Exploring a career in commercial real estate. Can someone explain the job of a commercial agent to me, or tell me if my assumptions about the job are correct.
I am a finance major exploring the job of a commercial broker. 

I am assuming the job of a commercial broker is a sales position where you act as a middle man between a business owner who is looking to rent a building, and the owner of the building.  Is this correct?

What would a day in the life of a commercial agent look like?

Who are your clients and how do you find them?

What type of real estate would you recommend pursuing? - office, industrial, retail, etc.?

What are some companies that I could research?



[{"id": "di91q59", "text": "Depends on what you go in to. There are different property types: retail, industrial, office, multifamily, land, etc. You can go in to leasing and them do either landlord or tenant rep, you can do sales and sell investment properties or vacant buildings, there's property management, analysts, and more. \n\nDepending on what you're doing will depend what a day in the life is like but no matter what you'll be doing a lot of prospecting but the type depends on what role you're in. \n\nHard to say what company and what property type without knowing where you are and what you'll be doing. \n\nI'd call a successful broker in each category you're considering and offer to buy them lunch and ask these questions. \n\nYou can be a jack or all trades, but that's a good path to the middle. If you can find a million dollar broker that does a little of everything I'll sent you $100 just for being wrong. ", "replies": [{"id": "di94tuv", "text": "I am in San Francisco, am 1 year from graduation and am looking at Cushman and Wakefield and CBRE, but right now I'm just trying to collect information about the job to see if it would really be something I'd enjoy, so thanks for taking the time to reply to my post!\n\nGreat idea on buying a broker lunch and asking them these questions (but right now I want to get to the point where I sound a little more knowledgeable before talking to them!)\n\nSo, say if I go into retail leasing on the landlord rep side - where do you find these clients and who are they - big businesses or individuals, typically? Where do you find these clients if you're just starting out in the business and have no connections? \n\nAlso - if I go into landlord rep, am I pigeonholed in landlord rep, or do most brokers typically do both landlord rep and tenant rep?\n\nAlso - If I'm in leasing, am I pigeonholed into this or can I switch between finding investment properties for clients and finding commercial space for tenants that I represent?", "replies": [{"id": "di97rfd", "text": "I'll give it a shot- \n\n1) Depends on how much sq ft and market you r in; smaller mom and pop shops vs big box retailers. If you don't have connections will need to hammer the phone, email, go out and network (look into ICSC) and best to partner with a mentor to teach you how to fish \n\n2) leasing- you can do tenant rep or landlord or both. Investment sales- acquisition or disposition for companies. If your at a bigger shop stick to one or other \n\nThere is a lot of activity in retail industry due to stores having online stores and etc. why retail? ", "replies": [{"id": "di9ibw5", "text": ".", "replies": [], "depth": 4}], "depth": 3}, {"id": "dia8fqi", "text": "It sounds like you are interested more in leasing so I'll answer with that assumption. You can go ahead and set meetings with brokers and do a little research ahead of the meeting. You'll find real quick that the more you learn the more you realize there is to learn that you don't know. You'll never be as knowledgeable as the guy you're meeting with. Those are good firms to talk to, also start looking for signs around where you live (which is the market you'll be most familiar with) and meet with those firms as well. You find landlord clients by prospecting landlords just like you would if you were looking for listings for sale. With leasing you aren't necessarily pigeonholed between landlord and tenant rep. You'll likely do both. It's rare that a broker does only tenant rep because it takes a long time and very strong relationships to make a business out of just that, but once you do you're golden because tenant rep makes a larger fee than landlord rep. ", "replies": [], "depth": 3}], "depth": 2}], "depth": 1}, {"id": "di9561z", "text": "If you are seriously considering this as a career the most important thing to keep in mind is that it is a sales job. Your background in finance is a huge advantage and that will help you excel, but you have to set that aside and pour all of your resources into learning how to network and sell. Your finance background will hep you more down the road when you actually start handling deals, analysing them, advising clients and ultimately negotiating. There is also an incredible amount of legal knowledge that you need to acquire as well as learning the ins and outs of a specific niche (office/industrial/retail/land and leasing vs. investment/sales). The ONLY way to get to that point is to find deals and clients, and the ONLY way to find deals and clients is to cold call and network. The better you are selling the faster you will get to the point of handling accounts from start to finish, negotiating deals etc. If you go to one of the bigger shops (I suggest you do) you will be mentored and trained and put on the best path to excel in the industry (provided you can learn to sell, manage the sales process and CONTINUALLY book new business). As a sales person starting out the pay is low and you can go long stretches without income, but if you are selling properly, your income should improve drastically in the second year and continue to improve considerably thereafter. If you last in the industry for at least 5 - 10 years your options for movement within the industry improve drastically and if you want to join a boutique firm, move to a landlord, developer, corporate tenant, or start a business you will have much better success.", "replies": [{"id": "di966x5", "text": "Thank you for your response, I really appreciate the straightforward advice.  I think I have the personality and potential to succeed in sales, but right now have absolutely no experience.  Apart from landing a job with a bigger shop, what do you think I can do right now (even if it is something small) that might help me starting out with sales? - any books you'd recommend?\n\nAlso, what was hardest for you starting out? I've never cold called before, but I could definitely see cold calling as being something intimidating to most people who are brand new to a sales position - especially a sales position in which you are calling people who might be extremely knowledgeable on the subject you are trying to sell them on (which is how I would imagine cold calling in this job).  ", "replies": [{"id": "di96ise", "text": "Get a bartender or waiter job at nice establishment (somewhere that affluent people frequent) and learn how to engage with everyone, and I mean everyone.\n\nLearn how to do this (or something like it) before you even start thinking about sales. Learning sales is mechanical (make x # of calls, convert to leads, close... Or follow this script and this process ... etc.) and it being mechanical is very effective, but unless you can actually learn to build quick engaging relationships you won't be an effective sales person.", "replies": [{"id": "di96qpi", "text": "Currently work as a barista during the day and bartender at night! Just wondering, are you currently an agent?", "replies": [{"id": "dia3iey", "text": "No. I work for a landlord in leasing and acquisitions and look after a $2B portfolio across North America. We hire brokers for nearly all requirements and have had the opportunity to work with the best and understand what makes them the best.", "replies": [], "depth": 5}], "depth": 4}], "depth": 3}], "depth": 2}], "depth": 1}, {"id": "di9wdru", "text": "Companies like CBRE have a lot of positions for finance related people. You don't need to be a broker, but by default it's a \"first job\" for many people and an entry into CRE.\n\nI know on this sub a ton of people want to be brokers, but there are so many other jobs out there that depending on your career path or personality are much better fits. In your case if you want to stick with finance and entry level analyst job would be a great option. ", "replies": [], "depth": 1}, {"id": "dia2nd0", "text": "A great starting role at one of those two companies is research. Get to know the market and who's who. Then get your RE license if you want to be a broker.\n\nAlso, dont talk to the retail tenant rep guy about multifamily investment sales. Typically you need to be focused on one area, office, industrial etc. so make sure when you talk to these brokers that you want to be in their industry. They'll open up more. Also ask if you should see anyone else in the business that you could meet.", "replies": [], "depth": 1}]