On Monday, I shared my thoughts on the findings of NREI Online’s commercial real estate brokerage survey, and boy did I receive several questions and comments related to this post.
One of the findings of this survey suggested brokers were much more inclined to work with a national firm versus an independent or franchise model. Many franchise and license model-based professionals strongly disagreed. Particularly I received comments from brokers associated with SVN, CBC and Marcus & Millichap. All praised their platforms as being ideal. I didn’t receive any comments from the “Big Six”, as I assume they would agree with the survey results.
[Tweet “Brokers are more inclined to work with a national firm vs. an independent or franchise firm”]
Regarding the “Big Six”, this list was a reflection of the rankings directly published by the Real Estate Forum magazine, which is stated to be based on total gross production. Once again, I received several comments from brokers related to firms such as NAI, Lee & Associates, and HFF. All solid and profitable firms, just not in the top six in the production rankings.
The focus on this six part series from NREI Online was the recent surge of merger and acquisition activity, which most of those surveyed felt would continue. This is also true for our readers, as many commented on how the Big 6 will soon become the Big 5 and eventually the Fantastic 4. I agree with our readers, it is only a matter of time for further consolidation in our industry.
[Tweet “It is only a matter of time for further consolidation in the #CRE industry.”]
With all this talk and discussion of consolidation and national versus independent, one has to wonder; is one model better for the individual broker or brokerage team than another? What about the client, the most important element of the brokerage service equation?
I thought it would be best to answer this question by going to some of the leading independent and nationally affiliated brokers in the country. As such, I am pleased to announce I will be facilitating The Great CRE Debate: National vs. Independent on Tuesday, November 17 at 1:00 pm eastern. This free video conference will be open for registration after November 1. Please mark your calendars now, as we are securing an incredible panel!
[Tweet “@MassimoGroup will be hosting The Great CRE Debate: National vs. Independent on 11/7 at 1 PM Eastern”]
By the way, most of the comments received were emailed directly to me. For the sake of social media remaining social, please post any comments in the comment section of our posts so all our readers can appreciate your thoughts. Thank you.
2 Responses
This CRE Debate certainly needs focus and clarity. One size does not fit all. In my view, much of the CRE market is actually small business and mom-n-pop situations. National brokers introduce a strong bias in their overall workings as they servee big corp and franchise clients that later tends to misread the national economy and completely overvalue the happenings on Main Street America. This ‘all knowing’ dynamic view of National brokers willy-nilly creates unrealistic expectations when they represent local property owners. So in my view, there is plenty of room for numerous CRE models, each of which carve out an effective niche for their area.