Commercial real estate buyers are generally savvy people who know the industry and often have experts working for them to help them purchase the perfect piece of commercial property to further their interests. To entice potential buyers into considering your property, do your homework before marketing, whether you are a broker or an individual seller.

Provide the potential buyers with information they will have to dig up themselves if they are interested in your property.  Don’t just give them the price, basic location and plot size; instead, give them the details that makes them understand why your property is the location they are looking for.

Location, Location, Location

Location is always important for commercial real estate and is one of the top purchasing decision factors for buying.  Location includes not only the basics such as city, state and country but also gives zoning details, traffic arteries, surrounding commerce and any of the area’s future known development plans.  Always include site maps and aerial photos (Google Earth is free and one of the best tools for this purpose).

Existing Site Improvements

Buyers always want to know what is currently on the site.  If there are existing structures, the buyer has to determine if they will work for his or her purpose.  If they won’t, then the cost of removal comes in to play.  If you have deteriorating or obsolescent structures on the property, consider having them removed before marketing or incorporate the cost of removal into your initial asking price instead of using it as a deduction during negations.

Average Daily Traffic Count (ADTC)

The ADTC can be a great selling point, so don’t forget to include those for the potential buyers.  Include records for any major highway(s) or adjacent intersections.  This can be extremely helpful when dealing with national or global chains such as gas stations, hotels and restaurants.

Site Access

Site access is very important because this is the legal access point to your property.  Potential buyers will want to know details such as if there is full-access or just “right in, right out” access.  Full-access means traffic can enter the property from both sides of the road, whereas “right in, right out” means the traffic can only enter and leave from the single direction.  You might also considering finding out if the local municipality requires turning lanes, traffic lights or if the access directions can be changed.  Having this information can increase the potential of you getting your full asking price.

Utility Availability

Utilities are always important to any buyer.  Most property owners are going to be looking for a modern utility infrastructure improvements over a well or septic system (although this may be the only option in some locations).  Consider increasing the value of the property by having the utilities installed before marketing or include the cost of adding in the asking price.

Environmental Concerns

Environmental issues can be a headache for both the seller and the buyer.  It’s best to have an environmental assessment completed before marketing the property so there are no surprises, after all the seller can be held responsible even after the property is purchased for undisclosed issues.  Issues do not necessarily make a property undesirable but the cleanup costs are figured into the selling price.  If you have a problem, find out if the local governments offer incentives to companies who will move onto a problem property and clean it up such as tax breaks.

Surrounding Commerce

Commercial property buyers are always interested in the local commerce or future plans for any.  It helps them to make an informed decision on whom or what the competition may be or to see if there are businesses in the area that may help their business.  Do a little legwork and give them these details, so they don’t have to spend the time looking it up themselves.

Providing the answers to these eight key factors to your potential buyers saves them time and money and could speed up the purchasing decision for your property listing,  spend a little time to gather these resources and include them with your market materials and you could be making your sell a whole lot sooner.

About the author: Steve Shanahan is the Social Media Coordinator at Real Capital Markets, a commercial real estate marketing company that provides cost-effective solutions, such as virtual deal rooms, commercial real estate auctions, bank reos, and more.