Andrew Bermudez of Lee & Associates in Irvine, CA, shares his thoughts on using social media for business. As a specialist in the lease and sale of office and commercial properties throughout Orange County, Andrew often uses his knowledge of this marketplace to drive new business.

What are your thoughts on using social media for business?

Social media is important, because it enhances word of mouth. I get multiple referrals from my personal Facebook page, where I am connected to clients, friends, vendors and other CRE pros.

How are you using social media to market your services?

We use a blog, www.finditfillit.com. We get some pretty good feedback on the articles that we publish to our blog. They are relevant posts related to the current state of the CRE market, trends and insights on how to negotiate the best deals or find the best market opportunities.

I use twitter to inform my followers of interesting articles related to commercial real estate. I also inform them of great buildings for lease or sale. I develop relationships with my followers, by having real-life conversations.

Any insights you can share on using the Real Estate Pro application on LinkedIn?

It’s a great tool to streamline my CRE activities, whether it’s leasing out a building, selling a property, or listing a new CRE opportunity.

What websites or social networking platforms do you visit to get the latest CRE news?

Mashable.com is a great site

I also have many friends who are social media pros, like Mirna Bard (http://www.mirnabard.com/blog/)

LinkedIn groups are a great way to share thoughts or get information on commercial real estate topics from other CRE pros or users

We recently asked, Mike Cobb of Colliers International to discuss how he uses social media to expand his presence online.

As an expert in the lease and sale of office, industrial and R&D properties in the San Francisco Peninsula, Mike also shares his thoughts on the outlook of the commercial real estate market in 2011.

How do you use social media to market your services online?

Social media is a great tool for strengthening my brand. I am an established expert within my local market (the SF Peninsula). With the various integrated social media tools that I am using (Twitter, LinkedIn, My Blog), I am able to provide news and, more importantly, commentary on topics that will interest a local audience. I can also deploy my market reports to an audience well beyond my mailing list.

Any insights you can share on using the Real Estate Pro application on LinkedIn?

If someone wants to check up on my professional credentials, they are almost certainly going to go to my LinkedIn profile first—that’s what I do! Having the ability to feature properties that I represent right on my profile page is a great tool.

What social networking platforms do you visit to get the latest news?

Twitter has become a key source of information…I pick the people that I ‘follow’ to cover a wide variety of my professional interests—big-picture market news, Green buildings, local information, maybe a little Cal sports mixed in, too…

What exciting deals have you recently closed?

Well, I recently closed what I believe to be the biggest industrial deal on the Peninsula this year (90,000 sqft in South San Francisco at an AMB-owned property), and I also just handled a 30,000 sqft expansion and renewal in a long-term client’s building in San Carlos. 

What I’m most proud of, though, is the fact that we have recently reached 100% occupancy in the office portion of the Town and Country Village center in Palo Alto. We managed to keep attracting tenants to this project—at very strong rents—even at the worst of this market cycle. I attribute our success to a strong, collaborative relationship with the client, an exceptionally well thought out renovation of the project, and a great marketing team.

What are your thoughts on the outlook of the commercial real estate market in 2011?

I think that it will be an interesting year. Right now, we have this ridiculously bifurcated local market. In the core downtown locations up and down the SF Peninsula, rents are actually higher now than they were before the wheels fell off the financial markets. At the same time, lease rates for the broader markets are just bouncing along the bottom. I don’t think that the growing gap between rents in the top markets and the broader averages is sustainable, and I don’t see Class A office rents going down, either. I expect to see multi-tenant office rents to start tracking up over the next few quarters. I don’t see similar movement coming for big floor plate R&D buildings, though, for at least 18 months—in fact, that submarket may well degrade a bit more.

Allen Buchanan is a commercial real estate professional specializing in the Orange County industrial market. As a Principal at Lee & Associates, Allen is always exploring new and innovative uses of social media, including ways to: enhance current business relationships, grow his professional network and share his business knowledge online.

How are you using social media to market your services?

I blog on a daily basis through http://www.allencbuchanan.blogspot.com. I experiment with different content based upon my experiences, contacts, companies that I have represented, etc.

Once the blog posts, I then tweet it which posts to LinkedIn. I then share the blog to groups [on LinkedIn] that I believe would benefit from the content. My blog posts automatically are shared with Facebook. My blog is hyperlinked to Postlets for my listing inventory, my company website and contains links to Facebook and Twitter.

I use past blog posts to introduce clients to one another and/or to market their businesses.

Do you have any creative ways you prospect online?

