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The
Client Every Commercial Broker Should
Have The
first client I ever met in my commercial
real estate career turned out to be one
of the most enjoyable and memorable ones
I would ever know. I wish that I would
have closed even more business with him
than I did, but it was the time spent
with him and the way he treated us
commercial brokers that I'll always
remember the most. His
name was Ben Friend, and most of us
brokers who knew him wish we had ten
clients just like him. He was one of
those rare individuals to work with who
was very simple, straightforward, and
knew exactly what he wanted in real
estate. He never played games, and you
knew that once you had a deal signed
with him, he'd close the transaction
once all the contingencies had been
cleared. But
it was his lifestyle and how he
conducted his business throughout the
week that has always left a smile on my
face. Every day, Monday through Friday,
he'd arrive at the same little coffee
shop in South Central Los Angeles
between 8:00 and 8:30 a.m. to have
breakfast. He'd be surrounded in his
booth by other investors he owned
properties with, and commercial brokers
who had properties they wanted to sell
him. And for any broker who showed up in
the morning at the restaurant, he always
offered to buy them breakfast. This
morning routine continued every week for
more than 20 years, maybe even more than
30 years, in the exact same coffee shop.
It even got to the point where Ben had
the coffee shop allow him to install his
own private phone line in the booth
where he sat every morning, and every
morning a phone would be plugged into
the wall so he could make and receive
phone calls from people who wanted to
talk about real estate. (This was of
course before everyone began utilizing
cell phones.) So
this routine would go on every weekday
morning at the restaurant until about
9:30 or 10:00 a.m., and at that time it
was time for Ben to transition onward
with his day. He'd then go out with
brokers to tour properties they had
available for him, and oftentimes they'd
be properties that weren't yet listed on
the open market, where investors
oftentimes find their best bargains. This
activity would continue until about
noon, and at that time Ben would then
arrive at the casino in the nearby city
of Huntington Park for lunch. Then
after lunch he'd sit down for a friendly
game of poker at the casino until about
3:00 p.m., whereupon he'd then get in
his car and drive back home to Westwood,
about 30 minutes away, and beat all the
rush hour traffic. Since
we commercial brokers knew exactly what
his daily routine was, many is the time
I showed up at the casino and pulled him
away from his poker game to sign an
offer or a counter-offer, and then
quickly be on my way again while he
returned to the poker table. And I
really had to hand it to the
man--between the coffee shop and the
casino he had everything he needed in
terms of a place to do business, without
actually needing an office! One
time I was showing Ben a 400,000
square-foot building that had just come
on the market, and the listing broker
was arguing with us at the showing that
he had previously presented the building
to Ben. When Ben said that he didn't
remember the broker having presented the
property to him, the broker then
responded with, "You know that
coffee shop where you have breakfast
every morning?" And
Ben responded with, "Yes." Then
the broker came back with, "Well I
went to the coffee shop and you weren't
there, so I gave the waitress the
information and told her to give it to
you the next time she saw you." Well
of course Ben never received that
information, and if we had ever made a
deal on the property things could have
gotten really interesting. The listing
broker followed-up after the showing by
sending me a letter telling me that
their company would be collecting all
the commission on the transaction if a
sale were ever closed with Ben. And in
this letter he stated his contention that
the property had been
"well-presented" to Ben by him
before I had ever brought it to Ben's
attention. (And
this was a guy who was a 15-year veteran
at the time with one of the top 3
commercial real estate brokerage
companies in America!) So
anyway, you see how strongly some people
thought the coffee shop and Ben were
associated with each other! My only
regret in this situation, outside of not
closing the deal and getting paid the
commission on it, was missing the
opportunity to hear this broker plead
his case in front of the arbitration
panel of brokers within our commercial
real estate association had the deal
closed. Seeing and listening to that
would have been absolutely priceless! The
truth is I wish I had many more clients
like Ben throughout my career, and
unfortunately he's no longer with us,
having passed away a number of years
ago. He's the one client I had who would
buy just about any property imaginable,
as long as he could buy it at a price
that made sense to him. Whether it was a
beautiful building in the best part of
town, or an old, beat-up building in the
roughest part of town, he was always
willing to write an offer on it to see
if he could buy it. He
was loyal, gracious, honest, very easy
to be around, and someone who respected
us as commercial agents and knew the
value we brought to him. Every
commercial broker needs a client like
Ben Friend.
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