What is a commercial real estate broker and what do they do?
A commercial real estate broker is a licensed intermediary who negotiates leases and sales of income-producing property on behalf of tenants, landlords, buyers, or sellers. Brokers specialize by asset class, industrial, office, retail, or capital markets, because deal structures and buyer profiles differ sharply across each. CoStar is the industry-standard data layer for comps, ownership, and market reports. Modern brokers layer occupier intelligence on top: tools like Scayled map the businesses already occupying a precinct and surface the verified decision-maker at each, so outreach opens on a specific operational context rather than a generic pitch.
- The four roles a commercial broker can hold
- How commercial brokers are paid
- Asset-class specialization and why it matters
- Where CoStar and standard data tools stop
- How modern commercial brokers prospect with occupier intelligence
The four roles a commercial broker can hold
Tenant representation brokers work exclusively for occupiers. They identify space options, run the market process, and negotiate lease terms on the tenant's side. Their fee is typically paid by the landlord out of the commission pool, which means the tenant pays nothing directly and the broker's incentive is aligned with securing the best terms for the occupier.
Landlord representation brokers work for property owners, marketing vacant space and managing the leasing process to fill it. Investment sales brokers operate on the capital side, selling buildings rather than leasing space, and typically represent either the seller or, more rarely, the buyer. Some brokers hold both a leasing and a capital markets practice, though most pick one lane and go deep in it.
How commercial brokers are paid
On leasing transactions, commission is most commonly calculated as a percentage of the total lease value or of first-year rent, paid by the landlord at signing. On investment sales, commission is a percentage of the sale price, also typically paid by the seller. Rates vary by market, asset class, and deal size, and are always negotiable, but the structure is the same: payment on completion, not on effort.
When both a tenant-rep and a landlord-rep broker are involved in a leasing deal, the listing-side commission is split between them. Tenant-rep brokers rarely charge the occupier directly, though some advisory practices bill a flat fee for complex multi-market portfolio assignments. The broker earns nothing if the deal does not close, which concentrates their attention on transactions with a real path to signing.
Asset-class specialization and why it matters
Industrial brokers deal in logistics warehouses, manufacturing facilities, and last-mile distribution. The key variables are clear height, dock door count, trailer parking, hardstand area, and proximity to intermodal infrastructure. Office brokers deal in multi-tenanted towers, suburban campuses, and flex space; the variables are floor plate efficiency, amenity, transit access, and lease flexibility. Retail brokers focus on high-street, neighborhood centers, and power centers, where foot traffic and co-tenancy drive value.
Capital markets brokers trade the buildings themselves rather than the occupancy within them. The buyer set is REITs, pension funds, family offices, and private syndicates; the diligence is financial rather than operational. Specializing means owning a buyer and tenant call list deep enough that a broker can say with confidence who will move in a given market before anyone else does.
Where CoStar and standard data tools stop
CoStar is the benchmark for property data: ownership records, lease comps, vacancy by submarket, and building specs. What it does not contain is the identity and contact of the operations or real estate decision-maker inside each tenanted building. A CoStar search returns a building owner, not the head of supply chain at the 3PL occupying the warehouse. Reonomy and Apollo fill some of the gap on company and contact data, but neither links a named occupier to a specific address with a verified decision-maker and the lease context to open a relevant conversation.
That gap is where occupier intelligence tools sit. Scayled maps the businesses surrounding any address or recent deal and returns the verified decision-maker at each, so the broker arrives with a specific operational-fit thesis rather than a cold introduction. It sits alongside CoStar rather than replacing it: CoStar for the building data, Scayled for the named contact inside the building next door.
How modern commercial brokers prospect with occupier intelligence
The most productive prospecting system in commercial brokerage anchors on something real: a just-signed tenant, a just-sold building, a requirement in hand. From that anchor a broker maps the surrounding occupiers, because the next tenant for a vacancy is often an operator already nearby who has outgrown its box or is approaching a lease event. Reaching that operator before the requirement goes public is the operational-fit advantage.
Scayled is built for that workflow. From any address, its Neighbour Scan returns surrounding occupiers with verified decision-makers and drafted outreach; Target Scan builds a prospect set for a specific requirement; and fortnightly Movement Signals flag contract wins, expansions, and senior supply-chain hires before a formal requirement appears. Access is by request, and the first three occupier requirements are free, judged on live conversations in your own market.
Three free requirements
Request access and Scayled delivers your first three occupier requirements free: real businesses in your market showing movement signals, with the verified decision-maker for each. See what your submarket is hiding before you pay anything.
Claim Three Free Requirements →