Burnt - Unproductive Week
I got into commercial brokerage about three months ago for a tertiary market, which I like personally. I’m enjoying the job, but I feel like this week I wasn’t as productive. I was tired and just didn’t want to do anything hardly. As a result, there were a couple half days and working from home type situation. 

Is this normal, where you get a small period of “blegh” moments? Or is it a big warning sign? Also, do any of you have any advice on improving this?

By the way, there’s another new agent who’s doing a bit of a different strategy. He’s gobbling up all the small stuff, seems to be doing alright. I instead decided to get in good with the top investment broker at the firm and so my deals are taking longer. Just wondering, what’s your input on this? I want to make sure that I’m doing what I need to do in order to scale this into a well paying career I can love. 
[{"id": "donh791", "text": "I started in CRE just after college and recently switched to a mortgage banking and brokerage firm, been in the industry for almost 3 years. \n\nDon't worry when it's slow. It gets deathly slow 1-2 times per year, you just have to ride it out (I did real work maybe 8hrs/wk for 3 weeks of last month).\n\nWarning signs will be less to do with your market and more systemic to the entire industry, just keep a lookout for national dealflow, rate hikes, etc.\n\nI switched from a securitization firm that sold bonds of large commercial assets to a small firm that almost strictly brokers $1MM to $10MM properties and debt. This strategy is something that you'll have to come up with yourself, but you typically make more bps if you're doing smaller deals. They're also more abundant and easier to win. Larger deals are harder to win, but you make a ton more money on each individual one simply based on sheer dollar amount. Deal size doesn't have to do much with timing, selling and financing a commercial property is an arduous process, regardless of size. Since your're new, you can simply ask your MB what gives between the guy doing smaller deals and you doing big ones? Ask him about the mechanics of it. \n\nYou're in a very hard field, as institutional clients are insanely hard to win. BUT, when you do win, you make it rain. That's just the nature of the business. After you get a few consistent clients, you'll be fine, you're just in the teething stages now.", "replies": [{"id": "donu0qk", "text": "I\u2019m in the brokerage side of things, but when it gets like slow, I feel like \u201ccrap. I have to be doing something wrong.\u201d I see these other guys that are still doing deals, and so I\u2019m trying to handle that. \n\nI came out of tech, where something important happened every single day. Here, I\u2019ll have to wait a week or two just to get information sometimes. So that\u2019s a tough transition too. \n\nThanks for the advice though, it does help make me feel better. ", "replies": [{"id": "doo1t37", "text": "All that stuff you thought was important may be meaningless. When you are in commission, most of the \"work\" you do will be free. \n\nDon't feel bad when you are unproductive, most of the stuff you thought was meaningful probably wasn't. \n\nIt is a different beast than most other jobs. It is feast or famine, and the people who are busy now are working on things they started 3-5 years ago. \n\nMost wash outs are at the 3-5 year mark. It takes that long to even see if anything is happening. \n\nThat being said, this is for leasing. If you are in sales, like NNN or Multifamily, well then disregard everything I said before. \n\nSales, at like Marcus and Millicap, is a grind. If you don't want to do the grind, get the fuck out. That is the whole job, which is why they have a turn over rate of like 80%. \n\nIf you are in leasing, I hope you are working with a senior guy, otherwise not sure how to make it in this business. ", "replies": [{"id": "dooml7t", "text": "Our markets small enough that I\u2019m doing both leasing and sales. But I\u2019m focusing more on the sales side. I don\u2019t mind the grind. Just this week felt a bit off, wasn\u2019t sure if it was me or what. \n\nI am trying to learn what\u2019s worth my time and what\u2019s not. That seems to be like 70% of the struggle. ", "replies": [{"id": "doowiy9", "text": "Sorry to be rude, but are you literally deaf? How do you take phone calls. I have never seen a deaf broker,  since I have been in the business, I am wondering how that could work. ", "replies": [{"id": "dopn9mi", "text": "It's not rude :) I'm always happy to talk about being deaf. I'm about 70% of the way there. I have a progressive hearing loss, so eventually, I'll be completely deaf. Which is why I'm probably not in the haul for 20+ years like I see some people. I'm more likely going to be in for 10 years or so, transition over into investing/development.