Do buyers have brokers for commercial real estate sales?

[blucas]

Hi guys - I have definitely been putting in some thought this week into joining a team at with a high commission split in NYC. Before I come to a decision, I do have a question about how the NYC CRE market works. In my situation, I would be acting as a buyer-side broker for my institutional client, hoping to split the broker fee with the sell-side broker. However, I heard something today from a broker contact of mine who said something very interesting.

He told me that in large commercial real estate transactions, the sell-side broker is usually the only broker on the deal and that buy-side brokers are unusual. The sell-side's job is to reach out to institutions directly to sell their listings, and the institutions do not need to hire their own broker to represent them. My first question is, based on your experience, is this correct?

And second, if it is true, won't I be put at a disadvantage trying to work with sell-side brokers who do not want to share their fees with me, thus missing out on most listings? Let me know your thoughts when you have a moment!

[showtime]

This is a great question! I've actually never done a commercial sale transaction, so can't speak from first hand experience. I have worked on some commercial leases though (leases are much more common than sales in CRE), and have represented tenants before, so it's certainly possible to represent someone other than the seller.

With that said, I've also heard from commercial brokers that CRE is much more of a wild west, and there will usually be multiple brokers listing a property non-exclusively (often times with nothing more than a handshake with the owner). Furthermore, there's no MLS for commercial real estate listings, at least not in the same regulated sense as in residential real estate.

As a result, co-broking may be quite a bit more spotty. With that said, I've always believed that if you have a strong relationship with a loyal client, it doesn't matter. Listing agents will want to play ball and if there is any commission to be had, they'd rather split it vs getting nothing with no deal.

[ievaantenna]

I don't know the whole process in detail because every time I deal with this kind of problem, I always ask for help from a professional real estate company https://grupoecoquintas.com/, thinking I knew they did not use MLS ever for the listings. They helped me a lot with setting up many deals. In my opinion, co-booking is not worth it, and it's better to choose one company that will represent you at the time of negotiations and buying process. However, it would be interesting to hear your thoughts about the whole process and how you plan to solve this issue. Any feedback would be appreciated.