Providing value to seasoned CRE investor around Tampa
I'm looking to provide value (TBD) to a seasoned CRE investor around Tampa. Investors are busy and most don't have time to be mentors, so I'm willing to pay and/or provide value to their business in a way they would like - deals, analysis, busy work etc. I want to be a type of intern to their visible business life. I'm dedicated, punctual, respectful and follow directions well. Where can I find a CRE investor that would be interested in working with someone like me - a 29yo that has only purchased my own SFH, but passionate about learning more and putting in 110%? Thanks
[{"id": "ghiad5c", "text": "Have you tried having rich parents?", "replies": [{"id": "ghic8fg", "text": "Speaking of parents, my mom is selling her hair salon (within a litle strip plaza) right across the street from a busy beach. I was going to try to get my 'in' this way, but she still rents the land, so not sure I could make it work yet.", "replies": [{"id": "ghifaq5", "text": "Is she trying to sell her business or the real estate? Does she have the leasehold interest in the strip mall?", "replies": [{"id": "ghiic76", "text": "I'll find out more info today. Pretty sure she just rents her space and is selling the business.", "replies": [], "depth": 4}], "depth": 3}], "depth": 2}, {"id": "ghite0m", "text": "Or wealthy grandparents?", "replies": [], "depth": 2}], "depth": 1}, {"id": "ghiawof", "text": "What do you do for work now?", "replies": [{"id": "ghibct3", "text": "Digital marketing, but hoping to do more on the RE side of things to provide value so I could learn more.", "replies": [{"id": "ghink6g", "text": "If you can help with leasing through 21st century marketing right now, you have an in. Offer up a service you already have expertise in. I'm convinced there is a pile of work out there in bringing the leasing experience online. This would be valuable to local investor families, CRE brokers, maybe even some smaller REPE shops.", "replies": [], "depth": 3}], "depth": 2}], "depth": 1}, {"id": "ghiewcz", "text": "This is a difficult time to get into CRE due to the uncertainty of future office space (how many companies will stick with full or partial WFH?) and retail (already hurting from online sales before and now worse due to businesses that won\u2019t last the pandemic,  and now customers are even more comfortable with online buying). In pre-pandemic times, you could take a commission-only job as a broker or an administrative assistant or an internship position with a large CRE brokerage firm. Now a lot of those people are out of work, so you\u2019re competing with experienced people. \n\nSubscribe to any local business journals and keep up with sales. See if you can identify principals in the transactions by digging into LLC registrations. If you happen to know someone who knows those people, ask for an introduction. \n\nSee if a commercial appraiser or commercial property manager will let you buy them lunch. \n\nDrive around and make note of available space and newly leased space. Talk to the new tenants. Learn your area\u2019s zoning issues. \n\nHowever, CRE is very much a national corporate and private equity landscape, and those firms are very closed mouth. It\u2019ll be tough.", "replies": [{"id": "ghigfqv", "text": "Thanks for the insight. Most of this is over my head and wouldn't know what to do with it if I did follow through with your suggesstions. I suppose its more about taking action and failing quickly. For example, if I did find new tenants, I wouldn't know how to converse without it being awkward unfortunately since I don't know what I don't know. Also, I feel just taking someone out to lunch isn't enough. Shouldn't there be a deal involved or something more specific I bring to their attention? Trying to break from being an introvert isn't the easiest lol.", "replies": [{"id": "ghijzta", "text": "You may be suited to a pure analyst position  then. You might have to go for a degree in real estate finance or at least take courses. The Appraisal Institute has some and I\u2019m sure there are many others online. \n\nIf you want to try chatting with a tenant, carry a leather clipboard and introduce yourself as a consultant and ask them who, what, when, where questions in a friendly offhand way. \u201cHey, I noticed you\u2019re new here. How do you like this location? How did you choose it? What other spaces, areas did you consider? Who was your broker? Where were you before? \n\nThey wouldn\u2019t want to tell you specifics of what they\u2019re paying etc., anyway, so these kinds of questions would just help you learn and get comfortable chatting with strangers.\n\nAs for lunch, older people usually like telling young people about their job. As long as they are not super busy, they\u2019ll often agree to lunch with someone interested in getting into commercial real estate. Be upfront and tell them you\u2019re just starting to explore the field so you know almost nothing. Just ask them how they got into it, what they do or don\u2019t like about it, how a typical day goes, if they went to school for it or learned on the job, etc. Usually they\u2019ll do most of the talking if you are an interested listener.", "replies": [], "depth": 3}], "depth": 2}, {"id": "ghigt0d", "text": "I expect most companies to go back to the office. Can't micromanage employees unless you can walk to their desk.", "replies": [{"id": "ghiisis", "text": "I think it will be telling which companies continue at least partially WFH vs those who don\u2019t. Given a choice, I would not work for ones who do not allow WFH, not because I really want to work from home, but because companies or managers that don\u2019t trust employees are probably projecting and aren\u2019t trustworthy themselves. I\u2019ve mostly worked as a contractor from home my entire career, and I know I get more done at home.", "replies": [{"id": "ghikirk", "text": "I'll have to say that you are the exception. Most employees don't do work unless they're at work. \n\nThe remote school has proven that to am extent.", "replies": [{"id": "ghiml7v", "text": "I\u2019m surprised. Everyone that I know personally that switched to WFH in March says their companies have made it a permanent option and that they are happy with productivity. I thought surveys and studies backed this up also. \n\nI went back to school and got a degree in finance online at a state university, and my youngest just graduated high school early with straight As while attending virtual school half of spring semester and all of fall.   