Page 223 - Trump University Commercial Real Estate 101
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Y ou’ll Never Get Rich by Y ourself
salary at your old job, or perhaps even a decade ’ s worth of salary, all
because of the strong relationship you build over time.
Where do you find the good brokers? One source is www.CCIM.
com . That stands for Certified Commercial Investment Member , and it ’ s a
designation held by only six percent of commercial real estate practition-
ers. Brokers work hard at a series of courses to earn the CCIM designation.
It ’ s a pretty rigorous program and is prestigious in commercial real estate
circles. The CCIM website lists CCIMs in each market.
At the same time that you are checking out the source above, go to
the commercial property websites at www.loopnet.com and www
.propertyline.com . There, not only can you view a variety of current
deals, but you can also get a sense of which brokers are active in
a market.
Remember in an earlier chapter I recommend that you train bro-
kers who send you bad deals by calling them, thanking them, and
explaining what you ’ re looking for. You can use the same approach
here. Just call a broker who listed a deal on the Internet and say “ I buy
properties based on the following criteria . . . . Do you have any other
deals that meet these criteria, either on the market now or coming on
the market soon? ”
You ’ ll strike out a lot, but it only takes one good commercial deal
to make your entire year. Plus, the Internet is where the active brokers
post their listings. When you see brokers ’ ads in the Yellow Pages, you
don ’ t know when they did their last deal or how active they are.
Internet brokers have proven that they are still in the game.
The deals you see on the Internet have been largely picked - over.
Still, I ’ ve been successful buying properties off the Internet from two
sources.
The first is residential brokers. Many of them have not built a list
of commercial buyers, so they immediately put properties on the
Internet to see if they can sell them quickly and easily. They tend to
price the properties so they make sense.
The other source is property owners. Some owners are attracted
by the lack of middlemen and fees. I ’ ve done a couple of really good
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