Print edition: 
Like starting a car on a winter morning, making a real estate deal in a cold market takes some extra oomph.
That's why Peter West was brought in to juice up the deal-making level for commercial real estate agents on Wednesday at the Wichita Airport Hilton.
The 40 or 50 agents, including several from out-of-state, spent a day in a seminar room, going through various exercises to pitch their properties.
Commercial real estate is more complicated than selling homes, and when a market slows to a crawl, sometimes all it takes to make some deals is a more creative thinking.
Is the seller willing to help with financing or take a trade? Can the property be divided?
Even though the market has slowed, West said investors can get cap rates of 9 to 11 percent.
"There are some decent deals here," West said, who is from Massachusetts and travels all over helping agents sell.
Wichita wasn't hit as hard as many coastal areas, he said. Property values haven't plunged as far and investors aren't as damaged.
But even so, it sometime takes prodding to turn a deal around to see how it can work out so both sides come out winners.
When agents did an exercise called quick pitches, they each got a few minutes to describe a property and give some key facts.
But momentum was slow in building. After one pitch, no one showed interest.
"Any more?" West asked, looking around and then made a loud snoring noise.
He and other agents poked and prodded each other, throwing out ideas and advice.
Justis Maybee, an agent with Keller Williams, was trying to move the large house at 2812 E. Douglas that had been converted into a spa. It had been on the market for months.
As she described the location's upside — that it could be converted into offices or retail, that the owner would donate some of the fixtures — some of the heads began to nod. Several agents said they were interested.
Maybee said the session allowed her to make a better pitch to show the real value of the property.
"It's a lot better than just putting it on the website," she said.
