I can almost guarantee you over-paid...

I can almost guarantee you over-paid for your commercial property by knowing one thing about the transaction. 

While running comps recently on several different properties over the last month or two, there were always outliers that sold for significantly more than the rest and without an obvious reason (at first look).

The building wasn’t positioned better than the others, it wasn’t in better condition, it didn’t have any recent capital improvements. Nothing about the real estate gave a reason for it to sell at $20-50+/ SF more than the rest. 

So I started really digging into it…why could these properties sell for so much more and was there something I could do to take advantage of that for my sellers?

I found one similarity between all of them. A residential agent brought the buyer. Every. Single. Time. 

Having cut my teeth in residential, I can tell you first hand…they are two completely different animals (and no, one is not objectively better than the other). Properties aren’t comped the same way nor are they appraised and financed the same way. 

Moral of the story…if you want to net the most money for your commercial asset, sell to the party represented by a residential agent.