Michael Saccoccio is a “resi-mercial” agent for Coldwell Banker Realty based in East Greenwich, which means he facilitates both residential and commercial real estate transactions. He got his start in real estate in 1981. In 2020, he won the Rhode Island Realtor of the Year award, and he was recently inducted as president of the Rhode Island Commercial and Appraisal Board.
PBN: You were recently inducted as president of the Rhode Island Commercial and Appraisal Board. What’s your reaction to this and what do you expect this role to entail?
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SACCOCCIO: I’m proud to serve our membership. Our membership comprises both real estate agents and appraisers.
This year will be a year of change. We have some challenges with high interest rates and some changes in the way agents are being paid. That’s evolving throughout the nation due to some recent lawsuits.
I hope to also grow the membership this year, as an opportunity to bring in “resi-mercial” agents.
PBN: What’s your view about the state of the commercial real estate market in Rhode Island right now, in terms of availability and pricing, compared to other places and previous times?
SACCOCCIO: I just saw a national survey about how there’s an increase in occupancy for office buildings throughout the nation. Providence and this vicinity has not seen a decline as much as the other major metros. We continue to also have a shortage of warehouses and small commercial buildings. Hopefully, that will change in the near future.
PBN: What is one of your most memorable real estate transactions and why?
SACCOCCIO: I think the first real estate transaction was the most memorable. An unusual situation happened where there was a vacant garage on the property. We opened up the garage. It was infested with fleas. I was covered with fleas. The buyers were engulfed with fleas. It was early evening in the summer. They walked to the house. They were covered so much [that] they had to shed their clothes on the way home. And then I successfully sold the house to the same people. We had the garage embalmed, or whatever the terminology is. We had it rectified. Everyone was safe. We still joke about it nearly 40 years later.
PBN: I’ve read that you try to help military veterans with their real estate needs. Can you tell us what that’s been like and why you wanted to make a special effort to help our nation’s veterans with their real estate needs?
SACCOCCIO: I think it comes from a military background in my household. My father was a senior chief in the [U.S.] Navy. I appreciate the Navy and the armed forces and the discipline.
A lot of the military that I deal with are first-time buyers. I give them full service, walk them through the entire process, along with also giving them virtual tours of the property … since they might be deployed out of the country or at a post before they are transferred to their new location.
One of the pluses of a veteran’s loan is that it is 100% financing. It comes from the Veterans Administration. It’s a zero-percent-down loan. It allows someone with little or no cash to purchase a home.
PBN: What’s the best advice you could give to people who are just getting into the field of commercial properties as a real estate broker?
SACCOCCIO: I think the best advice I could give them is to have a good background in finance or accounting. It gives you a good background to analyze critical numbers that are involved in some of the more complex commercial transactions that we deal with.
The other advice is to learn some good sales skills and sharpen those sales skills up, along with having some great people skills.
Marc Larocque is a PBN contributing writer. Contact him at Larocque@PBN.com. You may also follow him on Twitter @LaRockObama.
