Tenant Representation - Retail vs Office vs Industrial - Specializing
For someone that is just beginning their careers in tenant rep, is there a smaller barrier to entry for any of the specializations (retail, office, industrial)? From speaking with senior brokers and VPs during interviews, it seems a common theme that it is not recommended to focus on more than one category (ex. working on retail and office deals). Has anyone (or know anyone) had success working on deals in various categories throughout their careers? Are working on retail deals so much different than working on office deals that it is too difficult to have a blend of both in your book of business / prospecting efforts?
I don't know anyone that focuses on more than one area, but I'm in retail. On the off chance I've done work with an office or industrial guy it's been a...... weird.... experience. Different terminology, different expectations, etc. Since there will be questions, every now and again you'll get an office broker working with a medical use for a retail center or something similar. It takes a few extra steps to get on the same page with things sometimes. Some guys are reasonable, some want retail deals to look like high rise deals.
This all might just be my market though, we have a lot more local players and a lot less of the CBRE/JLL types running around.
I second this. My market is the same way. When I do stray from industrial rep into office or retail, either as a favor or just because the assignment is too good to pass up, I usually feel as though I cede some ground to the LL representative because I might not be as well versed in their specialty. I certainly don't like negotiating from a position of weakness, so I would recommend finding your niche and running.
The biggest reason not to work across industries is the time it takes to learn the industry. It will take you 6 months minimum to even start to understand what's going on in office/retail/industrial, probably 2-3 years before you have a solid grasp of the ups and downs. There are also different things you pay attention to in each one, though getting a grasp on the flow of the deal is going to be easier than learning the market. You just need to find someone who is going to teach you.
You can get a glimpse of each one if you're doing a rotational with a company like CB (they're the only one I remember having a program). Also, it's more likely to see people crossing between office/retail/industrial if you're in a much smaller city. It takes less time to learn your market so you can learn the different industries.
You will sometimes see an office broker do an industrial or retail deal, though. In larger cities this is most likely because they're doing it as a favor for a client or it's a big/easy deal that makes it worth the money.
Within each product types, a lot of times it will be broken down even further into tenent rep and landlord rep. This is almost always the case with office and can also happen with retail and industrial. I've seen landlord reps cross over and do a tenant rep deal on occasion, for instance.
Also, sometimes there is crossover and/or teaming up due to mixed use. A flex deal off the interstate can easily be office AND industrial, so you're either partnering with someone in your office or half crossing over. Same with an office building with first floor retail. Or, if your long-time retail client needs office space for HQ. Things like that.
Thanks for the feedback. In regard to you mentioning being broken down into tenant rep and landlord rep: Some of the smaller/boutique firms I am interviewing at solely focus on tenant representation and buyer representation, whereas the bigger CBRE/JLL types you can work on both sides of the transaction. Does working on solely the tenant/buyer side put you at a steep disadvantage when it comes to deal flow? Or is there a shift toward hyper specializing? Thanks again for your help
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