Commercial Brokers should be very careful about permitting their residential agents to do Commercial transactions. As a Director of Commercial Real Estate for two different National Brokerages I have witnessed several instances where the lack of experience and knowledge has resulted in agents and Brokerages being sued by clients who have lost buildings or bought buildings that have turned out to be unsuitable for the intended use. A complete understanding of all zoning regulations, commercial financing, environmental conditions both past and present and a complete undrstanding of a commercial contract, which many times has to be written by the buyer's agent, is absolutely necessary.
The residential agent involved usually views the normally larger commission and wants to complete the transaction. But it would be prudent on the Broker's part to intervene and have a policy that residential agents must take commercial courses and, or work with an experienced commercial agent for several transactions before allowing them to proceed on there own.
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