Creativity Is the Deal Right Now

By Chelsea Bammert, Vice President of Marketing, First Capital Property Group/CORFAC International

Sitting at the table with our agents in this week’s Brokerage Meeting, one theme kept coming up: Creativity.

Every conversation about what’s closing, what’s stalling, and what clients are asking for came back to the same place: The deals getting done right now aren’t the obvious ones. They’re the ones our agents are having to work through, rethink, restructure, or connect in a way that wasn’t sitting on the surface.

Collaborative Teams See More Angles

When a team shares knowledge across disciplines, a leasing conversation can turn into an investment discussion on the same day. A question about what developers are paying in a specific submarket can get answered by someone who worked a similar deal last month. A broker who started with one narrow problem suddenly has three or four ways to think about it.

Our team is seeing this firsthand. A lot of the best solutions start with someone bringing the right piece of knowledge to the table at the right time.

A broad knowledge base across asset types matters even more in a market like this. Most transactions have some kind of structural issue built into them right now. Pricing expectations are off. Financing is harder. Timelines are longer. Decision-making is slower. The broker who can pull from office, industrial, investment sales, land and development conversations has more ways to find a path forward.

“Every deal right now faces a version of the same problem: Two parties whose expectations don’t match the same market conditions. Our job is to find the unique structure that gets both sides to a yes,” said Ben Kuykendall, Vice President of Brokerage Services, First Capital Property Group/CORFAC International

It Shows Up in How You Build

We’re seeing the same thing outside of active deals, especially in how our agents are finding new opportunities.

One of our agents is heading to a family office conference in New York next month. There wasn’t a specific deal that sent him there. He identified the type of investor he wants to build relationships with, figured out where those investors would be, and made the call to go.

That kind of decision matters in a slower market. Waiting around for the next assignment is not much of a strategy. Going directly to the people you want to work with is.

“You have to go to where the opportunity is, not wait for it to find you,” said Jeré Matheny, Vice President of Brokerage Services, First Capital Property Group / CORFAC International.

Clients Need This More Than They’re Saying

There’s another side of a slower market that doesn’t get talked about enough: communication. Timelines stretch. Deals stall. Buyers and sellers are further apart than they were two years ago. Clients can feel that, even when they don’t always have the full picture.

The broker’s job is not to disappear into the process and come back only when there’s news.

It’s to explain what is happening, why it is happening, and what the realistic options are. That may mean walking a client through what is happening in the capital markets. It may mean explaining why the other side is holding firm. It may mean resetting expectations without losing momentum.

The clients who understand the process are usually the ones who are better equipped to make decisions. The brokers who communicate consistently are the ones who keep the relationship steady long enough to get to the close.

Why the CORFAC Model Amplifies This

A collaborative boutique team already has an edge in this kind of environment. The CORFAC network extends that edge across markets.

When a client needs coverage in multiple cities, they are not just getting a name in another market. They are getting connected to an independent firm with local knowledge, existing relationships, and the ability to move with the same kind of urgency and perspective their local broker brings to the table.

With an increase in well-capitalized investors from South Florida, South America, and New York inbound to the Central Florida market where investment terms are more favorable, referrals are met with the creativity and expertise of the FCPG Team as well as the unique opportunities provided by the market.

That connection works because the relationship exists before the deal does. “Range is what sets you apart right now. When your team can operate across product types, financing structures, and market conditions, you see angles that broaden what's possible for a client. That's what we've built at FCPG, and it's what the CORFAC network extends to us nationally,” said Trent Scott, CCIM, President of First Capital Property Group/CORFAC International.

The firms getting deals done right now are not waiting for easier market conditions to return. They are creatively working the market in front of them and leveraging the resources of their extended CORFAC network.