When it comes to the commercial real estate market, a comprehensive approach is required to best gauge opportunity potential — one that accounts for a 360-degree view of a property’s structural, transactional and ownership history.
But what about the people and businesses inside those buildings? Can transparency into an asset’s commercial tenant makeup provide the same advantages?
The short answer is — absolutely. The more access one has to an asset’s data, the better they’ll understand its current and future value.
Tenant data isn’t just for tenant representatives and leasing brokers — the benefits of accessing this information transcends the entire commercial real estate community. From investors looking for their next purchase to service providers looking for more viable prospects, access to these insights empowers industry professionals with the information they need to understand an opportunity. Using the nuances they uncover in sourcing, they’re also armed with an arsenal of insights to customize pitches to decision-makers to eventually land more lucrative deals.
For brokers and service providers, comprehensive tenant information can be the “secret weapon” in asset evaluation and deal-making.
Opening New Doors in Evaluation
To fully evaluate an opportunity, commercial real estate professionals need every piece of the puzzle, and tenant information is an essential part of that puzzle. When that data is leveraged with other holistic insights, like those served up in a prospecting platform like Reonomy, it provides a truly comprehensive picture of a property that can empower real estate professionals like never before.
How? For investors and sales brokers, knowing exactly which tenants are occupying space can indicate asset health and stability. Factors like tenant NAICS or SIC, type of location and lease commencement dates can point to whether or not a property has the potential for success. Not all tenants have to be household names to be reputable, but it’s more promising if a property currently leases to established, dependable businesses rather than those with questionable track records. These companies are more equipped to continue leasing space, which points to a secure income stream over time.
Understanding a property’s tenant structure can fuel better decision-making down the line when investors and brokers need to know which options to pursue, and which to ignore. Especially If they’re comparing similar properties in size, location or price, knowing which tenants are currently leasing can serve as a definitive factor.
Similarly, service providers who use this information are more equipped to identify new business prospects and evaluate respective opportunity potential. For example, a company that sells vending services to medical offices can use specific tenant insights, like business name and NAICS code Offices of Physicians, to pinpoint new leads.
When leveraged with other associated property information, like physical descriptors, sales records, and ownership insights, tenant information paints a full picture of property at stake. Maybe that same vending company only specializes in selling to medical offices larger than 30,000 square feet. Or, maybe they only service companies with 50 employees or more. Whoever their prospects are, having tenant intel can help this company, and other service providers, find workable leads faster.
New Insights Fuel Smarter Negotiation
When it comes to deal-making, the more intel professionals have on a property, the better prepared they’ll be when they come to the table with an offer. Transparency into tenant data ensures professionals are armed with valuable information to be used when pitching directly with owners.
For investors and sales brokers, the same specifics uncovered during the evaluation phase should be harnessed to personalize their offers. Nuances — like current employee headcount and company classification—can be combined with other building details and transaction information to negotiate a new deal.
Maybe a retail sales broker finds a strip mall that has potential. Instead of cold calling an owner with no information to see if they’d like to sell, brokers can approach prospects armed with details on available vacant space, recent renovations, and accurate valuations. they can say something more customized to ensure their message really resonates.
By harnessing the power of personalization, brokers can show owners that their homework. It also gives investors and brokers a leg-up in deal-making by providing them with the details needed to create a more persuasive pitch that’s more likely to resonate and elicit a positive response.
The same goes for service providers. Whether they’re an HVAC contractor or a commercial janitorial service, service providers of all types and backgrounds can harness tenant-related details to land more business. By ensuring they are armed with property-related details, specifically geospatial and structural intel, CRE professionals can approach owners and property managers with better, more flexible deals.
Don’t let tenant data fool you; regardless of background or specialty, tenant insights are a “secret weapon” for a wide range of commercial real estate professionals. Not only does occupant structure provide a deeper understanding of an opportunity at stake, but it also opens the door to better negotiation, and eventually, deal-making.
Michael Manne is the Chief Revenue Officer at Reonomy, the leading provider of commercial real estate software and data solutions. Reonomy is the nation’s largest database of property, transactional and ownership information. By leveraging big data, industry partnerships and machine learning, Reonomy is connecting the fragmented, disparate world of commercial real estate information to empower both professionals and enterprises to make more informed business decisions. The New York-based tech company, which has raised more than $70 million in venture capital since its inception six years ago, is using machine-learning to stitch together and standardize property data. By creating a single source of truth, Reonomy products empower individuals, teams and companies to share information, unlock insights and discover new opportunities. For more information, please visit www.reonomy.com
