Income Sources as either Industrial or Multifamily Agent
Hope you're all doing well and staying Corona free.

So I have an opportunity to move towards Industrial sales or Multifamily Sales. I'm just concerned about income sources as an agent, hoping you all can help me out. My question is how can you diversify your income sources in Multifamily? and how can you mitigate your downside during an economic downturn?

To elaborate, in Industrial, from what I've gathered, you can sell to investors and buyers, thus increasing your client pool. You could also lease to tenants. If sales volume begin to trend downward you could also diversify by managing the property and scale it up.

In Multifamily (5+) it seems your client profile is only investors. So you're limited to who you can sell to. I've heard you can sell to owner-operators, but that pool of people is small. Maybe you can diversify income by being a leasing agent to these units? not sure if anyone has done this as a commercial agent vs a residential one. During an economic downturn, I'd imagine property management would be more difficult to scale given the nature of multifamily and involvement required per property.

As a commercial agent how have you diversified in multifamily/investment sales? I'm probably missing something, but I'm hoping you can all shed light on my thoughts and correct me where I'm wrong.

Thanks!
[{"id": "frvryms", "text": "In real estate, the smartest thing to do is get high on your own supply.  \n\ni.e. buy deals yourself sometimes.  I'm shocked at how many people sell real estate and don't invest in any.", "replies": [{"id": "frvxrur", "text": "Thats the plan! I'm just wondering what other income streams agents have used, if any, when there isn't any sales going on.", "replies": [], "depth": 2}], "depth": 1}, {"id": "frvsbcn", "text": "For smaller industrial/offices/retail the manager is usually the leasing agent (at least in my market). Would be atypical to have them be two seperate parties for class C/B 10,000 sq feet or less properties. (Good) Property managers have their brokers license for this reason. Property management is not something that scales fast. \n\n&amp;#x200B;\n\nIf you are trying to fill a 30,000+ sq. foot retail space, then it becomes more normal as you are typically filling it with a national/regional store and your looking for a sales agent with those connections to those retailers.", "replies": [{"id": "frvxw5x", "text": "Interesting, I've spoken to Lee &amp; Associate agents, not in detail though, but aside from selling they're managing the building. Was just curious if the same was true on the multifam side. thanks for the response!", "replies": [{"id": "frvysli", "text": "Yeah, think the one step smaller than Lee &amp; Associates.  \n\nThink weird car repair places, the random industrial supply store, the funky strip mall that has not seen major redevelopment in 20 years.", "replies": [{"id": "frw699u", "text": "Gotcha, that makes sense. That's good to keep in mind. Appreciate the response!", "replies": [], "depth": 4}], "depth": 3}], "depth": 2}], "depth": 1}, {"id": "frvt7vc", "text": "I do commercial investing.. let me tell you there are a metric ton of investors out there... your supply won\u2019t be limited. My commercial agent also syndicates as a GP so he gets commissions and a 1% per yr asset management fee. That builds up pretty quick. Mind you these aren\u2019t 5 units, these are 50+ units usually in the hundreds of units. Most of the buyers are from all over the country pooling money so you have a huge potential base. At commercial scale it\u2019s about selling a business not a home.", "replies": [{"id": "frvyf6y", "text": "ahhh asset management and syndication makes sense! This is the type of answer I was looking for. Thanks!\n\nFrom a investor/selling perspective, what problems or desires can an agent solve in order for you to move forward with them? I'm sure you're getting calls everyday about your properties. Curious what would make them stand out.", "replies": [{"id": "frwjxq5", "text": "I'm only a few yrs in, so I haven't sold anything and I don't have a good perspective on sell side other than some untested plans. On the buy/investor side things that stick out to me, in no particular order:\n\n* Honest conservative proforma (no 5% vacancy rates) unless NNN\n* Trailing 12 (T-12) months of income and expenses\n* Good knowledge of the areas, cap rates, foot traffic and demographics\n* Honest assessment of property condition including deferred maintenance\n* Shared goals. If I'm buying 500K - 2M properties, I want to work with the guy/gal that does those... not the person that closes 40M+ properties every 2 weeks. I'm not a valuable client to them.\n* They should invest and be mindful of potential pitfalls and call them out.\n* A connected network of useful people to help post sale: Tax folks, Lenders, Attorneys, Property Managers... that REALLY helps for out of state folks.\n\nGood luck.", "replies": [{"id": "frzq0wz", "text": "All good stuff, thanks!", "replies": [], "depth": 4}], "depth": 3}], "depth": 2}, {"id": "fscad9b", "text": "&gt;My commercial agent also syndicates as a GP so he gets commissions and a 1% per yr asset management fee.\n\nExcuse me, what does GP stand for?", "replies": [{"id": "fscn3zz", "text": "General Partner. They\u2019re the active portion of the partnership... they make day to day decisions and thus get compensated through a management fee.", "replies": [{"id": "fsd0qz0", "text": "Ok, thanks for the clarification. Since general partners have unlimited liability, could this be a danger for them in the CRE space?", "replies": [], "depth": 4}], "depth": 3}], "depth": 2}], "depth": 1}, {"id": "frvwjby", "text": "Being a leasing agent is not recommended. Needing broker license, special leasing insurance,  Older units (pre-1978) likelihood getting sued for harassment, toxic, health reasons are high. Tenants know the laws and use more aggressive lawyers than realtors can afford. Get professional property managers.", "replies": [{"id": "frvy0fy", "text": "That's what I figure, but I was curious if agents still moved forward with it to generate income if they had no sales velocity.", "replies": [], "depth": 2}], "depth": 1}]