All Episodes

March 26, 2025 46 mins

In our next episode, host Mike Litzner sits down with Tony Briguglio, Broker of Record for Coldwell Banker Commercial AMH, aka “The King of Commercial,” for an unfiltered look at the world of commercial real estate.

From navigating cap rates and SBA loans to spotting undervalued assets and closing deals with national tenants—Tony shares expert insights that every investor, agent, and entrepreneur should hear.

Thank you for listening

Stay connected with us:

Visit our website:

Interested in a career in real estate?

Need to get licensed?

Mark as Played
Transcript

Episode Transcript

Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:07):
Hi, welcome to the Work Hard, play Hard and Give
Back a real estate podcast.
I'm Mike Litzner, broker-ownerof Cowell Banker American Homes,
and we're here in the FranklinSquare studio at American Homes
and I'm happy to introduce theking of commercial King, the
king of commercial, tonyBerguglio.
Thank you, co-world Bank ofCommercial AMH.

(00:29):
Welcome, tony, welcome to theshow.

Speaker 2 (00:30):
Thank you, mike.
It's great to be here.
Franklin Square is a gorgeousoffice, by the way.
Ah, thank you.
Thank you, I love it.

Speaker 1 (00:36):
We've got a great staff here too, by the way.
I love it.
Before we jump into somequestions, I just want to remind
our audience if you like theepisodes, you like what you're
seeing here, remember to like,subscribe and stay around to the
end, because we have the dropthe mic question, which is
always a lot of fun.
Can't wait for that?
There you go.
Well, we'll wait until you hearthe questions first.
Don't jump ahead, tony.

(00:56):
I'm ready for anything.

Speaker 2 (00:58):
Mike All right, there we go.

Speaker 1 (01:07):
All right, so let in, tony, let's go.
So come on as lead broker ofrecord Coa Bank Commercial.

Speaker 2 (01:09):
AMH, what first drew you to commercial real estate?
The non-emotional aspect ofbuying property is very
important to me.
People aren't emotional about abrick building, a multifamily,
a warehouse, industrial.
They buy a hotel, motel.
They just want to know that theproperty earns.
Okay.

Speaker 1 (01:24):
Property earns they want to buy it.
So what's the driver?
What's really the driver in thepurchase of any commercial
property?

Speaker 2 (01:30):
The net operating income and the area Very
important to a lot of people.
But every buyer is different,right, every seller is different
, so they all have their ownniche of why they buy or why
they sell.

Speaker 1 (01:40):
Okay, okay.
So how much different is itlike the investor side, as
opposed to the owner, operator,user, end user, as you would say
?

Speaker 2 (01:49):
The investor wants to get the property for as
inexpensive as possible becausethe amount of money it has to do
to build or build out Right theowner, the end user, doesn't
care really much about the priceas long as the net operating
income falls within you, fallswithin a seven cap, or they can
get their money back within 12or 13 years.

Speaker 1 (02:09):
Okay, so let's just hit on something.
There Again, a lot of ouraudience either they are
licensed or in the periphery ofreal estate, but also we have a
lot of open consumers, so tospeak, of real estate.
So you just touched onsomething called the cap you
know cap rate.
A lot of people seem to beconfused what that actually

(02:29):
means.

Speaker 2 (02:30):
Would you mind to expand upon that Of course the
cap rate is the driving force ofwhen you're going to get your
money back on your investment.
So cap rate goes by netoperating income and area.
So somewhere in California on amain strip, like where the
Chinese theater is, wouldprobably be a lower cap rate,

(02:51):
which would be a higher sellingprice, than somewhere that would
be in a depressed area likeWisconsin or Cleveland.
Ohio would have a much highercap rate, which would be 8%, 9%,
10%, 12%.

Speaker 1 (03:05):
So the prices would be much lower.
But bring in a little bit more.
Cap rate is short forcapitalization right.

Speaker 2 (03:10):
Yeah, yes.

Speaker 1 (03:11):
So, really, it's relevant to the amount of return
, relevant to the amount ofmoney it costs to acquire.

Speaker 2 (03:18):
Yes, the net operating income generates the
cap rate.
Also, the area generates thecap rate.
So if you're going to buy aproperty right in the middle of
Manhattan, it's going to be alet's just call it a 2.5 to 3
cap.
Okay, which is?
Extremely high, yeah, if you'regoing to come out on Long
Island.
Long Island's going to be a 6.5to 7.5 cap rate, which would be
a much less expensive property.

Speaker 1 (03:38):
So, in other words, investors are expecting a higher
rate of return to invest incertain markets, and certain
robust markets have extra value,so to speak in there.
Yes, of course, intrinsic valueon the periphery that make it
worthwhile making thatinvestment Absolutely.

Speaker 2 (03:55):
Hotels and motels don't work on a cap rate.
They work on 3.5 to 4.5 timesthe gross of the operation.
Okay.
So certain properties work ongross, like gas stations, right
right.
As long as the owner is runningthe business, it goes by gross,
okay.
If he's selling the businessbecause he has a tenant, then it
goes by cap rate, okay.

Speaker 1 (04:16):
Big difference.
Interesting, yeah.
So what advice would you giveto an agent who's getting
licensed and are trying todecide their path, their future?
You know, obviously residentialis a big part of what Cobo Mac,
our American Homes, does.
It's a huge part, I should sayyeah, absolutely, but it's a
very different lane Incommercial.

Speaker 2 (04:36):
you'd have to dedicate a lot more time into
your training aspect of it.
You really have to learn how tospeak to the people that have
millions and millions andmillions of dollars.
I'm not saying residentialpeople don't, but the average
building that we sell is $2million to $4 million on an
average.
So a person that's got four,five, six of those obviously has

(04:56):
a good amount of money andthey're typically spoke to in a
different manner than aresidential customer would be
spoke to.
So you have to be on theirlevel.
So they want to speak tosomeone that understands,
because they'll know in fourseconds if you don't know
commercial real estate and theywon't use you.