LinkedIn Groups, birthday cards from Plaxo

Any early insights you can share on using the new Real Estate Pro application on LinkedIn?

I like the ability to post listings and done deals on my LinkedIn profile, so that a user can view them.

What blogs or websites do you check daily?

Coy Davidson, Duke Long, OCBJ, and Orange County Register

What deals have you closed in the last 3 months?

#1- Sale of a property in April that took me 6.5 years to close
#2- I helped relocate a sunscreen manufacturer and saved him $40,000 per month in rent

What’s the most interesting property request you’ve received?

A buyer that buys and sells traffic from adult websites

Why do your customers enjoy working with you?

I am a business owner just like they are and promote myself accordingly. I provide advice…not just transactional help.

Tracey Johnson from Norris & Stevens Inc. discusses how she markets her services and CRE experience online. 

How are you using social media to market your services?

I have a website- www.pdxbrokerscommercialinsights.com that I incorporate with all the social media I use: Twitter (PDXComBroker), LinkedIn, Facebook, and my blog which like the website is also titled “PDX Broker’s Commercial Insights“.

How have you marketed your service online? What’s working and what isn’t?

I market myself all over the web and I am constantly trying new websites and advertising platforms. In addition to my website, some parts of the web that I market on more frequently than others are Craigslist, Twitter and Postlets.

I also write as a community blogger for an online news magazine called The Portlander (www.theportlander.com). I find I get a lot of extra traffic to my website every time a new article I have written is posted to The Portlander website.

While some platforms target the audience I am seeking more so than others, all have their differing levels of success. The only things that I feel aren’t working for me are typically the older, non-web based newspaper advertisements.

Any early insights you can share on using the new Real Estate Pro application on LinkedIn?

I feel that it is a great addition to my LinkedIn profile. Not only does it keep my contacts on LinkedIn up to date on my most recent deals and listings, but I can select certain people to send targeted property information to, as well as share trends in the current Portland CRE marketplace.

Why do your customers love you?

From the letters of rec I have received the main reasons I get for why my customers appreciated my work was a) they could reach me at any time and never felt I was ignoring them b) I was never too busy to explain the leasing or sales process to a client, despite how many times I may have already explained the topic to them c) I was very personable, attentive, and upfront with what was needed from them at what time, and what the next step was.

What’s the market doing?

Where do you think we should price this availability?

These are examples of questions the Customer Service team at Rofo hear every day. We thought it might be helpful to put our tips down on paper to help provide a process for pricing your vacant space. Below are some steps and questions to ask yourself:

Step 1: Get some rough comparables: Start by searching Rofo, brokerage websites, Craigslist and any site you run into on the web for rent pricing in your city and better yet your neighborhood. Check out For Lease signs in windows near your office, warehouse, or storefront and figure out where they have priced their space. Try to get at least 5 to 10 data points and figure out roughly where your space fits from a quality perspective (low end, mid, high end).

Step 2: Decide where you want to fit in the market

You’ve got some time: If you have some time and just want to get the best deal possible, price your building towards the expensive side of the market and see what happens. If interest is tepid, try offering some moving concessions such as free rent or discounted move in costs. Wait until your patience is wearing thin and start adjusting the price towards to medium or low end of the price scale to lease it

You’re in a hurry: Look for the best comparable property from your search in Step 1 and price your space at a 10% discount. Market the property across the web and make sure you are as flexible as possible on terms. Offer commissions, free rent, or any other concessions that you commonly see in your online search.

Step 3: Test it!:  Now that you have priced the listing, start to aggressively market the space and see what happens. Network like crazy, test different advertising mediums, and see what drives the most phone calls and appointments. If you are getting a large volume of tours but not getting a lease signed, its time to lower the price.

Step 4: Analyze: If lowering the price is not working, its time to analyze if its the space/price or the market. Rofo can help provide search data for your area if that’s helpful which is a great indicator of small business demand.  If its price issue, lower the price until it leases (and you are still making some money). If its a market issue, think about creative ways to get short term tenants into your space to gather some revenue. Would someone store something in your space for a few months? Is there an event that desperately needs a location and will pay for a few weeks to rent your space? Is there a non profit that can get you a tax refund for renting to them rent free for a few months?

Hopefully some of these tips help you decide where to price your available space.

Besides negotiating the rental rate for your new commercial space, there are other creative ways to minimize your overall financial commitment  in your lease agreement.  I recently had the opportunity to contribute an article to Gigaom highlighting 8 of them.  It ranges from capping operating expenses to obtaining flexible subleasing rights.  Naturally a lot of this depends on market conditions and available commercial real estate listings.