Archive for the ‘Residential Real Estate’ Category

Lack of planning on your part does not require rushing by me!

Tuesday, January 10th, 2012

It is always frustrating to me when I plan my schedule so that I have time to comfortably make my commute from one appointment to another to only have one of the people I’m meeting with either not in their office, running behind with a meeting or otherwise detained so my appointment with them is delayed.  While my schedule does have room for comfort in it there is usually not enough room to overcome such delays.  I’m let with three options; I can reschedule the meeting for another date, reduce the scope of the meeting or try to rush through the meeting hoping to cover everything on the agenda.   Rescheduling the meeting means that I’ve wasted a couple of precious hours of my day, reducing the scope of the meeting will require that a follow-up meeting be scheduled and trying to rush through the meeting causes undue stress and more than likely a meeting that runs over and then requires me to rush through the rest of my day trying to play
catch-up.  The last choice is not an option.  Lack of planning on your part does not require rushing by me!

What would you decide to do in that situation?  Reschedule, condense, or rush?  If I’m meeting someone in my office and they were late I’d reschedule as I can always find small projects to fill my time until my next meeting.  However, if I’m
meeting at someone’s office I prefer to condense the content of the meeting and schedule a follow-up meeting.  If I don’t try to condense the meeting and reschedule instead I will have time that is wasted before my next meeting.  Not an
option to me, and besides, the more opportunities I have to meet with a prospective client the higher the odds are that I will get a contract.

A career in sales is difficult but rewarding.  If a sales person doesn’t control their meeting schedule they will lose opportunities or worse yet lose their reputation for punctuality.  In either case the end results is fewer closings and less income.  So it is safe to say that a salespersons career depends heavily upon an appointment management system.  When I was first entering the work force a Day Planner was the only option and it had a lot of shortcomings but the most annoying to me were the need to erase and re-enter changes within my schedule and the redundancy of having to write reoccurring appointment into each weeks plan.   Now there are several software packages that offer a wide array of options that allow you to link between your office computer, lap top and smart phone. It is easy to rearrange schedules, obtain confirmations for meetings, schedule meetings with multiple individuals and set up reoccurring events.  There is some technology that I wish never existed, but my appointment planning software is one piece of technology that I could not live without.

While appointment management software is important to a sales associate, the most important aid to a person just entering the sales workforce is a good mentor.  In my industry, commercial real estate, it is required that a sales associate work
under the tutelage of a seasoned professional for several years before that venture out on their own.  It is during this mentoring process that the associate learns the sales tools need to be successful.  The choice of real estate office and employing broker becomes vitally important as it will be the foundation of sales associate’s career. My suggestion to those now entering into a career in real estate is to interview a large number of firms and employing brokers prior to making a
decision and to remember that an employing broker must oversee the activities of all the associates that work in their office.  The larger the number of sales associates the less time the employing broker will have to mentor a new associate.  So make your choice wisely.

I sure that other industries’ have the same consideration, but a new entry will not be able to determine this without obtaining several interviews or taking getting meetings with successful sales associates.  Other options are to consult school and government placement offices to learn more about your chosen sales field: and, of course, research on the Internet.

If you are looking for a career as a sales associate in real estate in the Denver market, give me a call.  Just remember, when you get an appointment be on time, because a lack of planning upon your part does not require rushing by me.

Edward Boyle

CEO, Employing Broker

Katchen Company

Katchen Company, founded in 1962, is an integrated real estate company with its corporate headquarters in Lakewood, Colorado. The company offers real estate development, redevelopment, property management, brokerage, consulting services, construction oversight and maintenance services to individual and institutional real estate investors throughout the greater Denver metropolitan area in Denver with satellite offices in Chicago, Las Vegas and Miami market areas.

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You want the truth? You can’t handle the truth!

Tuesday, April 19th, 2011

In the movie, “A Few Good Men” there is a memorable scene where Tom Cruise is playing the part of a military attorney who is questioning an Army General, played by Jack Nicholson.  Cruise is pushing hard for answers about a death that occurred on the General’s base and is treating Nicholson’s character as a hostile witness.  The General becomes agitated over the disrespect the attorney is paying to his rank and finally displays his true character, yelling, “You want the truth?  Do you really want the truth?  You can’t handle the truth!”

