Anyone can take the reservation 📞

“You know how to take the reservation, you just don’t know how to hold the reservation. And that’s really the most important part… the holding.”

These words were spoken by:

1. Samantha Jones to a top-hat wearing bouncer at a club opening
2. Jerry Seinfeld at a rental car counter
3. Ross to a restaurant hostess, thinking he's about to blow it on a date

The correct answer is B, and this line is, IMHO, Seinfeld at its best. It’s a supremely relatable daily frustration delivered perfectly: Jerry is judicious with his words, and yet he makes his point so clearly that no reasonable person could dispute it.

If I had a standup act and Jerry’s talent, I’d also deliver life’s fundamental truths as punchy one-liners. Instead, I have a newsletter.

If you ask most people what a real estate broker does, the answer is some version of: they find a space. And so naturally, when a retailer finds a space themselves, they can think they’ve somehow done all the work, or at least the hard part.

🔎  The finding of the space may be the part of brokerage that everyone knows about, but as anyone who’s ever signed a lease can tell you, from that “found it” moment, the finish line is a long way off, and it’s far from guaranteed. 

For most Pedal Retailers, there are dozens of these moments. Usually, as the broker, I’m the one doing the “finding,” but sometimes other brokers send me spaces, or the retailer themselves has a space in mind. Regardless of how it happens, the moment when a space is “found” is of minimal significance because nothing is actually accomplished. There’s just uncovered potential… and a long list of ways a deal can go sideways if it’s not handled carefully. Dozens of spaces are “found,” but only one deal actually gets signed. 

Pedal Retailers have been working for a while already before we start to find spaces – if they’re in the Dream Space Accelerator, they’ve probably been working for at least a month or two to finalize their Powerhouse Business Plan and secure the funds they need to execute. After all this hard work, that first space we find can feel like light at the end of the tunnel.

Whether you’re a Pedal Retailer or working with an old school broker, the first site survey is a significant transition, but it’s hardly the finish line. Finding the first spaces is where brokerage actually begins. That line you crossed? That was the starting line. Hey, at least you’re moving! 

⏱️ A space is found in a moment, but a deal is made over many months through a process that may seem simple to outside eyes, but takes years to execute successfully. 📆

Once a space is found, a well-informed broker will have the intel beyond the asking rent – how long was the last tenant there, and why did they leave? What attributes are important to the landlord in their next tenant, and how does that align with the needs of the client? What’s happening in the broader neighborhood that might impact the Pedal Retailer down the road?

A well-connected broker will not only know whom to call about the space, but ideally they'll know that landlord rep personally. Over years of working on deals together – on the same and opposite side of the table – brokers learn each other’s style of negotiating and even develop a shorthand. This interpersonal experience streamlines dealmaking, and it provides context and clues if things start to go off the rails. 

An experienced broker is one who can actually navigate from the starting line (“I found a space!”) to the finish line (a mutually acceptable deal that meets a client’s real estate criteria).

🏃‍♀️‍➡️ Retail dealmaking is less like a 100-yard dash and more like The Amazing Race. There are clear markers between “start” and “finish,” but there are numerous paths to get there, and many more dead ends. 

A deft negotiating strategy may be the most subtle but impactful attribute your broker will bring to the table. As a tenant, you might not always appreciate the “is this a call/ email/ in person meeting” mental calculus or the deal points she recommends you concede vs. push -- all of these mini decisions are critical, and with experience, they become muscle memory to a broker.

When it’s all done well, a broker’s work is almost invisible, which is why it’s easy to conflate “finding a space” with “doing a deal.” Anyone can find a space, but just as Jerry noted, there’s a critical difference between taking a reservation and holding it; in dealmaking this is the difference between “found it” and “it’s mine.”