Speaker 1 (05:14):
Well, so let's jump in on.
So, having been in sales mywhole adult life, you know 41
years, so I find productknowledge, by the way, it's, you
know, not enough agents take itseriously enough.
But I don't care if you'reselling houses or you're selling
commercial product knowledge.
I, you know what I findinteresting.
Of course and please tell me ifI'm wrong on here, it's like

(05:36):
there seems to be this approachor mindset for some, especially
from the residential side, it'slike commercial real estate and
they, you know, it's like allone globular thing, as opposed
to residential.
It's just residential, with thecommercial, has industrial, uh,
retail, office space, there'sproperty sales, there's leasing,

(05:58):
you know, there's land, there'sdevelopment right, highest,
highest and best use as right ofcourse we talk about yeah, so,
um.
So if you went back in time togive yourself advice, you know
to, when you first joined realestate, now, in hindsight, what
would you tell yourself?

Speaker 2 (06:18):
I would have concentrated more on
understanding how the buyer andthe seller would react to your
presentation Because, again,product knowledge is everything.
Right, you have to have theproduct knowledge on all those
different assets that thesepeople have the way they're
buying or selling.
So, yes, in the beginning wedidn't worry about the product

(06:40):
knowledge, we worried about justgetting the listing any way we
possibly can.
Right, right, because we feltin the beginning, the more
listings we had, the more we'regonna sell.
That was definitely not true,right, right, you can't.
It doesn't matter if I got 400pounds of bologna, if I only
sell 200 pounds of bologna, I'mgonna have a bad product sitting
in the case.

Speaker 1 (06:56):
So, yeah, I don't have a lot of garbage, right,
right cost.

Speaker 2 (07:00):
Increase your sanitation expense exactly so
we've learned that getting thepeople who really, really,
really wanted to sell theirproduct or wanted to buy a
product, we had to qualify themnow.
So we had to master ourqualifications, so we had to put
them through what we would callthe master qualification

(07:20):
situation means do you reallywant to sell your property?
Is there any nieces and nephews, or brothers or sisters or kids
that you want to leave it to?
And once we realized that theyreally wanted to sell their
product, then we were the rightpeople for them and then we
would definitely react a lotmore to all right, let's get
this sold.
And we would research it andget it sold for them as fast as
possible because they're in tunewith you.

(07:42):
They want to sell it them asfast as possible because they're
in tune with you.
They want to sell it right.
It's people who think thattheir property is worth a lot
more than it is.
Yeah, we don't take on anylonger because there's no reason
for it.

Speaker 1 (07:52):
Well, you know it's.
It's interesting as much asfrom my vantage point.
Again, 41 years of doing this,yeah, commercial is very
different.
The power parallels ofsalesmanship is communication,
yes, effective, effectivecommunication, yes.
And you know they always saylike on the residential side,
you know listing's the name ofthe game.
You control the listinginventory.

(08:13):
The buying public has to cometo you and I always said that
it's not all the listings, Idon't need all the listings, I
just need the sellable listings,right, you need the right ones,
right, you need the right oneRight.
And it's being able to dig into understand the seller's needs
, motivation, wants and be ableto communicate value.
Now I want to touch on value alittle bit because, interesting

(08:35):
again, I cut my teeth originallyon the residential side.
Obviously, I bought and soldbusinesses and I own commercial
property.
So over the years I've learneda lot about commercial property
and yet I own commercialproperty.

Speaker 2 (08:45):
So over the years I've learned a lot about
commercial property and yet I'mdeferring to you as the
commercial expert and you knowI've called you numerous times
and picked your brain and you'vebeen a great resource for me
and someone who's got 41 yearsin the business who defers to me
is I'm blessed to have youcalling me up for stuff like
that.
It makes me feel really goodabout it.

Speaker 1 (09:01):
Well, it's mad respect, thank you.
You feel really good about it.
Well, it's mad respect, thankyou.
And I do understand thecomplexity of commercial, so
much so that you surroundyourself with people that are
more knowledgeable than you intheir respective fields.
Yeah, you don't want to be thesmartest guy in the room.
No, that's a problem I get it,I get it, it's good, I get it.
So over the years I've takenappraisal courses and one of the

(09:23):
things I find reallyinteresting in valuations which
is a big part of real estate,you know when you're the expert,
whether you're a residential orcommercial, there's valuation.
But on the residential sidethey're taught really only one
approach and it's the comparableapproach.
You know many times right,people hear real estate agents

(09:44):
or appraisers reference the wordcomps.
And what is a comp?
It's a comparable property thatis sold.
Now, if I understand correctlymaybe you can expand upon this
that's not necessarily the mostcommon approach in valuations
and commercial side, that'scorrect.
So how do you typically startin valuing a property.

Speaker 2 (10:05):
Well again, net operating income definitely sets
a value because thecapitalization rate is based on
the net operating income.
So if I would say to you, mike,I have a property in Mastic or
I have a property in Dix Hillsor a property in Longwood, and

(10:26):
one of the property makes threemillion dollars net operating
income per year, do you reallycare where it's at, when the
other ones?

Speaker 1 (10:33):
only make a million if they're all the same price
now, exactly, absolutely oneproperty doesn't matter where it
is.

Speaker 2 (10:39):
if it's generating a lot of net operating income,
that's going to be moredesirable to an investor, yeah
or an end-user.
Either one they's going to bemore desirable to an investor or
an end user.
Either one they're going towant it because they know
they're going to get their moneyback fast.
So the net operating incomedefinitely generates a different
kind of comp, because I have alot of tools that I use to help
me generate comps, and that'scomps for what's sold in the

(11:02):
area, based on the property size, based on the building size,
based on where the property is.
That is one way to look at itin the worst case scenario.
But in commercial real estatethey don't really care about
comps.
They care about what theproperty is generating, and that
is 95% of why a person wouldbuy a commercial property.

Speaker 1 (11:22):
Well, isn't it true too?
It's like in the residentialside.
I'm looking at a house, let'ssay Franklin Square, since we're
in Franklin.

Speaker 2 (11:29):
Square.

