How to Create a

Commercial Real Estate

How to Create a
Commercial Real Estate
Marketing Package that
Sells
Marketing Package that
Sells
Robert Schmidt
December 3, 2021
After winning a new listing, the first step in any CRE marketing plan is to build
a commercial real estate marketing package. But if you go on Loopnet or pull
up some random marketing email blasts, it’s amazing what some brokers try
to get away with. Most commercial real estate marketing packages are really
bad, especially considering that their purpose is to market properties worth
several million dollars. To help remedy this situation, this post will discuss how
to build a highly effective commercial real estate marketing package.

First of all, why does creating a great commercial real estate marketing
package matter so much? There are literally dozens of reasons, but consider
just a couple:

 You’ll get more offers. A high quality commercial real estate marketing
package will increase your chances of actually selling your listing.
 Improving your offering memo and listing flyer will result in more
attention and therefore more offers.
 You’ll differentiate yourself. Since the primary job of a marketing
package is to generate interest in your listing, you can use the
marketing package to set yourself apart from other brokers. You are
being hired to market and sell property after all, and your marketing
package is a direct reflection of your marketing capabilities.
Designing Your Commercial Real Estate
Marketing Package
Yes, the design of your marketing package matters, but there’s no need to go
overbaord. Your design needs to be professional and modern, but it doesn’t
require a team of professional designers. After all, the most important part of
your marketing brochure is the content, not your design skills.

With that said, don’t skimp on the design either. Invest in some good offering
memo templates that you can update and modify yourself. Offering memo
templates can be created in Microsoft Word or Adobe InDesign, which will
allow you to use the same template over and over again without reinventing
the wheel each time.

Make it Easy
Every investor has a set of deal parameters and they are looking for
properties that meet their needs. Your goal should be to make it easy for
investors to filter your listing through their criteria. We are all overloaded with
information, but your marketing package should make it very easy to get the
deal points quickly.

Tell a Story
In addition to making the high level deal points easy to find, telling a good
story is the key to a great commercial real estate marketing package. Your
marketing package should contain more than just a set of facts. It should
persuade the reader to learn more and ultimately make an offer.

Every listing has a story and it’s up to you to tell it. How do you do this?
Consider a half-leased property in a secondary market. What’s the story
behind this sale and why should a potential buyer be interested? Perhaps the
high vacancy is due to mismanagement and the new buyer could dramatically
improve the occupancy. This story turns what looks like a problem asset into
an opportunity for a saavy investor.

Create a Hook
What’s the hook? In marketing this is often called the unique value proposition
or the unique selling proposition.  What’s unique and desirable about the
property you are selling? Does it have a diversified mix of credit tenants that
provide rock-solid income? Is it the only property located at a major
intersection?

Every investor has a set of criteria that they filter potential properties through.
Some investors need stable income, others want a certain type of tenant, or a
certain number of tenants, or sometimes it’s a particular property type or
location. The point is that potential buyers already have an idea about what
they are looking for. The purpose of the hook is to find people who want what
you are offering, and then pull them in to learn more about the story behind
the property.

Include the Right Marketing Package Elements

 Cover Page – This section of the commercial real estate marketing
package should include a photo or aerial of the property and possibly
some high level deal points such as cap rate, price, and the property
address. A common pitfall to avoid here is to try to promote yourself too
much as a broker (or your firm) on the cover page.  The purpose of the
package is to promote the property, not yourself, and the cover page
should reflect this.
 Disclaimer – Virtually all packages now include some sort of disclaimer
that deems the information reliable, but not guaranteed. It’s easy to see
what kind of language other brokers are using in their packages, but as
with all legal matters, consult a good attorney.
 Project Highlights – This section is where you include a series of bullet
points highlighting major aspects of the property. You want to quickly
convey the deal points here, but only at a high level. You’ll have plenty
of time to fill in the details in the following pages.
 Aerials – It’s relatively easy to get aerials from Google Earth or similar
programs today, so there’s no reason not to include them in your
package. Sometimes buying aerial photos directly from an aerial
 company will give you higher quality and more angles, which could help
you better position your property. Either way, aerial photos are a great
way to show where your listing sits relative to highways, retailers, etc.
To make these elements clear, you can label your aerial photos with
arrows and text boxes.
 Maps – The maps section usually includes at least two maps. First, a
larger map should be included that shows the location of the property
relative to the rest of the city. This is more of a high level overview of the
area. Second, a more detailed map with a higher zoom level should be
included to show local roadways, nearby intersections, and adjacent
buildings.
 Photos – Great, professional photos can really add a lot of “pop!” to the
package. Going the extra mile to snap some high quality photos can do
wonders for a marketing package. At the same time, there is no need to
include photos of every nook and cranny. Spend some time taking a few
high impact photos that entice the reader to learn more. Just remember
not to go overboard. As a side note, a nice benefit of not including too
many photos is that your PDF package will be smaller and therefore
load faster.
 Rent Roll – Assuming your package is for an income-producing
property, this section should include a full rent roll that provides
accurate information for each tenant. Some of the following are
important elements to include: tenant names, rentable square feet, rent
per square foot, lease start date, lease end date, reimbursements,
schedule of rent increases, renewal options, totals and/or averages for
each section. Additionally, including notes on each lease agreement
and background information on each tenant is also helpful in many
cases.
 Projections – The financial section should include a full proforma
showing projected net operating income over a specified holding period.
This section should also include some narrative about the assumptions
that went into your cash flow projection. Additionally, you can include a
complete discounted cash flow analysis, financial ratios, sensitivity
analysis, maximum loan analysis, and any other projections which a
potential buyer may find helpful. An important part of presenting
financials for a listing is to keep it simple.  Whenever something might
become complex, make sure to include a narrative explanation or some
footnotes.
 Area Description and Market Data  – This section is great for
describing the advantages of the region. You can include employment
 trends, demographics, an economic base analysis, major employers in
the area, population growth figures, as well as some data on local rent
and vacancy trends. If you’re using PropertyMetrics for your financial
modeling software, you can grab employment, population, and other
economic data  for every state and MSA in the country, and quickly
export charts and graphs to include in your package.
 Broker biography – We made a note up above that the purpose of the
package is to promote the property, not you as a broker or your firm.
With that said, including a section for you and/or your firm at the end of
the package is more than appropriate.
The above sections should give you a good starting point for the core
elements of your package. Of course, depending on your specific property you
may add or subtract some sections. Other common elements to include are
Parcel maps, floor plans, detailed building/construction information, etc.