\n\nAs for calls, I have top of the line hearing aids. They connect directly to my phone and lets me carry on a conversation. That being said, I'm in the top 1% percentile of deaf individuals on a conversationalist basis. Been professionally trained in lip reading, context and context clues, etc. Meaning in a sentence of 10 words, I might catch four or five and can piece it all together.\n\nNot going to lie. On particularly busy days where I'm constantly 100% focused, I get really, really tired.", "replies": [{"id": "dosvuek", "text": "Personally, I would look into jumping ship out of the sales job and into something a bit more boring and salary based. Downturns are ugly, and I cannot stress enough the importance of a steady paycheck. Being in a small market seems like a lot more work than it should be, and the most productive years for brokers are when they are 50-60 and milking all the connections they made when they were 20-30. So if you are not planning on staying that long, it seems like doing a lot of work for nothing. Building a sales network is hard work. \n\nBest of luck to you. ", "replies": [{"id": "dot183z", "text": "I actually really appreciate you. Not too many people are as blunt and as honest as this. \n\nIt\u2019s something I\u2019ve considered. I decided I\u2019d go at least a year until I make a decision to pivot out into something else or not. I wish I could stay in for 3-5 years, but I don\u2019t have that luxury due to the amount of \u201chearing time\u201d I have left. It is worth mentioning that I\u2019m working on getting into real estate development with a buddy of mine. I\u2019m hoping that works out because that plays more along the investment/development angle that got me interested in the first place. \n\nI really do like the control aspect of this, and how I can take a vacation if I need or want it. With a boring salary based job, I\u2019d lose that.", "replies": [], "depth": 8}], "depth": 7}], "depth": 6}], "depth": 5}], "depth": 4}], "depth": 3}, {"id": "dooef1o", "text": "Remember you have to fill your pipeline enough so when things hit months later, they all hit steadily one after another. ", "replies": [], "depth": 3}, {"id": "dpf7u2g", "text": "The hardest part is when you see other people closing deals, there is literally nothing you can do to close some deals soon too. Commercial real estate is a long term endeavor and deals can take years to close sometime. So just focus on filling your pipeline. You want to be busy planting the seeds that will turn into closings for you in the future. All you can do is help your future self.", "replies": [{"id": "dq6bc6z", "text": "Sorry, super late reply, but it absolutely frustrating. It's even more frustrating when I'm working with a potential, and then they turn around and just go with someone else that's been in the field for 40+ years. Unfortunately, there's a lot of old folks who have been in the field for ages and ages in my smaller market, so I feel like it's very hard for me to get a leg in at all.", "replies": [], "depth": 4}], "depth": 3}], "depth": 2}], "depth": 1}, {"id": "dooedl7", "text": "Doing industrial tenant rep and leasing, started over 4 months ago and I know EXACTLY what you\u2019re talking about. I think it\u2019s normal man. Some weeks just flow more than others. ", "replies": [{"id": "doomu91", "text": "Shit man, we should be motivational pen pals hahaha. But yeah, if you\u2019ve felt it too, it\u2019s kinda reassuring. I\u2019m trying to set up meetings for this next week, so hopefully it\u2019ll flow better. Whats interesting is almost everybody at my workplace has a second gig going, real estate dev or hardcore investing. I wonder if it\u2019s just my market being small enough that other people just started doing stuff on the side as well to help that feel of the flow. ", "replies": [], "depth": 2}], "depth": 1}, {"id": "dou4vcq", "text": "You will have good days and bad, it's a marathon, not a sprint. It can take 2 years to get a large deal done, so you've only seen a glimpse so far in 3 months. But you should be involved and most importantly learning and building your experience most days. That's hard to do working from home, you need to be interfacing with clients, senior brokers, etc. to learn.", "replies": [], "depth": 1}]