 The General’s attitude in the scene, while fictional, isn’t much of a stretch from reality.  In business school the professors talk a lot about corporate culture and how the attitudes and the opinions of the corporate executives trickle down through the organization and define the company.  While the US government is not a corporation and certainly doesn’t function as a business, as evidenced by trillions of dollars in debt and budgets running a deficit, none the less it has a culture that is defined by its leaders.  While the Obama administration pledged that they would have transparency, their governing has been opaque.  Over the last two years there have been incident after incident where either President Obama or a member of his administration has told the public one thing only to be doing another.  Don’t misunderstand what I’m saying.  While I use the current administration as an example I could easily refer to any presidency and provide examples.  The truth is the people who run the government don’t believe we can handle the truth.

 To make my point, I’d like to give you a prime example.  A shopping center that my firm manages has a bank as a tenant.  This bank was actively involved in residential mortgages and was hit hard, like many other banks, with the economic downturn.  The leasing administrator for the bank has contacted me and informed me they are trying to sell the assets of the branch located in my shopping center. Having the knowledge that I will have a vacancy, I begin doing research into banks that operate within the local market trying to find those who are currently expanding.  While doing this research on the Internet I begin to uncover the fact that almost three-quarters of the banks within the market are in financial distress and have taken money from the federal government in order to continue operations.  I located agreements between bank executives and the federal government that prohibited the banks from making loans without the federal government’s approval.  The first thought that occurred to me was how could the federal government manage a bank’s financial operations when it can’t manage its own.  Supplied with this new information I began to understand why there has been no lending activity from banks and why the real estate market continues to struggle.  In fact, this is also why the economy continues to struggle.  Business aren’t able to renew or obtain lines of credit necessary to even out the cash flow of day-to-day operations, commercial and residential real estate owners and buyers can’t obtain loans to finance or re-finance their properties, and consumer loans for cars purchases continue to be difficult to obtain.

 So what is the truth?  Are the government’s regulations in place because of bank bail-outs designed to protect the public or are there other reasons?  Does the current administration have another agenda that isn’t being disclosed?   I have my own thoughts on that but I’m not going to write them here.  You want the truth?  You can’t handle the truth!

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A customer is always right … even when they’re wrong.

Tuesday, April 5th, 2011

It was a hard concept for me to accept when I was first introduced to the working world having taken on a part time job as a grocery sacker working evenings and weekends after attending high school all day.  Tired from the rigorous demands of school and stress of being a teenager I wasn’t in any mood at the end of the day to hear some petty complaint from a customer and show compassion.  The owner of the grocery store, Harvey, would get visibly upset and come running over when he saw there was a conflict and try to smooth the situation over with the customer.  When the customer left I’d get a verbal lashing for not giving the customer what they wanted.  I tried to explains, “But they were switching prices on the meat package so they would only pay $1.50 instead of $5.00 for the package of meat.”  Harvey would say, “I don’t care, the customer is always right … even when they are wrong.”

 Upon graduating from college I took a job at a sporting good store.  I assumed it would just be temporary to pay the bills until I found something in my field.  For a young man working around sporting good and getting paid for it was a dream come true and a temporary job became a permanent job very quickly.  As my tenure at the store grew, so did my responsibility and I very quickly found myself in the position of department manager and I again found myself in the position of having to appease disgruntled customers.  In most cases it was easy to rectify the problem but in others I struggled at giving a customer what they were requesting when I knew it wasn’t right.  In one such instance the customer stormed out of the store and called the cooperate headquarters.  In short order I received a call from the district manager wanting to know why I didn’t give the customer what they wanted to make them happy.  I explained, “They had been in last week looking to rent a tent and we informed the customer that we didn’t rent tents so they purchased one and now they are trying to return it for a refund and it is obviously used.”  The district manager said, “I don’t care, the customer is always right … even when they’re wrong.”

