Essential Skills for Florida Commercial Real Estate Agents
Specializes in providing actionable insights into the commercial real estate space for investors, brokers, lessors, and lessees. He covers quarterly market data reports, investment strategies, how-to guides, and top-down perspectives on market movements.
Whether you're a recent graduate considering your first career move, a residential Realtor considering a shift to the commercial sector, or an established agent planning a move to Florida, there are some essential skills required for success within this state.
Before we identify and research these skills, let's take a closer look at the state of Florida.
In particular, what can brokers from other states expect when they've unpacked their sunscreen?
The Sunshine State's Commercial Landscape
While Florida's commercial real estate (CRE) is similar to many other states, with a mix of retail, office, multifamily, and industrial properties, its reputation as a popular vacation and retirement destination affects its CRE outlook.
As of May 2024, the state's official tourism marketing corporation, VISIT FLORIDA, presented updated travel data that found that Florida is currently the most popular vacation destination for American tourists.
Last year, the state's market share of domestic vacationers increased by 1%, from 13.8% in 2022 to 14.8% in 2023. This was the largest increase of any state.
In addition, Florida is the second most popular destination for international visitors headed to the United States.
This means that CRE agents can expect to handle more than an average number of multi-family transactions, especially for hotels and motels. While Florida isn't the #1 state for rented accommodation (Nevada holds the top position), it's in the top five.
Florida's reputation as a holiday destination impacts other types of real estate as well. Employees of the state's popular amusement parks require apartment units in and around Orlando, home of Walt Disney World, Universal Orlando, and SeaWorld.
While Florida may present its own set of challenges to CRE agents, the skills required for success are similar to those required in any other state.
One of the most important is successfully prospecting for new business. Let's look at this first.
Prepare to Prospect
Whether you're the most popular agent at a CRE event or using AI to locate new business, prospecting is a skill shared by successful CRE agents.
Keeping one's ear to the ground may be a cliche, but it's essential to success, especially when you move to a new territory like Florida.
Ideally, your prospecting efforts will include regularly connecting with people who, directly or indirectly, can put you in touch with the right people at the right time.
These may include business leaders, CRE attorneys and investors, and city and county government officials.
Other sources of referrals may not be as high-flying but just as valuable. These include managers and tenants of local CRE properties.
Consider visiting these people in person when available; it's an excellent way to learn about property sales that are still in the works.
A Checklist for Prospecting Strategy
If you're just starting out, here's a checklist for an initial prospecting strategy.
- Create a list of targets relative to your territory and property type (if applicable). Focus on well-funded clients and quality listings.
- Upload your target list into a prospecting database that allows you to sort target contacts and property types. This will also make it easier for you to manage mailing lists and marketing campaigns.
- While many agents contact prospects every 90 days on average, follow your instincts and feel free to create your personal calendar.
- Many successful agents have noticed that three conversations with a prospect, especially those that feature at least one personal meeting, greatly increase the chances of turning a lead into a client.
Prospecting has one more essential function-it helps you begin to build the type of relationships that are essential for success.
Build Better Relationships
Building lasting business relationships is essential for any sales professional, including CRE agents setting up shop in Florida.
Here are some strategies for nurturing important connections:
- Attend conferences, seminars, and other events related to commercial real estate and your target markets. You'll meet potential clients, colleagues, and industry influencers.
- Join professional organizations that serve your niche. These may include the Florida GulfCoast Commercial Association of Realtors (FGCAR) and your local NAIOP (Commercial Real Estate Development Association) chapter.
- Give back to your chosen community by volunteering and/or sponsoring local events that improve everyone's quality of life.
Another critical skill involves performing and acting upon market research relevant to your area and specialty.
Dig for Data With Market Research
Every CRE market has its own trends, regulations, and key metrics, and Florida is no different. This is why researching individual CRE markets is a critical skill for every agent and broker.
Your prospects and clients alike will rely on you to supply accurate, current data for CRE rental prices, property values, and vacancy rates.
Other key metrics: local zoning regulations, tax incentives, and economic development initiatives that can impact a property's value.
For example, Florida law allows for the creation of Community Development Districts (CDDs). These are special taxing districts that finance and maintain elements such as infrastructure and amenities within new CRE developments.
Liaison with a city's local government, especially the city planning department, can also help you stay ahead of your competition in this area.
Identifying potential risks for your clients is equally important. Data that identifies an oversupply of certain types of properties, rising vacancy rates, or declining rental prices are major indicators of future risk and should be shared with clients.
By consistently monitoring these factors, a real estate agent can better anticipate and manage potential risks in an area's commercial real estate outlook.
When you provide your clients with insight into their area's evolving markets, this puts both of you in the lead for finalizing potentially lucrative contracts. This is where top negotiating skills can make all the difference.
Brass Tacks: Negotiation Tactics
No matter how skilled you are at locating the perfect deal for a client, your negotiations with buyers, sellers, and/or tenants will define your overall success.
You'll need to effectively represent your client's financial interests during potentially complex transactions. These often involve several parties with different priorities and expectations.
Negotiating your commissions is another skill that requires knowledge of your competition's sales practices.
The best negotiators prepare ahead of time by discussing possible outcomes with their clients. This enables an agent to know when to counter-offer and when to walk away.
Win Commercial Projects & Outperform Your Competitors by Knowing What's Happening in Your Area
MyEListing.com provides commercial vendors looking for new projects with up-to-date market intelligence on which commercial property owners need construction work, when they need it, and where they need it.
Make finding new commercial real estate projects easier than ever with MyEListing's Vendor Client Connection Program.
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