salisbury, MD

 

*All Sperry Van Ness® offices are independently owned and operated.

 

 

Q2 2013 Office Market Update by John McDermott

For the office market, the next few years should see a significant shift back to the private client marketplace and away from distressed commercial real estate.

In my 40 years of real estate and finance experience, I have identified several leading indicators that serve to predict changes in the market. These are:

  • Compression of cap rates on single tenant net leased investments;
  • The insatiable acquisition of “trophy projects” in all product verticals;
  • An apartment market on fire with the fuel of cheap long-term money and many sources for it;
  • Resurgence of demand for land, lots and subdivisions from the largest public home builders all the way down to some of the smaller in-fill local and regional players, also fueled by low interest rates.

It’s clear that the office market will benefit from these real estate and economic indicators. However, the office market does face some challenges, including a significant variance in the numbers being published on office vacancy and activity, and the varying pricing tiers based on quality and location. These challenges may spell an opportunity for the astute investor and commercial real estate advisor to provide added value.

Advisors should be careful with the sources they quote. For example, REIS reports the National Office Vacancy at 17.1% and .50 basis points below the recession high while CoStar reports National Office Vacancy at 11.9%, which would be 5.70% better than the recession high.

Following are some current statistics:

Vacancy levels for different classes of buildings:

  • Class- A projects are at 13.3%
  • Class-B projects are at 12.4%
  • Class-C projects are at 8.8%

(Obviously the discounts and concessions in the better buildings are going away and rents are firming. Tenants still seek affordability, especially until their business and the economy improve)

  • U.S. CBD vacancy is 10.9%
  • U.S. Suburban vacancy is 12.2%
  • There is still a lot of reported Class A sub-lease space at 27M s.f. or 58% of all sublease space. Still, a significant amount of excess and under-utilized space is not formally on the market.
  • Suburban markets make up 33M s.f. of the sublease inventory or 71% of the total.

Lastly, a significant number of office property owners want to get off the vertical, based not only on the property’s age, but their own age and where they are in their personal investment cycle (they may be older, want more freedom, want to lower management issues, tired of tenant issues and demands, etc.). This situation creates a new frontier of adaptive re-use, space design and modification for today’s virtual or hoteling tenant and their employees along with a significant shift back into the vibrant American CBDs.

In my opinion, the product that represents the greatest opportunity is Class A suburban office, as long as it is properly priced.

Today, the most important part of advising clients is being aware of your local competitive landscape. Additionally, you must know what the new tenancy needs, wants and demands plus  how the growing focus in space design on more “we” space instead of the “me” space of old (like law firms at 350 s.f. per person on average) will affect your client’s specific property.

As of Q2, I think the future is bright and the office market will continue to be at the core of commercial real estate.

 

Prepared by:

John McDermott Sperry Van Ness Industrial Practice Chair
John McDermott, Office Product Council Chair

John McDermott

Council Chair of Office Properties

Sperry Van Ness Chicago Commercial

 

 

*All Sperry Van Ness® offices are independently owned and operated.

 

 

 

 

 

Sperry Van Ness® 2012 Rookie of the Year, Jennifer Donathan

The Sperry Van Ness® 2012 Rookie of the Year award is given to the advisor who is either new to the commercial real estate brokerage field or new to the Sperry Van Ness organization, and closes the most deals in that first year. This year’s honoree is Jennifer Donathan, a senior investment advisor at Sperry Van Ness/Commercial Real Estate in Liberty Township, Ohio.

Jennifer Donathan, 2012 Rookie of the Year
Jennifer Donathan, 2012 Rookie of the Year with SVNIC President and CEO Kevin Maggiacomo

Perhaps the secret to Jennifer’s success is that in just a short time she has developed an efficient system for generating listings. First, Jennifer works hard to maintain an organized, complete, and accurate database of investors for her asset type. She then makes it a point to communicate with those investors on a regular basis, usually through email blasts.

Once Jennifer has secured a listing, she reaches out to surrounding property owners in order to further promote her services. This has been a very successful tactic, as it helps to build up her reputation and generate referrals.

Jennifer advises that to be successful, advisors should concentrate on two things:

1.  Keeping the momentum going. Deals always have numerous challenges such as financing, appraisals and inspections.  Advisors should work to come up with viable solutions to those challenges quickly to keep the momentum going. Staying on top of the lender, title company, buyer, seller, and other broker also keeps the deal flowing and ensures confidence among all parties involved in the deal.

2. Only activating a listing when it is complete. The more organized and complete the package is upfront, the less time you will have to devote to answering, searching for, and providing information that should have been readily available. Having a complete listing allows you to focus on marketing. Buyers will move on to other properties if they can’t get their questions answered or if there are no supporting materials to back the marketing package.

  

*All Sperry Van Ness® offices are independently owned and operated.

 

Office Spotlight with Sperry Van Ness | First Guardian Group

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.

