In this week’s CRE Elite, we visit Arizona and talk to Ari Spiro, President of Orion Investment Real Estate in Scottsdale. Ari has been involved in the real estate industry for nearly 20 years and has been a party over a billion dollars in total transactions. Ari is an interesting guest in that he actually switched from an established firm and founded his boutique firm with only two brokers at the time. He’s helped it grow to over 20 today.

Ari’s got experience in commercial property management, leasing, and investment sales, has been cited in countless print publications, has appeared as a panelist at numerous conferences and is actively involved with ICSC. Ari is also committed to his local chapter of ICSC and serves on its Planning Action Committee where he has co-chaired several committees.

During the course of our talk I ask Ari about his decision to start his own firm, we get into a number of great pieces of advice for newer brokers, we discuss an extremely effective marketing tool Orion has implemented, Ari promotes the importance of developing long term relationships and he also stresses the unfortunately lost art of collaboration with other brokers. I really loved this talk and the amount of value and resources Ari presents – enjoy!

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Here’s What You’ll Discover

• The importance of recognizing your strengths and interests (commercial vs. residential)
• How and why Ari started his own firm
• Ari’s failures are simply regrettable missed opportunities
• How to use a “news aggregator” as a mass media marketing piece to build your brand
• Why Ari is cautious about counting on referrals
• Why Ari tees up DRAFT emails from home… and blasts away in the AM
• Why Ari’s firm promotes cooperative brokerage – working with the competition

Mentions & Resources

• From Good to Great: by Jim Collins
• FiveThirtyEight.com
• “I killed my sale!” – Tommy Boy

Advice & Quotes

• Quantify the problem and work it
• “You know a lot more than you think you do” – trust your abilities and industry knowledge
• “Make the call” – you have nothing to lose
• “It’s dangerous to rely to heavily on referrals” – it’s something someone else didn’t want to work on
• “Patience is something we all need to work on in this business”
• Every call is a potential “lottery ticket”
• “You’re building a career” – Ari’s best advice for young brokers

 Connect with Ari Spiro

  – Check out Ari’s full bio here

  – Call Ari at 480-634-6934