Speaker 1 (11:30):
I got a Cape Cod that I'm looking at.
I want to value it, so I goback a year.
There's maybe 50 Cape Cods thathave sold within a reasonable
radius of that property, right,and I can see.
You know how many bedrooms,bathrooms does it have?
A basement garage.
You know similar property sizeand see what they sold.
Now I get a 10,000 square footoffice building.

(11:53):
You know, right, it was howmany 10,000 square foot office
buildings sold within.
You know a five mile radius ofthis building in Franklin Square
, right, yeah, right, not manyRight of this building in
Franklin Square, right, yeah,right, not many Right.
And if the nearest comp was,you know, 110,000 square feet,
you know a residential agentwouldn't think about comping a.
You know a three-bedroom,one-bath cape against a

(12:15):
five-bedroom,three-and-a-half-bath colonial.
There were different animals.
And yet here we are trying tocomp a 10,000-square-foot
building against a 110,000square foot building against
110,000 square foot building.
So I think that plays into itto a certain extent as well.
Of course.

Speaker 2 (12:27):
Right, of course.
Yeah, because what is the rateof rentals?
I mean, is it 90% rented?
Is it 50% rented?
You can have 110,000 squarefoot building that's only 22%
rented, yeah, and have a 10,000square foot that's 100% rented
but yet has a long list ofpeople that are waiting to get

(12:47):
in because of where it's at andthe desire of the building and
the reputation of the building.
And if that income is greaterthan the one that's 110,000
square feet, then obviously the110,000 square feet's got a lot
of dead space, so it's not goingto get you your money back as
quick as the 10,000 square foot.
So you have to know thesethings in order to go forward,
and the people that are buyingand selling know that.

Speaker 1 (13:09):
You know if you hear what they agree on.
Yeah, so I know you or I wouldprobably pivot to you know a
little bit to price per squarefoot, to use the difference of
10,000 versus 110,000.
When appraisal comes in, let'sjust say they're not getting
private financing in thatbuilding appraises.
How much value does theappraiser put on the price per
square foot?

(13:29):
They put all of it on the priceper square foot?
Yeah, but what about the leasesnow?
So now I know if I'm looking atthat 110,000 square foot or the
10,000 square foot building,right, it's fully occupied.
But I would look at thoseleases and say well, how you
know who are my tenants here?
Are they current on their rent?
You know how many years out if,if, if the one lease is you

(13:52):
know five years out, but they'rethree months behind, and then
you know the two best payers areexpiring in six months.
What's my longevity of the of?
The cash flow.

Speaker 2 (14:00):
So of course you know we recently looked at an office
building that had it was 70%rented, but all 70% were coming
up at the end of 2025.

Speaker 1 (14:10):
Wow, Is it one tenant or?

Speaker 2 (14:13):
just coincidentally.
No, it was just the way herented out.
So all 70% of what's rented iscoming up at the end of 2025.
So virtually, an investor isnot going to pay up for that
property because he could beleft with zero.
Yeah, high risk.
Yeah, it's too high risk forhim to actually bite into it.

(14:33):
So that particular gentlemanwanted $11 million for his
property and he's willing to godown to $7.
We got him down to $7.5 in amatter of seconds.
But then you go to the comp ofthe property, right.
So that type of property in thearea is going for about $5 or
$6 million.
So he's actually asking for acouple of million dollars over
the actual comps of what theproperties value in that city.

(14:55):
So, knowing that you couldpossibly be vacant which is kind
of good in a way, if youunderstand it because then
there's something called aperformer and there's upside
Every investor wants to buy aproperty with upside.
They don't want to be stuck.
So some investors love thatthere's a 10-year lease left and
some investors can't stand thatthere's a 10-year lease left.

(15:16):
So you have to really feel outyour client and qualify them, to
understand what kind of buyerthey are, to find them the right
product.

Speaker 1 (15:24):
I would assume that it also depends on the momentum
in the marketplace.
You know, if the economy isexpanding and there's demand for
space, you know what's thelikelihood I can fill a space
and fill it at a higher price.
I guess, right, if there's ahigher upside on that, then you
want the leases.
But in the last few years, whenyou know, when the economy

(15:47):
contracted a little bit, I don'tknow if I'd be, as… Nobody was
paying their rent, yeah, yeah.
So I guess that factors into it.
Of course it does.
Now, how much does the crazyroller coaster of interest rates
the last few years… so let meframe it for our audience here.
I'd say the last two years,we've seen something I know in

(16:12):
40 years I had never seen before.
We not only saw the doubling ofan interest rate, but the
tripling of an interest rate ina short period of time, in six
months or less, in other words,when the rate was bottom out
around 2.5%, even though kind oflike you know, I know people
have gotten a little bit below,but maybe it's 15 years, it was,
you know, depending.
So the 30-year fixed rate.

(16:32):
And then all of a sudden itjumped up to 5%, which is double
, and then jumped up to 7.5%.
So now you're triple the rate.
Now the people that locked inwith a fixed rate, which is more
common in residential are setor in a great place, but from

(16:55):
what I understand, what's theappetite for fixed rate versus
adjustable rates in thecommercial sector?

Speaker 2 (16:59):
Okay.
So the battle between buyer andseller has been real strong for
the past two years notincluding 2025, but 2024 and
2023, because when the rate wentup, the sellers obviously
wanted their price.
And the buyers said, well,that's insane, I'm not going to
pay full price if I have a biginterest rate.

(17:21):
And the sellers came back andsaid, well, in a couple of years
you're just going to refinanceand I'm going to lose the extra
income I should be getting formy property.
So the sellers were asking forthe right number, but the buyers
wanted a discount because therate was high.
Right.
So because the rate was high,knowing you can, today, in 2025,
sba loans are very, verypopular and you can get a lot of

(17:43):
money for very little interestrate comparable to a normal-
interest rate.

Speaker 1 (17:47):
How much difference is?

Speaker 2 (17:49):
A couple of points, a couple, it is that much it
depends on what your businessgenerates and how good you are.

Speaker 1 (17:53):
Is it true, though, that you have to be
owner-occupied?
51% to get an interest rate?

