Today we’d like to introduce you to Grant Pruitt.
Grant, can you briefly walk us through your story – how you started and how you got to where you are today.
I was successful at one of the largest real estate companies in the world, and I started to feel a shift in the industry. The players were getting larger, and Wall Street was driving the decision making. The bigger the company and the more mouths that needed to be fed, the larger the prospective client needed to be.
The players were publicly traded, wanted to be public, or they had publicly traded debt. As such, they needed sustainable revenue flows as well. The real estate companies that started in brokerage were moving away from broker-led brokerage because Wall Street deems it risky, unsustainable, and with a very low surety of a close/transaction consummation.
As such the large player were moving to large multi-year contract with Fortune 200 corporations. They were pushing out the brokers and turning them more to order fillers than true “outsourced real estate departments” and visionaries. There was also a huge shift to move to what Wall Street deemed sustainable revenue streams (facilities management, project management, etc.).
Most companies in the business are not Fortune 200 companies. We are the broker’s brokerage firm for all the companies not in the Fortune 200. This company is privately held, so we are not beholden to Wall Street and we are comfortable with the risk profile. We started this company to be different and to take up the slack that our competition is leaving.
Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
Anyone who claims to start a business is a smooth road is not telling the whole truth. Of course. When you first start, you have to worry about things like copy machines, paper, pens, coffee. It sounds simple, but it is a real issue. Most people don’t realize that a copy machine company won’t just sell a copy machine to anyone. They actually check your credit.
Then your prospect like crazy and get a meeting, but you soon realize you have no material to take to the presentation. My wife, Employee #1, and I made many trips to Office Depot. Then you have to start hiring a sales team. Then you need support staff.
The book “The E-Myth” is an excellent book for an entrepreneur to read. It is a challenge for any entrepreneur to transition from the role of the “technician” to the “manager.’
Please tell us about Whitebox Real Estate.
Whitebox Real Estate which is a tenant-focused real estate advisory, investment sales, and development firm. Simply put, we specialize in helping companies to develop and implement solutions for their office and warehouse needs (lease or purchase). We are full service and provide site selection, financial analysis, demographic studies, efficiency analysis, portfolio administration, strategic evaluation, LOI and lease negotiation, as well as construction and move management services.
We don’t represent Landlords, so we don’t have any conflicts. We have helped numerous companies to minimize their real estate costs, while increasing their efficiency, resulting in money saved, revenue added, and productivity increase.
Furthermore, people often think that the time to review a lease a year or two out, but you are really leaving a lot on the table. Whitebox has a program and a schedule over the life of a lease that outlines the steps that should be taken, the things that should be done, and the information that you should always have at your fingertips over the course of a lease. There are some resources that are always available that you may not even be aware of.
• Real Estate is our CORE business
• We save you TIME
• We understand the LEASE
• We have the in-depth market knowledge and can leverage the BEST POSSIBLE DEAL
• We work for you and cost you NOTHING
WHY HIRE US?
Whitebox was developed out of concern for the loss of client attentiveness in the commercial real estate industry.
– Tenant-focused
– In-house project management
– Turnkey solution to our clients
– No conflicts of interest
– Unparalleled service, nimbleness and flexibility
– Detailed negotiation of Letter of Intent
– Complete transparency
– Business point lease review
I am most proud to be part of the amazing team that I work with.
If you had to go back in time and start over, would you have done anything differently?
Hindsight is always 20/20, but I am not sure I would change things. The reason is, you hear entrepreneurs say all the time that if they fail, they want to fail fast. I very often learn more through failures and trial and error than I do from my wins. I would probably not have stressed as much and been more patient, but that is much easier said than done.
Contact Info:
- Address: 400 S. Record Street Suite 825 Dallas, TX 75202
- Website: www.whiteboxrealestate.com
- Phone: 214-380-4540
- Email: contact@whiteboxrealestate.com
- Instagram: whiteboxre
- Facebook: www.facebook.com/WhiteboxRealEstate/
- Twitter: @WhiteboxRE
- Other: www.linkedin.com/company/whitebox-real-estate-llc/
Getting in touch: VoyageDallas is built on recommendations from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you know someone who deserves recognition please let us know here.
