What are the opening hours?

Monday 8am - 8pm Tuesday 8am - 8pm Wednesday 8am - 8pm Thursday 8am - 8pm

CRE Success

The Facebook home of CRE Success: Membership, a success platform for commercial real estate professionals to rise to the top. Founder: Darren Krakowiak

30/10/2026

Your best deal might be sitting in a database you’ve stopped looking at.

Last month, while we were overseas, our Ring camera caught a neighbour knocking on the door.

When I got home, I saw him bringing his bins in. I walked over, got his full name and number. I recognised his surname, so I asked one more question: “Are you related to Dan?”

Turns out Dan’s his brother. I worked with Dan 25 years ago.

The camera told me he knocked. The conversation told me who he was.

Most agents and principals run their database like a security camera. Profile views. Email opens. Listing clicks. That’s surveillance, not a relationship.

The common ground is nearly always there. You only find it when you pick up the phone.

My first job in commercial real estate was at JHD, which later merged with Urbis.

Where was yours? Drop it in the comments. Let’s find more Dans.

28/10/2026

Is there a sector you’ve written off as “taken”?

In 2016, as the country head at CBRE Korea, I set out to grow our Retail capability from virtually nothing.

The incumbent market leader was entrenched. Everyone had accepted that Seoul Retail belonged to them.
We didn’t breakthrough by pitching harder.

I started with a relationship I already had: I brought a former JLL Retail colleague into the fold. Then I built a new relationship with one of the senior managers inside the incumbent leader’s Retail team.

Eventually, we hired him. Three good operators came with him. Our retail revenue grew.

That took time, and it won’t look the same in your agency. But the first step is the same: a conversation with someone who already has the capability you want.

Too many CRE principals treat the market position as fixed; some sectors just “belong” to someone else.

They don’t. Not if you’re willing to build relationships with the people who can help you change the status quo.

Two questions for you:
1. What sector have you stopped chasing?
2. If you could bring in one capability to win it, what would it be?

Drop your answer in the comments. And if you want to talk it through, DM me “GROW”.

20/10/2026

Calling once, hearing nothing and moving on is how a prospect slips through the cracks.

A cadence replaces random follow-up with a sequence you can run every time. One type of prospect, one planned rhythm of touch points.

Two things sit inside every cadence in the pack.

It stops the moment you get a conversation. The job is to connect with them, qualify them and move them to the next step, usually a meeting. Then the cadence has done its job.

And every touch has to be worth receiving. A market insight, a relevant result, a useful story. That’s the difference between persistent and annoying.

If the full cadences feel like too much right now, start with the 3:3:3 minimum. Three calls, over three weeks, at three different times of day. Changing the time of day is the point. You’re trying to find a time when this person will pick up.

The pack has four cadences for commercial real estate agents: cold prospects, not-now prospects, referred prospects and existing clients. They’re a starting point, not a formula.

DM "CADENCES", and we’ll send you the full pack, free.

19/10/2026

A lease expiry is one of the most familiar triggers to call in commercial real estate. And because it’s so familiar, it‘s easy to only use half of it.

A lease expiry contains two conversations starters:

→ The tenant: Is the space still working for the business?
→ The owner: Are they looking to renew, re-lease or sell?

For many occupiers, finding space, negotiating terms and completing a fit-out can take a year or more. That’s why calling early matters.

When you call the owner, bring something with you: your read on what the tenant is likely to do.

Make both calls, and you‘ll often end up having more context than any other agent having a crack.

The context is a reason to have a conversation. A cadence helps you to get the conversation started.

DM ”CADENCE“ for the touch point sequences that help you get these opportunities.

13/10/2026

If you’re trying to mandate AI adoption from a position of not really understanding it yourself, you’re effectively asking your team to trust a directive you’re not sure about yourself.

You might have someone who could be the AI champion. But don’t wait for someone in the team to figure it out.

If you’ve actually used it, you can speak from direct experience: how it’s helped you, what it did, what it didn’t do, where it saved you time. You’re not mandating. You’re showing them something that has already worked for you.

A year ago, some of my clients were seriously hesitant about AI. Every single one I encouraged to try it in one specific way went ahead and applied it. Then they came back to me, unprompted, to tell me about all the other things they’d found it could do.

