Brokerage - Property Type

From what I can tell, a majority of brokers focus on one property type. For those of you in brokerage, how did you decide what property type to focus on?

I'm interested in a career in brokerage and am curious. I'm currently an analyst at an underwriting firm working with all property types. While I do have a preference, I can't necessarily sell why I'd prefer to work with a certain property type in an interview.

Are there certain skill sets or characteristics that determine which property type is more suitable for someone, in terms of brokerage? And would it be difficult to switch from one property type to another down the road? Any insight would be great!

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First, disclaimer, I am not a broker, many broker friends and always curious why they specialize in what they specialize....

The number one answer I consistently get... "I got hired onto a retail/office/industrial/etc. team, so became that kind of specialist." In fact one of the most successful brokers I know personally very well (works in a secondary city for a CBRE/CW/JLL type shop) is an industrial specialist and he says it is strictly because that is the team that hired him out of college. He makes 7 figures some years and is a very well noted expert in industrial real estate in his region and he literally says it was just random luck of where he placed.

I think you can have an affinity for a property type... like retail brokers like retail (and partying, I've gone to ICSC Vegas more years than I can remember now), and some office brokers told me they like office buildings (go figure), but really think a lot of people get hired and just take the luck of the draw.

 

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