How do I make myself an attractive buyer client for commerical brokers in my area? (No luck so far.)
Throwaway because personal details coming.  I participate here on my main account.  TLDR: Skip to 'advice needed' at the bottom.

Location: Minneapolis

Looking For: Industrial investment properties up to $1.5-2 million with outside storage.  Want 2 in the next couple years.

Qualifications:. Experienced owners.  We have a million dollars in credit lines ready to go.  Can be cash buyers up to around 1.25 million, should have no problem borrowing for a purchase of 2.5 million, according to the bank folks.

About us:

My wife and i own 13-14 residential properties (single family houses and a triplex), nearly all paid off.  Total equity around $3.5 million on those.  We also have 5 smaller industrial properties.  Two are fenced lots with no structures, others are 2,500, 5,000, and 14,000 sf.

We bought the 14,000sf warehouse last spring.  Our state has a commercial listing service and i happened to notice this pop up within days of listing.  It's a building i drive by a lot so i knew immediately I wanted it.  I called the listing broker for a showing.  At the showing i asked the broker if he wanted to represent us on the buy side and he declined.  My wife has an agents license for our residential stuff so she represented us along with an experienced attorney.  We won the bidding against 17 other offers with a cash offer and low contingencies.  Property is doing great.  We need two more of them.

ADVICE NEEDED:. I've spoken to 3-4 commercial brokers (30-60 min phone calls) in the last few years about our goals and qualifications, including the guy who was our broker when buying our main business' building in 2011.  All say Great, it may take 6-12 months but you can expect suitable properties to pop up and they'll let me know when they do.  Then nothing happens.

I understand that being a buyer broker in this market is a pain in the ass and can be a time waste.  All I can say is my wife and I are qualified, experienced, and ready to buy at the drop of a hat.  We won't fuck around.  We don't need a screaming deal, just a fair deal.  We ideally want to reverse 1031 some houses into the next building we purchase (buying the building first.)

What am I doing wrong?  Should I be emailing the brokers I've talked with every 8 weeks so they don't forget me? Or how would you advise I go about connecting with a broker who will actually let us know when something decent pops up, and be our buyer broker to help get it?  (With our main business i can't always watch myself.)