Speaker 2 (17:57):
Yeah, you have to be owner-occupied.
You have to prove it, butthat's easy to do, okay.

Speaker 1 (18:02):
Yeah.
On paper or in reality.

Speaker 2 (18:05):
Both.
I mean you have your office inthere.

Speaker 1 (18:08):
Our audience is going to be seeing this.
It's going out to the public.
Yes, no, you have to.

Speaker 2 (18:13):
Listen, you can't fool the program.
So they understand, they knowwhat's going on.
Okay, they're willing to lendmoney if the company that's
getting the loan is veryreputable and they have a really
good background.
They're not just giving it tothe guy who decides he wants to
open up a deli and you know,right, right, it's not happening
.
Correct?
You have to have a goodbackground, you have to prove

(18:34):
yourself.

Speaker 1 (18:34):
Yeah, now I had heard that the SBA loans Definitely a
little bit more complicatedpaperwork-wise.
Yes, and it'd take a lot longerto get approved.
Is there a noticeabledifference?
What do you see on your side?

Speaker 2 (18:46):
Yeah, it definitely takes a little bit longer to go
through the motions, becausethey're doing their due
diligence on you and yourcompany.
Okay, I mean, they're checkingyou, they're checking into your
business, they're checking intoyour EIN numbers, they're making
sure that there's noshenanigans happening.
So again, a reputable companyis going to get the SBA loan
with really no issues.

(19:07):
But if you're sketching in anykind of way, shape or form and
they figure out that you'retrying to just fudge numbers
because everybody tries to fudgenumbers, it's just the way of
the world, I don't know.

Speaker 1 (19:17):
It's like trying to value the Mar-a-Lago.
I don't know if I want to fudgenumbers in New York.

Speaker 2 (19:21):
We don't want to fudge numbers, but there are
some companies out there thatjust try to do what they got to
do to get a loan.
I mean, we've seen it so manytimes where they put in an offer
, sba, and then when the duediligence is up they still don't
have an approval because theyjust, yeah, we know they're not
going to get it.

Speaker 1 (19:37):
Yeah, be the time frame.
You would expect 45 days.
It is 60 days, 60, yeah, okay,so compare that to conventional
financing 15 days.

Speaker 2 (19:47):
25 days, okay, yeah, because it's more streamlined.
There's not much investigationgoing on.
They run your credit.
They see your bank account,they see that you have the money
putting down.
Is it is required 20, 30 orwhatever.
It is 3% on an FHA.

Speaker 1 (20:00):
Yeah, conventional.
What are they expecting?
Traditional down payments 20%,typically.

Speaker 2 (20:06):
It's just normal.

Speaker 1 (20:07):
Okay, how often are they demanding?

Speaker 2 (20:10):
25% or 30%, depending on how the bank comes back with
a value Okay, and the bank usestheir own appraisers, so they
come back with their own way ofevaluating the property and you
can beat that.

Speaker 1 (20:25):
You can overcome it by coming up with another
appraiser or a differentappraisal that sees it
differently.
They have to be approved bythat bank though.

Speaker 2 (20:29):
Yeah, the bank would dispatch out a different
appraisal company.
Okay, so two appraisals on acomplicated property is not
abnormal.

Speaker 1 (20:35):
Okay, sba, now the SBA allows for a much higher
loan to value.
Is that correct?
Sba Now, the SBA allows for amuch higher loan-to-value.
Is that correct?
Yes, so what's the max value?
Ltv.

Speaker 2 (20:46):
It would probably give you 80% or 85%, depending
on.
Can you get 90 on?

Speaker 1 (20:50):
SBA or not, you can get 90.

Speaker 2 (20:52):
You can, but 80-85 is like where they're very
comfortable Right.
90 is more complicated to wherethey have to do more
investigating.

Speaker 1 (21:00):
All right, so it starts to get a little dicey,
but it's possible up the name.
Oh yeah, absolutely Okay.
Oh yeah, definitely, All right.
Good, that's a good framework.

Speaker 2 (21:06):
That's why SBA is so popular.

Speaker 1 (21:08):
Yeah Well, lower rates and higher LTVs.

Speaker 2 (21:10):
Higher LTVs, yeah.

Speaker 1 (21:11):
Yeah, awesome.
So the commercial market hasseen a lot.
So right now for investors, youknow, and business owners, what
should they be paying attentionto?

Speaker 2 (21:23):
It depends on the asset that they're used to
buying.
A lot of investors like to buyland and build.
You know, believe it or not, ifthey invested in shopping
centers right now, we're on fire.
Right, because national tenantspay even when they move out.
Right, so you can't get anational tenant without a
shopping center.

(21:43):
I mean you can have astandalone building, a Burger
King, a McDonald's, whateverTaco Bell, but shopping centers
are probably the best investmentyou can make.
If you have something that'sgoing to be in the 10-plus units
in a shopping center, okay,because you can put more
national tenants in there, soyour income is guaranteed to
somebody who's going to want tobuy it in the center.
Okay, because you can put morenational tenants in there, so
your income is guaranteed tosomebody who's going to want to

(22:04):
buy it in the future.
Yes, which?

Speaker 1 (22:06):
is real nice.
Yeah Well, I guess when youhave a publicly traded company,
you know that's, you know it'sthe way to go.
It's technically worth, youknow, a billion dollar plus.
Yeah, it's safe to say yourrent is a little bit more secure
, sure.

Speaker 2 (22:19):
We've sold many Dollar Generals that have been
out of business for two, threeyears and Dollar Generals are
still paying rent Really.

Speaker 1 (22:27):
Yeah, that's publicly traded Dollar General, yeah.
Yeah, I don't shop there, so Idon't know much.

Speaker 2 (22:35):
Well, there's not many in New York.
Okay, there's a lot out of NewYork, but we do sell in the 50
states, so it but we do sell inthe 50 states, so it's not that
uncommon for us to come acrossat Dollar General.
So then the seller has to sayI'm getting a guaranteed income
from Dollar General Once I sellit.
I don't have that income streamanymore.
The new owner will take overand Dollar General will give

(22:55):
them a buyout.
That's typically how it works.
Dollar General says okay, I owefor the next four years.
I owe $260,000.
I'll give you 100 000 you canput toward the purchase, get us
out of our lease, and then we goforward.
So right.
And they guarantee, just like alot of national companies.
It's triple ends.
You don't have to worry aboutproperty, you don't have to
worry about fixing trees, youdon't have to worry about the
electric going out, you justcollect your check, right, right

(23:18):
.

