I realize this is a newb questions but I am transitioning from residential real estate. So I reached out to a company inquiring about broker or property management positions. After they read my resume and cover letter they said they didn't have any of those positions available but suggested I speak to their investment sales department. What types of positions would fall under this?
Trending Content
| +38 | Launching Own Shop | 20 | 2d | |
| +38 | Extremely Salty After This Process | 32 | 20h | |
| +38 | Case-Shiller Showing Higher Ratio Than Ever Recorded Before - Are We In For a Collapse in Housing? | 14 | 1h | |
| +26 | Am I right to be kinda pissed about this? | 8 | 2d | |
| +25 | Quick mental math question | 8 | 3d | |
| +25 | Alternative to Starting A Shop | 5 | 1d | |
| +20 | Is NYU Schack (BS) worth it for Commercial RE/REPE/REIB | 12 | 4d | |
| +19 | Megafund REPE Comp | 6 | 56m | |
| +16 | small LAC vs Boston College | 10 | 6d | |
| +15 | Graduate RE programs / Certificates / Resume Boosters | 1 | 6d |
Career Resources
Selling income producing commercial real estate. Same thing that you would call a broker in residential real estate. Here is the common team structure. With reputable firms it will be very difficult if not impossible to enter above the associate level if you don't have CRE experience. Note that different firms have different titles.
Positions: Analyst: (analysis work including underwriting, research, getting comps and prepping OMs). More learning less adding value.
Senior Analyst: Analyst that know what they're doing. Beginning to add value.
Associate: Supervises analyst and helps manage the transaction.
Associate Director / AVP / VP / Director: Brings in business or gets delegated business from MD. Most likely to communicate with client with interactions that are more than "will you please send me this document" (associate / analyst communications). Knows deal very well.
Managing Director: Brings in big clients and talks to top guys at client firms and potential buyers. Manages team. Pretty high level deal knowledge (not in the weeds).
I'm an investment sales broker.
There are a few types of investment sales shops. The top tier firms like CBRE, Eastdil, and Cushman will almost always require you to start out as an analyst if you're new. A poster on this forum mentioned to me that he was offered an analyst position at an institutional CBRE group and they told him he wouldn't be allowed to go and source deals for 5 years. This makes sense as it's a relatively sophisticated game and a big fund isn't going to want some kid in his mid 20's running with their deal. After the analyst stint is up you'll start handling more property tours and getting out there to interact with clients, often times in a supervised fashion.
The next tier of shop is Marcus & Millichap (M&M) and various iterations of their business model. You see a lot of firms like this in the net-leased retail space. These shops are boiler rooms in that they hire young kids to cold call and whoever makes it makes it. The smarter shops are pickier about their hiring and they give the good hires a draw for a year or two which the new agents have to burn off out of their gross fees. The M&M model is a minimum of 250 cold calls per week and to book as many meetings as possible. You'll take a senior agent on the meetings as they'll help you win the business and in turn will get a the lion's share of the fee should the deal end up getting to the closing table.
The last type is your local brokerage that does investment sales and leasing. These are typically found in secondary and tertiary markets. Some of these shops do very well but it's all dependent on who the senior guys are and the culture at the firm. You can learn a lot at a shop like this if the top guys are legit and do a high volume of deals. The negative is that it will take A LOT of deal-making and networking if you want exit-opps to a top tier team such as CBRE's tri-state institutional team.
I also participate in interviewing new hires. Personality fit is key along with being presentable. You need to look the part for meetings with building owners. We don't ask a lot of finance questions, if any at all, since that part can be trained (I operate in non-institutional assets). Investment sales isn't finance heavy unless you're at one of the top tier shops in which case it's important as you'll be working on larger and more complex transactions. If you go and work at Stan Johnson (second tier like M&M) you can be taught how to value a property in 10 minutes.
The main thing that's looked for in new hires below the top tier level is ambition and the desire to run through a wall to win business. You're going to be cold calling a lot so you need to be able to put up with the rejection and the long slog ahead of you.
Some second and third tier firms will pay a base salary of around 30-35k and then you'll get a piece of whatever deals you source. This number is not for a NYC or San Fran market though. I'd assume something in the 45-50k range in those markets. Then you'll typically have a worse split with the house on commissions you earn until the house earns its money back.
It will usually take 6-12 months to close your first deal, so in the first year all-in comp is probably in the 40-60k range in secondary and tertiary markets. The second year is when it should pick up as you'll have built a pipeline.
The key to brokerage is being able to stick it out for a few years. The barrier to entry at GS and BX is knowledge and pedigree; in brokerage it's how well you deal with surviving the grind. There are definitely brokers in their late 20's making 500k+/yr in major metros and they could have garbage degrees. It's not a rosy career though.