Emily's First 6 Weeks as a Commercial Real Estate Broker
With a strong track record of public service and over 20 years of sales leadership, Emily joins The Cauble Group as an Associate Broker, where she will leverage her expertise to serve local businesses and strengthen community partnerships. She brings a wealth of experience from her role as a Nashville Metro Councilmember for District 7, where she has been instrumental in creating impactful public policy and fostering relationships with key stakeholders across the city. Her background includes strategic planning, contract negotiation, team leadership, and public speaking—all vital skills that will enhance The Cauble Group’s commitment to delivering exceptional results for clients. In her new role, Emily will focus on connecting small to mid-sized businesses with commercial spaces that fit their needs, as well as land entitlement and development, further strengthening The Cauble Group’s mission to support economic growth in the area. Emily holds a B.A. from Western Michigan University and has been a proud resident of East Nashville since 1999. Her deep-rooted commitment to the community is evident through her service on multiple boards, including the Nashville LGBT Chamber of Commerce and Nashville Pride.
Get commercial real estate coaching, courses, and community to jumpstart your investment journey over at CRE Central: www.crecentral.com
Key Takeaways:
Emily Benedict's background in corporate America and residential real estate has helped her transition smoothly into commercial real estate. Her expertise in land entitlement and development is a valuable asset.
Finding properties is a key challenge in commercial real estate compared to residential, requiring more networking and proactive outreach rather than relying on an MLS system.
The educational resources and mastermind programs provided by the Cobble Group have been instrumental in accelerating Emily's learning curve and providing her with the tools and knowledge needed to succeed.
Communication and client management are crucial, with Emily emphasizing the importance of keeping clients informed throughout the deal process.
Emily has set ambitious goals for herself, including sending 10 personalized letters per day, making 50 cold calls per month, and closing 10 deals by July 2025 to achieve $5 million in sales volume.
Emily's advice to residential real estate agents considering a move to commercial is to just "do it" and not be afraid, as the skills and knowledge are transferable, and the opportunities are significant.
About Your Host:
Tyler Cauble, Founder & President of The Cauble Group, is a commercial real estate broker and investor based in East Nashville. He’s the best selling author of Open for Business: The Insider’s Guide to Leasing Commercial Real Estate and has focused his career on serving commercial real estate investors.
Episode Transcript:
Tyler Cauble 0:00
Are you looking to take the next step toward investing in commercial real estate? But don't know where to go? Siri central offers a comprehensive education and coaching platform designed to help you get started. Our online courses cover a wide range of topics, from the fundamentals to advanced strategies, ensuring you have the knowledge and skills needed to thrive in this competitive industry. As a member, you'll gain access to our exclusive online community and monthly group coaching calls, providing you with valuable networking opportunities and personalized guidance from experienced professionals, whether you're a beginner or looking to take your career to the next level. Cre Central has the resources you need. Visit www.crecentral.com to learn more. Emily Benedict got her start with the cobble group just over six weeks ago, like just around six weeks ago, and we figured, you know, what would be great for us to do is to start doing live streams, going live, and talking every 30 days about her experience as a commercial real estate broker with the cobble group and just in general, honestly, which I think is gonna be great. Emily started off in corporate America. She was there for 20 years, then found her way into residential real estate before she became a council member, actually, here in East Nashville, which is how we first got to know each other pretty well. So she knows land entitlement and development unbelievably well, which is one of the focuses that she will have as she blossoms in her commercial real estate brokerage career. So we're going to be diving into transitioning from residential to commercial real estate. Her first impressions the learning curve of commercial compared to residential, and just the impact of hopefully positively the CRE accelerator mastermind, the brokers mastermind, gives one benefit of being a broker on my team, as I throw you in on all of the educational offerings that we have. So Emily, that was a very brief introduction, but tell us more about you. That
Speaker 1 1:57
might be the most brief introduction I've ever had, just kidding. So, you know, thanks for having me. And really, I'm thrilled to be on the cobble groups team. So, you know, I did. I spent 20 years in corporate America. I was working on with Fortune 100 companies, so negotiating multi million dollar contracts, usually three to five years in terms as I say that to you, I know that that's like, well, that's commercial real estate, right? So very similar from from that perspective, but at my company just got huge. We were 35,000 employees when I left, and I just wasn't enjoying that culture anymore. So took off, got my residential broker's license and worked for a small local firm. They got bigger. They got bigger. And, you know, I kind of saw the writing on the wall, and I just thought it was time to do something different. And happened to be out poking around the internet, and I said, the COVID group has a broker position open. I know Tyler, let me call him and see what's going on. And so here I am six weeks later. And, I mean, I'm thrilled with the things that I'm doing and the things that I've learned. Yeah, we'll dig into some of that today. And yeah, and you're
Tyler Cauble 3:08
crushing it. You've already got your first deal under contract, which is over $2 million I mean, that's, that's pretty exciting. I mean, let's, let's, it took me 12 months to do $2 million in in volume. So you might, you might beat my record with one deal. So let's, let's talk about transitioning from residential to commercial real estate. Because as a being in real estate, I mean, residential and commercial are basically two sides, different sides of the same coin, right? And a lot of people can get maybe a little overzealous, and oh, I'm a residential real estate agent. I understand commercial, or I'm a commercial real estate agent, I understand residential. That's not necessarily true, but residential real estate experience can have a positive impact, and can help you probably 80% of the way. So I mean, talk to us about your experience in residential real estate and kind of how that has influenced your your approach day to day and commercial real estate brokerage?