Speaker 1 (23:18):
So triple n shopping centers, stand-alone big
business If someone was lookingfor shopping centers right now.
Have any good properties rightnow?
Yes, yeah, we have quite a few.
Here's your chance for a pitch.

Speaker 2 (23:33):
We have quite a few shopping centers for sale right
now, especially in Florida.
In Florida, we're currentlyputting together a $65 million
shop, two shopping centers thatcan potentially go up another
four stories.
So it makes the value so muchmore and that's where we came up
with the $65 million valuation.

(23:55):
So we have those shoppingcenters that are in the workings
right now.
We have a shopping center inWestbury that's approved for
7,000 square feet, nine units,800 square feet per unit, okay,
and that will bring you $250,000a year in net operating income.
Okay, so the value of thatproperty is around $4 million
Once complete, when it'scomplete, and the owner's only

(24:17):
selling it for $2.1 million.
So there's a lot of upside onthat property.
Right, it for $2.1 million.
So there's a lot of upside onthat property.
And it would only cost you $225per square foot to build that
7,000 square foot building.
So, all in, you're at $3,500.
The property is going to beworth $4,100,000 and you're only
paying $3,500 for it.
So you got a $500,000 leewaythere and your property will be
paid off in 13 years 12, 13years.

(24:39):
So that that's a great propertyto have also, yeah, so, yeah,
shopping centers are the way togo and gas stations phenomenal.

Speaker 1 (24:46):
Okay, phenomenal Now okay, since you brought up gas
stations.
Yes, all right, I have a littlebit of background, since my dad
owned a gas station.
Love it Over the years andstuff like that.
What should an investor or evenan agent be concerned about?
Environmental?
What's a typical process in anenvironmental one?

Speaker 2 (25:05):
Depends on the tanks in the ground.
Yeah, we sold a gas station inWisconsin.
We were ready to close.
They did a phase one.
They found a little bit ofgarbage in the ground and they
did phase two.
The guy never had anenvironmental problem, never had
tanks leaking, but he did store.
He rented out part of his lotto trucks.

(25:25):
Okay, those trucks leaked oil,went into the ground over 20
years and, boom, you have anenvironmental problem.
So it held up the closing for ayear and a half.
Wow, okay, Because they have toget to the source right, they
have to remediate.
Yeah, of course, If your tanksare 20, 25 years old and you

(25:45):
don't do an environmental everyyear, you're going to run into
problems.
So the environmental is veryimportant to understand how many
tanks are in there.
Are they single line, doubleline?
Are they metal?
Are they fiberglass?
When was the last time wechanged?
Checking the lines from thetanks to the pumps is very
important.
Some people have brand newtanks but they have 25-year-old
pumps that look like R2-D2.
I don't even understand it, butthey really do and you know they

(26:09):
just put money into theirproperties.
If it's a big company like Bola, or you know it's a Mobil or
it's an Exxon or it's a goodcompany they'll make sure that
everything's done the right way.
But if it's a good company,they'll make sure that
everything's done the right way.
But if it's a mom and pop inIllinois.
You can have a little bit of aproblem with it For our audience
here.

Speaker 1 (26:25):
What's the difference between a phase one
environmental and a phase two A?

Speaker 2 (26:28):
phase one is just pretty much take a spoon, stick
it in the ground, check that,send it out and check it.
A phase two is they have todrill.
They have to drill holes andtake big samples.
Boring samples, as they call itright.
Yes, you have to.
All right, I would have to tellyou that six out of ten gas
stations that get sold getconverted to a fast food chain
or a coffee shop.
So that's where the environmentbecomes the most important,

(26:50):
because you can't serve food ona place that's environmentally
an issue what's going on in thebanking industry?

Speaker 1 (26:57):
It seems like for a number of years there was a lot
of banks expanding.
There were so many banks.
And now, with the advent ofonline banking, what do you see
in that sector?
There are so many banks forsale right now.

Speaker 2 (27:07):
So many, so many.
So what's great about the banksbeing sold is the dispensary
business is taking over thosebanks because the vaults are
temperature controlled.
Okay, so they don't have toinstall anything that has to be
temperature controlled, becauseall the volts are temperature
controlled, which is great Okay.

Speaker 1 (27:25):
So they're actually using.

Speaker 2 (27:26):
Yeah, so they're looking for them, but we have to
wait until New York or, youknow, florida or California wake
up a little bit more to thedispensary, because they're only
allocating a certain amount peryear.
And you know, there's a lotmore people that have licenses
to sell but just can't find aplace.
Yeah, the location, yeah, andthe banks are holding on to it.

(27:47):
They want to sell theirproperty for a lot, yeah, which
is good, because they knowthere's a need for it.

Speaker 1 (27:52):
So let me pivot a little bit here.
What's?
One piece of advice that youthink is completely overrated,
like buy low, sell high.
You know, you hear these, youknow little cliche things.
What's a piece of advice as itpertains to commercial real
estate?

Speaker 2 (28:07):
Well, the major thing that's overrated is not taking
it serious enough.
You know, people just come inand they're like oh, I could
sell commercial property andwork two days a week.
And you know it's not that typeof job, it's not the type of
career I mean.
I don't see it as a job becauseI love every second that I'm in
it.
I love what I'm doing right now, this second with you.

(28:29):
I love when I'm going to leavehere and go look at a property.
I love talking to people on thephone about their properties.
The knowledge that you can getjust by having conversations is
immense, because it just doesn'tstop.
So taking it so nonchalantly isOkay.

