- Ask what share of their closings in the last twelve months were industrial, and ask for the addresses. That single question sorts most of the field.
- Find out who personally works your file, not who shows up to the pitch.
- Do not hire the highest number in the room. Ask each broker to show the comparable closings behind their figure.
- Get the commission, the protection period and the co-broke split in writing before you sign, and push back on automatic renewal.
- Interview at least two, and ask both the same questions so the answers are comparable.
The question that filters the field
Ask this one first, and ask for addresses with the answer.
The reason it works is that industrial pricing runs on private data. Industrial sale comps are not published on the MLS the way house sales are. Rent comps sit inside brokerages. The buyer pool for a truck yard in Broward is a list of maybe forty names, and either a broker has that list or they do not.
A generalist prices your building on what they can see, which means the assessed value, the square footage and the asking prices of whatever is currently listed. Asking prices are not closings. That gap is where owners lose money, and they lose it invisibly, because an underpriced industrial building does not sit unsold. It sells fast, and everyone tells you what a smooth process it was.
Nine questions to ask before you sign
Take these to every broker you interview. Ask them in the same order and write down the answers.
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What have you closed in my asset class, and where?
Not commercial real estate. Your asset class. Warehouse, small bay, IOS yard, truck terminal, RV and boat storage or industrial land. Ask for addresses you can look up.
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Who actually works this file day to day?
Pitch teams and working teams are often different people. Ask who calls you back, who runs the buyer outreach, and who is in the room when an offer gets negotiated. Then ask how many other listings that person is carrying.
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How did you get to that price?
You want closings, not asking prices, from the last 24 months, with addresses. You want rent comps by the foot NNN, or by the acre for a yard. If the number arrives without the evidence behind it, it is an opinion about winning the listing.
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Who are the buyers, by name?
A specialist can name the funds, the 1031 buyers and the owner users active in your product this quarter, and can say what each of them pays for. A generalist describes a marketing plan instead.
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Can you take it off-market, and should you?
If your tenants, staff or competitors should not know, the broker needs a buyer list rather than a listing portal. Ask how many off-market deals they closed last year, and ask them to argue the other side too. A broker who says off-market is always better is selling you their limitation.
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What does the zoning permit on my parcel?
In Broward, zoning is set by each municipality rather than the county, so the answer changes across a city line. A broker who has not looked it up before pitching you has not done the work, and permitted use moves value on a yard more than anything else on the site.
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What is the term, and what happens when it ends?
Ask the length, ask how the protection period works and how long it runs after expiry, and ask for the protected buyer list in writing at the end. Push back on automatic renewal. A broker confident in the work does not need one.
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What is the fee, in dollars, at my price?
Commission is negotiable by law in Florida. Percentages are easy to nod at, so ask for the number in dollars. Then ask two follow-ups: what happens if the buyer comes from your own contacts, and how the split works if a buyer's broker turns up.
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What would make you tell me not to sell?
The best answer in the whole interview. A broker who has never advised an owner to hold has never given advice against their own fee, and you are about to hand that person the pricing decision on your building.
What a weak answer sounds like
- We do all commercial. Fine for a strip centre. On a yard it means your permitted use question gets answered by a buyer's attorney instead of by your broker.
- We will put it on the major platforms. Listing sites are distribution, not a buyer list. Ask who gets a phone call in week one.
- Let's start high and see. Sixty days of silence, then the offers you would have had on day one, from buyers who now know it has been sitting.
- I can get you more than that. Ask which closings support it. If the answer is a feeling, the feeling will cost you a price reduction in month three.
- Trust me, I have been doing this thirty years. Thirty years of what. Ask for the last five industrial closings and the addresses.
The three broker models in South Florida
Each of them is right for something. Knowing which is which saves an interview.
- The national platform. Capital markets teams, national investor relationships, research departments. For a large institutional asset or a portfolio trade, that reach is what sets the price and it is worth every basis point. The risk on a smaller building is that your file becomes the lowest priority on a desk chasing portfolio business.
- The local generalist. Deep relationships in one town across every property type. Genuinely useful when the buyer is a local business owner they already know. The weakness is pricing, because industrial comps and rent data are not something you keep current while also running office, retail and land.
- The asset class specialist. Fewer deals, one product, a standing buyer list and current comps. Right for the middle of the market, where the building is too small for a national platform to prioritise and too specialised for a generalist to price. Ask a specialist to prove the specialisation with addresses, because the label is easy to claim.
How Phil answers the same nine questions
Written out so you can compare them against whoever else you interview.
- Asset class. Industrial and storage only, since 2020. IOS yards, truck parking and terminals, warehouse, small bay flex, RV and boat storage, and industrial land. No office, no retail, no residential. The closed list with addresses and photographs is on the closed deals page.
- Track record. 37 deals closed and $125,000,000 in volume since 2024.
- Who works the file. Phil. He runs the buyer outreach, he sits in the negotiation, and he concludes every valuation himself after seeing the site.
- Pricing method. Comparable industrial closings from the last 24 months with addresses, rent comps by the foot and by the acre, a written zoning and permitted use read, and a named list of who is bidding on that product this quarter. All four arrive with the number.
- Off-market. Available and used often in this asset class, under NDA where the property warrants it. He will also tell you when open exposure would get you more.
- Licensing. Florida sales associate licence SL3622570 and Pennsylvania licence RS352725. Broker of record Jim Blanda, Florida licence BK3605614. The office is at 6700 N Andrews Avenue, Suite 405, Fort Lauderdale.
- Terms and fee. Put in writing before you sign, including the protection period, the protected buyer list and the co-broke split.
- Telling you not to sell. It happens. If the site is producing, the tenant is good and you do not need the capital, holding an asset whose supply is shrinking is a reasonable position, and you keep the number and the comps either way.
When Phil is the wrong call
Worth saying plainly, because a page like this is usually written the other way.
If the property is not industrial or storage, he is not your broker and he will refer it out rather than take it. If you are trading a large institutional portfolio, a national capital markets platform brings investor reach he does not have, and the right move is to interview two of those. If your building is a small owner-occupied unit that a neighbour has already offered to buy, you may need an attorney more than a broker.
Where he is the right call: a warehouse, a yard, a flex park, a terminal or a piece of industrial land in Florida, owned by somebody who wants the pricing done on industrial data and wants the person doing the pricing to be the person who answers the phone.
Read next: How to sell a warehouse in Fort Lauderdale, and what is my industrial property worth. More about Phil Maisano.