Speaker 1 4:06
Yeah, so I spent about 10 years I think it's a very interesting question, really useful for people that I see out on the street. My Network is so full of residential Realtors now, after nine years in the business. So for almost 10 years in the business that I completely relate to I'm a residential agent, but I can handle a little commercial. That was me. I had that hat on one time I handled two commercial deals. One worked well. One, I think I, you know, in hindsight, could have an expert is needed. And you know, that's so true with residential real estate too. Oftentimes, people think I can do this on my own, that expert really provides tremendous value. But I think, you know, learning the mechanics of a deal, so everything from the escrow time period to due diligence to, you know, the different milestones throughout the contract, lending requirements, all. All of those things are similar on residential and commercial. It's just sometimes it's a different dollar amount, sometimes it's less in commercial than in residential. So it's not like it's it's really different from that side of things. But this is much more about that return on investment. As a residential broker, I work as a residential realtor, I worked on, you know, helping people find the place where they were going to live, but I also wanted to make sure they were going to make money off of it. So that investment piece has always been on my mind. Now that's in the forefront of what I do. So really easy transition for me, but that's also I had some familiarity with it, and I think that corporate background really helps with that business. With that business mindset that
Tyler Cauble 5:43
you need. Yeah, it really, it really does. And I think you know, what I would say is it's like the majority of the process is pretty, pretty similar, right? I mean the prospecting, having to go out and network like all the contracts. I mean, yes, you have different contracts, and yes, you network in different ways and in different places, but all of that is pretty much the same. By the way, if you are joining us, live the question of the day, what's holding you back from getting started in commercial real estate brokerage? I had a buddy text me the other day, and he was like, you know, I wish I had gotten started with you as a commercial real estate broker, you know, seven years ago. And I said, I said, Ben, it's not too late, man. Come on, let's, let's, let's make this thing happen. So what's what's holding you back from getting started in commercial real estate brokerage? Let me know in the live chat. So Emily, what's been the most surprising aspect of commercial real estate, like compared to residential?
Speaker 1 6:35
Yeah, I think by and large, it's figuring out where to find the properties you know. It is about networking. It is about who you know. But it's also, you know, in residential real estate, you have an MLS, and you go out there and almost every property that's for sale in the market is on that MLS. Some things are changing with some recent changes in the residential real estate, due to some court cases nationally, but for the most part, people are using that MLS, and that's your one stop shop with commercial real estate. This is to me, about getting out in front of people knocking doors, looking at their business, looking online at their land, and seeing what can be done, what should be done, what could be done, and then making those connections with the investors who I know, who are looking to make the investments into those properties that I find. So it's, it's almost the opposite approach, right? I'm the one that's finding the deals, rather than, you know, my client, looking on MLS and bringing, hey, here's five houses I want to look at. Right? For me, I'm saying, hey, investor client of mine. Here's five properties that I've looked at. I've underwritten each one, and based on the your Buy Box, here's what looks good. Do you want to go take a look at these properties? So I think it's a little bit flipped. Is how it seems to
Tyler Cauble 7:55
me. Yeah. I mean, a great way to look at it is residential real estate is B to C, right? That's business to consumer and commercial. Real estate is B to B. It's business to business, right? So it's a very different approach. So even if you were in a normal business and you decide or not normal, but it's like anything other than real estate, right? If you sold widgets and you decided to go from a business to consumer approach to business to business approach, very, very different, right? Businesses operate a little bit differently than people. I mean, one of my favorite things is we work a typical nine to five generally,
Unknown Speaker 8:26
there is that absolutely, I've
Tyler Cauble 8:29
got real I've got residential real estate friends. I always give them such a hard time because, you know, like, their first meal of the day is brunch, right? I'm like, Man, I'm in the office at like, 630 or seven, absolutely. But they're up until seven at night doing tours. And
Speaker 1 8:43
I came to the office this morning at 630 your car was already in the lot. Man, I'm early, but no, that's
Tyler Cauble 8:49
right, you got to beat me. You got to beat me. Well, that's it. I mean, look, what I've found is like, the earlier that you can get to work, the more time you actually have for yourself, because once it turns like 745, 8am everybody's calling you, yeah, ring, ring, ring, ring. Everybody wants a PC. So okay, let's, let's get into more of your first impressions. Because always, I always find that fascinating, seeing what people thought commercial real estate was going to be, and then what it ends up actually being on a day to day basis. Because those are two very different things. So I mean, when you when you first joined us, what did you think commercial real estate looked like, and how has it kind of turned out for you?
