How to Invest in Commercial Real Estate in 2026|Retail Strip Strategy,Deal Flow & Scaling Portfolio

Michael Petersen (00:00)
You got to get your ducks in a row. This this when you’re investing in commercial spacious, especially there is no margin of error. Okay. You need to have your capital lined up. You need to have your credit lined up. You need to have your experience lined up. You need to have your pitch deck lined up. You can’t afford for any of those pieces to be missing when you go to a commercial lender when you go to start underwriting deals because the best deals go quickly

Michelle Kesil (01:59)
Hey everybody. Welcome to the real estate pros podcast. I’m your host, Michelle Kesil. Today I’m joined by someone I’m looking forward to chatting with Michael Petersen of the Petersen real estate group, who is a commercial broker as well as an investor. So excited to have you here today, Michael.

Michael Petersen (02:19)
Yeah, this is awesome. Really looking forward to the conversation and talking a little bit about real estate investing and everything in between.

Michelle Kesil (02:26)
Perfect, let’s dive in. First off, for those not yet familiar with you and your work, can you share what your main focus is these days?

Michael Petersen (02:35)
Yeah, absolutely. So I’ve been doing this for 15 years. I absolutely love real estate. I’m one of the lucky ones that found something they’re good at and passionate about early in life. this has been a kind of a fun career so far that’s taken me from Iowa to Colorado and now Dallas, Texas is where I kind of my primary market. yeah, just excited. I have run a team here. So the Petersen Real Estate Group, have a few.

commercial agents and then luxury agents as well and we just continue to expand and do more both here and very active in Colorado still as well.

Michelle Kesil (03:10)
Awesome. And so what do you feel have been some of the main keys that have allowed your business to grow and run successfully?

Michael Petersen (03:18)
Yeah, mean, truly, truly our I think our approach and outlook overall in terms of how we see the market and what I mean by that is we are constantly looking for opportunity everywhere. And so a lot of people get hung up on, you know, the mainstream news cycle of what’s what’s the worst thing going on right now and how is that going to impact your business negatively? I quite obviously look at things where I say, OK,

Where’s the opportunity? Where can we jump and strike first to find where that vacuum is at in terms of investing, in terms of where our clients’ businesses might grow? And ultimately that leads us to kind of our path of business where we can create opportunity and get more deals done and even invest ourselves.

Michelle Kesil (04:06)
Awesome. And so how did you get started in real estate?

Michael Petersen (04:09)
You know what? I dropped out of college back in the day when it was unpopular or uncool to be an entrepreneur. That’s why I I was an entrepreneur before it was cool to be an entrepreneur. so dropped out of college, started a bar nightclub and then quickly realized that I actually like the real estate component of it and leasing the space and all that. And so I transitioned and got my real estate license and

worked in residential for a few years, but my business quickly took me into the investment side and I had an opportunity to work for one of the biggest developers in central Iowa. And so that came with a ton of opportunity and experience gathering. so when me and my family decided to kind of make the move to Colorado, that’s when I launched my team. And so really that was back in 2019. And from there, we just kind of been

hey, what’s the next version of the team and the growth and everything we want to do? So we ultimately want to be investing in both Texas and Colorado. We also want to be obviously delivering great brokerage services to our clients. And that is on the commercial side, investment. We do business brokering as well. And then we do help a lot of our clients are in that residential luxury space. So we do.

help them as well there.

Michelle Kesil (06:22)
Awesome. And so what does your process look like when working with investors?

Michael Petersen (06:27)
Yeah, so we are a systems based team. Everything we do is for a reason. It has a purpose. And that’s one of the things I think does make us really unique. When you’re referred over to us, it starts with the intake form that we have set up. And then it goes right into our initial meeting with you and really kind of discovery on our end. don’t jump right into, great, let’s go look at the first property or, hey, let’s go write an offer. No, no, no. We want to kind of back into this. We need to know the full scope of the financials.

your motivations, what your business looks like, why are you going after this property, why is the location really important to you, where do you need to be to be the most successful? Because our goal always is not to just do a one and done. We want clients for life. And so we know if we do a really good job out the gate that if that, let’s just say you’re setting up a new restaurant or a new location, well, if that goes really well and you have success there, odds are you’re going to want to expand in the same market. And so

We want to set you up for success the best way we can on the real estate side. so we do take a step-by-step approach to everything when you work with us. And that goes, like I said, all the way from the intake form, all the way to kind of the closing and then the follow-up afterwards and really the marketing. We like to really make a big emphasis of if you’re a business, we want to help promote you. We want to help, you know, as many people see and hear about your business as possible. So…

That’s why we take it well after the contract and the deal is closed. We want to help further your success.

Michelle Kesil (07:59)
Amazing. And so what type of clients are you typically working with?