I feel like we're great potential clients for somebody but either we haven't found a good fit or I'm not presenting us properly to make the brokers feel like we're worth their time.  Any advice appreciated!
[{"id": "hqydnh5", "text": "Are there many industrial properties in your area that our trading?  The market is pretty tight hear in the southeast.  \n\nI would stay in regular contact with them.  Once you build a relationship and they know you can close it will  get easier.  You could also off an additional 1-2% in commission to get their attention.", "replies": [{"id": "hqygwty", "text": "I'd say there have been 4-5 fairly similar buildings to the one we got that sold in the following 6 months.  (We needed to get leases in place at our building and mortgage it before we could buy again so I wasn't watching closely.). Going back 2-3 years there have been plenty of opportunities.\n\nThe commission idea is good!", "replies": [], "depth": 2}], "depth": 1}, {"id": "hqygrzb", "text": "If you are buying, it is probably not the commission that is the holdup, but lack of properties. Industrial is the hottest thing in the world right now, so there are few deals to be had and the dumb money gets in first. \n\nLook at loopnet, look for nnn leased industrial properties in a 60 mile radius and see what pops  up, or drive around and do sign calls and see what the action is on the properties. \n\n1031 adds some complexity to the deal so you may need to do some shenanigans to line everything up.", "replies": [{"id": "hqyhjge", "text": "Yes an i completely understand that industrial is on fire.  My post comes from the fact that even with brokers i talked to 2-4 years ago when inventory was looser, they never came back to me with anything, ever.  And perhaps that's my fault for not staying in touch better?  (I told them that to avoid being a pain in the ass I'd just wait to hear from them.)\n\nThanks for the comment!", "replies": [{"id": "hqyzbnv", "text": "Eh, try younger brokers. If you are not getting a call at least once a year, they forgot about you. I would imagine you are getting calls on your mf properties? Tell those agents you want to 1031 into industrial and see if they have anything.", "replies": [], "depth": 3}, {"id": "hqzzu4q", "text": "Have you done a reverse 1031 before? Do you have a QI lined up?", "replies": [{"id": "hr0e5b3", "text": "I have not.  I've been recommended a big national outfit but if you know of another good option I'm all ears!", "replies": [{"id": "hr0jm15", "text": "I\u2019ve used APIexchange and found them very professional, with a team available day and night as one of the large \u201cchain\u201d QIs.\n\nThis was only for a standard 1031 but they should also do reverse.", "replies": [{"id": "hr0milu", "text": "Thank you for the recommendation!", "replies": [], "depth": 6}], "depth": 5}], "depth": 4}], "depth": 3}], "depth": 2}], "depth": 1}, {"id": "hqyj1v5", "text": "Which shops have you talked with in Minneapolis? Some of the smaller groups in town seem to be a bit more aggressive in searching for deals from the buy side, though I can\u2019t speak to their efficacy in the industrial market. I\u2019m in Minneapolis and would be happy to put you in touch with a couple of connections, assuming you haven\u2019t already reached out to them. Feel free to dm me", "replies": [{"id": "hqymcig", "text": "Hey thank you I will send you a message!\n\nI've spoken with: A CBBurnett broker (old school guy) who helped us buy our building years ago for our business.  (In that case we found the building and just needed his representation.)\n\nTwo people with their own shops... One is a one man show (and i think he must focus more on leases), the other does have a small group under him but he seems focused on trying to put together syndicated investments.\n\nLast one was from one of the bigger firms but i forget which.\n\nAnyway thank you, I'll send you a message!", "replies": [{"id": "hqzmiem", "text": "Go to a big firm and just ask for a junior broker.  They would be happy to help you.", "replies": [], "depth": 3}], "depth": 2}], "depth": 1}, {"id": "hqyn5ny", "text": "Find a property on loopnet, tell the broker you don't have an agreement with an agent and they can represent you in dual agency.  Suddenly your the #1 candidate :)\n\nBut obviously gotta look out for yourself a bit more in that situation...", "replies": [], "depth": 1}, {"id": "hqyw46f", "text": "you have to have a target and be aggressively in love. \nDon't wait for the broker. \nyou call them and tell them that you want something and you need it now. don't talk numbers till you've seen the place in person.", "replies": [], "depth": 1}, {"id": "hqz19n2", "text": "Hey I'm in the Minneapolis market also and looking for buyers (although I'll admit there are many looking for exactly what you are)\r  \n\r  \nSpecialize in off-market industrial transactions.", "replies": [{"id": "hqz4yn8", "text": "I'll send you a PM later this afternoon!  Just heading into an activity.\n\nRegardless whether we could do business together it would be fun to connect.  Thanks!", "replies": [{"id": "hqz604l", "text": "Absolutely. Hardest part about your criteria is probably the outside storage, but I actually know of a couple off market. I look forward to hearing from you (and sent you a pm also)", "replies": [], "depth": 3}, {"id": "hqzuj94", "text": "Someone needs to start a Haves/Needs sub for CRE", "replies": [], "depth": 3}], "depth": 2}], "depth": 1}, {"id": "hqznear", "text": "Most likely you have not found the right match for an agent.  Most brokers will not take you seriously without an exclusive agreement to represent you.  I would keep calling your past or future brokers see if there is one that will make you a priority.   Make sure they specialize in \"Investment\" properties. Not all commercial brokers/agents are the same.  \n\nThat suggestion is if you don't have the time to do the work yourself.  These properties are hard to find however, not impossible to find.  This can be time consuming.  