Speaker 1 9:28
Yeah, I think for me, the concern that I had, the question that I had walking into this is, what is the exact value that I can provide Emily and all of the life experience, all the work experience that I bring. How do I narrow that down to a value proposition where I can really help the most people? And one thing that I'm about in everything I do is helping people. I'm a helper. That's why I'm on council. Is I like to help people when their trash doesn't get picked up. I like to get that taken care of for them. But, you know. When it comes to any helping profession, which I believe, even in B to B, I'm helping my clients reach their goals. And so how can I help them do that? But I think for me, that one of the most intimidating things coming in was, what is my niche? What is that value that I can provide that's different from another broker out there? And one thing I will say, and we'll talk about it later with the mastermind, is that I've been able to narrow that down and find my niche. You know, I didn't know if I wanted to focus on Office, on multi family, on industrial or retail, you know. And what I landed with was land, right? Because, as you said at the start, that's my area of expertise. If you want to know what your zoning allows, let's talk. That's something that I know inside now. So I found through talking with my network that that's also what they needed. That was the hole that they needed filled. A lot of people are they have construction loans already lined up. They have a shovel ready to put in the dirt, but they can't find land at the right price in Davidson County and in the region to put that to be able to make the numbers work for them to build. So where are those deals available? And again, going back to how do I find those? Well, I know how to find them. So there's resources that are available to the public that I know how to get to quickly. And we can see, you know, how can I find the right parcel for my clients that will make them the money that they're looking to make and or achieve their goals? I've got an affordable housing developer who, you know, is looking to create less than market rate apartments. He wants to build those as soon as possible, but he can't. He's got to find the land where to make the numbers work. And so it's not just about that market rate. It's also about the affordable housing developers that are out there and how I can make them, you know, get them connected to available land here in the city. So I think again, going back to the question, I went way off, off track there, but I think trying to figure out what my niche was and what that value proposition was, I think that that was something that was an initial expectation. I wasn't sure exactly, you know where to go with that, and I've definitely found my way in six weeks. I feel like I figured this out two weeks in, and it's been Gangbuster ever since. That's
Tyler Cauble 12:16
That's really interesting, because I don't know that I would have picked, like, the niche as, that's why that, to me, is, like, such a fascinating question, because I'm like, Well, yeah, that makes sense, right? Because, like, coming from residential real estate, you kind of don't have to have a niche now. I mean, sometimes you'll have people that are like, I only do stuff in Williamson County, or, you know, I only sell condos downtown, right? But it's not as prevalent to have as many niches, like is what we have in commercial like, you could be the office guy. Well, if you're the office guy, are you leasing? Are you investment sales? Are you, like, that's just in office. So there's, there's so many different things that you can really do and, and I know getting into commercial real estate is not easy, right? It's, in fact, it's one of the most difficult industries to break into to get a start in and it's not like, I mean, we'll talk about the lack of education, all that kind of stuff here in a minute as well. But I mean, I know when you're first getting started, having an idea of what to do, right? Can be pretty difficult. But I mean, what challenges did you did you face in your first few weeks? And I mean, what did those look like? How'd you overcome them?
