Being a broker is not as hard and painful as 99% of the comments in this sub
I have been a broker for just over one year and made over 300k in my first one working at a boutique commercial brokerage. Yes there may be some circumstances that helped me more than others but being a commercial real estate broker is not as impossible or difficult as people make it out to be. It simply requires patience, hard work, and dedication with the understanding that success is not going to come over night. But the comments where “it will be three years until you make a livable wage”, “you should be an analyst for 3 years first”, or this idea you need to work at CBRE or JLL really discourages people going into the business. I completely endorse brokering with the same caveat as anything else, it isn’t for everyone. But if you have the time, patience, financial security, and passion than fucking go for it.
[{"id": "gv6g94r", "text": "What\u2019s your asset class or product?", "replies": [{"id": "gvcla9v", "text": "Multi-Family", "replies": [], "depth": 2}], "depth": 1}, {"id": "gv6rrn6", "text": "All Depends where you live, who you have as a mentor, what your asset class is, your resilience to being told to fuck off and being hung up on, and how hard you are willing to work. Been doing this for 8 years at a big shop and have seen countless people come in and leave 5-12 months later.", "replies": [], "depth": 1}, {"id": "gv6s14x", "text": "Welcome to survivorship bias 101. To our left, we see a lucky newbie who attributes his success entirely to skill and hard work!", "replies": [{"id": "gv7amfp", "text": "This is getting some upvotes so I want to be clear (and make sure you don\u2019t take the original comment as a personal attack) \u2014 I\u2019m not begrudging you your success! You worked hard and I\u2019m glad you\u2019re seeing success. You deserve it.\n\nThe thing I\u2019m commenting on is the assumption baked into your post about people who do *not* see the same levels of success as quickly. Sure, some might not work hard enough. But many who were smarter and more hardworking have failed, as is the case with just about everything. It\u2019s important not to fall to hubris.\n\nI know I\u2019m being a lame blowhard by being so explicit but it\u2019s the internet and shades of gray don\u2019t exist out here.", "replies": [], "depth": 2}, {"id": "gvcml5v", "text": "But I mean how much of brokering is really luck. Luck is when preparation meets opportunity. I don\u2019t think it\u2019s just a run of the mill roll the dice kind of scenario in terms of who succeeds or not. I haven\u2019t met anyone who cold called for 4 hours a day for 4 months consistently who didn\u2019t make money brokering real estate. But I have met a lot of people who didn\u2019t put the work in and are willing to chalk up their failure to anything else but themselves. Being in a commission only position is being an entrepreneur in the sense I eat or starve based on my ability to perform. If I\u2019m starving I\u2019m simply not that good of a broker. The reason I say that is because there\u2019s 10s of thousands succeeding right now but apparently they were all just lucky.", "replies": [{"id": "gvvaz9r", "text": "One of my friends is well into 7 digits a year of commissions.  I would be substantially less successful.  I can't stand cold calling so brokerage would not a good fit.  Him? He tracks every call.  He has a team and still made over 2800 calls last year personally.", "replies": [], "depth": 3}], "depth": 2}], "depth": 1}, {"id": "gv792ar", "text": "Worked in several industries with high churn and have witnessed the 80/20, 90/10, 95/5 in action.\n\nDamn near impossible to predict who makes it, who fakes it and who fails with any kind useful accuracy. (Including myself)", "replies": [], "depth": 1}, {"id": "gv85e8r", "text": "&gt; But if you have the time, patience,** financial security**, and passion than fucking go for it.\n\nWhat did you do before this to get your financial security out of curiosity?  Not saying it can't be done, but most of that \"it will take years, be an analyst first etc\" advice is aimed at new college grads.  \n\nI've seen other people who come into this business who owned other businesses already, worked for developers/construction folks, came out of corporate RE etc who hit the ground running much faster and already have a book of business before they get a RE license.  I'd just say thats the exception rather than the rule generally.  The second group that seems to defy the typical advice is the very wealthy who really don't need income and can get referrals from their parents friends/family.  If you can go to a family party and tell your rich aunts and uncles now is the time to drop a few mil into apartments, NNN's, or whatevers and they actually do it yeah obviously that isn't going to be as hard as someone who is on the phone all day trying to get a listing from a stranger.\n\nAnyways I'm curious what your story is.  Why post this without giving more background?  Humblebrag is fine but folks could learn something from you if you share how you found early success.", "replies": [{"id": "gvcly4i", "text": "For me early success came from finding the right mentor. If you look at how many brokers there are in a major city there is hundreds to thousands. A lot of them have never owned or really invested and operated in real estate a high level and some have. I have learned and had the success I\u2019ve had by working as a broker as I learned from someone who was not only a broker but has had immense success in the principal position running development, construction, syndication and more. I think for me it is the irony that there are people who are at the highest level of intelligence in real estate, economics, or whatever but they have never even owned a 5 unit building. That person in reality is disconnected from understanding what owning real estate is and as a result work for years in a corporate but never find success. I mean truly ask yourself how many people in your real estate company own real estate and that will put a decent reflection on where you are and why.", "replies": [], "depth": 2}], "depth": 1}, {"id": "gv87y4d", "text": "Yeah, no you didn\u2019t. You probably made $30k but worked on a team that did a few sizable deals and you think that\u2019s what you could have made. Or your dad purchased $30m in real estate and you tagged along to collect a fee.", "replies": [{"id": "gvcl9md", "text": "Hahaha it went to my pocket but I can understand the disbelief", "replies": [], "depth": 2}], "depth": 1}, {"id": "gvc3hpy", "text": "30 years as a CRE salesperson here -\nYou are extremely lucky to a found that position as I\u2019ve mentored four young people And there is definitely a learning and income curve. However- Industry wide we\u2019ve learned a lot of millennials expect instant gratification and are not willing to put in the work and time to become successful.", "replies": [], "depth": 1}, {"id": "h259l0f", "text": "Can I DM you? I'm interested in becoming a CRE broker and got some questions.", "replies": [{"id": "h2oo8zp", "text": "Go for it", "replies": [], "depth": 2}], "depth": 1}]