 Feeling that I had more capabilities in life than to work retail, I went to business school with the goal of obtaining a Masters Degree.  Sitting in class after class listening to professors talk about successful companies like Nordstrom, who would purposely sell two different size shoes to a customer just to make them happy made me stop and think.  While I had no intention of getting back into retail I wondered how I could use the information I’m learning in a career after graduation.  It took time, but after much thought I began to realize that the definition of “customer” can be very broad to include anybody we come in contact with in life.  Just think how much easier conversations with be with co-workers, family and friends if we viewed them as a customer.  A customer is always right … even when they’re wrong.

 When I got into the real estate business I thought I wouldn’t be dealing so much with disgruntled customers.  Boy was I wrong!  There seems to be a disproportionate number of unhappy customers in real estate transactions.  Mind you, they weren’t unhappy with me, they were unhappy with the situation they were in.  Looking to lease or buy a building for investment or business use only to find that nothing on the market met their needs completely or that everything on the market was priced well above what they were willing or capable of paying.  Instead of adjusting their expectations to the market the customer would expect me to continue looking for that one property that was the perfect fit or was for some reason way underpriced.  While instinctively I wanted to tell the customer that this would be a waste of time, I remembered that the customer is always right … even when they are wrong.  In stead of telling them there wasn’t anything I could do for them I would look for an alternative approached to accommodate their.  Working for a full service real estate firm I have more tools available to me than a firm providing brokerage services only.  Knowing that there are times when new construction can be just as cost effective as existing, repositioning a property use while adding value can be viable or looking at alternative locations that offer the same logistical advantage can turn an unhappy customer into a property owner.

 To be successful in both your personal and business life I suggest that you come a accept the fact that the customer is always right … even when they’re wrong.

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Everything that is old becomes new again.

Monday, March 28th, 2011

If you’ve been around this planet long enough you’ve most certainly heard the saying, “Everything that is old becomes new again”.  The theory of old becoming new is played out in almost every aspect of our lives.  From the song that was a hit twenty years ago being re-recorded to the TV sitcom being re-introduced with new actors, even clothing that goes out of style becomes in fashion over time. 

In the business world and most certainly in the real estate industry there are trends that were once considered leading edge but are now considered outdated.  The open air shopping plaza gave way to the enclosed mall, which gave way to the power centers and in turn gave way to the town center.  Recently, the real estate trade journals have been touting the return of the open air shopping plaza.  On a recent visit to the west coast I saw several examples of the new open air shopping plaza concept.  Everything that is old becomes new again.

 The real estate industry has always been leading edge.  In fact, to be competitive in the real estate market a real estate professional must openly embraced new technology.  Initially there were MLS books that contained all the properties for sale within a particular market and brokers reached out to property owners with mass mailings or even canvassed neighborhoods going door to door.  The postage meter and bulk mailing made the process easy and cost effective.  The introduction of the computer and publishing software help professionals create higher quality marketing pieces, further reduces the cost of these mass mailings.

 As computer technology advanced, real estate professionals found new ways to reach their customer.  Real estate professionals pushed to be the first to have a web site on the Internet and contact management software made it even easier to stay connected with customers.  The MLS book was replaced by Internet databases and mass mailing gave way to email broadcasts.  E-brochures replaced printed marketing pieces and became commonplace.

 The emergence of social media has been no different as real estate professionals have flocked to such social web sites as MySpace, Facebook, LinkedIn, and have blogged and tweeted in excess.  With each new introduction in technology the communication with prospective customers and customers has become less personal and as a result real estate professionals are seeing a decline in marketing results.

 Recently a new concept is appearing in the Real estate community … networking groups are forming, phone calls are being made, face-to-face meetings are being scheduled and held.  Everything that is old becomes new again.

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You must kiss a lot of frogs to find a prince!

Monday, March 14th, 2011

In the Brothers Grimm fairy tail The Frog Prince, as a small child I remember the sentence which has been quoted by people often over the years relating that you must kiss a lot of frogs to find a prince.  While these individuals who quoted the line were referring more to someone dating a large number of people prior to finding someone they wanted to spend the rest of their life with, there’s also context within the sentence which can be applied to other facets of life.