Not a company-wide rollout. Just you, trying one thing and having a proper go at it.

If you don’t know where to start, DM “AI” and we’ll send you our AI guide. 100 prompts for commercial real estate agencies.

11/10/2026

The stated values were never the culture. What gets tolerated is.

Is there someone on your team who’s just rude? Someone most of your people find difficult to work with?

Nobody’s said anything, because their numbers are too good. So they’ve become untouchable.

I’ve seen this many times in commercial real estate agencies, and everyone in our industry has seen it too. Often in firms with values on a wall.

Here’s what doesn’t add up. Smaller agencies have more to lose financially when a high fee earner walks. But in my experience, they make the right call faster than bigger firms do.

In a small team, there’s nowhere to hide from someone who treats people badly. Everyone feels it, every day. Big firms can afford to look the other way for longer, because bad behaviour gets diluted across a bigger business.

So whether you’re big or small, the real question isn’t whether you can afford to lose them. It’s the cost to everyone else if you decide to keep them.

If you’ve got someone like that in your business right now, and you’re not having the conversation that needs to happen because you’re worried about the impact on revenue, DM me GROW.

29/09/2026

“People who can’t do, teach.”

I heard that from a senior person at a big firm when I started CRE Success. He was trying to be polite. What he really meant was worse.

Twenty years inside CBRE and JLL taught me things most people never write down. How to lead without doing everything yourself. How to deliver revenue growth without burning people out.

Most commercial real estate principals are sitting on the same kind of knowledge right now, and most of it never leaves their head.

If you’ve figured something out the hard way, swipe through, then tell me what it was.

27/09/2026

A target with nothing attached to it is just a number on a page.

A target with a reward attached to it is worth chasing and achieving.

Back in March 2023, when I was about 3 years into my business, I decided that if I hit a six week revenue stretch target, I would take my family to Hawaii by the middle of that year.

That felt like a big deal back then. It was before I’d set the standard for going away every school holidays.

Well, I hit the number, and I kept my promise: we had a great time in Honolulu in July 2023.

But here’s the reason why I’m sharing this story: many commercial real estate principals and high performing agents also set themselves impressive stretch targets that take real effort, and often sacrifice, in order to achieve.

But most of them don’t ever reward themselves (and their families) for hitting the target.

Don’t you think you deserve to be rewarded?

And wouldn’t you be more likely to hit the next stretch target you set if you knew that you’ll collect on a reward at the end?

If you’re taking the time to set yourself a target, then it’s also time to make a promise to yourself about how you’ll be rewarded once you hit it.

If you want some help coming up with the right target and a great reward, DM me GROW and I’ll be happy to help you brainstorm it.

22/09/2026

Every principal knows exactly who on their team they need to talk to. Almost none of them actually do it.

Ask why, and the answer is never "I don't care enough about this person."

It's usually the opposite.

You brought them in.
You backed them when others weren't sure.
You gave them the listing, the client, the second chance.

That history is real, and it's often the thing making the conversation feel harder than it needs to be.

Because saying it straight now means holding that history up to scrutiny.

So the investment made gets used as a reason to wait. Another month of watching. Another round of telling yourself they'll turn it around.

But that reading has it backwards.

Your history isn't what makes the conversation harder. It's what gives it weight.

You've earned the right to say the hard things, because of what you've invested, not despite it. The investment isn't the obstacle. It's the standing.

What's the conversation you've been putting off, and who do you need to have it with?

DM "GROW" if you want help having it.

20/09/2026

“It’s easier if I just do it myself.”

A Principal said that to me recently. I hear it all the time. And I understand why.

Every time you take the work back, you solve today’s problem. But you also teach your team that they don’t need to solve the next one.

So the question isn’t: “Can I do this faster myself?”

It’s: “Should I still be doing this?”

If you want help working out what to hand back first, DM me the word GROW.

Address

Creative Cubes, Level 1, 10 Oxley Road
Hawthorn, VIC
3122

Opening Hours

Monday	8am - 8pm
Tuesday	8am - 8pm
Wednesday	8am - 8pm
Thursday	8am - 8pm

Website

https://www.cresuccess.co/links

Alerts

Be the first to know and let us send you an email when CRE Success posts news and promotions. Your email address will not be used for any other purpose, and you can unsubscribe at any time.