One of KJF Partners’ Core Values is:

“We are driven by our personal commitment to create value for our investors, tenants, teammates and brokers.”

To serve our broker partners, we send occasional emails that focus on lessons learned through my brokerage history or that I notice from my current role on the principal side of the business.

Brokerage is a very challenging business and being/staying curious is a great way to maximize your knowledge and gain understanding of why your prospects do the things they do. Curiosity is how you will continue to grow; it will assist you in finding opportunities to serve and support your clients.

Understanding “Why, how, when & what” is key:

I can’t overestimate the importance of learning “why & how” your clients & prospects do the things they do. Below are some questions that may be helpful in learning about your client and building useful relationships:

• Why did your client buy that deal? What is the deal story? How did they first learn about it?
• Why did they think it was a good deal? What aspect(s) of the deal caused them to move forward initially? What was their plan for the property? How has it performed vs. that plan?
• How did they run their numbers on that deal? How will they run their numbers on the deal you are showing them?
• What is the hurdle rate of return that catches their attention or has them achieve their goals?
• What process(es) do they go through to evaluate a deal?
• What was the last property they sold? Why did they sell that deal? Did they reach the goals defined in their initial business plan? What worked? What didn’t work?
• How do they evaluate individual properties in their portfolio?
• What might cause them to consider selling an asset in their portfolio?
• What asset(s) in the portfolio do they believe may have rents that can’t be easily replaced?
• What are the major items your client/prospect want (or need) to achieve this year? Why those?
• What properties, that they own take the most time to manage? What effect does that have on their return or the organization?
•  In the rapidly changing world of real estate, what are the things that worry them the most?
• What direction do they believe the market is heading and why?
• Of the tenants that make up their portfolio, which are the ones that are doing the best? The worst? Which brands do they feel need to make a shift in order to prosper?
•  How does the deal you are selling compare to other properties the client owns or to their underwriting criteria?
•  What is/are the biggest issue(s) your client is facing right now?
• How can you be helpful with those issues?
•  How can you build a better relationship with each of your prospects & clients? What resources does your company have that can be used to assist them? How will you use those resources to help you build relationships?

 Listen to learn and understand:

I am sometimes asked a few of the above questions, and I’m most receptive to those brokers that truly want to learn more about me, our business, and our goals. Not so they can “use” that information to make a quick deal but, because they are truly interested in learning about if/how they can “help.” It’s very easy to distinguish between the two and I greatly appreciate an offer to help when that help doesn’t really involve an immediate benefit to the broker. A recent example is a broker that learned I was interested in buying a deal (not their deal). They offered to run a Placer.ai report on nearby tenants to help me understand visitation trends and rankings for nearby locations. Another broker recently performed a Void analysis for a property where we were considering replacing an existing tenant. Neither of those brokers would have been involved in those deals but, both were truly “just trying to help.” I appreciate that approach and remember those things.

On a personal note, related to curiosity, my decision to enter brokerage was influenced by my desire to someday own real estate. I viewed brokerage as a career with unlimited earning potential, and it also allowed me to learn about investing strategy from very successful people. Curiosity helped me learn about investing, (before I had money to place), from clients while I was doing the business of brokerage to support them.

Listen to learn, find ways to assist, and you will continue to grow your business and your future.

Happy Hunting!

Joe

Joe Faris

KJF Partners, Inc.

Cell Phone: 949-275-5038

Email: jfaris@kjfpartners.com

Website: www.kjfpartners.com

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