Loop net is a good resource, however, if there are properties in your area that you are interested, information of the property owner would be available to the public on the state assessment websites.   If you have the property address you can look it up and find out who the owner is and contact them directly to see if they would be interested in selling.     All the best to you!", "replies": [], "depth": 1}, {"id": "hr0vzkx", "text": "Another part of the problem I think is that your buildings are tiny. They just aren\u2019t getting deals across their desk that size. \n\nIf you can why not build your own cold calling system? I\u2019m buying something similar in DFW but $3-6m range and I get decent flow from brokers.", "replies": [{"id": "hr30bas", "text": "Good point and thank you!  I am getting the feeling that our best bet with these little buildings will be to figure out how to find more ourselves and let my wife do the agent work again.\n\nThere are a couple multifamily brokers whose email lists i ended up on somehow.  Other commenters suggested I ask other brokerages to put me on their email lists for industrial so hopefully at some point some small ones pop up which we can pursue.\n\nThanks!", "replies": [], "depth": 2}], "depth": 1}, {"id": "hr1951i", "text": "Did your wife get a commission on the purchase? Typically there is little to no commission given to buy side brokers on very  large deals because institutional investors (buyers) have their own analysts getting emails and answering calls from brokers to buy investment properties.\nYou aren't a large buyers in the market so unfortunately you aren't on anyone's radar to be sending deals to.\nI recommend being your own broker to get the best service. This means signing up for access to listings at CBRE, Colliers, Marcus Millichamp and every known commercial broker in the area to send you their listings and call you when they get a new listing. Use a separate email address because you will got a lot of email spam. Don't sign an exclusive agreement with one broker to give them a buy side commission because that would just come out of your pocket. You may consider loopnet or costar for listings. These listings are usually for properties that didn't generate enough interest through the brokers private contact list or internal listing on the companies private internal listing site.", "replies": [{"id": "hr2zezw", "text": "Yes, my wife did get the buy side commission.  So that was nice.\n\nThank you for this advice!  I didn't know about asking those companies directly to put me on their lists.\n\nIn the end we don't mind if my wife does our paperwork and acts as our agent/broker.  We also don't mind paying a commission if it'll help get us into another building or two.  But i see your point that as we are at the very bottom size of property purchase there aren't a lot of brokers for us and perhaps it's best to try to handle the purchase part ourselves.\n\nThank you!", "replies": [{"id": "hr4nueh", "text": "Another strategy is to go prospecting for direct to owner purchases. Your wife probably has experience looking up contact info for who owns a property so you could identify some properties, send out letters and cold call some owners. The additional challenge with commercial properties is prepayment penalties on loans means owners are less likely to sell compared to home owners that don't have prepayment penalties.", "replies": [{"id": "hr5d5cs", "text": "Thanks you!  Two of our small industrial properties came to us that way.... We just let owners near our business' building know we'd love to buy.  One of them had a tax consequence to selling so we basically paid his tax bill for him.  But it was a building and empty fenced lot a road the street from our building so we went for it.  By now I'm sure those would appraise higher than we paid anyway.\n\nThanks for the continued ideas!", "replies": [], "depth": 4}], "depth": 3}], "depth": 2}], "depth": 1}, {"id": "hr2xcky", "text": "It's been a few years, Minneapolis had a strong commercial association that was tied to their own listing service. If this still exists it might be a good place to post to the market what you are looking for and make some contacts. It wasn't for institutional so the deal size should be perfect if they are still active.", "replies": [{"id": "hr2znyh", "text": "It's MNCAR you're referring to, i think?  Thanks!  I'll look into it!\n\nhttps://www.mncar.org/", "replies": [], "depth": 2}], "depth": 1}, {"id": "hr5qa9u", "text": "Send me message, I'm a residential agent but have a lot of investor and commercial agent connections. I'll get one to put their boots on the ground for you!", "replies": [], "depth": 1}, {"id": "hr90eaq", "text": "Focus on personal branding", "replies": [], "depth": 1}, {"id": "hren31o", "text": "I'm in a similar boat. I feel like many brokers are either slammed, or else focused on bigger deals or immediate purchases. I don't think many will help you hunt unless you add a zero or two to your purchase price.\n\nWhat I have done is find my own properties, either on LoopNet or directly, and driven the deals myself. E.g. call the broker, then the owner if the broker doesn't respond, and push that I'm a serious buyer. But it's still like pulling teeth.\n\nI would not wait for a broker to call you with a \"hey I found this great property for you!\"\n\nHowever, my local banker DID reach out to me about deals that he knew about. Banks are arguably more motivated to get your business, and bankers might know people who are selling. So, networking beyond agents might help. Maybe even ask local CRE groups if anyone is selling.", "replies": [{"id": "hres15j", "text": "Thanks for your perspective!  Yeah I realize I'm at the very small end of what brokers are interested in.  Which is why it seems like they're not very interested haha.", "replies": [], "depth": 2}], "depth": 1}, {"id": "hrgbu15", "text": "If you message me your info my team specializes in industrial investment properties throughout the Midwest similar to what you are looking for. Can at the least add another source of inventory for you.", "replies": [], "depth": 1}]