I'm looking for some help here...
I'll be honest fellow redditors... I've been in the business for 3 months. I've already got some closings in the residential side but I have a great friend of mine who put me on a project for their company to help them seek out land and get the deals done... They understand I'm new which is cool... but I don't want to look like a joke.

Here is my questions.

I asked a commercial agent to help me out and he told me 1% of the sales price. Is this fair? This acre we're buying is 300k. 


I'm worried because today they told me we're going to put in an offer on the land tomorrow morning and I'm not comfortable to tackle this by myself. Am I scared to do this? No. Am I worried? Hell yes.


My next question- Do you have any websites I can read up on? I cannot take a commercial class until Feb. This was presented to me in my lap and I couldn't pass the opportunity up to get a ball set on a tee for me in the commercial side.

Thanks guys.

I should add I'm in Texas.

[{"id": "cnfwqkw", "text": "Commerical and Residential are day and night. You shouldn't do your first commercial deal completely alone.\n\nAsk your commercial agent to work with you in the first couple until you get more experience. You will come across new situations in commercial for years and likely your whole career, so it's important to have a network of senior agents from who's experience you can benefit when you have questions.\n\nGood luck!", "replies": [{"id": "cnfxbtf", "text": "Yea I understand. I didn't want to jump into commercial for a couple years but I couldn't pass up an opportunity. Would a 1% fee be too much to pay or?", "replies": [{"id": "cnfxjq1", "text": "Honestly, the fee is the last thing I would be concerned with in your position. You need to figure out how to provide your client with at reasonable quality of service. If you can't do that you could ruin your reputation or that of your firm, you could get sued or face punishment from your real estate licensing board. If you can't do it on your own, you need to get assistance. If you can't do that you should decline them as a client.", "replies": [{"id": "cnfxrrv", "text": "I completely understand. I was already told if a commercial agent wouldn't be able to help me on this deal since it was short notice, my broker said she would guide me through it but would want me to be an \"apprentice\" from a certain commercial agent for my first few deals.\n\nI was just asking since I have no knowledge if the 1% fee is good or bad. I don't know what the \"standard\" is around. \n\nIf I'm asked to do a residential contract from a agent I work with, I just ask $500 and I'll sit in with their client.", "replies": [], "depth": 4}], "depth": 3}], "depth": 2}], "depth": 1}, {"id": "cng5c7u", "text": "Land is hard to find buyers for but isnt that complicated to transact. Just use a Farbar (or your states equivalent) commercial contract, fill in the black spaces. If the seller has a broker they will likley have a pre approved contract, ask the seller. If its land chances are they arnt financing, it should be on the easier side of commercial deals. Especially if they arnt asking you to underwrite (appraise) the land and all you have to do is facilitate the transaction, they probably just want someone to handle the communications and keep the transaction organized. But you should definatley try and bring in a senior commercial agent on your first deal. Talk to the poeple who run the office, if they cant help you, your at the wrong place and need to move your license. \n\nAlso a 1% fee on a small deal like that is TINY. 3-6% minn", "replies": [], "depth": 1}, {"id": "cngcwdr", "text": "I'm going to disagree with the rest of the group.  Depending on the details land can be a huge clusterfuck of pain in the ass stuff that never goes away.  Way way way more so repping the buyer as opposed to the seller.  Do they have a competent developer they are working with?  Are you properly structuring this to work through zoning &amp; planning?  Is any of this contingent on financing the actual construction or are they just paying cash for the land and dealing with that later?  \n\nYour commercial class isn't going to teach you this stuff.  Working with someone who knows what they are doing will.  Look at it as paying him for education.  1% is frankly way low, you should be buying him a nice high end steak dinner and thanking him for the opportunity here.  \n\nMost importantly, your client is depending on you to give them solid advice and help.  Don't worry about looking foolish, make sure you do what you have to do so they are represented well.  From what you are saying, that means getting the commercial guy involved.  \n\nHave you done valuation work on this already?  Maybe I am misreading but if all you are planning on doing here is showing up, saying 'hey how much you want to offer?' then filling in a contract you probably aren't doing enough.  \n\n", "replies": [{"id": "cngfb8m", "text": "I agree if its a development thing and they expect YOU to handle all the logistics that can be a huge cluster f***. probably going to need to get a higher fee to interest another broker to jump on. Were way ahead of our selves, you need to find out the expectations of the people hiring you before you can do anything else. \n\n{EDIT} ALSO i miss read, I thought the entire commission was 1%.... Yes 1% of the gross commission is fair for a commercial agent to help you.... assuming you have a 3-6% commission on the deal or even 2%", "replies": [{"id": "cngghe4", "text": "I agree we are probably getting ahead of ourselves, just hoping OP Isn't as well.  I'm not saying you have to handle all that stuff, but you do have to understand that stuff.  OP's job is to handle the sale and negotiation part.  He might not be responsible for developing a site plan, getting it approved, etc etc but he needs to know who is doing that, and he needs to be communicating with them to know how long that is going to take, and if he needs to build in extensions if p&amp;z shoots it down and it has to go to a commission or something.  \n\nI guess if OP's client is trying to buy vacant land near another holding and literally just wants it and cares about nothing else its a simple transaction.  Just in my experience land ones are near the most complex with the weirdest shit popping up.  I'd not recommend one as a fast commercial transaction.    My fear is him not knowing enough to let his clients know about potential issues.  \n\nMaybe i'm way off, if his friends company deals with this stuff all the time maybe they are basically just figuring they can give him all the terms and expect him to handle the paperwork.  If thats the case its probably not very complex.  \n\nI'm actually big on land right now and trying to amass land listings, pretty much understanding what a PITA they are, so I'm not down on them.  I just don't think they are beginner transaction.  If anything what I've learned with them is they are some of the most interesting ones that expose you to tons of different strategies and businesses than typical assets.  Most of my clients on the buy side or most purchasers on my listings seem to work with competent developers/attorneys etc so I dont' have to handle all that, but I know enough to say ask how long they need to secure a flag on a hotel so when I do handle my part we won't have a large issue half way through the deal.  \n\nThats pretty much all I'm saying ;)\n\n", "replies": [], "depth": 3}], "depth": 2}, {"id": "cngv41v", "text": "Well... To update you guys who have given my a wealth of opinions. \n\nToday, I got the call saying \"offer X dollars for the land please\". They sent their property management people down there and ran all other stuff they wanted to know. I did check zoning for them(they found out 5 min after I let them know, they were already checking). \n\nThis company(my friends) have a lot of people and when something needs to get done, they are go getters and don't wait.\n\nI feel like I wasn't doing enough but they complimented me on my quick response time and I always answered when they called. They knew this is my first deal. But I got a compliment. \n\nI did pull in a commercial guy and nailed down an agreement. A different agent tried asking who they were, and said she would just give me a 25% referral fee and take over the rest and the future plans... I thought that was rude but whatever. I took the advice of 1% to him for my first deal. He has been great so far. \n\nHe helped through the process and we submitted an offer today on some acres and going to put more down tomorrow. \n\nAny other suggestions is much appreciated.\n\nThanks guys. \n\nPS Commercial Guys aren't as rude as they say. :)", "replies": [{"id": "cnh8w0t", "text": "Congratulations.  That sounds like a great opportunity to get your foot in and learn from lots of great people!  \n\n", "replies": [{"id": "cnhsm4y", "text": "Thank you. Although today I had a hiccup with the agent I'm working with on this. I needed his help on a program he has that will show who owns commercial. He told me to come later in the day and when I got there he said he had some other things to do and left... ", "replies": [], "depth": 4}], "depth": 3}], "depth": 2}], "depth": 1}]