Question for Commercial Landlords regarding Showing Scheduling
I’m an agent, full disclosure. For commercial landlords that self-manage, how do you manage showing scheduling? Do you use any software, if so, which one?
[{"id": "gtmgsp9", "text": "If you have spaces available that are getting enough lookers to make scheduling software worth it, I\u2019m seriously impressed with the demand in your location!", "replies": [{"id": "gtmj0u5", "text": "Honestly not like that. We\u2019re building a software www.doormaan.co and wondering if the commercial space can benefit from it. What do u think?", "replies": [{"id": "gtn030d", "text": "No, the listing broker would not want to miss a chance to have a personal conversation with the tenant broker or potential tenant. Are you talking about multi family buildings. That would be different I guess. I don\u2019t work in that segment.", "replies": [{"id": "gtn246i", "text": "But isn\u2019t that conversation usually over the phone? Work me though your process and also what sort of commercial spaces you deal with", "replies": [{"id": "gtp0nyi", "text": "you may want to target this at property management companies and for contractor access.  If I have already met with a tenant/buyer I probably do not give a shit about being there for the phase 1 guy, or their electrician or whatever when I have already negotiated the deal.  \n\nAlso guy quick tip, its not a showing in commercial, its a tour.  It sounds stupid, and I don't care what prospects call it, but if you are a professional in the industry and call it a showing I basically assume you are a residential agent and don't know wtf you are doing.", "replies": [{"id": "gtp5snn", "text": "As you can probably tell, I\u2019m more familiar with the residential side and great point with targeting property management companies, will def look into that. I appreciate the constructive feedback.", "replies": [{"id": "gtp7t3k", "text": "Others have picked on you enough, but you should appreciate the nonconstructive feedback too :)  You are trying to put a square peg in a round hole on this as far as brokerage is concerned.  \n\nI don't know a ton about your space but I know you have a lot of competitors out there.  Where are you different than the others?  \n\nI'd actually think about getting out of RE if it were me.   Could your service be used for florists to schedule deliveries to wedding venues and funeral homes?  Those people have staff that don't like meeting vendors too but need to take deliveries.   I'd start thinking outside the box and generalize your concept then make it super specific to industries other large companies don't already dominate and start cold calling personally.  Other people are just too far ahead of you here unless you have some political connections or something to get MLS's to flip to your system.", "replies": [{"id": "gtq08ew", "text": "Definitely appreciate all feedback but if someone is saying \u201cyou\u2019re gonna fail, this is Bs,\u201d that doesn\u2019t give me any information I can act on, so I prefer not to waste time on that.\n\nThere\u2019s a lot of big players in RE and not one of them is doing the scheduling thing right, hence why we\u2019re building our product. We were simply getting a feel of how our solution could be adapted to commercial but I think we\u2019re getting way ahead of ourselves here. Thanks again :)", "replies": [], "depth": 8}], "depth": 7}, {"id": "gu74dyu", "text": "I\u2019m in commercial property management (medical office buildings) and I would never need to use scheduling software. I use a Google calendar. There are also already tons of scheduling software for generalized office use. There would be no need thus no demand for one specific to CRE. I have used these with several kinds of professionals and I still don\u2019t see how they help productivity much. They are also very off putting to older wealthier clients. They expect to speak with you or your assistant to make an appointment.", "replies": [{"id": "gucr4sc", "text": "This is a recurring theme I\u2019ve heard in commercial real estate. Thanks for your feedback.", "replies": [], "depth": 8}], "depth": 7}], "depth": 6}], "depth": 5}], "depth": 4}], "depth": 3}], "depth": 2}], "depth": 1}, {"id": "gtml87b", "text": "I don't use software.  I park near the front door where I told them they'd find me, I then unlock the door and hold it open for the prospective tenant.\n\n*(I then proceed to show them spaces in the building).