Brett Saladin is a commercial agent specializing in the buying, selling, and leasing of office, retail, industrial, multi-family, and agricultural properties. Before transitioning to real estate, Brett spent much of his career in recruitment, where he built strong relationships with clients and candidates. He also gained valuable experience working with his family’s commercial construction company in the Fargo-Moorhead area, where he learned about the construction process for large commercial spaces, build-to-suit projects, and developed connections within the local construction industry. Since becoming a licensed real estate agent in 2021, Brett has focused on commercial real estate and quickly built a network of relationships within the Fargo-Moorhead-West Fargo business community. He is excited to bring his diverse experiences to clients of Goldmark Commercial Real Estate.
Brett is actively involved in the community, having been selected for the Fargo-Moorhead- West Fargo Chamber of Commerce Leadership Program for 2022-2023. He has also served as president and Board of Directors member for Moorhead Country Club and continues to participate in various networking and outreach initiatives throughout the region.
Q: What is something big impacting the commercial real estate market right now?
A: I think there’s a huge demand for market information for people doing commercial real estate deals. Over the previous 5 to 10-plus years, market data has just not been available like it should have been. Fast forward to today, we can utilize technology to be able to provide insight and data into the market so that individuals and businesses can make more informed decisions and create better results.
Q: How did you get into commercial real estate?
A: The short story is I can blame my dad. He’s a real estate attorney outside Chicago where I grew up and he helped point me towards evaluating a career in commercial real estate.
The path to this career was a bit more involved, however. I went to school at St. John’s University, where I played football and baseball and met my wife. She went to the College of St. Benedict. We settled in the Twin Cities where I got into sales and recruiting as a headhunter for large corporations. We then moved to Fargo for family reasons, and I got into commercial construction with my father-in-law, who has a business in masonry. That is where I made a lot of connections with developers, contractors, and different tradespeople.
My dad had been in my ear for years about how I should look into real estate and I always had a feeling commercial was probably the route that I wanted to go given I had made those connections. I got licensed at the end of 2020 and jumped right in.
Q: There are so many different options out there when it comes to commercial real estate. You can buy land, rent, lease, etc. Why should a person choose one over another?
A: Every individual and every business is going to look at it in a different light because, at the end of the day, it all comes down to the cost of capital and opportunity costs. It’s all about where, as a business, you believe your money is going to work the hardest for you.
Some businesses believe owning real estate is their best option. The business may own it directly, or the owner may create an entity (LLC or LLP for example), buy the real estate as an investment, and have their business rent it back to them. So, it essentially all stays under one roof of common ownership, but it’s an opportunity for investment in real estate.
On the flip side, other businesses have the philosophy that they would rather inject capital into their business and keep real estate off the balance sheet. In those cases, businesses will lease a space instead of investing their capital into a property. This allows them to write the lease payments off at the end of the year as operational expenses while utilizing the rest of their cash for research and development, more machinery, or hiring more employees.
The decision of leasing vs. owning usually comes down to the individuals who are making that decision, how their business is set up, and how they want to best use their capital.
In our market, there is definitely a good mix of companies as far as leasing versus owning their property. If a business isn’t sure what is best for them, they should consult with their accountant or tax attorney for advice. Once they know the direction they want to go, then teaming up with an expert commercial Realtor armed with the latest sales or leasing market data is the best next step they can take.
Q: Do business owners ever come to you not really knowing which of those options they should go with?
A: For sure, I think that’s where the relationships come in. It’s about actually sitting down with people and developing that relationship and asking those questions. More than half of our job is listening-asking the right questions, and listening to what our clients are telling us. We take that information and utilize it so they can make the best informed decision whether it’s leasing, building, or buying. There are a lot of options and we can help business owners sort through them all.
Q: What are some things business owners should be thinking about before they talk to a commercial real estate agent?
A: I think it’s important to understand the current and future footprint of the business, their budget, and their location preferences.
Ideally, owners know the square footage that they need. Some owners aren’t sure, however, so then we can help them figure that out by detailing their space requirements and calculating what square footage can meet those needs. Things like how much office, storage, open space, or warehouse space they need.
In terms of budget, commercial space in our market is priced per square foot per year. So if owners have an idea of what kind of physical space they need, we can help give them an idea of what that means budget-wise.
Lastly, it is helpful for owners to identify specifics as far as location goes. Owners should know where they can best operate their business. Do they have to be in a highly visible, high-traffic area? Or can they be in an area that is off the beaten path a bit but is close to suppliers or major transportation routes? Those types of things will also determine the price of what a business needs.
Q: What are some of the biggest mistakes you see business owners make when they open an office, change offices, etc.?
A: We are in a current state where things are expensive. The cost of construction is high and so are interest rates. While not necessarily a mistake, some people might not have realistic expectations of what kind of money it takes to build or fit up a new office for example.
Working with a commercial agent is going to help a business because an expert agent is going to know the market. They are going to understand what a good deal versus a bad deal is, and they can provide sound advice and recommendations throughout a deal to buy or lease.
I think it’s important to have somebody who can think outside the box because there are a lot of things that go into a transaction, whether they’re buying or leasing. For example, it is important when going through a lease agreement to understand what the terms are and what to look out for. If they are buying, it is important to understand what the due diligence process looks like and how to negotiate the best terms to protect their interests.
Q: Is a broker able to check all of the boxes?
A: We definitely have to stay in our lane in regards to the real estate aspect. When it comes to legal contracts, we tell our clients to hire an attorney to review purchase agreements. We tell them to hire an attorney to review tax implications if there are any, as we are not CPAs.
We can definitely lead when it comes to understanding the market dynamics, searching the market options, and negotiating the best deal, but once it gets outside of our lane, we need to make sure that they’re being supported by whatever other professional services they need.
Q: Do you have a short list of people you refer clients to for those areas?
A: We all have our connections, and we certainly can refer people to other businesses. We try our best to give them numerous qualified options because we want those individuals to go out and feel comfortable with whomever they decide to go with.
Q: Is there anything else you would like to say to the readers?
A: We are very fortunate in regard to our local economy. We are quite diverse, with everything from agriculture to tech and everything in between. Given that, I think that in our market we are not going to see the crazy swings like they might on the coasts for example. They may have huge economic upswings at times that we do not experience, but we also are not going to see the crazy lows we see on the national news either. We are fairly insulated from national economic trends, and because of that, our local economy just keeps humming along it seems. We have a strong, resilient, and smart business community here, and I think that shows.
Contact Brett Saladin
701-893-2830
[email protected]
Linkedin | /in/brett-saladin