Speaker 1 (28:45):
Now, do you take part-time people on or not?
Because in residential you seea lot of people get one foot in
the business, one foot out.
Sometimes they cross over Right, and you know it's a business.
I would say it's a businessopportunity.
Yes, you know, an agent decidesto sell real estate.
It's an opportunity to be inbusiness for themselves, not
necessarily by themselves, butit's not uncommon for people to

(29:08):
come in part-time and besomewhat effective.
I mean again, what's part-time?
I see it twice a month for twohours.
That's not really part-time,but 20 hours a week consistently
would be… I don't have anypart-time but 20 hours a week
consistently would be.

Speaker 2 (29:22):
I don't, I don't have any part-time agents.

Speaker 1 (29:24):
20 hours a week how many agents are on the Coldwell
Banker commercial?
I'm our AMH team right now.

Speaker 2 (29:30):
Well, right now we have ten full-time, all right.
People that come into theoffice and train phone call,
right, train phone call, trainphone, it's all the.
But they understand what theconcept is of why they either
left residential, came to thecommercial side or just started
out in commercial, becausethat's what they really want to

(29:52):
do.
They want to take a big biteinstead of a little bite.

Speaker 1 (29:55):
Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 2 (29:56):
If I can't train you, if you wanted to work part-time
and I couldn't train you, andreally you're not going to have
the knowledge to go out there byyourself.
You're just not.

Speaker 1 (30:03):
You're just not so many different nuances in the
properties as we already alludedto in this conversation already
.

Speaker 2 (30:10):
We do have people that are part of our team that
do nothing but send us picturesof for sale by owner on
commercial properties.
That's all you drive around allday, yeah, and they can earn
just by giving us those leadsand we can turn those leads into
sales, so there are people thatdo that.
I mean we're not going to turnaway anybody that wants to give
us a free lead.

(30:30):
I mean I'd have to be crazy todo that.
So, we have people that just say, hey, I see a lot of for sales
and I'm just going to drivearound all day.
That's what I want to do whileI'm taking care of my family.
We're okay, we're fine withthat.
Yeah, no problem with that, butwe're not going to teach you
the commercial business.

Speaker 1 (30:46):
Yeah, that's that's.
You know it's the different uhthing to be.
You know spotting signs andsharing information as opposed
to actually evaluatingprofessionally.

Speaker 2 (30:57):
You know commercial properties and negotiating
transactions, right if youwanted to give me 20 hours of
your time every week, I'll giveyou 40 hours of knowledge in
those 20 hours to escalate you.
But you have to obviouslyunderstand you have to be a
salesperson in at least 80% ofwhat you're doing and then I'll
teach you the other 20%knowledge.

(31:19):
Right, it's very important.

Speaker 1 (31:20):
If you don't have that flair, you're not going to
make it, and it's theconsistency also right.
I'm sure it's the same.
That's a parallel, I'm sure onboth sides.
Yes, if you're going to give me20 hours, it's not just 20
hours this week, you have to bethere every week, correct?

Speaker 2 (31:33):
Yeah, it's very important because once you give
20 hours and 20 hours and thenyou stop, I'm just going to
obviously not fulfill my end.
Because you're not fulfillingyour end, right, right, you're
not going to be as important asyou should be because you made a
deal with me.
I'll give you 20 hours if yougive me 40 hours, and that's
just how I roll.
Right, right, right.
If you came in 20 hours and Ionly gave you 10 hours of value,

(31:58):
then you're going to be upsetthat I didn't keep my end of the
bargain.
So I always keep my end of thebargain because I know that that
person can generate income forthe company, right, as well as
making them another asset thatthe company has which is great.

Speaker 1 (32:11):
We could never be more committed to an agent's
success than they are Right,correct, right.
So I can have the best trainingin the world.
If you're going to show up andnot apply it right, the the
biggest misnomer is like is thetraining really good?
The training can be great, butif you're not going to do
anything with it, the money withthe rubber hits the road.
Right is the application.
What did you learn?

(32:32):
What are we going to be doingwith it?
Right, correct, so?

Speaker 2 (32:35):
so that comes with the commitment on the other side
it's like you know, uh, for forthe first 15 or 20 years of my
life, I was very into Okinawabutchitsu, which is a form of
karate, right, okay?
So when I first started, therewas 100 people in the class.
Yeah, guess what happened 15years later, there was not one
of those 100 people left, but me.

(32:55):
You know what I mean, what youkill them all with your karate
chops or what Pretty much,pretty much.
It's just that I was verycommitted.
Survival of the fittest yeah,of course I was very fit back
then too, but the commitmentthat I had to the craft made me
the only person left, and thatcommitment is no different in
real estate.
You have to.
If you're going to commit to it, then commit to it and let's go

(33:18):
forward.
And everybody that I hire Ialways say is you know,
hopefully you know.
You're not going to be toldthis is the wrong decision.
You shouldn't be doing it,because there's not going to be
a lot of people in your cornerwhen you ditch a normal nine to
five and try to become anentrepreneur.
It's one of those things thatyou have to have support.
But I can guarantee you, whenyou come into work every day,

(33:42):
all 10 of us are going tosupport you to get better and
better and better, because we'reall in there to do the same
exact thing is earn and learn,and that's just the environment
that we keep and it's prettyexciting.
Yeah, come to the officeanytime, you'll be very, very
excited.

Speaker 1 (33:54):
so um, tell us about.
You know, um, there's a fairlyrecent decision maybe six, six
months, maybe a little bitlonger right to take Coldwell
Bank of Commercial AMH out ofmultiple listing right.
So for an agent on theresidential side who has access

(34:15):
to the residential MLS which Ithink is kind of a little bit of
a misnomer because they have acommercial section, they do, but
it's really a residential MLS,so why would a commercial broker
not be part of that?
Why don't you share yourthoughts on that?

Speaker 2 (34:30):
Because in my experience since I started in
commercial, most investors,buyers and sellers are not going
to put a $3, $4 millionproperty on an MLS site.
It's just not something that aseller or investor or buyer is
going to go to look for aproperty.
Right, we now have designatedsites and we had designated

(34:53):
sites back then.
Right, but that's where you goto buy property.
You go to a commercial site tobuy commercial property.
You don't go to a residentialsite to buy commercial property.
You just don't.
So we understood that and wesaid, okay, so we don't need to
have our agents paying these MLSfees when we're never going to
use MLS.
The only thing I can tell youabout MLS is that if you go

(35:16):
there and look at how manycommercial properties are dead
on there, it's immense, immenseamount of property.
Right, because you have yourreal estate license, you can
sell residential or commercialRight.

