In May of 1986 I started my first job in the real estate business. Hard to believe it was 40 years ago.
The small firm I worked for did primarily Landlord Representation. That meant we were Exclusive Leasing Agents for office buildings and were responsible for marketing them to tenants and fellow real estate brokers, filling them with new tenants and handling renewals of existing tenants. Westchester had just finished a 15 year boom of development for speculative office buildings, and they all needed to find tenants.
I learned the basics: How to show space, how to follow up with prospects and/or their brokers. Discussing with our owner clients how we would negotiate the terms and conditions. Shepherding lease deals through the process from initial inspection to lease signing. I remember turning on all the lights and making sure all the window blinds were at the same level and same angle so that each space would show its best and then turning them all off after every inspection.
But the most important thing I learned was about relationships. Making new ones and maintaining existing ones. That was the area my boss excelled in. He was very successful, and he attributed his success to his ability to put people together and facilitating their journey to reaching agreement on the terms and conditions that were ready to send to the lawyers to draft the lease document.
Twelve years after I started in real estate, I went out on my own. Not because I was unhappy with my job, but because there was a confluence of events that was never going to happen again in my life and I just had to take advantage of them.
I had met a tenant who took space in one of the buildings we represented. They were a captive law firm for a New York Stock Exchange traded insurance company. They came to our building without a broker, and we proceeded to make a deal (which the building needed desperately) that allowed them to expand their space over time as their business grew.
I must have presented well to the Executive VP of the company, as she called me a few times after the deal was done to ask me questions about leases she was doing in other states as her company was rapidly expanding. During the third call, I remember saying “Suzy, with all of the leases you are doing all over the country, you need someone to help you who knows what to do.” So, I went to their headquarters in Rock Hill, New York and pitched the account. And I won it! I now had a national account of my own with a rapidly growing public company. I conveniently forgot to mention during my sales pitch that I had never done a deal outside of Westchester County!
I proudly came back to the office and told my boss about my new client. Unfortunately, he wasn’t as excited about it as I was. He wanted me to “keep my eye on Westchester” rather than spend my time doing deals in other markets.
We had just completed a 125,000 square foot lease with a major financial services firm, and I had a good amount of money in my account from that commission. When you start a new brokerage business, you have no cash flow until you earn and collect commissions on the new deals you are just starting on, which takes many months. I had a new national account with lots of deal flow coming my way. And I was at an age when this was not going to happen again. So I called my new client to tell her I was now on my own. She asked where my office was, and I told her I didn’t have one yet. Her response was “come sit with us” in the White Plains space I just leased to them. For free!
I then learned how to do deals nationally and did lots of them. There is nothing better for a real estate broker than to have a reliable flow of deals coming in. And I moved to the other side of the table-Tenant Representation. I was realistic enough to know that the kinds of buildings I wanted to represent would not hire a one-man shop.
I decided that my business model would be Exclusive Tenant Representation, where I only represented clients who signed my Exclusive Representation Agreement and hired me to do their work. It just seemed right to me. I had no desire to build a shop with employees and the market realities kind of turned me in that direction as well.
It was fascinating to do national work. I had met a broker who did lots of national work and he became my “rabbi.” Wherever I had a new assignment, he was happy to introduce me to the high-quality brokers in markets all around the country that he did business with.
My business model (without much intentional thought) was to partner with Tenant Rep
brokers who knew their markets and could provide my exclusive clients with their local knowledge and relationships with building owners in their market. Every market is different and there was no way for me to learn those markets and give my tenants
quality representation in them by myself. I did lots of business on handshakes with these brokers and always got paid when they collected their commissions. I still use many of these brokers today. My value was to bring my exclusive client and my
knowledge of what their real estate needs were. Their value was to do the best deal for my client in their market. It all worked.
The thing I am most proud of is that I have many clients that I have done multiple transactions with over the years. Local, regional, national and even international deals. New leases, renewal leases, expansions, and subleases. I have also been fortunate to have received referrals from existing clients and others over the years, which have resulted in many, many new relationships and transactions.
Through the Crash of 1987, the Dot Com era of 2000, the Financial Crisis of 2007 and the Pandemic of 2020, I have somehow managed to put food on the table. And I continue to do so. Even after four decades, new issues are coming up frequently. AI will not eliminate commercial real estate brokers. It knows what happened today and in the past but cannot sit face to face with tenants and building owners to solve the problems that will likely come in the future. That is the fun of the business, and it still is. I look forward to the future.