 

Sperry Van Ness | First Guardian Group   San Jose, CA

Dinesh Gupta, Managing Director, SVN/First Guardian Group
Dinesh Gupta, Managing Director, SVN/First Guardian Group
Paul Getty, Managing Director, SVN/First Guardian Group
Paul Getty, Managing Director, SVN/First Guardian Group

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

*All Sperry Van Ness® offices are independently owned and operated.

Sperry Van Ness® 2012 Innovator of the Year, Ryan Imbrie

As an early adopter of using the iPad as a selling tool, Ryan Imbrie is a natural choice for the Sperry Van Ness® 2012 Innovator of the Year Award. This award is given to an advisor who embraces the latest technology to further his or her business and career. Ryan, working the International Council of Shopping Centers RECon floor with his iPad in hand, truly personifies the message that SVN is the company of the future.

Ryan Imbrie, 2012 Rookie of the Year with SVNIC's Vice President for Organizational Development Bo Barron
Ryan Imbrie, 2012 Innovator of the Year with SVNIC’s Vice President for Organizational Development Bo Barron

Ryan is a CCIM and a senior advisor at SVN/Imbrie Realty, LLC in Portland, Ore. He believes in using readily available technology to increase productivity. Ryan is never far from his iPad where, with the swipe of a finger, he is able to access all his listings, due diligence, and database contacts. When most brokers may still be dragging around massive binders with their listings, Ryan uses the iPad during meetings to show clients existing inventory.

Ryan also uses the iPad to its full real estate potential. He uploads PDF marketing packages into one of three folders: Current Listings, Closed Transactions, and Pocket Listings using iBooks. During client meetings, Ryan is able to show detailed listings and immediately email a full package if there is an interest.

To increase the functionality of the iPad, Ryan uses and recommends the following apps:

  • The SVN Connect AppSVN’s own app offers access to all of our listings, advisors and offices, along with a suite of helpful tools
  • LoopNet: The property listing service
  • PocketProfile: Ticor Title’s App allows you to pull up ownership information based on an address or the more useful “Near Me” feature
  • Dropbox: A useful tool for sharing due diligence with brokers or buyers
  • UPad: Excellent note-taking app
  • Splashtop: Allows remote access to a desktop or laptop computer
  • AppBox Pro: This app provides a loan and amortization tool
  • MagicPlan: A tool that uses the camera on the iPad to create basic floor plans
  • A Fin Pro: A financial calculator
  • WhitePages: A phone book on the go

Ryan uses technology as a productivity booster, but it doesn’t substitute for the skills needed to succeed in commercial real estate. He says: “I remind myself on a regular basis that business is not won based on technology. The key to success in commercial real estate is forging relationships.”

 

 *All Sperry Van Ness® offices are independently owned and operated.

 

Sperry Van Ness ranks high on annual #CRE Lipsey Survey

Sperry Van Ness International Corporation is proud to announce that it is once again one of the most recognizable names in the commercial real estate industry, according to the annual Lipsey Survey.  The 2013 Top 25 Brands survey ranks Sperry Van Ness® 11th overall – and 10th among CRE brokerages.

This is the 12th year the Lipsey Company has conducted its survey of CRE brands. This year, about 100,000 votes were cast worldwide. Mike Lipsey, founder of the Lipsey Company, attributes the enthusiasm for the survey as a sign of continued recovery for the industry.

Brokers, developers, investors, mortgage bankers, property managers and clients participated in the annual event. The results are a combination of ballots, focus groups and individual surveys conducted with industry leaders, according to the Lipsey Company.

Click here for the full survey.

 

*All Sperry Van Ness® offices are independently owned and operated.

Leasing Market Outlook for 2013

Leasing covers a diversified territory categorized by product type, geography, size and quality. Most categories in major markets have seen steady absorption during the past 12 months and this should continue through 2013.

The lack of access to capital and financing has compelled businesses to lease rather than to buy. The lending environment and vacancy-driven low rent rates have made it a tenant’s market for several years. However, steady absorption is giving confidence to landlords that the market is gaining strength. This may mean that deal terms may not be as favorable for tenants in 2013. The strongest activity remains in smaller spaces, in quality properties, located in better markets.

As residential markets improve, homeowners will once again see equity that may be used to start businesses, restaurants and stores.  This could spell a higher demand for smaller retail space.  As consumers continue to spend more online, big box retailers have closed stores and have had to retool their business models to maintain profitability. As a result, developers are getting creative about re-leasing the empty big box locations.

The economy has forced many talented people to start their own consulting, professional or technology-based companies.  This will continue in 2013, creating more absorption in primary and secondary office markets.

The general outlook for leasing in 2013 will be steady absorption and increasing rental rates. As confidence builds, vacancy rates drop and the housing market improves, we will see new product deliveries. A new cycle is starting, and it is opening up new opportunities for tenants and landlords to make deals.

Prepared by:

Rich Vaaler, Sperry Van Ness/SVNMA
Rich Vaaler, Sperry Van Ness/SVNMA

Rich Vaaler

 

Leasing Product Council Chair

Sperry Van Ness/SVNMA

Leesburg, VA

 

 

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