Michael Petersen (08:06)
Yeah, so again, kind of like one of those weird things that makes us different, right? We really don’t classify ourselves as just office or just medical or just warehouse. We really do kind of run the gamut. But how we do that and how we do that at such a high level is that the agents on my team specialize in different facets of commercial and or luxury real estate. And so by having me work on every deal,

alongside a specialist that allows a few things to happen. One, us to always be at the top of our game. Two, for our clients to have two agents really in their corner instead of just one. That allows us to have full coverage for us to always be in great contact and communication with our clients, for them to always have somebody that they can go can show properties. And so that coverage and really that accessibility.

is what makes us truly unique. But we really do run the gamut all the way from flex, office, retail, both on the purchase and the tenant rep. We do a lot of ground up development. And then, of course, on the investment side, know, multifamily, I’ve been doing multifamily specialties for over a decade. Really, that’s kind of my my first bread and butter. ⁓ And so truly, when it comes to when a client comes to us,

There isn’t really a facet of commercial real estate or business that we can’t help them with. And our clients really do appreciate that level of sophistication and expertise that we bring.

Michelle Kesil (09:39)
Absolutely. And what did your personal journey with investing in real estate look like?

Michael Petersen (10:20)
Yeah, so it wasn’t long before I got into real estate that I started investing, know, started back in the day when I, in my opinion, think flipping houses was well worth it. I think the margins have been so compressed and the industry has kind of evolved to where it gets really tough to flip anymore. But a decade ago, that’s kind of where I started and I was buying, you know, homes for 150 grand, putting 50 into them and selling them for 250 and those margins

were awesome, okay? And so that’s where I got a taste of it. And then I was taking those profits and starting to buy four to eight plex apartment buildings and running those and putting management in place and then just continuing to scale. So I did that for about a decade. And then as I kind of got more comfortable and more experience, I started to ramp up the size of the projects, you know, doing full historic.

remodels and conversions, starting to do some ground up construction and development and really starting to put a whole portfolio together. So over the last 15 years, I’ve really developed a portfolio for myself. I’ve helped investors develop their own portfolios and then kind of done a combination of partnering and joint venturing with investors and clients of mine to be able to just really kind of gather our resources and do bigger projects together.

Michelle Kesil (11:40)
and what have been some of the biggest challenges or obstacles that you’ve had to overcome in this journey.

Michael Petersen (11:47)
Yeah, I mean, early in your career, finding the money is a little bit more difficult, right? You don’t have as much, you’re a little bit younger, you don’t have those connections to capital. So early on in my career, that was the hang up. As I got further in, then it becomes, can you source the best deal? And so, you know, right now, a lot of people pay a lot of money to source deals. Now, I have the benefit of being a commercial broker, so I get deals put in front of me all the time. And so now,

I’m kind of in this sweet spot where I’m not worried about the capital, whether it’s my own capital or raising capital, that is not an issue. And now really with the amount of deal flow that I see organically through our business, it’s truly just a lot of opportunity and then it just comes down to the underwriting and making sure we’re going after the best deals all the time.

Michelle Kesil (12:37)
Right. And how do you source your deals?

Michael Petersen (12:40)
Yeah, so a lot of them are are given to us, you know, it’s people that refer that business over. So we might have, you know, truly in the last two years, we have so many residential agents that come to us and say, hey, I don’t I have a client, they have a commercial need, they want to sell something or they need to buy something. And I know nothing about commercial. What do I do? And so that’s where we kind of take an opportunity to to take that agent down one of two paths.

Either they can partner with us and if they have some level of sophistication experience that they want to work on that deal, okay, great, that might make sense. More often than not though, they just refer the entire deal over to them. We pay them a referral fee for that and then they’re compensated but also that means their client is well taken care of and then oftentimes we then decide, okay, is this a deal that’s worth taking to market or is this a deal that we can offer directly to them ourselves?

and go take down without even having to go on market. And then, you know, really, hey, boom, there you go. The client’s super happy because we’re able to act on that property right away and there’s no lag time or having to wait or anything like that. So it really is one of those situations where we’ve set up where we can make a win-win-win scenario for everybody. And it’s fantastic.

Michelle Kesil (14:01)
Yeah, amazing. And so what are you most focused on solving or scaling to next?

Michael Petersen (14:50)
Yes, scaling is big. Scaling is big, right? Our main operation is in Dallas, Texas. I reside in kind of the Frisco area, so I’m in North Dallas. But we have a lot of opportunities still in Colorado. And luckily, our team is still kind of run and operated by my brother out there, which is fantastic. And he has a decade of experience. you know, on our bigger deals, our more sophisticated deals, all still fly back and forth and still be very hands on.

However, you know, we feel that there’s opportunity in both the Denver and Dallas Fort Worth markets. And so when we talk about scalability, it truly is growing the team and making sure that we bring on the best people to be able to continue to help with that demand. Right. We want we never want to tell a client, hey, we can’t take any more clients. That’s crazy. So really right now, I’m always looking for the best agents that

want to hustle that are ready to grow and learn from someone who’s been doing this for a long time, but also have value to bring, whether it be their own deals or their own business that they’re looking to take and double or triple by coming onto the team. So truly scaling up with agents on our team. But I got to say, the biggest thing is I’m just very selective with who I bring on the team because, you know,

I’m not interested in just filling slots, making sure that they are people that are gonna mesh well with the other agents, with me. I spend a lot of time with my team, with the agents on my team. So I want to enjoy that time. I want to enjoy the people that I work with. ⁓ So really making sure that that culture piece aligns well is really, really important to me.

