Any brokers mind sharing your experience?
Posted a week or two ago in the sales thread, and had some good conversation and insights with a couple of ex brokers. Thought it would be helpful to try here as well:

Is there anyone in this sub that wouldn’t mind answering a few questions/sharing your experience during your time in commercial real estate brokerage?

Thanks for the suggestion to post the questions. Probably should have done that in the first place. Not sure if it will help, but for some background, I currently do not have any real estate experience. I’ve grown bored/frustrated with my current career path. I work at a F500 oil and gas company in a major TX city- make $90k all in. Been at the same company 5 years post grad from TX school. I have a few friends in brokerage- had lunch with one, working on the others. Brokerage is appealing to me because: I am extroverted and always been interested in sales, the potential income is exciting, I enjoy learning a specific market/trends/becoming a subject matter expert, and it’s meritocratic. 

1. What has your path in brokerage/to break into brokerage been?
2. If you are still in brokerage, what is your long term plan? If you left, why did you leave, where are you now, and did brokerage help pave that path?
3. Would you mind sharing your salary progression, or if that is too long, how many years it took to break $100k?
4. How do your benefits work? My understanding is you are essentially a contractor. 
5. What did your day to day look like when you started vs now?
6. What do you personally enjoy about brokerage?
7. If you were me, given my non-real estate background, what other questions/considerations would you be asking/looking into?
[{"id": "euhd9tc", "text": "It might help to post your questions first or give a general idea of what you\u2019re looking for. I\u2019m sure many would be glad to answer what they can.", "replies": [{"id": "eumcsad", "text": "Thank you for the suggestion. I posted some of the questions I\u2019ve had and tried to keep it reasonable.", "replies": [], "depth": 2}], "depth": 1}, {"id": "euhdbjo", "text": "What are your questions", "replies": [{"id": "eumcwj9", "text": "I just edited my post to include those. Should have just done that originally my apologies.", "replies": [], "depth": 2}], "depth": 1}, {"id": "euhivqf", "text": "PM me", "replies": [{"id": "eumf740", "text": "PM\u2019d", "replies": [], "depth": 2}], "depth": 1}, {"id": "euhn920", "text": "I would not mind, hope that answers your question", "replies": [{"id": "eumcu5x", "text": "I guess I had that one coming!", "replies": [], "depth": 2}], "depth": 1}, {"id": "euhxj34", "text": "Happy to answer anything.", "replies": [{"id": "eumfaeg", "text": "Edited the post to include some questions. Thanks for replying.", "replies": [], "depth": 2}], "depth": 1}, {"id": "eui1yfq", "text": "Great, thanks for asking. Insightful questions", "replies": [{"id": "eumd06q", "text": "Edited my post to include some questions.", "replies": [], "depth": 2}], "depth": 1}, {"id": "eui7a0f", "text": "Industrial broker here. PM me if you want.", "replies": [{"id": "eumehns", "text": "Absolutely", "replies": [], "depth": 2}], "depth": 1}, {"id": "euildrd", "text": "Likewise. Happy to answer", "replies": [{"id": "eumf5q3", "text": "Thanks. I edited this post to include some questions. If it is too much anything you can share would be helpful for me!", "replies": [], "depth": 2}], "depth": 1}, {"id": "euit7sf", "text": "Feel free to pm me. I specialize in seniors housing.", "replies": [{"id": "eumepqp", "text": "Will do. Thanks.", "replies": [], "depth": 2}], "depth": 1}, {"id": "eumj29j", "text": "What has your path in brokerage/to break into brokerage been?\n\n became a broker to find more deals on the principal side\n\nIf you are still in brokerage, what is your long term plan? If you left, why did you leave, where are you now, and did brokerage help pave that path?\n\nGet more deals to buy and hold or flip. Do a little brokerage when the opportunity comes up. \n\nWould you mind sharing your salary progression, or if that is too long, how many years it took to break $100k?\n\nI came from a sales position where I was making around 100k a year and was using that income to buy real estate. So, I already owned a few properties when I became a broker. It was too hard to find a good deal on the MLS or Loopnet, so I decided to make the switch. The majority of my income is from rentals and flipping. Broker comissions are icing. I do not exceed 100k from broker commissions.\n\nHow do your benefits work? My understanding is you are essentially a contractor.\n\nWhat is your understanding of a benefit? People use this term too broadly and don't understand what a benefit is? Are you talking about insurance, retirement contributions, pensions?\n\nWhat did your day to day look like when you started vs now?\n\nMy life does in cycles. When I started I was cold calling a lot. My script was a combo of I'll buy your apartment building/ do you want me to list your apartment building for sale.\n\nI'm in the process of stabilizing these properties this year.\n\n\nWhat do you personally enjoy about brokerage?\n\nBrokerage is alright, I enjoy owning property more. Nice thing about brokerage though, is if you do it right you make more per hour than you do being a principal. I genuinely see guys in my office make $1000 an hour for their actual effort.\n\nIf you were me, given my non-real estate background, what other questions/considerations would you be asking/looking into?", "replies": [], "depth": 1}, {"id": "eumjidq", "text": "What are you interested in? Most of the guys I work with specialize in a product type, and just do a little of the other stuff?