You Play to Win the Game

FEBRUARY 21, 2019 | THE PALOMAR GROUP

 It was a 2002 quote by Herm Edwards that will go down in sports media history, “That’s the great thing about sports, you play to win the game.” 16 years later, the quote still resonates. It came after a reporter asked him a question following a loss to the Cleveland Browns that left the Jets 2-5. After the speech, the Jets went on to go 7-2 and win the AFC Eastern Division Championship.

As in many other lines of work, the adage rings true in the Investment Sales business as well. All too often as a boutique Investment Sales Firm out of Augusta, GA, we are competing with large, multi-billion national firms located in major markets to represent clients in the sale of shopping centers, multi-family communities, NNN assets and more. Oftentimes we are met with a roadblock from those responsible for handling dispositions on behalf of ownership groups or even by the owners themselves, that they just have to use the big guys. The rationale that we hear time after time when this happens is “If this deal doesn’t sell, I just can’t tell my investors that we used a small shop like Palomar” or “We just have to use a national group.”

The thought process behind this is understandable and more times than not, attributable to self-preservation. In most situations, the employee is responsible for executing on a multitude of dispositions and he is concerned for the safety of his job if he does not succeed. If a deal couldn’t be sold, the employee can at least go back to his board and say “well, it wasn’t my fault, we went with the biggest group in the business to sell our deal.” The problem is that while that employee may not lose his job or ruffle any feathers internally by going with the big shop, he is also not going to turn any heads and over deliver on investors expectations.

All too often we hear from disappointed clients who have gone with big shops in the past only to be dissatisfied with their lack of engagement, lack of effort, and lack of execution. We constantly hear things like:

“I never even heard from ____ after we gave him the listing …”

“We gave _____ the listing because we had a relationship with their top guy. We were disappointed when the deal was just given to junior associates to run with.”

“They didn’t do anything with the deal, they put it online and waited for calls to come in.”

Our teams background in development at the Palomar Group uniquely qualifies us to giving our clients the best on deals we list for them. When working with us

• Deals are always led by one or more of the firm’s partners

• You work with the same group whether selling a deal in South Beach or the South Side of Chicago. Deals never have to be passed on to other regional shops.

• We do more than send email blast out, post the deal online, and wait for the calls to come in. We get creative on deals finding unique ways to maximize returns for our clients by proactively finding the best buyers at the highest numbers in the market today.

In today’s market, Sellers need more out of their Investment Sales Broker. Gone are the days of Best and Final Offers where aggressive offers were flying in. In most of today’s transactions, being that many of them are value add products in secondary and tertiary markets, there are one or two qualified buyers who are ahead of the rest on pricing. More times than not, that buyer is found as a result of your broker rolling up his sleeves and thinking outside of the box. Relying on bigger firms to handle your project will be comfortable and safe, but you could ultimately lose out on a much better deal.

When looking to execute on your disposition strategy over the course of the next year make sure that you are playing to win the game and not just playing to stay alive.