Outbound tenant sourcing vs listing on LoopNet, CoStar and Crexi
This is not a case against listings. List the space. The listing sites are where searching tenants look, and the brokers who work them know the market.
It is a case about who a listing cannot reach.
What a listing does
A listing waits. It works on the share of the market that is actively searching this month, has a broker, or checks LoopNet. For national chains with real estate teams, that share is high. For the businesses that take most small and mid-size commercial space, it is low. The HVAC contractor who needs a yard is not on CoStar. He is on a job site. The salon owner who wants her own storefront has never searched a commercial listing in her life.
What outbound does
Outbound goes to them. Every business in the trade area that could use the space gets a plain email about it: what it is, one unusual fact, the rent as a monthly number, one question. Three touches over ten days. The ones that are interested reply, a person reads the reply, confirms size and timing, and hands the owner the live thread.
On a 1,300 SF retail corner in a secondary market, that produced 18 interested businesses from 634 contacted. The listing on the same suite had produced none in the months before.
When each one wins
| Listing | Outbound | |
|---|---|---|
| Tenant is already searching | Yes | Reaches them too, but the listing got there first |
| Tenant is not searching | No | Yes, this is the whole point |
| National chain with a real estate team | Yes | Rarely, they want the broker channel |
| Local operator, contractor, independent retailer, medical | Sometimes | Yes |
| Second-generation restaurant space | Slow | Fast, restaurant operators reply to a hood and a grease trap |
| Time to first conversation | Weeks to months | Days |
| Tells you why the space is not moving | No | Yes, replies say rent, size, location in their own words |
| Cost structure | Commission on the lease | Flat monthly fee, no commission |
What about buying data and doing it yourself
You can. Pull a list from a data platform, write the emails, set up sending domains, warm them for three weeks, send, and read the replies. Owners who try it usually stop at the warm-up or the replies. The list is the easy part. The reading is the part that takes a person every day.
How we work with brokers
Most of our campaigns run alongside a listing broker. The broker keeps the listing and the commission. We bring the conversations the listing did not. The broker gets added to each thread and closes. Brokers pay per listing, three-listing minimum, no per-lead fee.
Keep the listing. Add the outbound. Book a 20-minute call and we'll show you what the trade area looks like for your space.
Book a callQuestions
Do I have to take the space off the listing sites?
No. Keep it listed. Outbound runs alongside.
Does outbound annoy businesses?
One plain email about a specific space nearby, two follow-ups, then we stop. Reply rates run 2 to 8 percent and complaint rates are near zero because the email is relevant and short.
What markets does this work in?
Any US market. It works best in secondary markets and suburbs where the listing sites are thin and the local businesses are not searching.
Can you find buyers instead of tenants?
Yes. The same engine finds owner-occupied properties for sale-leaseback and off-market acquisition.