Speaker 1 13:23
Yeah, you know, there's always challenges when you try, when you start something new. And I think certainly at a you know, I'm not 25 coming I'm not 22 coming out of college. I have a lot of experience and a lot of sometimes learned behaviors that are not the best ones, right? So shifting those based on, you know, the culture that the cobble group has, which aligns with me already, but I think getting used to that, you know, hey, here's kind of the rhythm of what we do at the cobble group, and here's the cadence of when we meet. And, you know, again, super easy to pick up on, but one of those things where, you know, the I see now, how those add value to the challenges that I face, which is, I just go back to that, that one from earlier. How do I find the properties? Well, meeting weekly, you know, as a group, and meeting brokers out on the street, you know, calling them up and having coffees with other brokers, you know, I'm learning more about where to find that land, where to find those properties that'll meet, meet my clients needs. So I think that that was, you know, a challenge, and I wouldn't say I'm still working to overcome it, but I think it's always a challenge, right? Because it's one of those things that's where the hustle is. That's
Tyler Cauble 14:39
right, yeah. I mean, that makes sense, right? Because, I mean, typically, in the residential world, you'll have monthly meetings, monthly sales meetings, and we do weekly right? And we may not always have a topic to cover in those weekly meetings. It could just be, you know, hey, we're just going to tell each other what deals we're working on. We're going to see how we can help each other. And then also, like. Mean, part of that is just to get everybody into the office and socialize, right? Because it's so easy in the brokerage world to not spend time with your own team or with other people. And so it's just, you know, one time a week, and get everybody in the office for 30 to 60 minutes, and let's talk commercial real estate. It's a lot of fun. It's
Speaker 1 15:18
always good to see everybody's faces too, you know, I mean, I worked from home since 2012 and I got to tell you, it's, you know, there's, I had office hoteling, if you will, but to have a permanent space, that is the go to the comfort, comfort spot where I know I can walk in there and pound out the phone calls that I need to do get, you know, get the work done at the early in the early mornings and at the end of the day, and then get out there with my bag during the daytime and meet some folks. Absolutely
Tyler Cauble 15:47
so if you're joining us live, question of the day is, what is holding you back from getting started as a commercial real estate broker? What's holding you back? I want to know. Jump in the live chat and let us know hard Isle is asking. He's saying, Hey, Tyler, how much time does one need to prepare for a bid on commercial property if it is an auction? So good question. I mean, you know, typically they'll they'll announce it probably up to 30 days, give or take before the auction actually takes place. Since it is an auction, they typically provide you with all of the due diligence up front. And so you'll really want to make sure that you're diving into everything, getting your capital lined up before you show up. Because once you show up to an auction, you're placing those beds you're going to have to put down. I think it's 10% depending on the on the auction that day. And then, you know, I think you have 30 days to close, give or take depending on the terms of the auction. So you want to make sure that you have everything lined up financially. Yes, you can get some great deals at an auction, but they have some very stringent terms that can make it semi, you know, prohibitive to actually approach it from that perspective. So Emily, one thing that we had had talked about earlier was kind of the lack of education in the commercial real estate space and so, you know, one thing that I have committed to do, and that I'm fortunate enough to be able to do, is to bring my brokers in to the Siri accelerator mastermind, to give you access to the brokers mastermind. So how have and you're actually the first broker that had all of that when you first started, right, which I think is really cool. So, yeah, of course, of course, happy to do it. So, I mean, how, how have have those programs accelerated, kind of your take off into commercial real estate, and, you know, because when you've got multiple calls each week, you've got multiple training modules. I mean, how is all that kind of impacted starting out?
Speaker 1 17:39
You know, it's been a game changer. It really has. And when I started, you gave me access to the information. I started looking at it, and I was saying, Man, this is incredible information. And then we started with the calls, with the with the Google meets, and with all of the experience out there in this network of investors and in brokers, I mean, I was able to pick up really quick on things. I think, you know, some of the learning how to underwrite something. The first time that I saw you do that, I thought it would take me, you know, at least weeks to learn. You have made it so simple. The tools and resources that your mastermind puts out there makes it so simple, and it explains everything. You have examples of Lois, you have examples of leases, you have examples of underwriting back of the napkin or more in depth, more robust. And those are the tools that for me, when I'm talking with somebody, my job is to go generate those leads, right? And then once I get those leads, make the connections to the properties that I've found. Once I've done that, now what? Well, you've answered every question, right? So everything that's in the mastermind tells me all of the things to do once I've gotten to that point. But for me, my job is to find those leads, both on the property, the product, and the investor, the client, to make sure that that, you know, I'm finding people to put things together to provide that value, and then all the rest is available to me, and you've been a big help of that as well. You know, I mean, I think my first weekend on the job, I had a client reach out to me who I hadn't spoken to in a couple years. I hadn't even reached out to him to tell him I made the switch yet, and he called me and said, Hey, I'm looking at this office. I'm like, Okay, I didn't know what to do. You jumped on the phone. You walked him through it, and that was a great learning for me right then. And that's the type of information that I'm seeing in the mastermind as well. And when I saw you, know what it takes to join that mastermind. I'm grateful and thankful to have it as a part of my coming on this is it's made me really ready really fast. I actually posted on LinkedIn a couple weeks ago that in my first 30 days in this role, I've learned more than any 30 days starting out in any other role that I've. Had, and that's, it's an incredible feat to get done what I've been able to get done as a result of those courses.
