R. Craig Coppola - The Art Of Commercial Real Estate Leasing: How To Lease A Commercial Building And Keep It Leased

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Copyright 2014 by R. Craig Coppola. All rights reserved. Except as permitted under the U.S. Copyright Act of 1976, no part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means or stored in a database or retrieval system, without the prior written permission of the publisher.

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First Edition: October 2014

ISBN: 978-0-9911104-3-8

DEDICATION

To Andrew Cheney, my partner and friend. To my partners at Lee & Associates for their support and expertise. Starting Lee & Associates Arizona with my partners has been the best business decision I have made.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

T here are several people who deserve thanks and more for the creation of this book. Specifically, I would like to thank Jake Johnson for helping me with the writing and the thousands of clients who have made my career.

CONTENTS

I n 1991, I recruited an incredibly smart and business-savvy man named Craig Coppola to help open the Phoenix office of Lee & Associates. At the time, Lee & Associates already had several high-functioning offices, and we were expanding to new markets outside of California with new talent to lead the way. Craig was finishing his MBA, was an incredible forward-thinker with great vision not only for the Phoenix office, but for that segment of industry, identifying the coming of structural changes before they happened.

In all the years since, I have watched Craig grow to become the top office producer in Lee & Associates history, winning highly-coveted awards like Broker of the Year, time and time again. He remains Lees Top Producing Office Broker in the companys history, an honor that has been earned over years of making transactions. If anyone knows the ins and outs of real estate and the fine art of negotiating a lease, its him.

Ive seen his talents at work, capitalizing on a successful personal investment history to build a business profile, while also challenging and living life to the fullest in his participation of physical feats such as hiking, marathons, and Tae Kwon Do. Having an entire book dedicated to leasing shows just how much focus Craig gives the little things, and I have no doubt that anyone looking to master this part of a transaction will learn all they need to know from this book.

Bill Lee

Founder of Lee & Associates

H ave you ever heard this one? You cant make money as an artist.

In my experience, people who have a limited view of art say that. Sure, it can be tough to make a living as a painter or a writer, and if you want to be a musician, youll probably spend your life eking out a meager living playing from venue to venue. Very few artists in those types of fields have the necessary combination of talent, drive, tenacity, and savvy to become a major success. However, to me there are many kinds of art.

I played baseball for many years, including getting drafted and playing with the Minnesota Twins organization. Naturally, Im a big fan of the sport. Baseball is art. As stated by journalist George F. Will, Baseball, it is said, is only a game. True. And the Grand Canyon is only a hole in Arizona. Theres something amazing about a perfectly-thrown fastball thats down and away; something grand about a game-winning base hit. As everybody knows, major league baseball players arent hurting for money. Theyre artists who make a great living.

Everyone can learn how to throw a ball or swing a bat, but only a few perfect it. What separates professional baseball players from wannabes?

THE DIVIDING LINE

Many people mistakenly believe those who master the art of anything are successful only because they have natural ability. However, the dividing line between average and excellent has less to do with natural talent and genetics and more to do with passion, tenacity, and commitment.

Daniel Coyle, in his book The Talent Code, dismantled the myth that great talent is born and showed how anyone can master anything by practicing consistently and methodically, what he calls deep practice. In the book, he writes, Our intuition tells us that practice relates to talent in the same way that a whetstone relates to a knife: its vital but useless without a solid blade of so-called natural ability. Deep practice raises an intriguing possibility: that practice might be the way to forge the blade itself.

Coyle breaks deep practice down into three rules:

Practice Skills in Chunks: Visualize what success looks like and then break that down into manageable chunks, practicing each chunk slowly and methodically, until you master it.

Use Repetition: Practice often and consistently, never letting up. Mastering a skill could take as long as ten years, which requires incredible tenacity.

Learn to Feel Mistakes: As you practice each skill chunk, you must identify when youre making a mistake, correct that mistake, and learn from it, just as a baby learns how to walk from falling.

What this means is, anyone can take knowledge and apply it in awesome and inspiring ways to master whatever theyre passionate about. Anyone can become an artista true masterin his or her chosen field. The reality is that only a small minority have the work ethic required to do so.

THE ART OF LEASING

Why am I starting a book on commercial real estate leasing with a discussion on art? Because I believe that, while there is a science to leasing, there is a lot more art to it. There are plenty of men and women out there who know how to lease a building. They understand the mechanicsand their approach is mechanical as a result. They make a good living. They pull decent deals together. They aspire to build a modest portfolio. Theyre not unhappy with their investments.

But there are others who understand that leasing is an art form that requires constant, deep practice to perfect. Not only do they have a solid grasp of the mechanics of leasing, but they also have the passion, tenacity, and commitment to take them to the next level. They dont just make a good living; they make a great one. They dont just pull together decent deals; they set the standard for deal making. They dont settle for a modest portfolio; they build a stellar one and are