Multi family investment brokers: selling multifamily at CBRE/JLL vs residential brokerage.
I have a question for you all. Is there any value to the investor in dealing with a big commercial real estate company, i.e. CBRE,JLL, vs working with a regular residential broker. It looks as if the big brokerage houses have to compete with the residential agencies, and there there seems to be no value in working for a big broker vs a smaller residential agency. Thanks for the help. I'm a new CRE broker. 

Edit:
When it comes to multi family investment sales, the big brokerage houses seem to compete not only with other big CRE firms, but also the small residential agencies. Big forms like JLL, CBRE, seem to.be better equipped to.handle office, retail, industrial etc..Please help this newbie.
[{"id": "cxr78sl", "text": "I would also like to know. Thanks for the question", "replies": [], "depth": 1}, {"id": "cxr7q7u", "text": "The size of the asset should determine the kind of broker on the deal. I mean size in terms of value though it's easiest to talk in terms of units for MFH.\n\nIf you're dealing with a 4-unit asset you'll likely want a smaller, local operator. They'll likely have the local knowledge and the time, along with a network of local high net worth individuals that may be interested.\n\nIf you're dealing with a 200 unit asset you'll likely want a larger shop and their full marketing process. Detailed OM, broad network of investors, expertise at navigating high value transactions.\n\nIt's the same for any piece of real estate, I think. Larger transactions are best served by large shops. Smaller transactions by small shops.", "replies": [], "depth": 1}, {"id": "cxrjmk0", "text": "It depends on the buyer you are targeting. Large commercial brokerages will be able to market your 250 unit building to larger, out of market investors.\nIf you are selling a 5 unit house, a local residential broker may be the way to go to market with smaller local buyers.", "replies": [], "depth": 1}, {"id": "cxs6vrn", "text": "Here is kind of how MF brokers break down:  \n\nThe first class is true residential.  These are the guys selling 4 families etc and occasionally slight larger properties (say 12 units, 8 units etc).  Unless you are dealing with 4 units and below, I'd avoid this crowd.  They do not typically understand income oriented sales, financing etc.  \n\nThe second class is what we call resimercial or acci-mercial.  These are typically agents who started in residential and now do small commercial properties.  You are most likely to see these guys again in that 12 units and under space.  For that size, some are good and some are bad.  Probably more bad then good IMO.  There are some good though.  \n\nThe third class is more commercial agents with residential brokerages.  This happens for a variety of reasons including brokerage buy outs, agents who act very independently or teams that really don't want or need much assistance from their brokerage and shop for the best fee splits.  Think Huff Commercial, Remax Commercial, Berkshire Commercial (which incidentally is a good example of the buy out thing, Prudential Commercial is who that use to be and that wasn't a bad brand).  These guys typically operate in the 10-100 unit spectrum.  A lot of them are good in that space, some aren't.  They deal with mainly local owners and buyers.  \n\nThe next branch up is the boutiques and smaller nationals (not really in size, just in how they run brokerages).  SVN, NAI are good examples of nationals.  In my market we have a few independents who do tremendous business here (more than cbre etc).  They will of course have some national contacts and can do national deals, it just isn't their focus.  You are looking probably in that 50-200 unit range here.\n\nYou bump up a level to the big nationals like CBRE, M&amp;M, JLL after that (actually JLL specifically I might stick down a notch with svn etc but they have a culture more similar to the others I mentioned).  These are the guy who primarily do the 100+ properties.  They do not always work locally.  If a property is 400 units in Iowa it is very likely the buyer and seller are on the coasts, they will have complicated financing, and they will engage brokers who are in the top markets to handle this transaction.  They will probably pull their local office in for support or at least as a broker of record.  When people talk about capital market transactions, these are the brokers that get involved there.\n\nMany agents flip between them.  Particularly that boutique and smaller national branch tend not to recruit new agents, or provide much training.  The more common thing (At least that I have seen) is for someone to start at say CBRE and get a few years of experience and some business then they figure out their boss has been running shit for 15 years, they are never taking his job, and they have topped out there.  So they jump ship to one of the smaller guys where they can get better splits, run their own business, and ultimately make more.\n\nI'm sure this varies a lot on market too\n\n--edit-- i used units but I'd concur with /u/vacationawayfromwork that value is what matters.  Its just easier to express in terms of units.  You have to understand too someone like CBRE is going to have a team with marketing people, analysts, etc working on your project.  Someone like SVN is going to run much much leaner.  They can profitably take less valuable projects.  That isn't really to say either gives better service, just there is a lot of overhead certain places that make them less bureaucratic ", "replies": [{"id": "cxsflwb", "text": "This is an excellent picture of the MFH brokerage landscape, OP. Look here. ", "replies": [], "depth": 2}], "depth": 1}, {"id": "cxv0u7v", "text": "I work for a regional firm that is dominant in the multifamily market. We've been around a long time and in our markets we garner just as much respect as the big boys. We don't always get the institutional product like CBRE might get but we routinely sell deals in the tens of millions of dollars and a few over $100M. I think if you go to a reputable firm that is regional you can do just fine and even have some advantages over the bigger shops. Of course, the opposite can also be true.", "replies": [{"id": "cxvxroo", "text": "Out of curiosity, did you start with them or join when you were already established?", "replies": [{"id": "cxwukp2", "text": "I started with them. ", "replies": [], "depth": 3}], "depth": 2}], "depth": 1}]