Hey everyone, so I recently started an internship as a "junior loan originator" with Eastern Union. Basically my job is getting a massive list of leads and cold calling all of them to try to bring in a deal. Everyday we have Zoom meetings with Ira Zlotowitz where he shares intel on how to be persistent and master the cold call. Honestly, I felt super inspired by what he has been sharing and I already learned a lot how to improve my cold calling.
I really wanted to work with commercial real estate brokerage but everyone I have been networking with is hurting/hiring freeze. So for the time being this summer I shifted to taking up the opportunity to do this with Eastern Union.
I'm aware that there's a high chance I won't make money and this is a cut throat place to bring in but the primary reason for me is to get better at cold calling and practicing my persistence.
Open to any thoughts/comments on Eastern Union, Ira, loan origination, cold calling. Is this worth a shot at?
-Thanks
If you have no other option, do it.
Guy above me is a residential broker, his experience is not applicable to commercial. They all sell the same product, with different buyers for every transaction.
You should optimally be in a place where you should learn, maybe that is EU, but doubtful.
May as well try it, especially if you are learning and it's improving your cold calling. I've never heard of Eastern Union, so hopefully they have a presence in NY or whereever you're calling into Doing this will help you get to the next thing (if it's not thi).
Having done CRE Sales Brokerage as well as Mortgage Brokerage, my opinion is that the Mortgage call is easier to make (they both require persistance). In the mortgage call, you are essentially offering someone money and in Sales you are essentially asking them if they want you to sell their property. I found that offering something that people want makes for an easier call.
I don't know how they do it at EU, but hopefully you're involved in the loan underwriting and have at least some contact with the lenders. Talking to the lenders will help you talk to your customers. The best brokers can match the deal with a short list of lenders and are not sending out packages to every lender in town..
Good luck!
Disagree with the best brokers can narrow it down to a short list of lenders. I think successful ones do and lazy ones because it does not require much work.
I know some of the best in the industry...they absolutely shop it to 30-45 shops.
40 shops is ridiculous, and unnecessary. That means you don't know what those lenders are looking for.
Yes. This "1/4 point fee" is a marketing shtick. Direct lenders are required to make a point on small balance, they're just baking it into the rate so it doesn't show up on the settlement statement. The broker's quarter point is just extra overhead.
OP, if you want to learn about CRE I would look elsewhere.
Maybe try to get on David Stanton's live stream?
But on a serious note, talk to some of the more prolific brokers on the team like Michael Wyne. If I were you I would try to migrate over time to a larger shop like CBRE/JLL(and consequently HFF)/Meridian etc.
I hear unless you are orthodox its hard to move up at EU, but that's just heresay so take it as you wish. Take this time to try to learn as much as you can. Read as much as you can about CRE and learn about the sectors the big players, etc,
To be frank here, I’d say with your background (catholic female) it would be a very poor decision to work with them.
100% recommend you do not pursue this.
Will echo sentiments that EU is fairly religious, same for Meridian so something to look out for since you mentioned you're Catholic.
As for female brokers, I don't know them personally, but two that come to mind are Darcy Stacom and Jillian Mariutti. Both are very successful and had to dominate extra hard in their field due to their gender. I highly respect these women and I'm sure there are more out there, but these two came to mind first. You probably won't be able to network with them and hear their stories given how busy they probably are, but there is info out there on both of them regarding the gender hurdles in CRE.
I’d says EU is not thought of very well. Decent amount of biz, least intelligent in the room by far. Cannot imagine it’s a decent learning environment. Painful to interact with vs really any other group
EU is a little bit of a sweatshop. High volume, low fee shop. Their new multifamily group is charging a quarter point for agency loans. Guessing they are trying to make up for it in volume. Its a decent first job in real estate though and developing sales skills can be useful. I would imagine you will develop more sales skills than real estate finance skills there. Use resource like adventures in CRE to develop modeling skills on your own so that you can be well rounded.
Ira is an a great salesman and amazing resource to have in your pocket. Learn as much as you can from the guy.
In cold calling the key is to be a PERSON. You are speaking with people and whatever it is that you can do to communicate you have a personality and are not mindlessly going through a script on every call will lead to better quality calls and more success.
Example situation: you’re day is spent calling Oklahoma owners. Mention the tiger king show and ask if they’ve been the guy’s park, they’ll all get a chuckle out of it.