Why CRE Brokers Garner More Success In a Collaborative Work Environment

Clint Hankla, Senior Director, Lee & Associates – Houston

Networking is one of the most important parts of my job as a broker. The real estate industry is driven by the relationships you create, grow and maintain throughout your career.

Networking within your company is also very rewarding. I cannot close all of the deals I generate, so collaboration is how I stay involved and say yes to more business.

With networking, if we keep the lines of communication open, collaborate, ideate and share business, those in the real estate business can all benefit for several reasons.

New blood generates strategy and collaboration

Working within your organization can provide an alternative perspective that prompts fresh ideas and strategy. Additionally, it’s always in the client’s favor to have an extra set of hands on the deal. Although most institutional owners appreciate one point of contact, many won’t hire anything short of a team for the assignment.

More deals are accessible

Collaboration allows you to expand your reach. When you work in tandem with other members of the team, it gives you the opportunity to take on deals that were previously unattainable for various reasons. With this approach, I have been able to gain experience working on larger, more challenging deals which I may not have been equipped to work on alone before.

Working as a team provides support  

Many brokers enjoy having a collaborator; someone to celebrate the wins with or drown a lost deal with. Furthermore, it’s important to always be available in this industry. When you leave town, it’s reassuring to know you have the support of someone to delegate to or temporarily pass the baton to.

Teams allow us to grow and achieve more

Brokers need to be capable of creating more business than they can justify handling. The heart of our company is our associates who benefit from our leadership. Having a team of associates who you can trust to handle deals will free up time to prospect, reduce administrative work and close more deals.

Working with others encourages reciprocation

This should not be your expectation, but if you are a team player and are easy to work with, you will typically be asked to work on more deals in the future.

I recently had the opportunity to work with the office team because one of their clients had a project that leaned more towards an industrial and flex space, which was different from the rest of the client’s portfolio. Since office brokers and industrial brokers have different perspectives in terms of what’s valuable in a property, we chose to restructure the marketing strategy for an industrial audience.

We were facing a challenging submarket, and our traffic reflected this before we repositioned ourselves. We connected better to the market and were able to generate more traffic for the asset. Ultimately, we ended up attracting four qualified proposals and closed a deal with a qualified user on very good terms. This is an example of why collaboration in the workplace is critical, in the best interest of clients and should not be overlooked.

Lee & Associates Houston is a fully-integrated, commercial real estate company with unrivaled capabilities. Our business-minded brokers specialize in office, industrial and land real estate investments. As the fastest-growing, broker-owned firm in the nation, we support our clients’ real estate needs in the local, national and international markets. www.lee-associates.com/houston/

Clint Hankla specializes in industrial brokerage in North, Far North, and Northwest Houston. Clint has a passion to work with property owners, investors and users to achieve their respective goals. Contact him at 713-744-7432 or email chankla@lee-associates.com.