Managing commercial real estate on your own can quickly become stressful and costly. Without expert guidance, you might overpay for space, miss better opportunities, face delays, or get tangled with complicated legal and financial issues—all wasting your time, energy, and money.
Even tasks like negotiating a lease, selecting the right location, or buying property can feel overwhelming and risky. This is where real estate experts make a real difference. They guide you through every step, provide informed advice, and handle the complicated details, helping you avoid costly mistakes. With their support, you make smarter decisions, save time and money, and can focus on what truly matters: running and growing your business effectively.
This is exactly what Barry Saywitz, Founder and President of The Saywitz Company, has been delivering throughout his career. Starting in a challenging market without modern tools like the internet or databases, he relied on determination, hands-on experience, and innovative thinking to build a specialized team. Under his leadership, the company has grown to serve clients throughout the US and internationally.
From corporate relocation and lease negotiations to site selection and portfolio management, the company turns complex challenges into opportunities, saving clients millions, successfully negotiating major leases, and expanding into global markets. Barry’s strategic approach and ability to transform difficult situations into measurable success continue to set the company apart, demonstrating the real impact that expert guidance can have on business growth and outcomes.
Early Journey and Foundation Building
Barry Saywitz began his journey in commercial real estate in October 1989, just before the market faced a severe downturn. He started by helping tenants lease office and industrial space—a challenging task given the struggling economy and limited tools. At that time, without the internet, modern phone technology, or multiple listing databases, businesses depended on visiting buildings in person and making direct calls to clients.
In the early 1990s, he became a partner in the firm he worked for and later acquired the West Coast operations, renaming it The Saywitz Company. From the beginning, Barry Saywitz focused on hard work, learning typing skills, and using computers to communicate efficiently. Recognizing the importance of teamwork, he built a company with specialized roles in transactions, research, and back-office support.
From Local Roots to Global Reach
Headquartered in Newport Beach, California, with offices in San Diego, The Saywitz Company now serves clients throughout California and has expanded nationally, negotiating transactions in all 50 U.S. states as well as internationally in Canada, Mexico, Europe, and Asia. The company guides clients through the entire real estate process, leveraging a team with expertise in finance, development, construction, and financial matters. To strengthen client service and expand reach, Barry Saywitz co-founded the Core Network, a network of brokerage companies across the country. This network, now one of the largest commercial real estate organizations in the world at its peak boasting more than 100 U.S. affiliate offices, combined with global alliances, provides access to local market knowledge wherever clients need it.
In addition, Barry established Barry Saywitz Properties to invest in and manage multifamily residential and commercial properties.
Together, these two complementary entities provide The Saywitz Company, focused on brokerage services, and Barry Saywitz Properties, focused on investment and property management.
This dual structure ensures steady cash flow, broad client solutions, and a seamless approach to real estate transactions and property management.
Surround Oneself With Capable People
Barry’s leadership is guided by three main lessons:
- Build a strong team: Surround yourself with capable people who can help achieve goals, and treat them as partners, not just employees.
- Aim for win-win deals: In any transaction—whether between tenants and landlords or buyers and sellers—understanding everyone’s needs and managing expectations is key.
- Use the right information: Having accurate information and using it wisely makes the difference between successful deals and those that fail.
Proactive Property Investments That Add Real Value
On the brokerage side, The Saywitz Company represents only tenants and buyers, avoiding conflicts of interest and ensuring full alignment with its clients’ goals. It also uses information strategically to gain an edge during negotiations.
On the investment side, the company takes a proactive, value-driven approach. It moves quickly on opportunities and focuses on improving properties in ways that benefit its tenants. Rather than raising rent arbitrarily, it enhances properties so tenants willingly pay more because they see real improvements. The company also revitalizes underperforming properties to make them the best in their area. This approach ensures high occupancy, long-term sustainability, and smoother property management.
Client Success Story
One notable example highlights how a client successfully renegotiated a lease in Southern California. While most focused only on market rates, Barry and his team prioritized the client’s bottom line and created leverage by negotiating with multiple buildings at the same time. This approach led one landlord to offer concessions, free rent, and a better rent structure, which pushed competing landlords to improve their offers. In the end, the client stayed with their current landlord, who provided terms that exceeded all other options. This strategic negotiation saved the client tens of millions of dollars and demonstrated the power of leveraging options, information, and careful planning in real estate deals.
California’s Ever-Changing Real Estate Landscape
Barry Saywitz sees California’s real estate market as vibrant and full of opportunities due to its diverse industries and constant changes. He emphasizes the importance of identifying emerging sectors early and establishing strong connections before the market fully peaks. At the same time, he notes that the market can be unpredictable, with sudden surges and sharp declines, making it more volatile than steadier regions around the country.
