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
STAN KURZWEIL,
SIOR
ROBERT J. NAHIGIAN,
SIOR, CRE, FRICS, MCR
TIM RUFFIN,
SIOR
contributing
SIORs