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My Bio
Gary’s focus is on Commercial Real Estate Brokerage including helping companies find space to Lease or Purchase as well as helping property owners fill or sell commercial space. I work on Retail, Restaurant, Office, Industrial and Warehouse properties.
Gary grew up in the metropolitan New York area and received an MBA degree from the University of Virginia. After graduation, Gary enjoyed a distinguished career in the Marketing field that culminated in his position as Vice President of Marketing for the Ertl Toy Company.
Gary has a keen sensitivity for understanding and responding to customer needs, and it is his business experience and customer service training that helped pave the way for a successful transition into commercial real estate in 2002.
Prior to joining KW Commercial, Gary worked for Pyramid Brokerage Company, which is upstate New York’s largest commercial real estate firm, Capital Commercial and Powell Properties. He has extensive experience working with both Landlord/Owner and Tenant/Buyer representation.
Gary is a graduate of the Cary Chamber of Commerce’s Leadership Cary program, is a member of the Cary – McGregor Rotary Club, and serves on the Board of Directors of the Walden Creek Homeowners Association.
Prior to beginning a Real Estate Agent, I had a 20-year career in Corporate Consumer Products Marketing, with such well-known consumer brands as Texas Instruments, Thermos, and Corning Consumer Products.
After 20 years, I got tired of corporate life and was looking to make a change. Commercial Real Estate seemed like a good way to take advantage of my business skills and experience.
The main challenge is to develop a successful strategy for keeping your Client pipeline full. Deals on the Commercial side of the business take a long time to Close and have a lot of starts and stops, so it is very important to have enough opportunities in the pipeline to ensure a steady stream of projects that you can take through completion.
I have worked with 3 different brokerages during my 15 years in the business.
While the brand of the brokerage is somewhat important, the agent's personal brand and reputation are more important as clients typically work with agents, not brokerages. The exception might be if a brokerage has a strong reputation for the specific area that you want to focus on. Otherwise, the key is to find a brokerage that supports your personal strategy for developing and growing your business.
In the Raleigh area, we have a Trade Organization named the Triangle Commercial Association of Brokers. I was on the Board of Directors for 5 years, culminating in the position of President. The organization has an annual awards banquet that recognizes Broker accomplishments and I won a Trailblazer Award 3 times and a the Million Dollar Leasing Club award 4 times.
I have a local restaurant client that wanted to expand into additional large, high-visibility locations. These spaces do not come available often and, when they do, are highly sought after and the competition is usually with national brands. During the past 4 years, we found 2 attractive locations. I was able to position my client against both the national and local competition and we won both of those locations.
I am probably less into technology and social media marketing than many of my competitors. I use the tools included with CoStar as well as several of the tools provided to us through our affiliation with Keller Williams Commercial.
Getting good reviews is important as this is a reputation and word of mouth business.
When I feel a project has gone well, I ask my clients for a review which can be used and posted in various ways.
With 20 years of experience in Corporate Marketing prior to beginning my Commercial Real Estate career, I have the unique advantage of combining an extensive business background with my real estate experience. I understand the business issues that my Clients are dealing with and can talk their language. Another advantage of my business background is that I understand the importance of customer service, which many of my contacts have told me is the biggest complaint they have had when working with other Commercial Brokers.