"You're a scumbag... how do you even look yourself in the mirror?"
She said after we presented her with an offer above list price
This is the story of how we closed the biggest deal in Frasier Cole history after one person and one conversation fueled a legendary revenge deal:
November 15th, 2021, 1,323 days ago, 6 months into us starting Frasier Cole, we were working with a buyer who was in exchange.
We already had 2 deals under contract with them and they really needed a 3rd to complete the exchange.
We saw a deal that had been listed 2 days previously and it fit the clients criteria and remaining amount in their exchange.
Best of all, we had a relationship with the listing brokerage as we are already under contract with them on another deal for this client's exchange.
Asking price was $5m and we offered $5,090,000 30 day look/10 day close.
2 hours later we received a call from the CEO of the company.
She started off cordial because, well, Mason had a prior professional relationship with this woman.
Things quickly turned when she asked Mason "How he looked himself in the mirror?" and telling him he a "scumbag who only cares about low hanging fruit?"
"Under no circumstance will we be paying you any commission on this deal. Your client is welcome to buy it but we will be keeping the entire fee"
The reason was because she's known our client for years and because we already are under contract on a deal with this company.
Our response was "If you know the buyer so well, why didn't you show him this deal?"
That only made her more angry... so she said they let the other deal slide but this one they have no intention of paying a commission.
Mind you, this woman makes $1-2m a year.
We told the client and they were unwilling to pay our fee.
Mason and I were pissed - what could we do? We have no signed buyer rep agreement and no recourse.
We could let it go, move on, take the high road...
F*ck that
We started thinking of ways to get revenge...
The best idea we could come up with that night is to buy their office building, rezone it for MF, and kick 'em out.
It worked because it was a shitty office building on maybe the best development tract in Dallas.
We looked up the owner of their office building and immediately called him
"Would you sell 5550 LBJ?"
"Yeah, actually this is perfect timing we just sorted out a title issue and are looking to sell."
"Great, we'll get you an offer and take it from there"
Holy sh*t
We immediately called one of my best friends and college roommate Dustin who worked for a PE group in NYC.
They loved the deal.
What's not to love?
8.5 acres, 364k SF of office, and an existing parking garage. 17% occupied and all had short term leases or were willing to be bought out.
Within a couple weeks we had an incredible offer to put in front of the owner and we were off to the races.
That deal closed late yesterday after 1,322 days of working on it.
Funny enough, the CEO who wronged us already moved their company out of the property before we were able to close.
That's fine.
Before they left, she found out that we had put the deal together.
We heard she yelled at her office and land broker because they couldn't sell the building they were working in.
We are now on to bigger and better things, but this one feels good.
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The story of the actual deal is an incredible one, but I wanted to highlight how it came about.
I will post the story of the actual transaction soon, but for now... enjoy our revenge story
Conversation I just had with a property owner:
Seller: I'm sorry, I can't sell this building as It's in a trust for my kids
Me: Ah okay, well thanks for your time
Seller: Guess what else is in the trust
Me: ...What?
Seller: 3 Michael Jordan Rookie cards worth $6.5m
Terrible Lease of the day negotiated by the owner:
AutoZone in a great submarket of DFW
Current Rent: $64,800/Yr NNN
Market Rent: $180,000/Yr NNN
Lease Term: 25 Years
Rental Escalations: 10% every 5 years
Value lost at lease signing: $2,094,545
USE REPRESENTATION
Conversation I just had with a property owner:
Seller: I'm sorry, I can't sell this building as It's in a trust for my kids
Me: Ah okay, well thanks for your time
Seller: Guess what else is in the trust
Me: ...What?
Seller: 3 Michael Jordan Rookie cards worth $6.5m
2021:
3.5% cap offer for $3.4m. Seller rejected the offer.
2026:
Seller called us asking for that offer only to hear it's probably worth $2.4m (5% cap)
Many such cases of people not taking advantage of the insanity that was 2021 and still wanting that pricing
I used claude to build a financial model that allows me to quickly evaluate any deal
We had a quick conversation, iterated the spreadsheet 5 or 6 times, and it was built
Took 20 minutes
We're about to see some major layoffs
One of the best retail streets in DFW has improved greatly over the past 15 years
Used to be drug dealers and prostitution but now home to some incredible bars and restaurants
However, there is one shopping center where the owner is completely untraceable
Several brokers have been trying for years
You cannot find retail space on this street except in their building
0 broker sign or anything
It's a shame but also personal challenge to be the ones to shake that loose
Stay tuned
"If you happen to stumble across a great site..." has to be one of the funniest things to say to a broker
I have intentionally called thousands of properties across Texas
There is no stumbling into anything in commercial real estate
You either dig up a deal or you don't
@CREscout We are building out models, case studies, marketing material and valuation tools. I would like to figure a way for it to generate leads and validate data.
This is one of those articles you just have to read
AI is coming for every single person
Either have to hop on board or get eaten
Commercial Real Estate is an industry that will benefit greatly, but will be slow to adopt because it's made up of old school traditionalists
It's started to creep in already, but soon will be something everyone will need to rely on to keep up