Michelle Kesil (16:35)
Absolutely. And what are you most excited about, whether it’s a goal or opportunity that you see coming for you soon?

Michael Petersen (16:47)
Yeah, the amount of connections that I’ve made here in Dallas since moving here about three years ago is wild. I’ve always been somebody who, you know, I put my head down, grind, go do the thing and go execute on the vision. I think in the last three years, I’ve met so many great people and great contacts that to me, I’m just excited to do more of that. excited to…

to meet more people, how can I provide their business value? How can I provide them personally value? That excites me. How can I continue to provide the agents of my team value? You know, I think having success is really cool. I think sharing in that success with the people that matter most that are around you is even cooler. So that continues to be my underlying goal. How can I…

bring the other people up around me and continue the path forward. And it’s because, remember going back to, I choose the great people to put around me, then obviously I want them to win as well. So that’s why, that’s what I’m most looking forward to is creating new, creating and establishing new relationships and seeing where those relationships take me because those are often the ones that you can’t…

foresee what the outcome will be and that’s what’s kind of unlocking new doors that you don’t know what’s behind. So that’s what I’m really excited for.

Michelle Kesil (18:08)
Definitely. Is there any advice that you would give to someone that’s looking to get started in investing or is early in their career?

Michael Petersen (18:17)
Yeah, so twofold, right? If you’re an agent, let’s just say you’re a residential real estate agent. I think in 2026, the most important thing that you need is some sort of mentorship, some sort of education. Who cares about the splits? The splits mean nothing if you’re doing no business. And so you need to go learn and be a student of the business and understand that that first year should be your unpaid internship. It should be your first year of college and you should soak up as much information as you possibly can.

So go and find that top tier agent and say, hey, how can I come learn from you? Is there an opportunity there that I can learn from you on the commercial side? Same thing. Get on a team. Get under somebody that that is already doing what you want to do and understand that your best opportunity will be learning from them and there will be overflow opportunity from somebody who’s crushing it already on the investor side.

You got to get your ducks in a row. This this when you’re investing in commercial spacious, especially there is no margin of error. Okay. You need to have your capital lined up. You need to have your credit lined up. You need to have your experience lined up. You need to have your pitch deck lined up. You can’t afford for any of those pieces to be missing when you go to a commercial lender when you go to start underwriting deals because the best deals go quickly

and

When you go to a bank, find the grade, you do all this work to go find the deal. But then if you can’t get the financing for it, kind of irrelevant. So that’s something that we provide our clients, obviously, is we help get them get all their ducks in a row when they come and meet with us. But truly, it’s putting an emphasis on being dialed in, having everything ready to go and not going in with the mindset of, ⁓ I will figure out or I’ll figure out how to get over that hurdle whenever that hurdle.

gets put in front of me. And so that’s the biggest thing I can put in front of investors is that if you want the best deals, you got to be prepared for them.

Michelle Kesil (20:20)
Yeah, that makes a lot of sense. And are you looking to continue expanding your own personal investments?

Michael Petersen (20:28)
Yeah,

I mean, I literally just bought another retail strip last week. So good timing here, right? I I literally just bought a $1.4 million retail strip and we’re going to go in, stabilize the asset and then refinance it. The rents are under market value. They’re not on triple net leases. And so there’s a great opportunity that really in the next 12 months, we’ll be able to refinance that once stabilized.

at about $2 million worth of value. So creating about $600,000 worth of equity just by coming in and knowing how to operate, maintain and restructure the asset itself is where a lot of value is brought in commercial real estate. yeah, continuing to buy like crazy. If you’re in short term rental market, short term rentals.

get out of them. I think they’re probably the worst asset class to be in in commercial real estate right now. And I think there’s a lot of I’m very bullish on retail strips and flex space still. I think that’s where where a lot of opportunity remains in 2026.

Michelle Kesil (21:35)
Yeah, amazing. Thank you for sharing. Before we begin to wrap up here, if someone wants to reach out, connect, learn more. Where can people find you?

Michael Petersen (21:45)
Yeah, so I have all of our intake forms right on our website. Super easy to find us at the PetersenRealEstateGroup.com or the PetersenREG.com. Both of them have our intake forms. So if you’re an investor looking to invest, you are, you know, you have some sort of commercial business in any capacity, buy, sell, tenant, rep, anything, we can help you out. So I recommend going there. You obviously can DM me on any of the socials.

I am everywhere. And then we are excited because in 2026 we are launching our YouTube channel. And so that’ll be me breaking down deals, talking about commercial real estate, talking about investing, showing what that’s actually like in terms of deals that we are doing. So I’m excited to be doing that. And all the links will be on our website and social media as well. you can find me there. Michael Petersen, you can Google that and search me up.

Michelle Kesil (22:39)
Perfect, well appreciate your time and your story. Thank you for being here.

Michael Petersen (22:43)
Yeah, absolutely. Appreciate you having me.

Michelle Kesil (22:44)
And for those tuning in, if you got value, make sure you’ve subscribed. We’ve got more conversations with operators like Michael who are building real businesses. We’ll see you on our next episode.