WASHINGTON, DC-This is the textbook version of how a commercialreal estate transaction gets done: Buyer meets seller, via abroker. Buyer and seller are likely to be either 1) REITs, 2)institutional investors, or 3) savvy private equity fund. Variousadvisers descend to make sure each party gets what it wants fromthe transaction. Everyone goes home happy.

To be sure, many transactions do follow that particular storyline, but the audience at a panel held at NAIOP'sconference, Development '12, this week, "AttractingCapital Outside of Major Markets," did not hear of many. Instead,they heard of such tactics as melding broken toilet parts intoparking lot materials to saving on remediation costs, cold callingcorporates directly to see if they had real estate to sell, andclosing on transactions in the worst of the worst markets—i.e.Arizona.

If all this sounds little outr