Tyler Cauble 20:08
No, that's awesome to hear. I mean, it's, it's it's fun. And I mean, honestly, like, I'm kind of selfish with the the people that I went into into the group, and I think we've built a really awesome group. And you got to, you got to come to the in person event that we had in Nashville here a few weeks ago, tell us about that. What was that like? Because, I mean, you actually got to introduce one of the speakers too, because you knew them well, right?
Speaker 1 20:30
Some of that, I've lived in Nashville since 1998 and so I've seen all over the I've been all over this town. I know people all over this town, certainly being on council, I've met a lot of people as well, more people than I can even remember. But you know, that was an opportunity to get inside the head of an investor. Those folks are there to learn how to make deals, not necessarily how to gain the broker skill set that we're learning in the broker mastermind, but on the CRE accelerator, I got to see and hear experience of people who have gone way up and come way down, and how they're, you know, how they're climbing back up out of what have they've been through. I've got access to people who are first time investors, who don't know how to do this, and maybe are scared I don't have enough money to do it, or I want to do just this, and then they see that through the accelerator, that that might not be the only spot they want to be. Maybe they want to look at flex. Well, what is flex? I didn't know what flex was six years ago. Man. You know that's
Tyler Cauble 21:36
why, like, 80% of my my subscribers are here, is because of a couple of flex space videos.
Speaker 1 21:43
Yeah, I mean, again, back to that. I know a ton, you know, as compared to what I knew six weeks ago. Some of it comes from those relationships and staying in touch with those folks on a WhatsApp, you know, thread where I can see what their questions are, what are the challenges that they're seeing. And, you know, I also, through the weekly call, I get to see different areas around the country. There was one, I think, my second or third week in the role that somebody had something they were looking at out in Washington State, didn't know anything about the area. And I'm like, Hey, I know a former professor at such and such who lives there now. And let me tell you what that town is like based on what I know about them. You know,
Tyler Cauble 22:20
that was actually really cool. I was like, that's so wild. It was really random world, yeah.
Speaker 1 22:26
So, you know, I mean, like making those connections and then being able to help and provide value to other brokers and other investors. You know, early on, that's kind of like the council work that I do. I get to change people's lives in a lot of ways. And you know that that keeps me waking up and going to work and grabbing the bag every day is what I'm lucky to do, the things that I do, and I feel that about this job already.
Tyler Cauble 22:52
Yeah, that's great. I mean, that's the fun thing about commercial real estate, is that, you know, if you're a community oriented at all, commercial real estate is a phenomenal career for you to be in, because you get to actually have a hand in shaping the community. You know, which is, which is so much fun, and so you're doing that from the council side, and now on, on the commercial real estate side too, which is, which is really cool. Maybe we'll have a mayor Benedict one day.
Speaker 1 23:20
Let's stick with the three more years I've got left to serve my term. I'm lucky again. I'm lucky to be doing what I'm doing and I love it, and we'll leave it right there.
Tyler Cauble 23:30
That's so funny. Like every council member I've ever talked to is like, nope, nope. We're not talking about mayorship.
