If you have been sitting on the sidelines, now is the time to get back in the game, according to Robert Johnston of Levin Johnston at Marcus & Millichap. At the end of 2020 and in early 2021, investors have ramped up investment activity. Over the last several months, Johnston's team has closed $160 million in deals, illustrating the increasing interest in deal activity. Investors still on the sidelines are potentially missing opportunity.

"Now is the time to start thinking about investing again. During the fourth quarter of 2020 and in the first quarter of 2021 we have directed a combined total of more than $160 million in transactions, which indicates that investors are looking for deals in the western U.S. and the Bay Area in particular," Johnston, a senior managing director at the firm, tells GlobeSt.com.

Investment activity has paralleled coronavirus transmission rates through the pandemic, and as vaccines are distributed, investors are showing a renewed confidence. "All signs point to the pandemic subsiding as COVID case numbers are plummeting and people are increasingly getting vaccinated. That means we are closer to the country opening up fully again, which is very good for commercial real estate. It's better to be ready to strike when the time is right than to be behind the eight ball and not prepared when a good deal comes along," says Johnston.