Where’s Waldo?

Where’s Waldo?

My son and I enjoyed thousands of hours playing games and pretending we knew where to find Waldo in a crowd, in a book page or on the Internet. Some landlords I’ve talked with have more luck finding Waldo on the game board than finding tenants for their very nice buildings.

One hint: You’d better know what hat Waldo is wearing.

If you hire a residential agent or retail agent to help fill your building you may get lucky, but wrong hat. Look for someone who specializes in commercial and industrial leasing. These are people who study leases like Waldo studies a map of the world. People that can dive through computers with the greatest of ease and identify what properties fit the specific needs of their client portfolio. People with a strong ethical character.

I’ve helped building owners on some properties and helped identify other agents who specialize as seller/landlord representatives. My personal specialty is tenant/buyer representation. Anyone can put up a sign or place an advertisement on a commercial listing service. It takes someone who travels, like Waldo, in and out of prime properties on the market, all around the networking circles were potential tenants like to cluster and matches up the right client with the right building.

Take the time to understand the type of Realtor that can help you best with your real estate needs and please, don’t settle for anything less than ideal. Most of us want a nice, warm building to call home so we can invest our energy on doing business locally and around the world. Given the right space and the right opportunity, you could have more cash left for global traveling.

About the Author

Lynn Drake’s status is well known in the industry: She’s the commercial realtor focused on maintaining “true north” for her corporate clients. It’s a reputation built on 35 years of commercial real estate experience. Lynn became a commercial realtor in 2001 after 15 years in corporate real estate. Thus far in her career, Lynn has successfully completed over 1,500 real estate transactions ranging from small business tenant leases to the sale and purchase of industrial complexes.