Unknown Speaker 23:36
And then they run for mayor, and then they run for mayor. Yeah,
Tyler Cauble 23:39
that's the funniest part about it. Okay, let's, let's talk about that client that you, you had mentioned earlier, where we hopped on that call, they were looking at an office building, because that is actually the client that you're under contract for on another property. So can you walk us through, kind of the process? Because it's your first deal, walk us through the process of finding that deal for them, you know, talking to them about it, getting it under contract. Like, what did all that look like? Well,
Speaker 1 24:06
luckily, I had a step by step guide in the CRE accelerator, broker, mastermind, true true story. In case anybody's not a member of that doesn't want to auto join, did not pay her to say that. No, he didn't, but I'm telling you, it really was helpful all the way through. So this client identified a property and said, you know, hey, Emily, this looks like something I'm interested in. What does it look like? And so I crunched the numbers. I underwrote it in a couple of different ways. I said, if you you don't want to put more cash down and look at your cash on cash returns. Or do you want to leverage the buy and refi in a couple of years? What's the play that you're looking to make here? What's the outcome that you want? And so I was able to underwrite it a couple of different ways and get to a purchase price that would work to get the numbers that he wanted to get. So thinking kind of. I'm going to shift gears really quick off of this question to go back to the residential comparison. If somebody finds a property and they want to go look at that property to make it their home, none of what I just described is happening. You know, it's it's unique to commercial and so anyway, so back to the deal. So we looked at that. It looked good for him. So we sent out a letter of intent to the and by the way, while I was talking with him and working on this, I had already been in touch with the listing broker to understand, you know, parts of the deal, what's motivating them to sell that communication is critical all the way through, from the very beginning, letting the other side of the deal? No, I'm here to work. We're here to be partners. We want this to be a win, win for everybody. What's the motivation on your seller's side so that we can make sure that, you know, whatever we put forward will be a win for them as well as a win for my client. So we went back and forth on an LOI. We set broker and I talks two to three times a day, a couple times over about a four day period, and we reached an agreement. So we got it over to the attorney. The attorney drew up the purchase and sale agreement. We got that inked pretty quickly after that, and now we're doing due diligence. So I've got an environmental phase one inspection that's going out. I've got a property condition assessment that's going to get done as well. We've got the title company engaged already. The earnest money is over to the title company. Like things are just trucking along in that due diligence. We've got, you know, 45 days to get it done, and I'm just staying on top of that stuff and making sure that that communication continues, staying in touch with my client every single day. How's it going? What's new? What do you need? Do you have all your questions answered? What else can I bring? What other value can I bring to you today? And also just FYI? I'm watching every piece of this. So that's where we are so far. I'm hoping that we'll close end of January. That
Tyler Cauble 26:59
communication piece is so key, and I know that that's something that you're bringing from the residential world, because in as a residential real estate agent, you're more accustomed to talking with your clients every single day. Commercial Real Estate Brokers tend to get in these bad habits of not doing that, and they may give them their client an update once a week, or once every couple of weeks. And if you get into the habit of just, even just a five minute phone call, 15 minute phone call every day, whatever it is of updating your client, hey, do you have everything you need? I'm here to help you. You are so ingraining yourself in with them as the authority on commercial real estate that they'll never use anybody else, right? Because nobody else is going to compare. I think that that's That's brilliant, that you're doing that. And you also got a nice compliment from the other agent. Didn't you weren't they like, Yeah, I know this isn't your first deal or something like that.
Speaker 1 27:50
Yeah, he said, he said, I know this isn't your first deal. You know, he's asking for this. And yeah, I'm like, nod my head on the phone. I didn't say a word. I didn't say yes, I didn't say no, I just, you know, went with the flow. Yeah, I think
Tyler Cauble 28:04
that's so funny. Phillip is saying random question. I know you guys know the market pretty well, but do you all use reonomy for ownership info, thinking about pulling the trigger on it? It's a great question. Philip, we don't use reonomy like as a brokerage. I'm not sure if any of my agents actually have that you don't have reonomy. Do you? No, okay, so you know Tyler Brock and Anthony Rubino, they may have it. I'm not sure. I've heard nothing but good things about reonomy. It's just not a tool that we've necessarily pulled in. Let's see. Domyriki is saying, what are some unconventional sources or strategies you recommend for discovering off market properties or undervalued listings. I mean, really, there's only one strategy that I almost always recommend, because nobody does it, and that's mailers. They're sending out mailers. That's what we're about to we're about to do a campaign with Emily here to target, you know, off market deals, so that she can either get pocket listings or actually get these properties listed, go through the rezoning process, create a lot of value. There's not a lot of mail that's done in the commercial world. It's very common in residential, but not necessarily in commercial at all. Emily, I'm gonna jump around on some of our questions here. I know to skip some, just for the sake of time. But I mean, let's talk about goals and expectations moving forward. I mean, you're six weeks in, what is the next six months look like for you?