Speaker 1 (35:27):
So for an audience that's not licensed, just so
they're clear on this, the realestate license that's required
in New York State is the samefor residential or commercial.
Correct, it's really thediscipline.

Speaker 2 (35:41):
Yeah, you have to understand it, you have to know
what you have to train for it.
Yeah, unfortunately, everyperson that we talk to about
coming over commercial, who aremaybe at a commercial um you
know place, never got anytraining.
They just say go buy your owncards, go your own leads, and if

(36:01):
you have a question let me know, and most of them fail.
We don't work that way.
We train every single solitaryday.
You come into the office, we'retraining.

Speaker 1 (36:11):
Okay, so, tony, real quickly.
So you know, we came to thisconclusion that we really should
have a separate licensedcommercial organization and it's
licensed.
Well, certainly we have thevalue and support of co-wall
banker, um, and their franchisebecause they realize, yeah, they

(36:31):
realize that commercial is aseparate animal.
So co-wall banker residential,co-wall banker commercial are
two separate franchises.
So we, you know, they offeredus that and we took it outside
and licensed it single andseparate than residential
offices, and many of theresidential agents come across
commercial leads.
So are you of the mindset thata residential agent is actually

(36:56):
better off referring thecommercial business over than
trying to attempt to do itthemselves?

Speaker 2 (37:01):
Yeah, absolutely trying to attempt to do it
themselves.
Yeah, absolutely.
I mean, if you're a I like togive examples.
If you're a person that justbakes cake for a living, why
would you take on an ice creamshop if you don't know anything
about it?
Right?
If you're a residential agentand you come across a commercial
listing, just give us thereferral and let us take care of

(37:21):
it for you.
All you have to do is hand itover to us and not worry about
it.
We'll be in contact with youconstantly to let you know
what's happening with thereferral.
Some come through and somedon't.

Speaker 1 (37:31):
It just depends.
You know what's interesting.
I think agents don't like toturn away business, obviously
because it's business, but atthe same time, the easiest
business is to get his referralbusiness and yes, right.
So, and how do you build yourreferral business?
Here's a simple hint do a good,freaking job, right.
So you do a really good job andyou've been a successful

(37:54):
residential agent.
And then you get a lead incommercial and you really don't
have the experience ofdiscipline or understanding of
it.
When you mishandle that, youjust burn that referral lead out
.
And now here's someone whocould have referred you three
more residential deals and nowthey don't trust you.
So I think it's extremelyempowering to an agent when they

(38:19):
can look at the person and say,hey, look, I really appreciate
your referral business, but I'mnot the best person for this
because it's an added discipline.
Yes, this is my specialty andI'm going to want to hand this
off to somebody else who's goingto give you a better experience
and that goes back to the firstthing you said.

Speaker 2 (38:36):
That's doing a great job for your client?

Speaker 1 (38:38):
Yes, it's putting them in the right hands, and
then those people appreciatethat you're stepping away, them
in the right hands.
And then those peopleappreciate that you're stepping
away and they know it's businesstoo Right, so that you put
their needs in front of your own, so to speak.

Speaker 2 (38:50):
What I'd like to say to the residential agents really
quick is that you may sell 20houses a year, right, and some
of your let's just say 30% ofyour houses that sell they own a
business or a piece of propertyother than residential Right.
But we put hundreds of listingsup every year, right, and I
guarantee you every one of myclients has a house Right.

(39:12):
So the referral business goesboth ways.
Yes, it does.
I'm a professional commercialguy.
I do nothing with residential.
I know how it works.
I'm not really into residential.
So I would refer out all myresidential business, correct?
I may get three from you, youmay get seven or eight from me.
So it's going to go back andforth, correct?
I'm not going to put myself ina position to not help my client
the best I can, and referringit out is the best thing I can

(39:35):
do for my client.

Speaker 1 (39:36):
Perfect.
It's a good philosophy.
It's really fundamental If youalways put the client first, the
rest of the stuff takes care ofitself.
It does, yeah, it does.
So.
In this podcast, we always liketo maybe pivot a little bit to
the play side, the personal side, so I want to take this to the
next section.
Before I do, I just want toremind our audience if you like

(39:57):
the episode, if you like thepodcast going on, please
remember to like and subscribe.
Okay, love that.
So Tony, commercial real estatedeals.
I mean, obviously they'reintense.
You know the bigger numbers, um, you know so, um, a lot more
detail in them.
But when you're not working,how does Tony actually unwind?

Speaker 2 (40:18):
well, I'm a very big family man, so I love spending
time with my family.
There's nothing more that Iwant to do in life at my age
than spend time with my familyand my grandkids.
I just love it.

Speaker 1 (40:30):
How many kids do you have now?

Speaker 2 (40:31):
I have four boys and a girl and a boy.
Grandson and granddaughter Loveit, love it.
There's nothing better thanthat.
So as much time as I can spendwith them, I do.
But I love tennis, I loveracquetball.
I'm okay to pick a ball it's alittle too different for me and
I love to shoot pool.
So anytime I can get that in, Iwill.

Speaker 1 (40:54):
All right, I'm just going to make sure I hold on to
my wallet when I get near thatpool table.
I have a feeling we have ashark in the room.
Hold your wallet when you'replaying racquetball to my friend
.
Oh, you can do that too.
Yes, yes, all right.
All right, cool, all right.
What so?
What's one fun fact about tonythat people might not expect?

Speaker 2 (41:13):
I'm just really into.
Whatever my younger childrenare into, yeah, whether it's
playing video games with them or, you know, going out and
shooting basketball, whatever,whatever they like, I take a
very big interest into itbecause it's important.
When was the last time you sawa 63-year-old guy playing
Rubik's Cube?
My son's into it, so I want tobe into it.

