My Commercial Real Estate Experience

It’s official, I’ve now been in the commercial real estate business for 15 years. My career began in Indianapolis, Indiana in 1994 when I was hired at a small, boutique tenant representation firm. Learning the business from the tenant side of the lease transaction is certainly one of the best educations available in this industry.

In 2006 I joined the Colliers office in Boise, Idaho.

The most rewarding aspect of my role is that I help businesses find solutions. I really enjoy negotiating and ensuring the best possible outcome—a win-win deal—for all the parties involved.

It’s very satisfying to me to be able to “level the playing field” between landlords and tenants. Landlords do leases every day but tenants only deal with them every 3-5 years, so my role as the tenant’s advocate really makes a difference.

Also, I get to see my clients’ businesses mature and evolve over the years and I enjoy being a part of that growth and success.

People often ask me about the books I’ve written on office leasing and negotiation.

The idea grew out of counseling and working with my own office relocation clients. Early on, my clients asked for advice about which steps to take and what to do next, and I suggested that they consult books or reference articles to get familiar with the process. But it turned out that neither they nor I could find any published material on the subject.

So, I did extensive research to develop my own templates and checklists, then had them printed and bound and gave them to my clients as a courtesy.

Everyone raved about the package, and clients kept telling me, “You should really publish and sell these.” From there, the idea began to take shape as a book and I’ve since written two more. Published titles include:

Move Your Office, 2006

Winning the Office Leasing Game, 2001

Office Relocation Planner, 1997; current edition, 2008

These are the top-selling commercial real estate publications on Amazon.com.

The commercial real estate world is constantly changing and I look forward to what’s in store over the next 15 years.

Please let me know of your experiences with commercial real estate. I’d love to hear from you, submit a comment or send me an email!