Location, Location, Location

In real estate the axiom is Location, location, location so picking where to place your real estate brokerage home and leasing or buying that property is a huge decision. Especialy for a new business. For us it was an easy one that will make sense when explained. EXIT REALTY is a big office real estate brokerage company. they are opening offices in New York that are over 16000 square feet. The average office size seems to be 5-6 thousand square feet. We will be at around 900 square feet to start with an option for 2000 more in 9 months. I am goal setting to have 24 agents at a minimum by years end and a at least 90 agents working out of this office. Start ups always seem to be low on cash and office space and leasing seem to take up most of the budget, the smartest broker is one who finds and rents the negotiates the best lease for his brokerage. I am the smartest negotiating broker, through birth, you will ever meet.....my mother owns the building where we have the office! Ok, so most of you were thinking I was getting a little cocky there. Having a great lease arrangement has made all the difference in the world for our firm. Working with family is always interesting as those of you who may have done it will attest to, just watch Orange County Choppers to get an idea what it is like. Trying to save money I decided I would paint the office myself. Big mistake, to start with the deep red color I picked dried on the wall as closer to salmon pink. Being that EXIT REALTY's colors are burgundy and Teal the pink would not make it. So I made arrangements to have a family friend who is a painter to come over and give me an estimate and he also gave me some good color advice. You know we always seem to say to FSBO clients and to sellers and buyers that we are the experts at selling or buying a home so why not listen to our market updates and advice. So when it comes to painting or remodeling why did I feel I should not listen to an expert as opposed to doing what I thought was right? That is a good lesson for me that I need to keep in mind what my home sellers and home buyers are feeling and not to tell them but rather sell them as they want to be sold. I am starting to realy get a handle on this whole personality profile thing and empathy, who knows someday I might just make a living at this job.
So we got the office painted and it does look fantastic, even if the teal is a very strong choice for our bull pen area. The floor needs a refinish job and we will take care of that and tell the story on the home depot disaster with our floor covering in a later post.
I wish I had started this whole process with a budget. That should be your first item on your agena when starting any new undertaking. I am currently over budget , I feel like all of the people of the Flip this House show on HGTV. Over budget and under brained. I have tried to keep these posts upbeat and interesting so how am I doing?
The lesson for today is when starting a new business always draw up a budget before you start and have a mother who has empty office space and you will never go wrong....or at least go bad.