With the softened economy and high vacancy rates, I thought it would be good to pose this question to share ideas on how to find potential tenants.

Over the past year and a half at my office sign calls are down, Internet leads are increasing, so what else is working for you guys & gals?

I have noticed an increasing amount of internet leads from Loopnet, google, etc.

Cold calling still works, with most people looking to downsize or renegotiate lease rates with existing landlords. Most showings from these have ended up with the client renegotiating with their existing landlord instead of moving.

Mail seems to give the fewest leads. I have found that a hand-written note followed up with a phone call increases responses immensely, but it takes longer.

Existing relationships are still the strongest way to get new business. Networking with the decision makers and getting in front of them regularly seems keeps you top of mind. Those are the easiest phone calls to take!

So what seems to work for you?

Earl, I agree with you on all fronts. I do wish nore people would respond however. I cold call alot and have found what you are finding. Our office is not getting any calls right now. I am 1 year into CR and ready for things to happens. I keep rattling all the cages I can.

"With the softened economy and high vacancy rates"

This really depends on where you are at in the United States.

In my area some asset classes have high vacancy and others are doing better with low vacancies. Regular office here has high vacancy but medical office is booming. Regular office tends to have more new business starts which are down in a soft economy. As far as tenant lists Costar has a specific lists of info by asset class type of tenant agreements that are close to being up for renewal.

You can go talk to these business owners and see if you can find them a better deal elswhere. Also maybe look on bizbuysell.com or business trade associations for people needing space.

More retial center owners are leasing to non-profit companies that are not dependant on sales to pay the rent. This way the landlord get's maximum cash flow with no renegotiations.

I don't do much leasing. I am more on the land acquisition,project development side. Leasing is handed off in the final stages of developemnt.

We have an agent that specializes in Charter Schools and Non-Profits. She has been staying busy, although that can be a hard market to satisfy when the market is booming and rents are higher.

Good to hear that medical is doing well in Georgia. Right now we have heard of financial issues with the healthcare company to the south of us in Carson City.

The CoStar info is interesting. They are relatively new to our market and since I am not a subscriber directly, they tend to have poor information in regards to currently available properties. Loopnet is the leader in my market, but they don't have a subscription for upcoming renewals... That would be very helpful, but could be dangerous if our prior clients are being contacted by multiple competitors with the same subscription.

SuperRealtor, what is your experience with the competition from CoStar? We used to have ARES, but they abandoned all support for that product about 3 years ago and that left a very bad taste in our mouths after investing in multiple licenses.

Loopnet and Costar are 2 very different animals.

Loopnet anyone can post a listing to it.Principals,developers,brokers,investors etc.

Loopnet is free but will show only basic listings.In my area if you want the package that shows all listings it is about 100.00 a month or more which inludes your listings.

Costar is a broker only listing service meaning if your not a broker you can't post the property there.

Costar will blow away anyone with the amount of data they collect on transaction. Even for sale by owners you know who it sold to,phone numbers,etc.

Costar does more retail and office listings. Thier retail package is awesome but it is expensive at hundreds of dollars a month. They have free demos on their site for the tenant info. Costar has ALL the tenants info no matter who they are. I don't buy it because I don't do many leases and I am more in land development.

From what it sounds like you could greatly benefit from it.

They are not yet that sophisticated in this market. They email us with incorrect information regarding our done deals (thought it was leased when we sold it, etc.). I have year old deals that show as active listings on their site. They have only been in Northern Nevada for about a year and half. I think this is part of the reason for less complete data.

Hopefully they get their stuff together for properties, done deals, etc., as it would defitinitely of interest and value to us.

BTW, thanks for the heads up on bizbuysell.com. I got a lot of info that I was looking for on there!