Commercial Real Estate Broker?

I am not sure I understand your question exactly….why would you want to represent tenants under a franchise? I think you have a very good question but not many of us are able to understand it correctly. Do you mean put all of the property addresses that you own under one corporation? That is an excellent idea if this is somewhat the nature of your question Hope this helps!

“Tenant repping” individual franchisees can be an exercise in futility. Often they are first time operators and not familar with the flow/process, and can be gun shy when time to pull the trigger. This is not always the case, but it happens enough to give you the heads up. If you wish to work with a franchisee, target experienced franchisees that have multiple locations and are looking to expand. Or better yet, if you can find a company who’s stores are all corporate owned and then “rep” them, this makes for a much smoother transaction and plus, they present a stronger credit picture to the landlord.
To clarify your question, are you going to be the broker for the company for the entire US? Eg, when a prospective franchisee calls the corporate office of the company, does the company direct the prospective franchisee to you regarding the real estate part of the deal?
If this is the case, perhaps you can set up a “master broker” relationship with the company, whereby you are the corporate real estate contact, and then depending on where the prospect is looking in the US, you can farm out the site locating process to a local broker in “your network” and then keep a percentage of the fee.
Also, if you are going to focus on retail brokerage, join the ICSC if you haven’t done so already, and attend the networking events.
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Reply To Additional Comments:
“Seems to me we could bring this in-house, pocket a portion of the commissions if I represent our tenants (Franchisees), or is that too easy?!”
Depends on your experience level and I cannot answer that for you. However, (and I mean no offense by this) if you are seeking answers to your own business on Yahoo Answers you may not be ready to bring this “in-house.”
Also, just to share a story similar to yours – a good friend of mine is the director of franchise development for a franchisor and they adopted a similar frame of mind as your company (keeping the real estate “in-house” to save on commissions) and they’ve struggled to open stores. Does this mean your company will have the same results – not necessarily, but I can’t help but think of the similarities.