Speaker 1 29:24
So I'm grabbing a piece of paper because I have it written down precisely. Oh, it's, yeah, it's written down. Put it in my office. That's exactly right. But what I'm doing, I want to make sure I get it right in the universe. And it's so funny, you were talking about letters. 10 letters a day is one of the goals that I have, so I've sent out. And so it's been six weeks, so that's 30, you know, 35 wait six times five, that's 30 work days. So that's 300 letters I should have put out by now. Well, I didn't start day one, so I've put out, though, probably based on the stamp rules that I've got. I've probably put out about 125 So I've got five queued up and ready to go right now for today, I'll have five more by the end of the day, and the post office is tired of seeing me, but I'm in there buying $74 rolls of stamps, you know, once a week. So they're happy about that. So Right? So 10 letters a day is, is the first thing, and they're all personalized. They're personal letters, personal you know, return address on there, signed by me, envelope handwritten by me as well. I've only had two out of them all that have come back on deliverables. So that means people are getting them. I've done the research on the front end to make sure they get to the right person.
Tyler Cauble 30:37
Yeah, that's nice thing about pulling that information directly from the tax records. That's
Speaker 1 30:41
exactly right, yeah. And so my goal is to close 10 deals, though, before July 2025, so that'll be set eight months into the job. But my goal is to close 20 by the end of next year. But my the financial goal is 5 million by the end of July, sorry, by the end of June, 2025, before July. So you know, if that's 10 deals that gets me to 5 million than it is, if it's two deals that gets me to 5 million than it is, I'd rather have more volume, though, because I think it's really good to skin your knees with the activity, you know, and that's how I learn oftentimes, is the hard way. So you know the opportunity to make mistakes is what happens when you have more deals running through the pipeline. But anyway, so $5 million in sales by July 2025, and or 10 deals, 10 letters a day to prospects, at least 50 cold calls a month. I'm really aiming for 15 a week, so three a day, two networking events per month. And then also, I'm working on improving my presence on LinkedIn, which I think is a great tool. You know, I've been on LinkedIn for 20 years, and I've got, I don't know how many 1000 you guys can look right now, if you look at my page, it might not be that many, but it's well over 500 contacts on there. They're not used to seeing information from me on a regular basis, and now they're beginning to get actual information. I'm there to teach them. I'm there to consult with them. So I want to improve that presence there as well. Yeah,
Tyler Cauble 32:11
I love that. And and for, for those of you all that are that, are, you know, taking, like, the Marcus and Millichap approach. You're hearing, you know, 50 cold calls a month, and thinking, wow, that's that's really low. Maybe you should be doing 50 a day. Well, Emily's taking a different approach, right? And that kind of leans into, into David's question here, which is, Emily, how are you going about finding deals? Are you using a system like costar, which you're not, because you've got a network that you can actually form. So talk to us about that. Sure.
Speaker 1 32:37
So I will say a couple things. One, my network is huge as the result of the things that I've done in the community over the past 10 years. In particular, over the past five years being on council, I've met players in our city like you, right? That's where I met you. Was through that work. I've met other players through the city that you know are focused on building affordable housing, but need the land to get it. So I have a network, first of all, second of all, I think that bring me back to the question there, because I got Yeah.
Tyler Cauble 33:07
How are you going about finding your like if you're not, because cold calling is obviously not your men prospecting? What are
Speaker 1 33:13
you prospecting? Yeah. So I went online, and I pulled the tax record, and I looked at every single property, land only, that's been rezoned in the past 24 months. I then used Fiverr to get somebody overseas to pull the information off of PDFs that were attached to those rezoning files, online public information available to anybody. I had them drop into a Google worksheet for me, the case number, the owner name, what the rezoning was, you know, from and to, and that owner information that's on there includes a phone number and an email address. So these are really, in my opinion, not cold calls. Even though they're cold, these are warm calls because I have a lot of information about what they've done. And again, all this information is available through the tax record. It's a lot of data mining, which is why I sent it through Fiverr, to have somebody do all that data compilation for me, so that when I got the list, ring, ring, I'm making calls.
Tyler Cauble 34:13
That's right. And the great thing about having that network is you unintentionally built up the perfect network for a commercial real estate broker for five years before you decided to jump into that. And I think that's really important. I mean, that's one thing that we're gonna be talking about tonight in the broker's mastermind on our call, which is inbound versus outbound leads. I, when I was a broker, hadn't made a cold call Since 2018 and I just stopped brokering two years ago. So for four years, I didn't make a single cold call because I had built my business around not having to do that. I didn't enjoy that, so I didn't want to do it. So I built my business in a different way. So it's very important to keep that in mind as you go out there into the world and make your approach. If
Speaker 1 34:55
I can say the cold calls that I'm making are to the people who have rezoned the land. Land, yeah. So I know the buyers already. I know people that are looking to buy and build, you know, but it's the you've you own the land, you've rezoned the land. Are you planning to do something with it yourself, or are you looking to sell it? Because I've got somebody who wants to build a product that the community needs.
