Welcome to the official blog of Block Real Estate Services, LLC (BRES). BRES seeks to offer insight and news concerning commercial real estate, financial investments, construction and development of the 212 communities we serve locally and nationally.

Wednesday, March 27, 2013

Why Optimize Your LinkedIn Profile for CRE?

These five steps to optimize your LinkedIn Profile can help you organize your LinkedIn in an appealing and informative way.   As a commercial real estate professional, being found is key to your success. Optimizing your LinkedIn profile can help you be found when a prospective client is looking for a commercial real estate expert in the area. Having an up-to-date and optimized profile validates your work and reputation and could be that final nudge for the client calling you up...instead of the other guys.

1. Complete Your Profile
Give the most complete and up-to-date view of your profile by first completing your LinkedIn profile. Include your current employer, past jobs and education. For the picture, use a recent professional head shot as other LinkedIn users can be wary of "fake profiles" and impersonators. Not having a picture could cast you as suspicious. Having a completed profile always rank better in LinkedIn searches making you easier to find and making you more accessible when prospective clients are searching for a commercial real estate professional. 

2. Use Industry Keywords
As you complete your LinkedIn profile, incorporate commercial real estate keywords in your copy. This will help separate your profile from other industries. Beyond that, you will also want to work in keywords and phrases that are specific to your specialty within commercial real estate, like:

  • Industrial 
  • Office 
  • Retail 
  • Multifamily
  • Tenant Representative
  • Commercial Real Estate Investment
  • Healthcare Development
  • Property Management
These keywords will help you be found for the right searches when people are looking within the industry and will help brand you as an expert within your sector. However, be sure to naturally work these keywords in to your copy. You don't want your profile to be saturated with the same phrases and you don't want to sound like a choppy robot either. 


3. Get Meaningful Recommendations
Prospective clients should be looking over your client references when considering you, as we mentioned in our past post on hiring a CRE broker. Having a collection of meaningful recommendations validates your experience on your LinkedIn profile and adds legitimacy to your portfolio. Ask for recommendations from past clients who you had a good relationship with. You can ask for recommendations via a message over LinkedIn, but it's always a good idea to follow this up with a personal call and/or email. Fake recommendations are easy to see through so make sure that the person who is endorsing your work is legitimate and also has a good reputation. 
4. Grow Your Network 
LinkedIn favors puling up profile in searches of those with larger networks. When working on your LinkedIn profile, take the time to reach out to past colleagues, clients, associates from networking events to connect over LinkedIn. Include a personal note on each invitation to remind them how you are connected. After this, you can start also reaching out to new people with related interests and industries to grow your network and connections. Make sure that all of your connections are meaningful in someway and don't accept every invitation to connect. Make sure that you have some connection, whether it be industry or an in-person relationship. 

5. Join and Participate in Groups
Another excellent way to expand your network and find others in your area or industry are LinkedIn Groups. You can use the top right search bar in LinkedIn to search for commercial real estate groups and find groups that strike your business interest. Some good ones for CRE are:

Posting articles and starting discussions in these groups are not only great ways to get noticed, but also a great way to find relevant knowledge about what is going on in the world of commercial real estate. 

Whether you're on the job hunt or secure in the firm you are with, it is always a good idea to keep your LinkedIn up to date with these tips. Plus, LinkedIn is an excellent search tool for prospective clients to find you. You never know who could be searching for you on LinkedIn, so keep it looking the best it can be!

Contributing Author:

Paige Salveter
Director of Marketing and Communications
Block Real Estate Services
LinkedIn





Wednesday, March 20, 2013

What to Look for and Questions to Ask When Hiring a CRE Broker


There is no one best way to select a broker. So many variables come into play and have to be taken into account when making this decision. I'm leasing a space for a new business; where do I start? The first thing you need to do is to determine your needs:




Wednesday, March 13, 2013

It Takes More Than The Luck of The Irish to Market an Unbuilt Project

It Takes More Than The Luck of The Irish to Market an Unbuilt Project
It takes more than the luck of the Irish to market an unbuilt property. For most properties, potential tenants and buyers have the ability to tour a physical location and see firsthand what they will be putting their money towards. With an unbuilt property, a broker could work twice as hard to gain a commitment from the client. This is why marketing an unbuilt property requires some degree of creativity and a good deal of strategy.  For this St. Patrick's day-themed blog post, Block Real Estate Services (BRES) explores what it takes to get your stakeholders on board for an unbuilt project and find your pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.

Tuesday, March 5, 2013

The Importance of Mobile in Commercial Real Estate

The importance of mobile in commercial real estate
Across the board, mobile is becoming a priority in business strategies and the importance of mobile in Commercial Real Estate needs to be recognized as well. As of December 2012, 87% of Americans own a cell phone and 45% have a smartphone (Pew Internet). Furthermore, recent findings have found that this trend continues to make its presence in the Commercial Real Estate industry. According to a 2013 report by the Real Estate Marketing Insider, 2012 showed a 61% increase in mobile usage among commercial industry professional alone.