Off-market prospecting in commercial real estate has long relied on volume: call enough owners, and some percentage will be ready to sell. In a market where the best assets are highly sought after and owners field pitches constantly, that scattershot approach is losing ground fast. But according to Dan Mosher, CEO and Co-Founder of DealGround, this approach is not just inefficient. It actively damages a broker’s credibility with the owners most worth reaching.
Why “Would You Like to Sell?” Is the Wrong Opening
Mosher describes a pattern he sees repeatedly among less experienced brokers: they obtain a list of property owners, identify buildings that look promising, and call with a generic pitch. The ask is open-ended, the caller demonstrates no knowledge of the property or the owner’s situation, and the result is predictable.
“Junior brokers that don’t have access to information may call these owners and say, would you like to sell your building?” Mosher says. “If they don’t offer insights, they may get hung up on.”
The problem is not cold calling itself. It is cold calling without preparation. A property owner who has held multiple assets for a decade, navigated lease renewals, managed debt, and built a portfolio across multiple LLCs is not going to respond to a broker who knows nothing about his portfolio. The call signals immediately that the broker has not done the work, and the owner ends the conversation.
Mosher contrasts this with what he calls “smart prospecting,” outreach in which the broker arrives already knowing when the owner acquired the property, what they paid, what debt they carry, who the tenants are, what rents are being collected, when leases expire, and whether the owner holds other assets.
“Those brokers will have an intelligent conversation with that owner to demonstrate their knowledge of the area, to demonstrate their knowledge of their property and the owner’s situation,” Mosher says.
Reading the Signals That Owners Haven’t Announced
The most valuable prospecting conversations happen when a broker can identify timing signals suggesting an owner may be approaching a decision point, even if the owner has not listed the property or indicated any intention to sell.
One significant signal, according to Mosher, is loan maturity. A property owner who financed an asset at 3.5% and faces refinancing in 2027 at projected rates of 6.5% or higher is in a materially different position than when they took out the original loan. A broker who can surface that information and reference it in conversation is not making a cold call. They are offering a relevant observation at a moment when the owner may already be weighing options.
“Those types of signals are what we drive for off-market deals to get those kind of deals started,” Mosher says.
Mosher also points to lease expiration timelines as a prospecting trigger. A tenant whose lease ends in three years represents an uncertainty for the owner. A broker who demonstrates awareness of that timeline, and what it might mean for the property’s value, is positioned for a substantively different conversation than one who is simply asking if the owner wants to sell.
How One 7-Eleven Listing Became Two
Mosher describes a case that illustrates how data-informed prospecting generates opportunities that volume-based calling would never surface. A broker with a 7-Eleven listing was calling other 7-Eleven owners in the surrounding area, both to gauge interest in the listing and to prospect for additional assignments. One owner declined interest in the listed property but, struck by the broker’s evident knowledge of the market and of the owner’s own portfolio, volunteered information the broker had not asked for.
“I don’t want to sell that one that you asked me about, but I have this other one 100 miles away that I was thinking about selling,” the owner told the broker, according to Mosher. “I’ve got a business partner. I want to terminate that relationship and just exit out of these assets that we own jointly.”
The listing that resulted came not from the broker’s direct ask but from the quality of the exchange. The owner responded to the broker’s demonstrated competence by offering an opportunity that was not the driver of the broker’s call.
“The intelligence of the conversation led the broker to have a good conversation with the owner who then gave them an opportunity,” Mosher says. “Brokers on DealGround generate these opportunities frequently.”
DealGround’s Ownership Intelligence for Prospecting Conversations
DealGround’s platform is designed to equip brokers for this kind of conversation. Beyond basic ownership identification, the system surfaces information about family members associated with an LLC, the officers of the registered agent entity, notes that may include property history, and in some cases the age of the owner. These details help a broker understand not just who owns a property, but who is making decisions about it.
“I can see who their family members are. I can see the officers of their entity. I can see notes which sometimes has a history of the property,” Mosher says. “There’s a lot of really rich information in the ownership record that gives them those extra little tidbits to have the conversation.”
Mosher says brokers use this data to identify decision-makers within ownership structures. A registered agent filing that lists a spouse, for example, gives the broker a basis to ask who is driving the decision, a question that can save weeks of back-and-forth with the wrong contact.
For an industry where off-market transactions begin with a single phone call, the distinction between a prepared call and an unprepared one shows up directly in listings won. The 7-Eleven example is one case; Mosher says similar outcomes recur whenever a broker arrives at a conversation with enough context to move past the generic ask and into a discussion the owner finds worth having.
About DealGround: DealGround is an AI-powered intelligence command center that helps commercial real estate professionals prospect smarter. The platform brings together property intelligence, ownership research, and comp data to help brokers generate qualified leads and move faster from prospecting to closed deals. For more information, visit www.dealground.com.