Tyler Cauble 35:17
That's exactly right. So it helps to, I mean, if you're just getting started as a commercial real estate broker and you're wondering, you're wondering how to even go about making the cold calls or calling people that have never heard from you before, go find a client, find one person that's like, Hey, if you find X type of deal, I will buy it, because then you can call everybody and say, Hey, I've got a buyer that is looking to do this. Would you be interested in selling your property for that? That's all you have. There's no cold call script. That's all you need to say. That's it. Make it very easy, well. And
Speaker 1 35:46
for instance, I've got a guy who's looking to build or looking to buy and remodel a very specific product. There's only a certain number of those in the entire county, right? So I find out what, who those you know what those locations are throughout the county, and I just call them up and see, you know. And I look up at tax, I look up that tax record information, and see, all right, this traded hands in 2022 and they probably aren't ready to flip it yet, but if it traded hands in 2019 we're right at that five year window coming up on six years. Sounds like a good time to 1031 something. If you're the owner of it sounds like a good time to, you know, I'm trying to get my head into the mind of the current owner to understand what would motivate them to sell to the buyer that I have who wants to, you know, do whatever their project is, whether that's build new housing, remodel something existing anyway. Just trying to put myself in the position of who it is I'm trying to reach
Tyler Cauble 36:48
that's exactly what you need to be doing. Is just put yourself in your customer's shoes. What are they thinking? What are their concerns? What are their problems? What could be the solutions for them? Emily, what advice would you give to other residential real estate agents that are considering making a move into commercial real estate? Or maybe we can make it a little more general, anybody that's looking to get started as a commercial
Speaker 1 37:10
real estate broker, two words, do it. I should have done this seven years ago. You know, this is with the experience that I have, and then getting out and learning residential real estate. If I'd have done that for a year, this is just a much better fit for me. I loved residential real estate, don't get me wrong, and I had a heck of a lot of great clients there, some of whom are now my clients in commercial by the way. So I met one over the weekend, who a long time friend of mine. I sold her house, and she said, hey, I'm interested in mobile home parks. And I'm like, oh, let's talk about that, you know. So she, she, you know, is going to be looking to do something on that front, but I think, you know, going back to doing it, just get out. Just make the decision and do it. Learn talk to other brokers, make a phone call. I'll have a coffee with about anybody you know, and I'll pay for my coffee too. So, but yeah, let's sit down. Let's have a conversation. What are your fears? What's holding you back from doing it? What are the challenges that you've got? But I think from the residential side, you've already got 25% or more of the knowledge base, and especially if you've worked in this county for a long time, or if you've worked in your area for a long time as a residential agent, you're driving right by all the commercial stuff that's right there. You know it's there. You just haven't had your eye on it until now. That's exactly
Tyler Cauble 38:39
right. Well, for those of you all that want to connect with Emily and maybe you want maybe you want to buy some real estate, some commercial properties in the Nashville area, reach out to her. Her email is in the description below, but you can also find it Emily at the cobble group.com Easy enough. Emily, thank you for joining us. We'll see you again here in about 30 days. Sounds great. Thanks for having me. Absolutely we'll be 10 weeks in. At that point, that'll be a very good update.
Speaker 1 39:03
Maybe I'll have something come up in between now and then, and we'll get it closed even faster. Yeah,
Tyler Cauble 39:08
let's get something done in like, 30 days. Let's go. That'd be great. Well, thank you all for joining us. If you are enjoying these conversations, don't forget to like and subscribe to the YouTube channel. If you're listening on Apple podcasts, leave me a review, and we'll see y'all in the next one, are you looking to take the next step toward investing in commercial real estate? But don't know where to go. Series central offers a comprehensive education and coaching platform designed to help you get started. Our online courses cover a wide range of topics, from the fundamentals to advanced strategies, ensuring you have the knowledge and skills needed to thrive in this competitive industry. As a member, you'll gain access to our exclusive online community and monthly group coaching calls, providing you with valuable networking opportunities and personalized guidance from experienced professionals, whether you're a beginner or looking to take your career to the next. Cre Central has the resources you need. Visit www.crecentral.com to learn more you.
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