*", "replies": [{"id": "gtnbqly", "text": "Nothing beats old school.", "replies": [], "depth": 2}], "depth": 1}, {"id": "gtnajyh", "text": "You write yourself a note when the appointment is and show up.", "replies": [{"id": "gtnbzfa", "text": "What if you could automate the scheduling and simply show up to showings? Would that interest you?", "replies": [{"id": "gtnspjt", "text": "Your attempt at a pitch or market research, or whatever this is isn't working. \n\n\nDo you understand the different types of commercial real estate? Do you understand that zoning for use &amp; occupancy, parking ratios, etc. varies from municipality to municipality, and county to county? Then you have non-competes, tenant mix requirements, anchor tenant requirements, insurance and lender restrictions that are not going to be disclosed on a stock scheduling portal. \n\n\nA commercial broker's time is valuable and our expertise is specific to property types and the stakeholders we represent. There's no \"saving time\" by automating a showing schedule, when vetting a potential tenant is essential to the job.", "replies": [{"id": "gtnuijl", "text": "Nailed it so hard I chuckled Hahaha", "replies": [], "depth": 4}, {"id": "gto6ok3", "text": "Thanks for your well thought answer, it\u2019s more of a market research than a pitch lol. And it\u2019s working, thanks to you. \n\nThe worst approach is thinking we could build something and just slap it unto any listing and it works. We know there are different use cases for such technology and we\u2019re simply looking for the lowest hanging fruit in the commercial space, if any.\n\nWould love to poke your brain a little more, if that\u2019s cool with you. What sort of commercial re do you specialize in, in what municipality? And what\u2019s your process when leads reach out to you?", "replies": [], "depth": 4}], "depth": 3}, {"id": "gtobyj6", "text": "I couldn\u2019t give less of a fuck.", "replies": [], "depth": 3}], "depth": 2}], "depth": 1}, {"id": "gtnjr7t", "text": "I\u2019ve always wondered the use case of showing scheduling software in residential. Why do Resi agents use it? What BIG problem does it solve?\n\nI\u2019ve never seen this be a big problem on commercial real estate.  \n\nThoughts anyone?", "replies": [{"id": "gto5i4u", "text": "Well let\u2019s say you\u2019re advertising on Zillow and realtor.com and you\u2019re getting avg of 15 - 20 calls /day. 90% of those calls are to set an appt to see th place. That can get time-consuming very quickly as opposed to having an automated showing scheduler in place", "replies": [{"id": "gtocdk7", "text": "Holy shit you could not be more clueless about how this field works", "replies": [{"id": "gtoe6t9", "text": "So why don\u2019t you tell us buddy", "replies": [{"id": "gtof8m0", "text": "Well aside from the fact your app is doomed to fail, your main mistake is trying to apply something you think would be beneficial in residential to commercial.", "replies": [], "depth": 5}], "depth": 4}], "depth": 3}, {"id": "gtp00lr", "text": "I think you are missing a very very important difference in res and commercial in that res listing agents do not attend tours and commercial ones typically do.  Also commercial deals are way more complex and no one wants to waste their time getting \"scheduled\" for some appointment when they have never talked to the person and waste hours of their time to show up and find out the prospect is an idiot who has no concept of zoning, budget, business or a thousand other concepts.  We screen that stuff over the phone and determine if it is worth spending our time on that person or not.  \n\nAlso we are pretty old school in general.  If a tenant rep for a national credit tenant calls me and I told them to go ahead and schedule a tour on a website they'd think I were an idiot.", "replies": [], "depth": 3}, {"id": "gtqt9nl", "text": "Gotcha. That makes sense. If residential agents are getting that many calls and showings, then that\u2019s helpful. \n\nCommercial real estate is much different. There\u2019s no where near the volume of calls, much less tours. \n\nWhen I was a commercial real estate broker with tons of listings, I think a space would get a tour every other week. Commercial space just doesn\u2019t move that fast. Also, before touring, you need to spend a lot of time qualifying the tenant/buyer. No broker wants to waste their precious time showing a building to an unqualified prospect. So a listing agent still needs to make a call.", "replies": [], "depth": 3}], "depth": 2}, {"id": "gtqpqyh", "text": "I think what it may solve is the staggering confusion that occurs when you have 2 people wanting to see a given space.\n\nLet's say, for example....1 wants to see the space at 1:00 p.m. on Thursday and still another wants to see the space at 11:45 on the following Wednesday.\n\nHow in the world could a property manager or owner handle that insane dilemma?\n\nI've tried paper, I've tried calendars, I've tried sticky notes.  I've even tried having my secretary remind me. I just throw my hands up in defeat most of the time.\n\nIf only someone would come up with some kind of program to separate those two overwhelming events.\n\n(Maybe someday).", "replies": [], "depth": 2}], "depth": 1}]