Found A CRE Broker Mentor
HI WSO,
I am a senior mechanical engineering student and I want to try my hand at CRE brokerage. I am a long time lurker and the biggest piece of advice I have found for newbies in an industry with a 70% failure rate is to find a mentor. I emailed everyone I could find at the big brokerages and found a senior level VP that is willing to mentor me down in the south Florida market (tenant rep). He is offering a 30k draw for my first year which is coming out of his pocket.
I am so freaking excited about this opportunity but I have no idea how to vet this person. He sounds very knowledgeable and online searches say that he is one of the top brokers in south Florida. If I were to bite on this position I would have to make a major relocation from MA and never mind the opportunity cost of a couple of years of an entry level engineering job -- I do not want, nor can I afford to waste my time.
What are some questions I can ask this guy to see if he's the real deal?
Thanks!
If he's a senior VP at a big brokerage doing tenant rep, he's probably the real deal. The most important question I'd ask is how many others has he mentored before? Does he have a current team you'd be joining? I'd try and talk to a couple of them if you can. When I got started I joined a small boutique firm with a guy trying to grow his shop, but he didn't know how to manage people or mentor anyone despite 35 years of experience in the business. It didn't go well for anyone. I broke out on my own relatively quickly with a couple of other associates and have done a lot better. \
TL:DR if it's his first rodeo mentoring a new person and building a team, then I'd say no. If he hires a new person every year to bring them into the firm and grow the business, and those people have been reasonably successful and are still there, then it's closer to a yes. Nobody can decide if it's worth it but you, but at the very least you have an engineering degree to fall back on.
I'm sorry he's a managing director not a senior vp -- mix-up on my spreadsheet. He said that he has mentored 3 other people in the past couple of years but none of them stuck. I'd be working on a team of people. He did mention that the mentees either underestimated the amount of effort or lacked the personality it took to be successful.
Is it normal for directors to front money for newbie draws? I feel like if he is willing to have skin in the game that it adds significantly to legitimacy.
I'd be worried about his ability to choose mentees if he's had 3 in 3 years and none of them. That's a pretty big red flag to me.
Is it a known flagship firm or a strictly local joint?
flagship firm
Sounds like a good opportunity.
What will you be doing?
what property type
Office
Hey CRE Guy
Firstly, congrats on making a decision to pursue something like this, it would have been very easy for you to just go straight into an engineering job (with most likely) decent starting $$
Most important thing I would ask myself is "why me" and what is he willing to gain from mentoring you? Is he looking for cheap labour for a year or is he actually looking to mentor someone who will be able to climb there way up the ladder and continue growing in his organisation?
Quickest way to find out? - Ask the guy for the contact details of the other people he mentored - and you can find out for yourself why the other people he mentored didn't "stick". If he doesn't oblige, yet another red flag...
You should ask him how much he makes before taxes.
he told me a story about how a lot people are content with earning 75-150k and how he was never that type of person. So I'm assuming he makes more than that.
I mean, that's a great assumption. But.
You don't have to ask for a specific number, just ask about deal flow in the last year. If he did 25 deals at 50k ft a piece, well, that's one thing. If he did 5 deals, total, ummm........
I'd really hope he makes more than 75-150k as an MD or that is just really bad...
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