When Commercial Real Estate Brokers Get Greedy...and Stupid!

You’re not going to believe this one!  Frankly, I wasn’t sure I believed it myself, at first.  We recently experienced surprisingly greedy and stupid actions taken by a commercial real estate broker and his associate, both of whom were working on the same team that represented competing properties.  What these two did could land them in serious trouble.  The two brokers work for a well-known commercial real estate brokerage company, you know, one of those “alphabet companies” where, when people talk about it, they use the company’s initials instead of its full company name. 

Our client, let’s call them the Laboratory Company, is a rock solid company that has experienced steady growth, has maintained a quality reputation, and can demonstrate considerable financial credibility.  When we recently attempted to visit a particular suburban office building with our client,  the broker representing that property stone-walled us, saying  they were not interested in pursuing a transaction with our client.  You should know that the property, a multi – building complex with significant vacancies, had more than a few blocks of available space that could accommodate our client’s needs, and was situated in a geographic area where approximately 6 million square feet of office space sat empty and begging for tenants that rarely showed up.