Paradoxically, the corporate barter industry depend on networking to expand. Satisfied customers and their agents, including attorneys and accountants, become the primary source of leads for corporate barter brokers. Word is just starting to get around the real estate industry that corporate barter works. These trade credits are issued by a handful of public companies and traded by brokers. The company also offers an industrial buying consortium to guarantee discounted purchases.
Real estate flows from the seller to the buyer, while cash and credits flow to the seller.
The buyer, in turn, spends down the credits, making purchases from the same buying consortium. To people unfamiliar with corporate barter, such deals may sound Rube Goldbergesque. The truth is that, as in any other real estate transaction, you are just bringing a buyer and a seller together. This appetite could be for anything the corporate barter organization can provide. Kaufman Associates, for example, provides packaging and shipping material, forms, print media, advertising, office equipment and other consumable goods to Fortune 500 and smaller clients on a part cash, part trade credit basis.