Verbal Commissions

In the world of commercial real estate brokerage, success is typically measured by closed deals and commission checks. However, there's another form of compensation that often goes unrecognized on balance sheets but carries tremendous value to our team – what we've come to call "verbal commissions”.

Beyond the Transaction

As land brokers, our expertise extends far beyond simply connecting buyers with sellers. Every day, we provide clients with Broker's Opinions of Value (BOVs), conduct highest and best use analyses, share insights about market trends, update clients on surrounding development projects, and offer countless other forms of information. We deliver this expertise freely, often with no immediate transaction in sight.

When a client responds with a heartfelt "thank you," that's a verbal commission – and sometimes, it feels even better than the financial variety.

The Currency of Trust

Why would we invest time and expertise without guaranteed monetary return? Because in brokerage, trust is the foundation of every successful relationship. By providing value upfront without expectation, we demonstrate our commitment to clients' success rather than just our commission.

A recent example: We put together a marketing proposal for a potential client with multiple sites in the market. We felt confident about our values and backed them up with comparable sales, residual land value calculations and current listings/escrows/offers we are working on.

Ultimately the value was not attractive enough for the owner to want to sell, but they had this to say to us, “We want to say thank you to your team for your honest and transparent valuation of our property. You could have come in here with a high, but unrealistic, value in order to try to coax us into a listing, but you didn’t, and we truly appreciate that.”

An awesome verbal commission.

The Fulfillment Factor

There's something profoundly satisfying about helping someone navigate complex real estate decisions, especially when that help empowers them to make choices aligned with their best interests – even when those choices don't result in immediate business for us.

Of course, financial commissions remain essential – they keep our doors open and allow us to continue serving clients. The art of successful brokerage lies in balancing immediate business needs with long-term relationship building.

Providing Value

Adopting this perspective requires shifting from a transactional mindset to a giving one. Rather than evaluating every interaction through the lens of "What will I get from this?" we ask, "How can I provide value here?"

This approach transforms the client experience from one of being "sold to" to being genuinely served – a distinction that we hope clients notice and appreciate.

Let’s Connect

As always, feel free to reach out if there’s anything we can do for you and if you enjoyed this, drop us a “verbal commission” 😜

Until next time,

John & Ramey