IRVINE, CA-Buyers and sellers may be suffering from a lack of broker cooperation, but this is beginning to change as more data is being shared. Kevin Maggiacomo, president of Sperry Van Ness International, tells GlobeSt.com that there's a sea change coming to commercial real estate that will benefit both buyers and sellers. For more information on these changes, view the SVN Difference Animated Video and an even more in-depth interview with Maggiacomo at the recent RealComm conference.

GlobeSt.com: What can you tell me about data sharing in the industry?

Kevin Maggiacomo: There's a new sense of innovation in CRE like never before, and we're on the brink—in my opinion—of CRE experiencing the same level of meaningful change that other, more efficient industries have undergone. Some change is coming from within the industry, but most is being inspired by non-CRE industry thought leaders. The basic theme running through most of these change agents is in bringing transparency to CRE data/information in a way which causes the CRE consumer to benefit similar to the ways in which the residential real estate consumer benefits from the transparency of the data found on Zillow, Realtor.com, etc.

Transparency is fundamentally about opportunity. Transparency pushes efficiency, and this is coming to CRE. It's only a matter of time.

GlobeSt.com: Please explain Sperry Van Ness's policy on data sharing. How is this different from other firms in the industry?

K.M.: Simply put, we have a hyper-focus on transparency on both the sales and leasing sides of the business. As to investment sales, there is little to no fee sharing within our industry, and that's a big problem for sellers. There's almost no broker cooperation, and the overwhelming majority of category transactions are double-ended. Makes one wonder whose interests are being served: the broker, who receives 4% of the fee if he identifies a buyer on his own, vs. 2% if he works with another broker/buyer; or the owner, who may be missing out on offers from buyers represented by other brokers. Now, this isn't an indictment of the brokerage community—I'm one of them—this is just the way the industry is set up.

At SVN, we proactively cooperate with the entire industry distribution channel (the brokerage community) buy immediately syndicating all of our listings to nine different CRE listing portals, sharing our gross fees 50%/50% with cooperating brokers 100% of the time as a matter of policy.

GlobeSt.com: How does the data-sharing policy fit into the firm's broader strategies and philosophy?

K.M.: Democratizing and liberating CRE data is part of what gets me out of bed in the morning. Making the otherwise dysfunctional CRE industry more efficient while putting our clients' interests first is our philosophy. Bringing transparency to an otherwise opaque marketplace—at least on the investment-sales side—is fueling our growth while modernizing the industry. This isn't just “doing well by doing good”; this is a strategy inherent in most industries in the new economy.

And it's working. SVN isn't the largest firm on the planet. Sellers list with us because our marketing platform and collaborative ethos resonates with them, and they chose us as a result. We're on the heels of the best year SVN had experienced from a KPI perspective, and we're on base to exceed those production levels in 2013. We attract forward-thinking CRE advisors to SVN not because of our size, but because of the point of differentiation which exists here. Brokers join us to offer a product that is very dissimilar to their competitors', and this gives them the opportunity to win more assignments while simultaneously better serving their clients.