Learn the market!!.....But How?
Hello everyone!

I am in the DC area and trying to break into the market as a broker. From a financial perspective, I have been able to find some great resources (tdog; A.CRE).

However, one of the things that keeps being brought to my attention is that the "ability to learn the market" is integral to being successful in the business. How would a person who does not have access to Costar or is actively selling/buying/leasing real estate, learn the market? How do you keep up with the market? Do you have any suggestions on the best way to stay up to date?

If I DID have access to Costar, what would be the first steps to learning the market?

Thank you all for your help!! This is a great subreddit!!
[{"id": "g1rcark", "text": "Start reading DC area Bisnow, Washington Business Journal and other industry publications daily.\n\nEdit: also read every local market report from local brokers and all the local CRE related blogs", "replies": [{"id": "g1s41cr", "text": "After reading about a cool deal in Bisnow reach out to people involved and ask about it", "replies": [], "depth": 2}], "depth": 1}, {"id": "g1ruha3", "text": "The best way to learn the market, by far, is to participate in a lot of active deals being negotiated, not by looking on CoStar, which may or may not be relevant to your specific market segment.\n\nHow do you do that? By being a junior broker for a mentor or team. You can get insight into their dealflow and many years of experience.\n\nTrying to develop your own market knowledge from scratch totally on your own would be much much more difficult.", "replies": [], "depth": 1}, {"id": "g1sn3zy", "text": "Nothing replaces boots on the ground. Drive/Walk your market.  Walk buildings and capture tenant information, also take note of occupancy in those buildings.  Input both tenant and landlord data in your cms, then cold call.  Rinse and repeat.", "replies": [{"id": "g1sppt5", "text": "I think this is excellent advice.\n\nI was licensed in Hawaii in 2000 and hung my license with a  local broker. On my first day he sent me out to walk Front St. in Lahaina, Maui, where property values per square foot can be on par with Times Square. \n\nI didn't know anything about commercial real estate, but he told me to try to find out me what merchants were paying in rent and if there were any vacancies expected?\n\nI didn't think anyone would share that info, but I'd come to CRE from journalism, so  I took my notebook and to my surprise a lot of people were interested in starting a conversation and I gathered lots of information. \n\nToward the end of the walk there was a large building across the street from the ocean. It had a  small sign that said \"FOR SALE\" tucked in the corner of the window. I went in and talked to a very creepy old guy sitting in an even creepier dark basement lit by only one bulb and surrounded by lots of moldy old souvenirs from earlier times in Hawaii. \n\nLong story short, I set up an appointment for my broker to talk to the old man in the basement and maybe a year or two later my broker and his partner bought the building and then bought the land under it. And then jumped through all the historic preservation hoops and then remodeled it, and millions of dollars later his family has owns of the best commercial buildings on Maui. \n\nNone of that happened fast, but none of it would have happened at all if I hadn't taken a walk cold calling down Front St.", "replies": [], "depth": 2}], "depth": 1}, {"id": "g1t6ge9", "text": "Try to find people who work in the area that you want to work.", "replies": [], "depth": 1}, {"id": "g1tmbz2", "text": "One thing I would do is sign up for bldup.com.  We use it here in Boston and they are launching in DC September 1st.  They give a lot of info away for free through their newsletter.  Way cheaper than costar if you want to pay to.  If you sign up to the Boston newsletter they have been running ads to sign up for the DC market in there.  There\u2019s nothing better if you want to learn what\u2019s going on in the market and the people behind it.    Good luck!", "replies": [{"id": "g1tmcmz", "text": "**I found links in your comment that were not hyperlinked:**\n\n* [bldup.com](https://bldup.com)\n\n*I did the honors for you.*\n\n***\n\n^[delete](https://www.reddit.com/message/compose?to=%2Fu%2FLinkifyBot&amp;subject=delete%20g1tmbz2&amp;message=Click%20the%20send%20button%20to%20delete%20the%20false%20positive.) ^| ^[information](https://np.reddit.com/u/LinkifyBot/comments/gkkf7p) ^| ^&lt;3", "replies": [], "depth": 2}], "depth": 1}, {"id": "g24aj6f", "text": "I am an appraiser in that area and I'd be happy to help.\n\n\"Learning the market\" is just code for we want to hire someone with more experience. You can't really learn the market if you are not participating in it. Besides, the real estate market isn't special, it behaves like most other markets do. \n\nIt would be a good idea in cover letters and interviews to stress your transferable skills. Do you have any sales experience in other markets?\n\nFeel free to PM me.", "replies": [], "depth": 1}]