Seamless Real Estate Solutions to Save Time, Money, and Stress
The Saywitz Company delivers a comprehensive suite of commercial real estate services designed to help clients make informed decisions while focusing on running their business. From initial planning and negotiation to execution and ongoing oversight, the company manages every stage of real estate operations to ensure seamless results.
Their corporate relocation services provide complete “start-to-finish” support, whether a client is moving a handful of employees or an entire company with hundreds of staff. Using a structured three-phase approach, The Saywitz Company begins by analyzing space requirements, business needs, and employee considerations. They then leverage their market expertise to negotiate the best terms for leases, purchases, or new construction. Finally, they help coordinate the physical move to ensure operations continue without disruption.
The company also specializes in lease renegotiation and tenant representation, helping clients optimize lease agreements and reduce costs. Their team negotiates rental rates, free rent concessions, tenant improvements, and manages ancillary items such as taxes, parking, and maintenance. These efforts often result in 15%-30% savings even before a lease reaches its expiration.
Strategic consulting is another key offering. The Saywitz Company’s consulting team provides guidance on real estate decisions through needs analysis, growth projections, space utilization studies, market research, competitive analysis, financial modeling, and ongoing advisory support. Their construction management services ensure projects stay on schedule and within budget, including value engineering, reviewing bids and plans, contractor selection, and on-site coordination.
For long-term growth planning, the company assists clients in evaluating space usage across their portfolio. This includes developing space standards, office adjacencies, block studies, and applying growth projections to guide future facility needs and expansion. Through local, regional, and national brokerage services, they help clients with site selection, lease or acquisition negotiation, and management of the entire process to align with business objectives.
Relocation coordination is handled meticulously, covering logistics, vendor selection, move checklists, and timetables to minimize disruption. Their site selection services give clients access to available properties nationwide, providing expertise in office, industrial, and retail spaces, along with local market insights through partners in over 100 cities. They guide clients through leasing, purchasing, or constructing new facilities.
The Saywitz Company also offers lease auditing, reviewing lease documents, creating financial analysis reports, and coordinating negotiations or settlements to ensure clients are not overpaying or missing opportunities. Their facility acquisition services assist with a variety of property transactions, including investment properties, owner-user purchases, lease-to-own arrangements, equity participation, joint ventures, build-to-suit projects, and third-party financing, including SBA loans.
Additionally, the team provides expert witness testimony and advisory services for legal or dispute purposes, analyzing lease documents and market conditions, and offering strategic insights and comparables for litigation support. Portfolio management is handled through proprietary lease administration software, monitoring facilities, costs, and data across portfolios ranging from 10 to over 1,000 locations, with full web-based security and transparency.
In short, the Saywitz Company manages all aspects of commercial real estate, offering strategic guidance, negotiation expertise, and hands-on management. Their comprehensive approach allows clients to focus on growing their business with confidence, knowing every real estate need is expertly handled.
Advice For Aspiring Real Estate Professionals and Entrepreneurs
Barry Saywitz advises aspiring real estate professionals and entrepreneurs to seek mentorship, highlighting its crucial role in career growth. Learning from experienced advisors—inside or outside an organization—helps avoid common mistakes, provides valuable feedback, and accelerates professional development. Reflecting on his own early experiences without sufficient guidance, he emphasizes the value of listening carefully and applying expert advice to achieve success more efficiently.
In addition, Barry emphasizes the importance of maintaining a healthy work-life balance. Entrepreneurs often become fully consumed by their business, allowing work and personal life to overlap. He recommends setting clear goals for both areas, prioritizing adequate sleep, and making time for activities outside of work to sustain overall well-being.
Barry believes learning is a continuous process. While some situations may seem similar, new challenges always arise. He stresses the importance of staying focused and calm, tackling problems one at a time, and understanding that not everything can be solved all at once.
Future Goals
In the next five years, Barry plans to continue building on his proven business model while embracing emerging market trends and new technologies, including AI and advanced software, to enhance efficiency and services. While tools and methods may evolve, he remains committed to the core principles of commercial real estate and investing, ensuring that his long-term strategy continues to deliver consistent, client-focused results.
Quick Takes
One quote that motivates you the most
“To be continued….”
One piece of advice you would offer to upcoming entrepreneurs or future business leaders:
Surround yourself with good people and make good business decisions. Also, do not be afraid to take chances.
Barry Saywitz’s 5 Impactful Business Lessons
- Build a Strong Team: Surround yourself with capable people and treat them as partners, not just employees.
- Focus on Win-Win Deals: Understand everyone’s needs and aim for mutually beneficial outcomes.
- Leverage the Right Information: Accurate information is the key to successful decisions.
- Be Proactive and Value-Driven: Take initiative, improve properties or processes, and create real value.
- Seek Mentorship and Learn Continuously: Guidance from experienced advisors accelerates growth and avoids costly mistakes.
