Columbus Living interview with Crystal Mazza

It’s a real estate firm. Unlike most, you won’t see it with property listings, because it doesn’t take them. The Schenck company in Columbus exclusively represents tenants, buyers and investors, which it says keeps it unbiased, focusing solely on clients’ best interest. Here to explain is the shank company founder, Greg Schenck, welcome, sir, glad to have you on set today. Thank you so much for having me now, Greg, I mentioned that your company is different than others. Can you explain a little bit more about what sets the Schenck company apart from the others?

Most companies do listings they represent the seller or the landlord of properties our company, in 1989 the law changed, called agency disclosure law, where every party had to know who represents whom in a transaction. We never like to sell anything to anybody. We like to help companies get what they want.

So how does the exclusive tenant representation. That is a phrase that you that represents the shank company, exclusive tenant representation. How does that help your clients?

So what we do is we study the market three or four hours a day, because we don’t do listings. We’re talking to all the brokers out there. We keep our finger on the pulse of what’s happening. We’re going to help them reduce their cost on a lease renewal or a relocation to lease, buy, build or acquire investment property anywhere around the country, but mostly in central Ohio. So we’re using our market knowledge to help them negotiate better terms and conditions so they could do it themselves, but it’d be like going to court without an attorney or doing your taxes without a CPA, they probably only do it one every 510, years. So the market changes drastically in that amount of time. How much is the rent? How much are the operating expenses? How much build out allowance? There’s so many factors that come into play, and we master the market and master the process to help guide them through that.

What inspired you to start a real estate company focused only on tenants and buyers?

Well, that law had a lot to do with it. So I started with the biggest company in the country, and in 89 when that came out, a real light bulb kind of went off on my head, and I switched all my business over there. In 95 it did the two biggest deals in the whole state of Ohio, and I left my own firm to start this because I really wanted to help people get what they want on their negotiate the best terms and conditions for them. And I’ve been very blessed to win a lot of awards in the business. And then I started speaking and teaching around the country to help others learn about it all over the country,

Speaking of your success over the nearly 40 years, two time Midwest Power Broker of the year, inducted into Midwest real estate magazine Hall of Fame, micro Entrepreneur of the Year for real estate in Columbus. I mean, and there’s probably more, I believe, what’s your biggest professional achievement that you’re most proud of?

Probably juggling being a single father raising my son at home for 18 years, while I’ve been doing all of this that is not easy, my time management skills and my organizational skills, and I think my clients appreciate that, because most of them are parents, and they’re going through 100 juggling balls that they’re doing as well.
You also offer lease negotiation, strategic planning, corporate relocation, a lot more services that you provide. Anything else, well,
we’ll do whatever they want. It really is soup to nuts. They need a contractor, they need an architect, they need a space planner. We try to get them together with about five different what we call trusted advisors, attorneys, accountants, bankers, insurance agents, financial planners, whoever they don’t have a pre existing relationship with to help the process go smoother. Sometimes they do, sometimes they don’t.

And what are some trends that you are seeing in commercial real estate right here in central Ohio?

Well, we probably have the highest vacancy we’ve ever had for office space. So about 80% of my business is helping companies with their office space needs, specifically in downtown. But almost every downtown around the country has been decimated. So what does that mean to people? You can get record deals. It’s like refinancing your home when interest rates are 2% so that’s a really good analogy. They were nine. Now interest rates were two. Our vacancies are high. That means landlords are desperate to get people so whether we’re using that as a leverage to get better terms and conditions on an existing lease or helping them find a new location, we’re going to get phenomenal Terms and Conditions.

Let’s talk about Columbus moving forward. Where do you see the commercial real estate market here in central Ohio changing in the coming years?

Well, I lived in LA right out of college, and four years later, I came back for a friend’s wedding and had a gut feel Columbus was going to grow. 1986 almost 40 years later, we’re the second leading fastest growing company. Or. City in the country. I don’t see that slowing down anytime soon. When I got here, half the things outside the outer belt were farm ground. Now everywhere around the outer belt is full with development, and the best is yet to come. Without a doubt, we’re very fortunate to be here.

What is the best way to contact you? If viewers watching right now have more questions, or, you know, are saying to themselves, hey, I need Greg’s help moving forward.

Well, our website is my last name, S, C, H, E, N, K, company.com, on them, on every social media channel, LinkedIn, Twitter, YouTube, Instagram, you know, you name it. They can easily find me. They can Google me, and I’m all over the place. As far as that goes it’s very easy to find us. We also do a no cost review of everyone’s lease, which I think is really important. We have a 44 point checklist, and we usually find about a half a dozen items that are really slanted in the landlord’s favor. We help level the playing field and better it for them and for our friends watching. We have the website on the screen now. Greg, thank you for coming in to chat with us.