S.E.C. Real Estate Observer

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Recently I was at a dinner with a group. One of the attendees was clearing and wiping the table. I was having a little fun with him, and said, “You missed a spot” and pointed. He calmly looked at me and said, “I’m working on improvement, not perfection.”

A lot of life is like this—can we just see a little improvement? Perfection is out of reach, too hard, while improvement is an achievable journey. Commercial brokerage can be difficult. Adding Client-Based Counseling could be an improvement and increase your level of success.

Each time we meet with our clients we should work on one or two of the following areas if we don’t already know the information.

• What is my client’s tax basis in the property?
• Who are all the partners and decision makers? Where are they located? What do they do?
• If I can bring you cash for this asset, how will you spend/reinvest the cash?
• Why do you seek to go out of title on this asset?
• Who carries the loan, how much, assumable, increase, releases, lender’s flexibility?
• If an exchange is possible, what benefits do you seek in the next asset?
• Do you have the ability to go up in value? How much?
• Is the client geographically limited? Why, and can it be overcome?
• If I bring you an asset that gives you the benefits you seek, can we be creative to get you to your desired position?
• If you have to bring cash for the closing costs and commissions, can you write the check?
• Many, many more!!!

Very few, if any, experienced exchange brokers have all this information after meeting with a client one time. Exchange client counseling involves multiple sessions before, during, and after the listing—remember, it is a bit of a journey with the client. Each time we meet with our client we should always ask, “What, if anything, has changed since our last meeting?” Each time we should obtain a little more information that can help us work together to move to the preferred position.

I don’t need perfection in my counseling skills, but I need to be on the journey for continual improvement.

If you are going to be at the Indianapolis S.E.C. meeting in September, I invite you to attend the Sunday Counseling course, “Understanding Your Client,” on September 10, 2017.