Recently I had very good conversation with an old brokerage buddy in California, Jack. He was really freaking out that his real estate career was heading in directions he was not prepared for. See he’s been a “Tenant Rep” for 20 plus years and now is competing for Landlord Rep and Sublease deals just to make ends meet!

Tenant deals are few and far between in his market. He’s finding himself reinventing his game almost daily. All part of this economy I said, I hear this happening over and over all over the place. I told him to relax it’s all very relative to each other and he’ll be fine. After all he survived the dot bomb and more in years past. Of course he also has the best tools in the trade to make him the expert I talk so much about as well. Now I’m not saying Tenant Rep is the way of the past but it’s just one of the many expert options you must now offer your potential clients in order to secure new business.

This economy is driving more Tenant Rep agents to start looking and working for Landlords and doing more sales. You can’t be as selective as you once were in your real estate careers in this type of market. Even large Commercial Real Estate houses are branching out from just being Tenant Rep houses to being full service type houses. They are bringing on more agents to handle Industrial, Retail and more deals.

I suspect more mergers and acquisitions are coming forth within the commercial real estate house markets too. Just as we are seeing portfolio’s being snatched up almost weekly. I’m even seeing more international money filtering in as owners of larger Class A buildings in this country are trying to dig out financially. I do suspect that “Sale Leasebacks” are going to really be the BIG buzz word this year. There will also continue to be upticks in the vacancy ratios for Office, Industrial and Retail –personally I think more companies are looking at larger spaces now to take advantage of such low leasing rates. Therefore the balance of ratios will continue.

So yes we have all become a Jack of all trades in this economy. I believe you should prepare yourself like you would for an earthquake or other natural disaster. Get your arsenal ready for whatever business comes your way, BE PREPARED. Having the tools and resources at hand will make your life easier, your business grow and your wallet fatter.

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