Professional Report - Q2 2014 Summer

Managing Partner of Northern Nevada Colliers International in Reno, Nev. “I try to stay current on building trends and tenant requirement changes. The best example on the industrial side is the increased parking need by Internet Fulfillment Centers. On the office side, it’s the continual drive to put more people in less space. And on the construction side, green buildings are active again since the economy has recovered.” Better ways to build and the requirements of tenants, he notes, “are always changing,” thus requiring constant monitoring and education.

Ruffin says that SIOR is his primary source of education. “I follow trends through the quarterly reports and the national conference,” he shares. “On specific issues, I use my contacts in our local Northern California chapter. The members I have met after serving on the board for six years are amazingly helpful.” In addition, he says he reads “multiple trade magazines and research topics from blogs I follow on LinkedIn” to stay on top of his game.

Stan Kurzweil, SIOR, Senior Vice President of Weichert Commercial Brokerage, Inc., Morris Plains, N.J., also says he stays educated by being very active in SIOR. “I go to all their educational events,” he says, “I also attend the NAIOP educational offerings and anything that relates to real estate in other organizations.” Kurzweil says he also reads a lot, “particularly the financial publications, to get opinions from, for example, the Wall Street Journal, Barron’s, the New York Times, and local papers. And of course I read the SIOR Professional Report.” Kurzweil adds that he interacts with others at open houses and often has discussions with other brokers.

“I also deal a lot with appraisers to get the flavor of the market,” he adds. Before marketing a property he will consult CoStar, Loopnet, or other sources to better understand what’s going on in the area. “I do the diligence as if I was buying the property,” he declares.

“There is no shortage of opportunities to
broaden your knowledge,” notes Nahigian,
“because all of us are bombarded with emails
and print advertising on conventions and
seminars, finding educational opportunities
is not a problem." He continues, “we must
all have over 100 seminars and courses to
attend. What I try to do each January is make
a list of topics that I want to pursue. This
year my list consisted of attending three
courses; a course on new appraisal issues;
research more on logistics and supply
chain with field work and attend a course
on elevating my teaching skills.” He says
he has also learned several great brokerage
management ideas from the managers’
breakout roundtable discussions at the
national meetings.

So far this year, he continues, he has attended a three-day Massachusetts Department of Transportation Appraisal course to which he was appointed by the MassDOT Appraisal Review Board. “It was a course by invitation only and I took advantage of my check list item,” he notes. “Second, I had the opportunity to have a private tour and inspect the Norfolk, Va. shipyard. That two-hour private seminar will help my clients and will help me to further develop our new course on logistics and supply chain.”

BENEFITS ARE CLEAR

SIORs have no doubt that education enhances their opportunities for success. “I have always felt that the broker that brings the most knowledge to the transaction has the best shot at winning the business,” says Ruffin.

Kurzweil offers several examples of how increasing his knowledge led to business success. “I represented a major corporate industrial client in another region in which I was not an expert,” he recalls. “So I reached out to an SIOR in that region for knowledge and the client was very impressed with my professionalism. I told them I belonged to an organization that I am very proud of because of the type of people there and they respected it and were very appreciative of it.” Another example involved something as “basic” as reading the papers.

“I read an article in Barron’s about a major Fortune 500 company in which they discussed restructuring,” he shares.

“In exploring a 10,000 square foot lease opportunity for them, I told them they did not want any work letters; they wanted the owner to do all the work because they should not want to tie their money up — at which point they said that it was confidential and asked how I knew. I told them that after reading the Barron’s article it was just common sense.” In another case, says Kurzweil, “I got the listing because I was so knowledgeable about all the comps. They did not know me initially, but after all that work they asked me to do a broker evaluation