 Being in the real estate business I see many different areas where either a customer or a real estate agent must kiss a lot of frogs before finding a prince.  With customers, this is especially true, as they will look at property after property trying to find the perfect building which meets their needs before making a decision on a particular property to submit an offer.  Once an offer is accepted the customer must than look at a large number of lenders trying to find that one lender who offers an attractive financial package with both a favorable down payment amount and loan percentage before making the decision to commit.

 At Katchen Company, my real estate firm, I and my staff find ourselves kissing hundreds of frogs every day.  Being a boutique real estate firm offering the full spectrum of real estate services we engage in a multitude of tasks requiring us to make contact with or review a significant number of opportunities prior to making a presentation or decision.  One example relates to the paragraph above where the customer requires a large number of properties to view before making a decision.  A broker will have to research, in some cases, hundreds of properties before narrowing it down to a manageable few that meets a customer’s parameters prior to a showing appointment.

 Within our office, our operations people will have to research as many as a hundred vendors prior interviewing twenty to thirty and than narrowing the field down to three or four who will make it onto Katchen Company’s approved vendor list.  Further, when pricing out capital expenditures on properties we managed these three or four vendors will all have to submit proposals prior to a decision being made on who will receive the contract.

 Leasing and sales have similar numbers.  In leasing and sales, if a broker receives one hundred calls requesting information on a vacancy they will receive ten requests to show the space and from those showings one person will submit an offer.  Keep in mind that the offer might not be accepted by the owner so this process can continue for some time.

 You must kiss a lot of frogs to find a prince.  Keep that in mind when dealing with real estate and it will make the experience much more enjoyable.

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If you don’t pay for it … is it free or stealing?

Monday, February 21st, 2011

Is it free or stealing?  When I was a kid the answer to this question was very obvious, if it belonged to you and you took something it wasn’t stealing.  An example would be picking apples off the limbs of a tree in your back yard.  If it belongs to somebody else and you took something it was stealing. An example would be picking apples off the limbs of a tree in your neighbor’s back yard.  If it was marketed for free than it was indeed free.  An example would be your neighbor’s apple tree having such a bumper crop that he put a sign in his front yard, “Apples – free for the picking”.  However, today with the advent of the Internet the question of what is free has become less clear.  Because the objects of our desire are not tangible and only exist in cyberspace it becomes harder to determine if it is free or stealing.

 Over the last several years providers of digital media have begun to educate us on what is free and what is stealing.  We now know that copying music and movies to share with friends, even though we may have purchased the CD or DVD is stealing.  While we have a right to enjoy the CD or DVD we didn’t purchase the right to make copies and give to others.  They must pay, just as we did, for the right to enjoy the digital media.  Similarly, the developers of computer software have tried to educate us that their digital media is not free but this area is a little less clear since there also exists “shareware” and “free downloads”.

 With the advent of social media the lines have become further blurred as we upload movies to You Tube and post photos and other content to Facebook, Myspace, LinkedIn and other social and networking web sites.  Who does this digital media belong to?  The person who posted it, the web site owner or is it now public domain?  The answer isn’t clear and I’m sure this topic will end up before a judge at some point.

 Regardless of what side of the debate we are positioned when discussing whether digital media is free or stealing there is one clarifying factor.  Did it require someone to expend resources, either money, time or both in the production of the digital media?  If so, it belongs to them and we should pay for it if we want to use it.

 How is this topic relevant to a real estate blog?  Very much so, as real estate agents make their living doing research on the real estate market and providing real estate services to the general public.  When we access a real estate web site and search for a property we are using the research that a real estate agent has complied and posted on the web site.  The information is there for our convenience but the unspoken agreement is that if we find something of interest we will contact the agent and request their help in finalizing the transaction.  It is so easy to take this information and go direct to the property owner with the perception that we can save money not involving another party to the transaction.  Is that not stealing?  Didn’t we take the research of some real estate agent who invested both time and money to generate the information and use it for our own benefit without paying for it?