(41:35):
I like to support them in whatthey love to do, to excel them.
If they're going to take aninterest in something, I try to
let them make sure that theinterest is going to go to the
point where they're going totake an interest in something.
I try to let them make surethat the interest is going to go
to the point where they'regoing to be famous.
You know I'm crazy like that,but I support in everything they
do and that's really cool to me.
Yeah, that's really cool.

Speaker 1 (41:51):
That's cool to me too .
Yeah, no, it really is I likethat I really do so you know
charity and giving back is a bigpart of you know, and CBC AMH
as we call it right, yes, arethere any causes or initiatives
that you're really passionateabout?

Speaker 2 (42:07):
I'm a cancer survivor so I do everything I can for
the cancer cause.
Yeah, there was a time in mylife where I would play Santa
for a week for cancer kids andstuff like that.
As fulfilling as it was, it wasvery sad.
That was very, very importantto me.
The heart of American Homesvery, very important to me and
uh, uh, the heart of americanhomes is very important to me
too, because it's going to helppeople that are really in need.

(42:30):
And, yeah, your company and uh,the, the heart of american
homes is really there for peopleand yeah, that's very emotional
.

Speaker 1 (42:37):
I, I like to, I like to help people that are in need
yeah, I, I, I like to saybecause I think it's accurate
the heart American Homes isreally our great agents because
they really rally around thatorganization and it's a true
foundation with 100% of moneyraised going back into the
community.
You know people of need, sowhat's an example of commercial

(42:57):
real estate project that had amajor positive impact on
community?

Speaker 2 (43:03):
I would say multifamily, you know, has more
impact on community thananything because it gives more
people places to live at a youknow, at a good price, depending
on where it's going to be.
The boroughs are very big forthat.
They knock down condemnedbuildings and build beautiful
places for Section 8, which is,you know, people who can't
afford it need a place to live,and it's important.

(43:24):
So I think apartment buildings.
Multifamily is definitely moreof an impact in commercial than
anything else.
I mean, no one's going to getexcited over an industrial
property that's producing icecream.

Speaker 1 (43:34):
I mean, nobody really cares about that, you know.

Speaker 2 (43:36):
Yeah, exactly, they care about people living and
going to a good school system.

Speaker 1 (43:40):
Although the warehouse does help support the
tax base.
Yes, of course, of course.

Speaker 2 (43:45):
But normal people don't feel that as an impact.
Yeah, you know the people thatthink about how much they're
paying in taxes and how much theproperties are absorbing.
The taxes are very few and farbetween.
So you know the word impactmeans more majority than not.
So I think the multifamilysector has really made more of

(44:05):
an impact on real estate.

Speaker 1 (44:06):
There we go.

Speaker 2 (44:07):
It's time for the drop the mic question.

Speaker 1 (44:11):
If you had to be locked inside a commercial
property overnight, whichproperty would it be and why I?

Speaker 2 (44:16):
would like to be locked in a gym.
I would go to the gym onlybecause I wouldn't have to wait
for a machine.
I can just do a circuit any wayI want and do it on my time
frame.
Yeah, and I could also gobehind the counter and make
myself a nice shake, and doeverything I possibly can.
So yeah, as crazy as thatsounds, I think a gym would be
great, all right, very cool.

Speaker 1 (44:36):
Well, tony, I really appreciate you taking the time
to be here on the Work Hard,play Hard and Give Back Real
Estate Podcast.
Yes, I'm blessed to be here.

Speaker 2 (44:43):
Thank you so much.

Speaker 1 (44:43):
We're really excited to see what you're doing and
what you've done already withthe commercial opportunity
that's there and its growth hasbeen exponential.
Thank you, it's very impressive.
I didn't do it myself, it's ateam effort yeah.
Well, we're looking forward tosee where you take this thing,
and I'm sure it's going to makea major impact across the
marketplace.

(45:04):
Yeah, I appreciate it very much, thank you.

Speaker 2 (45:05):
Thanks for having me Absolutely.

Speaker 1 (45:07):
Now.
If anyone in our audience wantsto either reach out to you with
a commercial opportunity, acommercial referral, how do they
reach Tony Berguglio?
Oh, beautiful there we go.

Speaker 2 (45:18):
Mr Litzner, you can call me my cell, which is
631-919-7492.
Okay, it's the simplest way Ialways answer my phone.
If I missed your call, I callyou back in 38 seconds.
Okay, we have a website.
Yes, it's cbcamhcom, that'sColdwell Banker Commercial

(45:41):
amhcom, so it's just abbreviatedcbcamhAMHcom.
We have about 60 or 70properties up there right now,
so you can look at them all andwe can help you with buying and
selling or leasing or gettingyou a tenant, whatever you need.

Speaker 1 (45:53):
Perfect, perfect.
All right, tony.
Thanks so much for being partof the show.
Thanks, mike, I appreciate it.
So remember, stay tuned.
New episodes come out every twoweeks on Wednesday.
Please like and subscribe.
We'd love to have your.
Advertise With Us

Popular Podcasts

Crime Junkie

Crime Junkie

Does hearing about a true crime case always leave you scouring the internet for the truth behind the story? Dive into your next mystery with Crime Junkie. Every Monday, join your host Ashley Flowers as she unravels all the details of infamous and underreported true crime cases with her best friend Brit Prawat. From cold cases to missing persons and heroes in our community who seek justice, Crime Junkie is your destination for theories and stories you won’t hear anywhere else. Whether you're a seasoned true crime enthusiast or new to the genre, you'll find yourself on the edge of your seat awaiting a new episode every Monday. If you can never get enough true crime... Congratulations, you’ve found your people. Follow to join a community of Crime Junkies! Crime Junkie is presented by audiochuck Media Company.

24/7 News: The Latest

24/7 News: The Latest

The latest news in 4 minutes updated every hour, every day.

Stuff You Should Know

Stuff You Should Know

If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.

Music, radio and podcasts, all free. Listen online or download the iHeart App.

Connect

© 2025 iHeartMedia, Inc.