Selling or purchasing property requires the appropriate expertise at each stage of the decision making process: determining what property, or type of real estate, to sell or purchase; its market value; how it compares physically, fiscally and legally with competitors; the appropriate marketing strategy; and negotiation of the disposition or acquisition on terms that maximise the client’s objectives. This requires a multi-disciplinary skill set together with a comprehensive, timely knowledge of the real estate markets and its players, local, regional, national and international.
Vendor Representation
Vendor representation occurs when the vendor retains us to sell their property. In order to obtain the highest possible price, and/or the most advantageous terms for the vendor, it is necessary to (1) reduce the risk of the transaction to the purchaser to the greatest degree possible by creating a Master Sales Prospectus which clearly and comprehensively details the fiscal, physical and legal attributes of the property, (2) price the property appropriately and, (3) expose the property to the broadest range of qualified, potential purchasers.
Our Brokerage Division is able to draw on the support available from our Valuation, Planning, Economic Intelligence, Lasercad® space measurement, Property Tax and Counselling Divisions to create the Master Sales Prospectus. The MSP is designed to position and present the property in the most beneficial and audience appropriate manner to potential purchasers. Our Brokerage Division can call on the resources of our Valuation Division and our information technology platform CompuVal® to determine the property’s market value. CompuVal® is a leading edge IT platform which acquires and combines property sales, revenue, and expense data from multiple sources, and then processes and analyses it to give us a unique insight into the region’s marketplaces. CompuVal® is proprietary to Turner Drake. Our Brokerage Division has developed a structured marketing program to identify, acquire, and qualify active purchasers and to comprehensively expose the property to the deepest pool of potential purchasers. It combines our professional staff’s personal knowledge with CompuVal's® data acquisition and analytical capabilities. To further expand our marketing reach we establish a co-broker network and have carefully structured our sales commission so that it is “broker neutral”; we get the same fee whether we sell the property with the aid of another broker or directly ourselves. Since we have no incentive to “double end” the commission our objective is directly aligned with that of the vendor … to get the property sold! Our Brokerage staff are the product of our own seven year real estate training program which includes negotiation as a defined skill set.
Purchaser Representation
Purchaser representation occurs when the purchaser retains us to act on their behalf to locate suitable properties, advise on their market value and where appropriate, leasing potential, and negotiate the acquisition on the most advantageous terms for the purchaser. Since we act as the purchaser’s agent we are legally and morally obligated to act in the best interest of the purchaser: however our broker’s fee is usually recovered from the vendor. Purchaser representation is particularly pertinent for industrial, commercial, investment (ICI) real estate and development land, because this type of property is often not listed for sale on co-operative listing systems such as the MLS® operated by the various real estate boards. It is either listed with commercial real estate brokers such as ourselves … or frequently not listed for sale at all, even when the owner is prepared to sell! The challenge facing a potential purchaser is primarily one of identifying suitable properties that are available for acquisition, establishing their market value, determining if they are available at that price, and then negotiating the purchase on the most advantageous terms to the purchaser … with a vendor who may be under no compulsion to sell! In these circumstances the broker is actively working on the purchaser’s behalf and purchaser representation is the most logical route to follow since it aligns the broker's interest with that of the purchaser.
Our Purchaser Representation Agreement details our obligations to our client the purchaser, in a concise and unambiguous manner. We consult with our client, identify their purchase criteria and advise them whether and where suitable properties are available that meet their budget. We then locate suitable properties, including those listed with other real estate brokers. We determine which properties are available for purchase, gauge the owners’ interest in selling, prepare and submit Offers to Purchase (usually utilising our own documentation), and then negotiate the most advantageous terms for the purchaser. Price may not always be the determinate factor in a sell decision: tax liability, financing, timing, intended use, staff retention and other factors also play a role.
Our Brokerage Division is able to draw on the support available from our Valuation, Planning, Economic Intelligence, Lasercad® space measurement, Property Tax and Counselling Divisions as required. They can also call on the resources of our information technology platform CompuVal® for property sales information, revenue, and expense data for comparative purposes. CompuVal® is a leading edge IT platform which acquires and combines property specific data from multiple sources, and then processes and analyses it to give us a unique insight into the region’s marketplaces. CompuVal® also includes information on every property ownership in the Maritime Provinces and is built on a geographic information system (GIS) so that it can render property specific information graphically using satellite and three dimensional aerial photography with a resolution down to 15 cm in many urban areas. CompuVal® is proprietary to Turner Drake. Our Brokerage staff are the product of our own seven year real estate training program which includes negotiation as a defined skill set. They draw on that expertise to negotiate the most advantageous terms for the purchaser.