 As an owner of a real estate brokerage firm I get calls from people all the time who would like me to provide them with a list of properties that meet their criteria so they can drive by them to view.  The impression they give is that once they see a property they like I will get a call from them to help with the transaction.  When I first got into the real estate business I would take these individuals at their word only to find out later when I hadn’t heard back from them and they refused to return my calls that they used the information I provided them with to acquire a property.  By using my research and not allowing me the opportunity to represent them in the acquisition I wasn’t able to earn a commission.  My research was used for somebody else’s benefit and I wasn’t paid.  Is that not stealing?

 Of course, today I’m older and wiser and I don’t allow this type of thing to happen to me or my agents, but it doesn’t stop people from calling.  They request a competitive market evaluation with the impression that they want us to list their property while in reality they want the information so that they can than go to the county assessor and provide proof as to why their property value and thus property taxes should be low.  They call wanting to know what property in the area is leasing for giving the impression that they would like to engage with my firm in a contract to lease space only to place a sign in the window, “For Lease by Owner”, a few days later.

 Just because information is made available to you it doesn’t mean it’s free.  If someone had to expend time and money and we were able to save time and money by using that information we should be willing to pay for it.

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If it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck it must be a duck!

Monday, January 24th, 2011

In the United States at the local, state and national level we are seeing the wide spread use of semantics by our politicians.  A verbal form of smoke and mirrors to deceive the public into believing that these government representatives are being fiscally responsible and that they are reeling in expenses and reducing taxes when all along they are spending more and taking more out of our pockets.  How so you may ask, when taxes have remained flat or in some areas been reduced.  It is through the use of fees for services that were once paid for from the revenues generated through taxes. 

 For example, look at my home state of Colorado where the Tabor Amendment is in place and requires politicians to get voter approval of any tax increase.  The idea of the amendment was to get politicians to live within a budget.  There is very little chance of that happening so the local and state representatives have found a way to increase revenues without having to get voter approval.  They slowly and methodically moved services once covered under the umbrella of property taxes out on their own to stand alone and now charge a fee for the service.  The storm sewer bill that shows up once a year in your mailbox is a prime example of a service that was once paid for through property taxes and is now separately billed as a fee.  Tax … fee; if it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck, it must be a duck.

 As a commercial developer I’m flooded with “fees” on every project attempted.  The politicians call them “Impact Fees” and imply that the “Rich Developer” is putting a burden on the local government in order to benefit themselves economically.  This is readily accepted by the general public who seems to be fine with the money grab as long as it isn’t from them; but it is.  Any costs associated with a development project are passed on to the consumer.  “Impact Fees” add to the cost of developer constructing a shopping center, the retailer will have to pay more in rent in order for the developer to be reimbursed for these expenses and the  consumer will pay more for goods and services so the retailer can recoup the higher cost of rent.  To the developer, retailer and consumer it is an increase in a fee, but is it really a fee.   If it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck, it must be a duck.

 Look at the taxes we now pay and take a minute to think back at what they once covered.  Now look at all the fees we pay today and I think that you will agree.  Fees are taxes; if it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck, it must be a duck.

Posted in Commercial Real Estate, Joint Ventures, Katchen News, Property Acquisition, Property Development, Property Maintenance, Property Management, Real Estate Consulting, Residential Real Estate | No Comments »

One Man’s Opinion

Wednesday, January 12th, 2011

A few years back I got the idea to write a book which I would title One Man’s Opinion.  While I never pursued the idea I had made a rough draft as to what it would contain.  The draft consisted of a laundry list of hot button topics like taxes and immigration and my intention was to write a chapter on each topic detailing my opinion.  Since it was strictly my opinion the content would be neither right nor wrong, just one man’s opinion.

 Yesterday I was receiving training on Social Media from Victoria Wolf of Red Wolf Marketing and she advised me to decide what my voice would be for the company’s social media campaign and to make a committed effort to maintain that voice throughout all venues.  I thought about it for some time and it struck me that while I hadn’t found time to write my book I could certainly use that idea and implement it into the company’s social media campaign.  Thus, in the coming weeks, months and years I will give my opinion on timely business topics and how it relates to real estate in particular.  I will endeavor to entertain, inform and educate through my articles.  If you agree with what I write, thank you; if you disagree with what I write remember that it is just One Man’s Opinion.

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