\n\nWhat do you want to do, office, industrial, mutli fam, mixed use, leasing, development, value add, stabilized, assemblage, entitlement, Ground up development, RTI?\n\nYou just want to sell? Do you want to put together deals for other people? Do you want to own?\n\n\nThere are people who make 7 figures just selling, 7 figures, putting together deals, and 7 figures buying for themselves. What do you want to do?", "replies": [{"id": "evcjnaj", "text": "I am still early in the process of understanding all the facets of CRE, but there is definite interest. It is difficult to say with 100% certainty what I\u2019d like to do at this point, but hoping in the next month or two I\u2019ll have more internal direction. As of right now, I would like to sell in a commission based role- leaning towards industrial investment sales.\n\nLonger term: I would like a role that positions me to cross over my professional income into also personal income (i.e. I\u2019m able to leverage my market knowledge, network, etc. to invest in properties or coordinate deals on my own/side hustle).", "replies": [], "depth": 2}], "depth": 1}, {"id": "euqbd17", "text": "Happy to answer questions. PM me.", "replies": [], "depth": 1}, {"id": "eut0e52", "text": "1. My interest started as I had a my own marketing business doing photography / videography / and graphic design.  Over time I realized I enjoyed the jobs I got dealing with real estate and development the most.  I restructured my business to focus on this, as I grew the business I realized I was doing a really good job with the marketing for these projects yet the brokers were getting all the credit and the big pay days.  Decided to go get my RE license and take over the entire process.\n2. I started in residential specializing in marketing and brokering luxury home developments in the mountains.  My long term goal was CRE but the residential was an easier path to start in.  After two and a half years I left the residential world to pursue my dream of CRE.  I love it and plan on working in the industry in some fashion until the day I die.\n3. Year 1 closed sales volume of $4 million.  Year 2 closed sales volume of $16.9 million..... yeah I had a good year two.  Year 3  volume dropped to $12 million due to lack of inventory. Transitioning to commercial I started over from scratch so as I wrap up year 4 I will be around $5 million it looks like.  80% of my business at the moment is $3-50 million dollar deals so next year I will either be making nothing or a bunch.  Slow deal cycles and a lot of deals fall though at that level so I may be swimming in money next year or surviving on ramens.\n4. Benefits? Whats that?  Oh you mean the free cheap rancid coffee in the break room!\n5. Specifically commercial, the first few weeks was a lot of time spent calling everybody and anybody I had ever dealt with that I thought could potentially have interest in commercial investments.  I probably spent a third of my day calling prospects, a third driving around while studying every listing in costar trying to learn my market in detail, and the last third working on digital marketing.  Now... I am very busy, everyday is different.  Its usually a rush for 5 hours trying to answer client emails and calls that transitions to a mad rush to get paperwork done, followed by a mad rush to do the unlimited things on my to do list for that day I never got to.\n6. I love being a trusted advisor to some of the most influential and affluent people I have ever met.  An example, a month ago I had a client who fired his broker of 15 years because the broker just could not deliver on a property he really needed.  The guy had started 4 separate fortune 500's that he sold, was a presidential advisor to two presidents.  Flew in to meet me on his G550, let me borrow his Audi R8 for a day.  In two weeks of working with him I found him two off market properties that would each work for his needs, he ended up taking both.  Wrote me a letter a week later saying in all of his years of business and investing he had never been more impressed by a broker ever and he would do all of his investing through me in the future.  I also love that every day is something different.  I love seeing a deal that seems impossible be turned into a contract purely because of your actions and negotiating the separate parties issues.\n7. How bad do you want it?  CRE is much much much harder to make a go of it than residential.  Are you prepared to go from 90k a year to zero and work harder than you ever have before most likely?  Your first year you will work your ass off and potentially not make a dime, the second year just as hard and maybe make a mediocre wage, generally its not until year 3-5 where brokers that are going to make it start really making the big money.   This is not a job you do for the money or the sexy image of selling expensive commercial properties.  You really need to have a passion for what the job is, not only is this the only way to survive the tough start up but without that aspect you will never make good money no matter how much time you invest.\n\n&amp;#x200B;\n\nFeel free to pm me with any specific questions.  I love what I do and am more than happy to help someone get started.  You can always consider starting residential and transitioning after some experience like I did as well.  In residential you can be making six figures by the end of your first year if you hustle as hard as it will take in commercial to just build some momentum.  However I would not recommend doing both, its impossible to do both well and be an expert in both markets.  I have never seen a resimercial agent that was respected in either focus.", "replies": [{"id": "evccgoe", "text": "Awesome I will PM you!", "replies": [], "depth": 2}], "depth": 1}]