The Cold Call That Started It All
Sometimes the best deals begin with the most unexpected phone calls. I was making my usual rounds of cold calls in Little River when I reached a business owner who, by his own admission, normally ignores the endless stream of broker calls. But timing is everything in this business, and I caught him at exactly the right moment. He had been operating out of a 6,000 square foot warehouse for ten plus years, and while he wasn’t actively looking to sell, he was at least a little curious about what offer I could bring him.
I quickly arranged for a local buyer I knew to take a look. Unfortunately, that buyer came in with what could only be described as a lowball offer that was frankly embarrassing. But here’s where things got interesting. Rather than getting offended and shutting down, the owner was gracious about the situation. During our follow-up conversation, he revealed something crucial: he was actually looking for a larger space for his expanding business. One look at how packed his current building was made it crystal clear this wasn’t just a want, it was a genuine need.
The Perfect Storm of Timing Challenges
This is where the deal got complicated. My client had already spent months looking at multiple buildings on his own and couldn’t find anything that met both his operational needs and his budget. Meanwhile, we had discovered through my coworker George Belesis that there was a buyer in the market who would be a perfect match to buy his current building. The catch? We needed to coordinate a purchase before my client could sell his current location, and the buyer had an urgent need to close before the end of the year.
It was a classic chicken-and-egg scenario. If either deal couldn’t work, the other would fail. The pressure was on to find a solution that would satisfy everyone’s timeline and requirements.
Going Off-Market for the Win
After exhaustively combing through all the online listings and MLS data with my client, reviewing what worked and what didn’t, we made the strategic decision to look off-market and focus on expired listings. That’s when we struck gold. We identified an old expired listing that looked promising, but the real breakthrough came when we realized we knew the attorney representing the owner.
Going direct through that connection, we were able to get tours of the building. It was absolutely perfect. Not only did the 36,000 SF industrial warehouse meet all of our client’s operational requirements, but the previous business was remarkably similar to his own. The former owner had retired and left town, leaving behind an established customer base that my client could potentially acquire upon closing. It was like finding a turnkey operation that had been sitting there waiting for the right buyer.
Navigating the Real Challenges
Getting the building under contract turned out to be the easy part. The real work began once the deal was underway. We discovered there was a roof permit that needed to be resolved and questions about what work remained to get the 40-year recertification completed. On top of that, we had to navigate multiple financing options while dealing with a shifting lending landscape and the effects of tariffs on the owner’s business.
The breakthrough came when we brought in Laurel Sendach from Harvest, a problem-solver lender who understood the urgency and complexity of our situation. With the right financing partner on board, we were able to structure a solution that worked for everyone involved and actually closed the deal a few days ahead of our already aggressive schedule.
The Sweet Victory
We closed in late August, delivering exactly what my client needed: an off-market industrial warehouse that needed “a little work”, but at an excellent value that made all the extra work worthwhile. The client got his expanded space, the seller got his exit strategy, and everyone was able to hit their respective deadlines.
What This Deal Taught Me
The biggest lesson here was the power of persistence and relationship-building. That initial cold call only worked because I caught someone at the right moment, but the deal only succeeded because we built genuine trust throughout the process. By demonstrating that we could help with both the sale of his current property and the purchase of his new location, we created a beneficial relationship that served everyone involved.
Moving forward, this experience reinforced the value of looking beyond traditional listings and leveraging professional relationships to uncover opportunities that others might miss. Sometimes the best deals are hiding in plain sight, waiting for the right combination of timing, relationships, and creative problem-solving.
Deal Summary:
- Deal Type: Industrial warehouse purchase
- Transaction Value: $6,050,000
- Date: August 2025
- Location: Gladeview
- Main Challenge: Coordinating dual transaction timing with year-end deadline pressure
- Solutions: Off-market expired listing research, direct attorney contact, problem-solver lender partnership
