5 Things You Must Do to Sell Commercial Property in 2026

0:03 Some commercial properties are sitting on the market for years, while others are selling in 30 to 60 days. My name is Abeva Sunnenrich, I am a commercial real estate broker here in Denver, Co and I am going to be talking about my top five tips on how to sell a commercial property in 2026. And if you or someone you know loves commercial real estate or has a question about a commercial property, make sure to like, subscribe, comment your questions, share this video with a friend. Let's get into my top five tips for how to sell a commercial property in 2026. Tip #1 price for today's market instead of yesterday's pipe dream. I had a seller for a property in 20/22. She handed me an appraisal for the property and it appraised in 2021 for $2.9 million.

0:52 So she handed me the appraisal and she said go sell it and I hit the market. I just saw that property listed last this week. Same seller, same property at a new price with a new victim, I mean broker for $1.8 million. So what in the world just happened? Why did she get an appraisal 3 years ago for 2.9 million and they can't even sell it right now for 1.8? Well take a seat my Prince. The biggest mistake I'm seeing in 2026 are people pricing properties based on what their neighbors sold in 2022. Unfortunately, our market, it peaked out in 2022. It's a long story when it comes to interest rates and property prices, but this is the gist.

1:37 So after the pandemic, the Federal Reserve dropped interest rates to some of the lowest interest rates in history. This inflated the purchase price of properties across the country, right? Everybody heard about the mania and the bidding wars in 2021-2022. Well, the inverse to that is that the Federal Reserve saw this happening, saw the inflation that was happening as a result of these low interest rates, they decided to raise interest rates. What happens when interest rates go up? Our cap rates and our purchase prices come down South. In 2021-2022, we had some of the lowest interest rates of all time. Prices went up overnight. Everybody thought they were 30% richer, and then the party's over.

2:20 Queued a hangover, 2025 hits. Interest rates are back up in the six and 7%. And unfortunately the inverse effect happened, right? Interest rates went up, now purchase prices went down South. Pricing a property based on what your neighbor sold their property for in 2022, unfortunately is not a reality of selling property in 2026. If you want to sell a property in 2026, you're going to take that appraisal from 2021 and you're going to shred it. I am seeing people selling properties at a loss. I have a whole video about how Denver office buildings are selling for 97% less than what they were purchased for pre pandemic, but we'll go into that in another conversation.

3:05 Let's get into tip #2 if you want to sell a building in 2026, it needs to be priced correctly. Properties that are not priced correctly sit on the market and they lose leverage. Brokers and buyers have all the data of the listing. We can see how long it's been on the market. Properties that are priced properly in 2026 can actually be sold for more. The the whole strategy is pricing it appropriately and achieving A bidding war, then bringing the price up right. Price it appropriately. Garner interest. Sell as opposed to take a pup of opium. List it in another stratosphere and pray some idiot comes along. Those days are over.

3:48 Don't list it like it's 2021. List here on earth. Do not for the love of God price your property with AI. There are so many amazing use cases for AII. Use it every single day. I'm a robot as no, I'm just kidding, but this is devastating. The AI platforms are not sophisticated enough to rationally create comps, nor do they have the access to data that a professional would have. Great example of this. I know of a group that for their own property ran comps on ChatGPT. The comps produced a number based on comps around the country. Right, because chat is not sophisticated enough, nor was the prompt probably sophisticated enough to actually recognize that comps need to be within the state within the radius of the property. This produced an unrealistic opinion of price about actually three times more than the actual value. So now you have an ownership group who thinks their property is worth 3 times more because someone went on ChatGPT and asked them the value of their property in 2026. If you are pricing your property with AI, you're going to have a bad time.

4:58 Don't do that. Please call me. Just call me tip #3 to sell a commercial property in 2026. My days of dating are long gone, but years ago, when I was going on a first date, I was wearing heels. I was wearing perfume. I might even shave my legs. Tip #3 is present properly when you're going to sell your home, your realtor is going to tell you to take all of your personal photos out your ugly furniture and then they fill it back up with other people's furniture and they call it staging, right? This applies directly to dating and commercial real estate.

5:40 First impressions are everything you need to treat every interaction like a first date. And if that means new paint, cleaning up the property, landscaping, if you want to actually sell that property, treat it like it's going on a first date. Pick up the leaves, put on a new roof. Let's make it presentable. Because first impressions are everything in life and in real estate. Tip #4 For selling a commercial property in 2026, it is not about getting eyes on your property to get the property sold. It's about getting the right eyes on your property to get the property sold. So now the question becomes, how do you do that? Areva and how much it costs.

6:24 So first you're going to start with Costar, that's $6000 a year. Next you need Loopnet, that's another 1200. You're also going to need Krexi, that's another 2400. And the MLS, you know you pay 600 to start your membership with the MLS and then another $60.00 every month for that. So take out your credit card right now or your property is not going to sell. Now all of a sudden hiring a commercial broker doesn't sound that bad, does it? Let me give you an example. I went to a showing the other day on a property. It was great and with the buyer, they like it. Now it turns out the property next door was also for sale, but we didn't know that because it wasn't on costar, right? So if you're selling a commercial property, the property needs to be listed on costar.

7:08 Selling Kubarja real Estate in 2026 is like the wild, Wild West. You could hire a completely unqualified person who's not going to put the property in the right places with the right eyeballs, and then your property is going to sit on the market and you're going to be like, that's not good, that's bad. Time is money, my friends. Marketing effectively is putting the property where the buyers are, not on Facebook Marketplace. Believe me, it's not on Facebook Marketplace. Tip #5 If you want to sell a commercial property in 2026, hire a professional. You're not going to hire a plumber to do your electrical. Let me tell you a story right now. Next door to my house is a small commercial property that is owned by a woman who is a residential broker. Over the past few years, I have watched her light hundreds of thousands of dollars on fire because she refuses to hire someone who actually knows what they're doing to sell her property.

8:09 I said, lady, let me sell this property for you and she said I'm. A residential broker I know how to make a deal. You know that phrase like don't chase pennies while watching dollars fly by? That's what my neighbor is doing because she thinks she can sell it even though it's not on costar. It's not on Craig. See. Anyway, call me when you want to get that property sold. This notion that you can sell it yourself, the notion that your cousin who's a residential broker can sell it for a lower Commission is going to make you lose money overall. You would not hire a dentist for a vasectomy. Why in the world would you hire a residential real estate broker to sell your commercial property?

8:52 Or worse, why would you try to do it? Your sell And now for my ultra secret listing hack. Having ChatGPT in your pocket is like having a CMOI. Actually feel really bad for people who got marketing degrees. Because ChatGPT is better than a CMO. We're not using AI to price our properties, but we are using AI to sell our properties and this is how we do it. In your property description, I'm going to prompt ChatGPT with the following. Rewrite this listing description using psychology and advanced marketing techniques to make it so that whomever is reading it can't help but reach out to me to learn more.

9:33 So if you're thinking about selling at commercial property in 2026, understand this strategy matters more than ever. If you want a second opinion on pricing or positioning your property in 2026, call me. Head over to The Warehouse hotline.com and hit me up. Thank you for listening. Comment your commercial real estate questions and we'll see you soon.