She\u2019ll start college online in January. \n\nI did not prefer online school to in-person, but I did it successfully. I am sure younger kids have trouble without parents\u2019 supervising of course. \n\nOh, unless you mean parents working from home while also caring for young children and supervising students at home were not as productive. That would certainly be true for me if I was in that situation.", "replies": [{"id": "ghiq5ul", "text": "I'm glad to hear there are companies that have switched to permanent switch to WFH.  but I still think it's the exception and not the rule.\n\nit'll become a rule when those WFH companies are making more because they have less overhead.", "replies": [], "depth": 6}], "depth": 5}], "depth": 4}], "depth": 3}], "depth": 2}], "depth": 1}, {"id": "ghifawa", "text": "Look around for internships. People are going to be wary of someone just looking to work for free. Plus, unless they are actively looking for help they are probably doing fine and taking time to teach you from scratch will get in the way of their work. I'm not saying it's impossible but i would just start by looking for people who are looking for help.", "replies": [{"id": "ghih4ue", "text": "Not sure if intership is the right word then. I'm more looking for a single person, not a company. It's not working for free to work for free, its gaining knowledge on the way and my 'mentor' would hopefully be on the same page. I'm also willing to pay. I can read all I want, but it doesn't really stick with me until I start actualing *doing*. \n\n\"taking time to teach you from scratch will get in the way of their work\"\n\nIf that person can spend a few hours with me teaching me how to source deals, for example, I don't feel that would be getting in their way since I could potentially bring them something amazing. Once we're meeting, I have my free time to continue searching, not just on their time. I wouldn't consider this a job for me, but more like school I actually enjoy.", "replies": [{"id": "ghijeor", "text": "Yeah so most development shops are like 1-5 ppl. Usually you have a principal who is fronting the cash and has connections and then you have a project manager, maybe a finance person, and an admin. To put this in perspective, i work on a team of 3 in a company of 1000 plus. We are the only development ppl. I work directly for my COO and I'm lucky to get 2 hrs of his time. All I'm saying, is that if ppl aren't looking for help, there's probably a reason. \n\nIt sounds like you're looking for either a mentor or a partner. To find a mentor, I'd look for professional groups in your area. The \"meet in a hotel room investor\" groups can be ok, but I'd look for industry groups: ULI, USGBC, etc. \n\nCommercial real estate is very complex and super expensive. So, to find a partner, I'd recommend coming to the table with either a TON of cash or a piece of land/property under site control. Otherwise, what you're basically saying to someone, and I realize you are dedicated to this but this is how it comes across, that you would like to do their full time job as your hobby. \n\nStart watching videos on Adventures in Commercial Real estate. It's a very useful website. You can download and practice making excel models. There are videos on youtube about the construction cycle.", "replies": [{"id": "ghikk3b", "text": "Hmm, I definitely don't mean for it to come off as doing their job as a hobby. Maybe I'm just bad at explaining myself. I get this is difficult, but determined to find a way. I'll check out the resources you mentioned. Thanks for the help.", "replies": [], "depth": 4}], "depth": 3}], "depth": 2}], "depth": 1}, {"id": "ghikswc", "text": "What you are looking, from my perspective, would be to get an analyst position at a large firm.  To do so, you will need to be very good with Excel, and it wouldn\u2019t hurt to start working toward getting your Argus credentials.  If you don\u2019t know what that is, google it and see if this type of work would be appealing to you.\n\nFrankly, an individual or even a boutique shop is going to be looking for someone with at least some experience.  Statistically, the turnover is very high in CRE and most people leave to pursue other careers.  That turnover is very costly for an individual or boutique.  The big firms, not nearly as much.\n\nIf you do like the work and do thrive in a big shop, it is much easier to make the jump to a smaller shop that may be more gratifying to work for.  \n\nI didn\u2019t go the analyst route because I wanted to be a broker, but followed this path.  It took a long time and a lot of work to get to where I really wanted to be, but there are few other paths there.", "replies": [], "depth": 1}, {"id": "ghj278e", "text": "I'm a commercial broker in Tampa. Honestly, no investors, developers, REPEs, or family offices are going to even give you a response. They barely respond to their brokers that they trust. Like others have said, unless you are an excel modeling pro, there is little chance of landing an analyst position. There are just too few positions in this market. Your best bet would be to get licensed and try to land a position on a commercial brokerage team. You could try to just do marketing for them, but I really wouldn't teach anything about CRE to someone in that position. You mentioned about your mother listing her business. Bring this deal to a business broker and ask if you can work the deal with them. Then network your ass off. It's a very small community considering. Also, you likely can't land a position at a top shop like CBRE, Colliers, C&amp;W, or M&amp;M. Try for residential brokerages that have CRE teams, like Coldwell Banker, Keller Williams, etc.. and then you can make a jump with some experience under your belt. I don't know anything else about your background, but that's what I would recommend for breaking into CRE.", "replies": [{"id": "ghj3sg5", "text": "Thanks for the help, I'll look into the licenses etc.\n\nIf I did bring my moms business to a broker, how could I work a deal with them? Unfortunately, this is how little I know. What do you think a response from them would be?", "replies": [{"id": "ghj9v8m", "text": "If you wait until you're licensed, then you can ask for a small referral fee, but it would be better to forego the fee in exchange for being involved in the process. You just have to find one of them willing to include you. If the business is valuable enough for their time, then I'm sure they would let you accompany on showings if you don't talk and be with them when evaluating the deal. It's just going to depend on the broker.  I wouldn't touch the deal unless it conveys real property too, because my E&amp;O insurance doesn't cover strict business sales. Better to go with a strict business broker. \n\nAlso, FGCAR is a good local source for CRE. I believe you can join without a license. Don't quote me on that though.", "replies": [], "depth": 3}], "depth": 2}], "depth": 1}]