You generate commercial real estate leads by finding owners who may sell or lease, and businesses that will need space, before they pick a broker. A lead is a person or company with a reason to act soon: an owner weighing a sale, a tenant whose lease ends next year, an investor looking for a building. A name with no such reason is a prospect, and it stays on your list until one appears.
Most commercial leads come from four places:
- Your own contacts. Past clients, old inquiries and the brokers you have shared deals with. A contact who passed two years ago may have a new need today.
- Public records. Deeds and title registers name the owner of each building, and business filings show the companies forming in your market.
- Referrals. Lawyers, accountants and lenders often hear first that a client plans to move, expand or sell.
- Inquiries. Listing sites, your website, an offering memorandum and a sign on the building bring buyers and tenants who call you.
Each kind of lead shows a different signal, and you look for it in a different place:
| Lead | Signal that they may act | Where to look |
|---|---|---|
| Owner who may sell | Long ownership, a loan coming due, empty space | Deeds, title registers, the building itself |
| Owner who needs a tenant | Vacancy or a lease ending | Listing sites, the leasing sign, the owner's manager |
| Business that needs space | A new registration, hiring, an expiring lease | Business formation data, company news |
| Investor who wants to buy | A recent sale, a fund raising money | Recorded deeds, trade press, past buyers |
Most brokers pick one property type and one side of the deal, then repeat the same steps every week. The brokerage guide lists the habits brokers use to find clients. Getting listings from owners is the task brokers themselves rate highest, as what commercial real estate brokers do shows.
A bought list saves research time. The same names go to every other buyer of the list, and some of its phone numbers and emails will be out of date. Before you pay, ask the vendor where each contact came from and how often it refreshes them. The calling and email rules further down apply to every name you contact, whoever compiled the list.
New and growing businesses are tomorrow's tenants, and the US Census Bureau counts new ones every month. Its Business Formation Statistics track applications for an Employer Identification Number (EIN), the 9-digit number the IRS assigns to entities for tax purposes (Census Bureau, BFS definitions). A high-propensity application is one with a high chance of becoming a business with payroll. It comes from a corporation, plans to hire, gives a first wages date, or sits in one of a set list of industries (Census Bureau, BFS definitions).
In September 2026, Americans filed 534,947 business applications (FRED, business applications). The chart shows how that pace compares with the years before 2020.
Source: U.S. Census Bureau, Business Formation Statistics: business applications (BABATOTALSAUS) and high-propensity business applications (BAHBATOTALSAUS), monthly, seasonally adjusted, January 2015 to September 2026, via FRED.
The September 2026 count runs about 82% above the 2019 monthly average, and the high-propensity count about 34% above it (FRED, high-propensity applications). The national count tells you that new tenants keep arriving. To reach them, search your state or province's business registry for new filings in your area, then follow the ones that hire.
A tenant moves or renegotiates when its business changes. Watch for these signals:
- A lease that ends in the next one to two years
- New hires, a funding round or a large contract
- A merger, an acquisition or a new location announced
- A building sale, which can bring a new landlord and new terms
When you represent the tenant, the landlord usually pays your commission, as who pays commission in a commercial real estate deal explains. The tenant representative's role on a lease shows the work that follows the first call.
The deed or the title register names the owner of every building, and the county recorder in the US or the provincial land registry in Canada keeps it. Owners of commercial property are the source of listings, so this search is the first step of most prospecting.
In Cook County, Illinois, "Recorded land records can be retrieved by searching for PIN, grantor, grantee, and by other indexed detail" (Cook County Clerk, recordings). The grantee on the latest deed is the buyer, so that name is the current owner. In British Columbia, you order a copy of the title from the Land Title and Survey Authority, for a fee (LTSA, title search). The title "lists the registered fee simple holder(s) (the owners)", and it "will not include a phone number" (LTSA, title search).
The search runs in four steps:
- Find the parcel number from the street address, in the assessor's or the city's online map.
- Search the recorder or the land registry by that number, and read the latest deed or title.
- When the owner is a company, look it up in the business registry where it was formed, to see who runs it.
- Find a phone number or an email through the company's website or a data service, then check the rules below before you call or write.
