by Michele Newbern Gillis
Staff Writer
What do commercial real estate agents need?
Their new president says it’s simple: they need better ways of communicating.
She’s Kate Clifford of Coldwell Banker Nicholson-Williams Realty and she has big plans for the Commercial Alliance of Realtors, the commercial arm of the local real estate association.
“I would like to forward two initiatives that we started upon in the past year,” said Clifford. “First, CAR has adopted and endorsed the Certified Commercial Investment Member platform for the Commercial Information Exchange between members. Now that we, the board, have made the commitment to the CIE, we now have to enlist the support of other commercial practitioners.”
Before this commitment, Clifford said previous information exchanges have been unsuccessful because they require “buy-in” and participation by significant brokers and developers to be successful.
“That is sort of why the
‘Real Yellow Pages’ is still the only successful directory,” said Clifford. “Loopnet is a prime example of an information database/exchange that has floundered. We will be visiting with the major commercial brokerage firms to extol the virtues of this particular platform and why it will benefit the firm, the brokers and the clients’ buyers and sellers.
“One of the major advantages of the exchange of information is the underlying platform developed by and through the CCIM organization,” said Clifford. “It is thoughtful, user-friendly, multi-disciplined and has the requisite controls to keep information current. It is going to be a big project, which will require educating the brokerage community as to just why the benefits outweigh the costs. But in other areas of the country, this platform has been very successful and become a key to practicing commercial real estate in these markets.”
Clifford feels that education is the key to success in commercial real estate and CAR offers many educational classes geared specifically for commercial real estate practitioners.
“These classes are taught by some outstanding industry professionals and offer both new and experienced practitioners an opportunity to enhance their education,” said Clifford. “In particular, I believe that these classes would enable persons new to the industry an opportunity to gain a lot of knowledge that might otherwise take years. I hope to promote the already impressive list of course offerings to the brokers of the larger organizations in hopes that they will encourage their ‘new’ people to take advantage of these classes. Everyone benefits when the level of the brokerage community rises.”
She takes over an organization that doesn’t operate like most.
The executive board of CAR meets monthly, but the association itself does not have monthly meetings.
Rather, they have events such as “Breakfast With The Mayor” and various educational forums. They are also very involved with the First Coast Real Estate Outlook Conference.
Clifford said they will continue their charitable fundraising events, remain a sponsor of the Outlook Conference and mayor’s breakfast, but other than that, 2003’s agenda has not yet been determined.
Clifford feels membership in the organization is beneficial to all commercial realtors.
“The national and state realtor associations lobby heavily on behalf of our industry and we have a voice through them,” said Clifford. “Membership brings tremendous benefits such as the Florida Real Estate Commission Legal hotline, educational opportunities and networking with the areas best practitioners.”
Clifford’s background is in business. When she got out of school she was on the consulting and marketing side, primarily in the hospitality industry.
“I ran a chain of restaurants in Washington, D.C. before moving to Florida in 1990,” said Clifford. “We moved here and opened and owned a restaurant and I did a lot of consulting with local restaurants, including Sliders and Harry’s Seafood. Then I started running the two Sliders restaurants and 24 Miramar; I ran that group of restaurants for Michael Thomas.”
She got into real estate seven years ago.
“The woman who sold me my house was the wife of my broker, Nick Nicholson. So, I met Nick and he was a commercial broker at the time. We kept in touch and he kept telling me I would be good at commercial real estate,” she said. “About six years ago, he convinced me to get my license. So I got my license and handed it to him and said ‘OK, here I am, ready to work.’ So I started working in his office. If it weren’t for Nick, I would have never thought about coming into commercial real estate.”