A client comes to you with a plan. He wants to develop a mini storage facility in the Brighton area, and he's ready to move forward with a ground-up build. That's the job, right? Help him find land, work through entitlements, get the project moving.
But sometimes the better deal shows up while you're still working on the original plan.
That's exactly what happened with Ethan Whitesell and John Porth of Thomas Duke Company earlier this year. While their client was in the early stages of planning a new storage development, an existing storage facility in Brighton came up for sale. Ethan brought it to his client right away.
It wasn't part of the original plan. The client had come in ready to build. But the opportunity was too good to pass up without at least considering it.
So Ethan and John walked him through what buying an existing, cash-flowing facility could mean compared to building one from scratch. No permitting delays. No construction timeline. No development risk. Just a performing asset, ready to go, at numbers that made sense.
The client agreed. They moved fast, got the property under contract, and closed the deal.
It's a reminder that good brokerage isn't just about finding what a client is looking for. Sometimes it's about recognizing when there's a better option, even if it means changing direction from the original plan. Ethan and John didn't just execute a search. They gave their client the full picture and let him make the call with real information in front of him.
That's the difference between filling an order and actually advising a client.
If you're evaluating a development project, or wondering whether buying might make more sense than building, it's worth having that conversation before you commit to a plan. We're happy to help you think it through.