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Marketing my 2 commercial storefront condos for sale myself

by mlooby7
11 replies
I have 2 nice commercial storefront condos in Chicago and I'd like to sell them. I'm not desperate, but I'd like to sell them as I've been living in Ireland for the last 5 years. I thought about creating a site to sell them myself, as my Realtor friend has had them listed for nearly a year and he hasn't been very aggressive with marketing at all. I bought a domain, "commercialpropertyforsaleinchicago.com" about a year ago (a bit tooo long-tailed perhaps!), but did nothing with it, as I was brand new to IM back then. I'm still not sure how to approach this. Any ideas or suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!
#commercial #condos #marketing #sale #sell condos #storefront
  • Profile picture of the author savidge4
    Id put up the site. Great photos all the information you would find on a real estate listing. then start placing ads that link to your page in any and every online place you can think of ebay classifieds, the local paper electronic classifieds, there are FSBO sites you could list on, Craigslist Tons of places!

    Good Luck
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    Success is an ACT not an idea
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    • Profile picture of the author mlooby7
      Originally Posted by savidge4 View Post

      Id put up the site. Great photos all the information you would find on a real estate listing. then start placing ads that link to your page in any and every online place you can think of ebay classifieds, the local paper electronic classifieds, there are FSBO sites you could list on, Craigslist Tons of places!

      Good Luck
      I'm gonna go for it and do like you said. Thanks very much for your help!

      Mike
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  • Profile picture of the author milano6
    Setup a site for each of them using Home Domains - Real Estate Marketing | Video Enabled Single Property Websites | Real Estate Video | Real Estate Websites . I have used this service many times for sales and rentals.
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  • Profile picture of the author SarahWalker
    Personally I love the direct mail approach. You can make it look extremely professional and send it directly to high quality prospects.

    That's another thing - your prospect list is the key to a successful sale.
    I've been a copywriter (sales writer) for the real estate industry for 7 years now. I think direct mail is by far the most effective tactic.
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    • Profile picture of the author mlooby7
      Originally Posted by SarahWalker View Post

      Personally I love the direct mail approach. You can make it look extremely professional and send it directly to high quality prospects.

      That's another thing - your prospect list is the key to a successful sale.
      I've been a copywriter (sales writer) for the real estate industry for 7 years now. I think direct mail is by far the most effective tactic.
      Interesting idea, Sarah. I'll try that next time I try selling it. I was lucky enough to get the unit rented yesterday-phew!

      All the Best,

      Mike
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  • Profile picture of the author DABK
    How much do you owe on them? What are they worth (really realistically)? What are you going to be left over with? What's that in relation to the cost of putting up the site and driving traffic to it?

    I, for one, love the long tail keyword urls. Have a couple of them that are kind of like yours (i.e., long tail, same or closely-related industry, similar location).

    Not that hard to rank, but does take some skill and work.

    Are you up for it?

    Is your real estate friend a specialist in commercial properties? A lot of the residential ones don't fully understand how to market commercial, speaking about the 2 dozen or so I know. If they have a prospect, they have no commercial mortgage broker to get advice from as to how it will work from that end...

    Anyway, not a bad idea, if you can rank the site, or know other ways of driving traffic to the site.

    I think direct-mail to commercial real estate agents and mortgage brokers would work. (Not all the borrowers a broker deals with are looking for yet another property... But some do, some can't get the property they started with and might consider yours as a nice replacement.)

    Either way, make sure the numbers make sense. I hate it when someone lists expenses at $15,000/year and I know property taxes alone are $13k.

    How about

    Originally Posted by mlooby7 View Post

    I have 2 nice commercial storefront condos in Chicago and I'd like to sell them. I'm not desperate, but I'd like to sell them as I've been living in Ireland for the last 5 years. I thought about creating a site to sell them myself, as my Realtor friend has had them listed for nearly a year and he hasn't been very aggressive with marketing at all. I bought a domain, "commercialpropertyforsaleinchicago.com" about a year ago (a bit tooo long-tailed perhaps!), but did nothing with it, as I was brand new to IM back then. I'm still not sure how to approach this. Any ideas or suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!
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    • Profile picture of the author mlooby7
      Originally Posted by DABK View Post

      How much do you owe on them? What are they worth (really realistically)? What are you going to be left over with? What's that in relation to the cost of putting up the site and driving traffic to it?

      I, for one, love the long tail keyword urls. Have a couple of them that are kind of like yours (i.e., long tail, same or closely-related industry, similar location).

      Not that hard to rank, but does take some skill and work.

      Are you up for it?

      Is your real estate friend a specialist in commercial properties? A lot of the residential ones don't fully understand how to market commercial, speaking about the 2 dozen or so I know. If they have a prospect, they have no commercial mortgage broker to get advise from as to how it will work from that end...

      Anyway, not a bad idea, if you can rank the site, or know other ways of driving traffic to the site.

      I think direct-mail to commercial real estate agents and mortgage brokers would work. (Not all the borrowers a broker deals with are looking for yet another property... But some do, some can't get the property they started with and might consider yours as a nice replacement.)

      Either way, make sure the numbers make sense. I hate it when someone lists expenses at $15,000/year and I know property takes alone are $13k.

      How about
      Thanks for your feedback-I really appreciate it. I actually just rented the unit yesterday, luckily enough. However, when it comes time to try selling it again, I'll keep your advice in mind. :-)

      All the Best,

      Mike
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  • Profile picture of the author bizgrower
    Who would want your condos? Direct market to them.

    My brother, a real estate agent, could not sell my Dad's townhome.
    The top agent in that neighborhood sold it in less than a week because
    she had a list of buyers waiting for something in that neighborhood.

    I got yelled at by a real estate agent when I offered commission if she found
    a buyer while I was deciding exactly what to do with a property I owned.
    She would only help if she could be the listing agent for the 7% commission.
    Signature

    "If you think you're the smartest person in the room, then you're probably in the wrong room."

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    • Profile picture of the author mlooby7
      Originally Posted by bizgrower View Post

      Who would want your condos? Direct market to them.

      My brother, a real estate agent, could not sell my Dad's townhome.
      The top agent in that neighborhood sold it in less than a week because
      she had a list of buyers waiting for something in that neighborhood.

      I got yelled at by a real estate agent when I offered commission if she found
      a buyer while I was deciding exactly what to do with a property I owned.
      She would only help if she could be the listing agent for the 7% commission.
      Yes, a business associate of mine told me the same thing-go to the top Commercial Real Estate Broker in Chicago because they would have the biggest presence and largest list of prospective buyers. THIS I will DEFINITELY do the next time around! I got the unit rented yesterday, which I can't believe, after it being vacant for 2 years. Things must be finally picking up over there!

      Thanks for your input. :-)

      Mike
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      • Profile picture of the author bizgrower
        Originally Posted by mlooby7 View Post

        Yes, a business associate of mine told me the same thing-go to the top Commercial Real Estate Broker in Chicago because they would have the biggest presence and largest list of prospective buyers. THIS I will DEFINITELY do the next time around! I got the unit rented yesterday, which I can't believe, after it being vacant for 2 years. Things must be finally picking up over there!

        Thanks for your input. :-)

        Mike
        Or, at least the top Commercial Broker in that zip code and/or that type of property and use.
        Good on you for getting it rented.
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        "If you think you're the smartest person in the room, then you're probably in the wrong room."

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