Steve Bell | Managing Director | The Commercial Property Experts

Why we built TCPE

Most commercial agents are not doing what you think they're doing.

I started in residential property. I trained under some of the best agents and coaches in the industry — people who took marketing seriously, who studied what worked, who treated every instruction as a problem to solve rather than a listing to upload.

When I moved into commercial property and business brokerage, I expected the same standards. What I found was significantly worse.

Many commercial agents are not solely focused on commercial agency. They're doing mortgage valuations, surveys, management work, and a dozen other things on the side. Commercial instructions get treated as one item on a long list. The result is that enquiries go unanswered for weeks. Properties sit on the market for months — sometimes years — while the agent tells the landlord it's a market problem.

Most of the time, it isn't a market problem. It's a marketing problem.

I know this because I've taken on instructions that other agents had been 'marketing' for years. The experience that shaped everything that followed involved a property that had been on the market for three years. The landlord had been told the price was right. The market was to blame. Every agent agreed.

We repositioned it. We ran a Commercial Showcase Viewing. Forty people came through in one day. More than half made offers. We sold it for more than the previous agent had been asking.

Three years of nothing. Resolved in weeks. That's not magic. That's marketing. And it's what landlords should be getting from their agent every time.

The cost nobody talks about

An empty commercial unit costs more than you think. And not just the landlord.

Most landlords think about the rent they're not receiving. That's the obvious cost. There are others — and they compound the longer the void continues.

Lost rent

The obvious cost — but often the smallest part

The rent that isn't coming in. Visible, measurable, but just the beginning.

Rates and insurance

Costs that run regardless

Business rates, insurance, security and maintenance don't stop because there's no tenant.

Asset value

Every month vacant reduces what the property is worth

Prolonged voids change how the market perceives the property — and the terms it will accept.

Beyond the direct financial cost, an empty unit doesn't have a business. A business employs people, pays wages, generates tax. It buys from other local businesses. It creates the economic activity that keeps a location viable.

Walk down any commercial parade and count the empty units. One is unfortunate. Two is a concern. Three or more, and people start to write the area off. That perception spreads — footfall drops, and the businesses that are there start wondering whether they're in the right place.

This is Vacancy Drag. It's why commercial property marketing isn't just a landlord issue. It's a wider economic one. It's also why I take it seriously when an agent tells a landlord a property 'just hasn't found the right buyer yet.' After a certain point, that isn't a market observation. It's an admission that the marketing hasn't worked.

Five things I've learned in 25 years

What I believe — and what it means for how we work.

These are not company values statements. They're the things I've found to be true, repeatedly, over a career in property.

Listing a property is not the same as marketing it.

Uploading to Rightmove takes twenty minutes. Marketing takes strategy, effort, and the willingness to do things most agents won't bother with. The gap between the two is where most commercial instructions fail.

If a property isn't moving, something is wrong — and it's almost never just the market.

The market is the same market for every property. Some sell. Some let. The ones that don't have a pricing problem, a marketing problem, an agent problem, or some combination of the three. Finding out which requires honesty — from the agent and from the owner.

Commercial agents who aren't solely focused on commercial agency are doing their clients a disservice.

I've seen what happens when a commercial instruction is one of twenty things an agent is juggling. Enquiries go unanswered. Viewing feedback isn't gathered. The marketing sits static for months. Landlords deserve agents who treat commercial property as their entire business — not a sideline.

The best residential marketing techniques have barely reached commercial property.

The Showcase Viewing that generated forty viewings in a single session on a property that had sat for three years? That's a standard residential open house. Commercial agents had never seen it. There's an enormous amount the commercial market could learn from residential — and largely hasn't.

Ongoing learning is not optional if you want to do this properly.

When I was in residential, I followed the leading trainers and coaches in the industry because I wanted to be better at the job. When I moved to commercial, the gap was even wider. The agents who take this seriously — who study it, who improve deliberately — are a small minority. They should be the standard.

The instruction that shaped everything since

Three years. No offers. Then forty viewings in a single afternoon.

The property had been on the market for three years. Three agents. Repeated valuations. Every one told the landlord the price was correct. Every one said it was a market problem. The landlord had no reason to believe otherwise — because everyone he asked agreed.

When I took the instruction on, I didn't start by changing the price. I started by looking at what had actually been done to market the property. The answer, when you cut through the activity reports, was very little.

The property had been listed. It had sat on the portals. Enquiries had come in slowly and been handled slowly. There was no structured approach to reaching the pool of potential buyers who weren't browsing Rightmove. There had been no sense of event, no urgency, no reason for anyone to act.

We repositioned the property. We identified the right buyers — businesses, investors, and developers operating in that area. We contacted them directly. Then we ran a Commercial Showcase Viewing.

People through in a single session. More than half made offers.

We sold the property for more than the previous agent had been asking. I'm not telling this story to be impressive. I'm telling it because it illustrates something fundamental: the property was never the problem. The marketing was the problem. And the marketing was the problem because the agents involved weren't focused on solving it.

That experience is why The Commercial Property Experts exists.

How I got here

25 years. One discipline.

Early career

Residential agency

Learning from the best trainers and coaches in the industry — and noticing how few colleagues did the same.

2000

Commercial property

Moved into commercial property and business brokerage — and discovered that even average residential agents were operating at a higher standard than many commercial agents.

Mid-career

The Showcase Viewing

A three-year instruction resolved in weeks using a method commercial property had never seen. The Commercial Showcase Viewing was born.

2025

The Commercial Property Experts

Founded a national network of self-employed commercial agents who do commercial property and nothing else.

Published author

The Loyalty Lie

I wrote this book for commercial agents who already know something is wrong. The ones who are top billers in their offices, who carry the team, train the juniors, and close the deals — and still find themselves managed like a trainee, capped by a commission structure that punishes success more than it rewards it.

The Loyalty Lie is a straight-talking breakdown of how the traditional agency model really works. Where it traps people. Why the most talented agents often earn the least freedom. And what is possible on the other side, when you stop waiting for a promotion that never comes and start backing yourself instead.

It is not a motivational fluff piece. There are no empty mantras or LinkedIn-style selfies with buzzwords. Just an honest account of what I experienced inside the corporate agency world, and what I built when I decided the system was not going to change — so I would have to.

Buy on Amazon → Get the first two chapters free →

Available on Amazon

What others are saying

Toby Martin is one of the most respected trainers in the UK estate agency industry. Here is his review of The Loyalty Lie.

Working with me

A strategy call is the best place to start.

If your commercial property isn't moving — or you want to make sure it does before it goes to market — a 30-minute strategy call is the right starting point.

It's a proper review of your property, its history, and what needs to change. No obligation. No sales pitch. If I can help, I'll tell you how. If I can't, I'll tell you that too.

Book a strategy call Why isn't it moving? →

We've been selling and letting commercial property since 2000. In that time, we've learned that most of the industry is doing it wrong.