Many investors hold each building in its own company, so expect step 3 often. Paid data services join these records for you, and they draw on the same public filings.
Do-not-call rules in both countries leave out most calls to a business line, while anti-spam laws in both countries cover commercial email sent to a business. A broker who calls a company's office line faces fewer rules than one who emails it.
| Outreach | United States | Canada |
|---|---|---|
| Call to a business line | Most calls to a business are exempt from the FTC's Telemarketing Sales Rule | The National Do Not Call List Rules do not apply |
| Call to a personal line used for business | The national registry covers personal numbers | The National Do Not Call List Rules do not apply |
| Call to a home line | The National Do Not Call Registry applies | The National Do Not Call List applies |
| Commercial email to a business | CAN-SPAM applies in full | CASL applies: consent, express or implied |
In the US, the National Do Not Call Registry "is for personal phone numbers. Business phone numbers and fax lines are not covered" (FTC, Do Not Call FAQs). The FTC adds that "Most phone calls between a telemarketer and a business are exempt from the TSR" (FTC, Telemarketing Sales Rule). Many owners of small buildings answer on a personal cell phone, and the registry covers that number.
In Canada, the National Do Not Call List Rules do not apply to calls made to businesses, "including telemarketing calls made to any personal telephone number also used for business purposes" (National Do Not Call List). Calls to consumers are another matter. In a 2015 advisory, the CRTC said a real estate agent who "calls consumers directly to promote your business" makes telemarketing calls, and must register with the National Do Not Call List (CRTC, advisory to real estate agents). A violation can cost an individual up to $1,500 and a corporation up to $15,000 (Telecommunications Act, s. 72.01).
Yes. The FTC states that "The law makes no exception for business-to-business email" (FTC, CAN-SPAM guide). Every commercial email you send to an owner or a tenant has to meet the Act:
- Accurate "From" and routing information, and a subject line that tells the truth
- Your valid physical postal address
- A clear way to opt out, and opt-outs honoured within 10 business days
All three come from the same FTC guide, which also notes that "Each separate email in violation of the CAN-SPAM Act is subject to penalties of up to $53,088" (FTC, CAN-SPAM penalties).
Canada's Anti-Spam Legislation (CASL) prohibits sending a commercial electronic message unless the recipient "has consented to receiving it, whether the consent is express or implied" (CASL, section 6). The message also has to identify the sender and give a way to unsubscribe. For prospecting, the useful case is implied consent. The law implies it when the person has "conspicuously published" the address with no statement refusing commercial messages, and "the message is relevant to the person's business, role, functions or duties" (CASL, section 10).
An email to a property manager whose address sits on the building's website, about leasing that building, fits that case. A bulk email to every address on a bought list does not.
Take a campaign of 200 cold emails sent with no opt-out link. The amounts below are legal maximums, and a regulator sets the actual penalty case by case.
| United States (CAN-SPAM) | Canada (CASL) | |
|---|---|---|
| Maximum per violation | $53,088 per email | $10,000,000 for a company |
| Emails in the campaign | 200 | 200 |
| Theoretical maximum | $10,617,600 | $10,000,000 per violation |
Under CASL, the maximum penalty for a violation is "$1,000,000 in the case of an individual, and $10,000,000 in the case of any other person" (CASL, section 20). The cheap fix is the same in both countries: a postal address, an opt-out link that works, and a list you built from people who published their address for business.
The common mistakes are treating every name as a lead, assuming business email is exempt from anti-spam law, and assuming the do-not-call rules never touch a commercial broker.
A list of owners is a list of prospects. A name becomes a lead when you see a reason for that owner to act: a vacancy, a loan coming due, a sale nearby. Rank your list by those signals and call the top of it first.
The FTC's words are plain: CAN-SPAM "makes no exception for business-to-business email" (FTC, CAN-SPAM compliance guide). CASL also covers email to a business, and it adds a consent test the US law lacks.
Calls to a company's office line are mostly outside them. A building owner reached at home is a consumer, and in Canada the CRTC treats an agent's call to a consumer as telemarketing (CRTC, enforcement advisory). Check each number before you dial it. If you are new to the field, the commercial real estate careers guide covers the licence you hold before you call anyone.