What’s your posture in negotiating with prospective buyers and tenants in today’s commercial real estate market? I hope this isn’t a news flash, but buyers and tenants have all the poker chips at the moment, even here in Ocala, FL. Amazingly, some commercial real estate owners still come to the table like it’s 2006, hoping to wring the last penny from every deal through many rounds of back and forth.
Hey, we all love the dance of the deal, but getting ink on paper these days, requires dancing to a different tune. To use a baseball analogy, savvy owners know we’re not in a nine ending game anymore when it comes to the give and take of negotiations. Buyers and tenants have too many options available and their attention spans are very short. There just isn’t an appetite for long, drawn out negotiations right now.
Speaking of short attention spans, I took two of my sons hunting this weekend. We had a great time being together. The only critter moving besides my kids was an armadillo who kept making quite a racket next to us. When my seven and nine year-old sons could stand it no longer, they gave chase to the animal. It was the nine year-old who finally managed to wrap his hands around the armadillo’s tail.
What ensured was an explosion of activty. You would have thought the kid had Super Glued his hands to that critters tail. Round and round they went, until finally my son was able to raise the little armored root muncher off the ground to gain his victory. Watch the video of all the excitement at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gVCqRjcDqGY
Like my son and the armadillo this weekend, if you own commercial real estate and have the good fortune of dancing with a prospective buyer or tenant in the near future, DON’T LET THEM GET AWAY!
