Seller Accepts an Unsolicited Commercial Real Estate Offer - 5 Reasons Why

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Recently, I penned a post entitled "Should I Accept an Unsolicited Offer for my Commercial Real Estate".

If you missed the post, you can quickly catch up by clicking here. 

The conclusion? - a resounding no. It is my firm belief, a seller can achieve a higher price by putting the market forces of buyers competing to work.

OK. Got it? Then why would any seller accept an unsolicited offer for their commercial real estate? In my opinion, the reason is contained within the list below.

Seller is desperate. More is owed than the property is worth. A lender has called a loan against the real estate. The operating company housed in the building filed bankruptcy. All could lead a seller to be desperate. If the property is marketed, the desperation becomes public - disclosed, discussed, and baked into the offering prices. Such desperation can also carry a tight time frame which won't allow a normal marketing process to be conducted.

Seller wants to avoid disruption. An owner occupant is concerned by the business interruption a marketing process will create. After all, folks will want to tour - during normal working hours when you are making and shipping things. Tours - unless very carefully controlled - distract employees and add a layer of suspicion by those working in the building. If a seller has not told his employees he is selling the building - you don't want them to find out from someone walking by their office.

The sale is a part of a bigger sale. Frequently, the sale of your commercial real estate is coupled with a sale of the business that occupies the premises. Because two sales are involved, the commercial real estate sale may pale in importance to the business sale. In such an instance, a marketing process for the building is jettisoned in favor of the business deal.

Seller is unsophisticated. Rarely is this the case. With access to on line research and countless commercial real estate professionals at the ready, most owners of commercial real estate are quite knowledgeable about the market and property values. However, in limited circumstances - and out of convenience - a seller may react emotionally to an unsolicited offer and accept it without testing the market.

The unsolicited price offered cannot be bettered in the market. I've seen this happen recently. Precautions must be made, however. You must be crystal clear with a seller - based upon what we are seeing in the market - recent sales, current avails, investor motivation, etc. - what is before you is as good as a marketing effort will produce - and without all of the appurtenant disruption a marketing process will create.