Part of being a successful business owner is knowing when you can handle things on your own and when you need to hire some outside help. You may be the head of the Toronto cabinet makers union and have won awards for your woodworking, but that doesn't mean you know anything about buying commercial real estate. Yet you need an office space and a workshop. So your best bet is to hire a commercial real estate agent to help you. Here are some of the things a commercial agent will do for you.

Commercial real estate agents have been working with Ontario commercial real estate for a long time, and therefore will have a pretty good idea of what kind of a space you need even if all you know is what you need to do in it. You can give your commercial real estate agent a list of requirements (for example, space for cabinet making, price, a front office, near a certain neighborhood) and the agent will know the types of space they need to show you.

You can always browse the listings for real estate in Richmond yourself, of course, but there's no guarantee that everything on the market has actually made it to the list. Commercial real estate agents are plugged into a network of other agents, so they know when someone had just landed the contract to sell a new property before that agent has a chance to do up the listing and advertise it. As a result, you could get a jump on that property over other business owners.

Commercial real estate agents are also familiar with zoning issues and the future plans of the land around the property you're considering, which can help keep you from making a big mistake. You don't want to set up a language school in Canada only to have a big smelly factory move in next door after a year. Likewise you don't want to get in trouble with the city for buying a property in an area that's not zoned for the type of activity you do. Agents can give you advice on this.

And then of course, there are the negotiations. Even if you're a Canadian architect who is used to haggling over the price of supplies, you may not have the insider knowledge to tell what would make a good bargaining chip and help you get the property for less. Agents handle not only all the paperwork and legwork of the real estate search, leaving you free to run your business, but they'll also help you get it as cheaply as possible.