Tenant Rep Account (Portfolio) Brokerage, could use some insight
Does anyone work in brokerage, but focus on large portfolio work, or corporate accounts? These groups seem to be common in larger brokerage companies (like CBRE, JLL, Newmark).

I am wondering what your thoughts are on this career path. I am currently on the Capital Markets track (debt/equity placement) at a brokerage company, but have received an enticing offer to join a portfolio management group within my same brokerage company.

What intrigues me is the amount of volume that these groups can do, as well as working with various companies. Debt and equity is kind of boring to me, but I know leasing is a roller coaster when it comes to business pipelines.


Anyway, I just wanted to get some third party opinions, I would appreciate any insight!
[{"id": "dd19t9x", "text": "What kind of questions?? DM me. I may know someone who can provide some answers ", "replies": [], "depth": 1}, {"id": "dd3wt4t", "text": "What are the (general) terms of your offer?  \n\ncapital markets pays a lot better per deal (larger deal size).  tenant rep tends to be quicker deals that pay much less.  There are some exceptions to this but you will be talking very large accounts.  If you are entry level in that space, you are probably looking at a lot of calling smaller retailers or working for national brokers of smaller size deal type retailers.  \n\nThis is true in most of our business, but that right there is a specific spot where one account can make or break you.  And if that one account over or under performs that can be huge.  You are also always going to be under constant concern that they will take brokerage in house (though if you know them and they like you, guess who they will probably hire?).   \n\nI have/had a handful of small clients who are more in the 5-10 location segment and I really never liked that business.  Its a lot of deals that never go anywhere.  A franchisee pops up and  you need to find them a location than they never invest etc.  The company decides they want a location near x and again they just never pull the trigger.  My investment clients I'm pretty good about figuring out if they are serious or not.  Retail is extra frustrating because they can be a serious client who isn't serious about one deal and you still have to do the work.  I find the deals less complex and less interesting too.  There are some retail brokers who do a ton of interesting analysis that I might like, but its not most honestly.  \n\n*shrug* depends what you want I guess.  We are all in a people business, but that particular segment seems much more salesy than capital.  Capital there is more work and a higher degree of expectation, along with a larger paycheck.  tenant rep  you get stuck with small deals where no one is paying you enough to do much work on them, and the people paying you don't even know wtf is going on.  \n\nAt least that is my general experience (as a not portfolio tenant rep broker).  If you want out of brokerage that tends to be a good way though.  I can think of a handful of folks in my city that grew a single account large enough to just get hired and become director of real estate etc and get a nice salary.  If you are just coming into this team though I doubt you touch those accounts. You will most likely be working the stuff no one else wants to do because its a 1500 sf great clips or whatever with a $4k commission that you have to pay a referral to your team lead on because its his account.", "replies": [{"id": "dd3xr3m", "text": "Thanks for the response! The offer includes a base salary, and splits on every deal. What intrigues me more than anything is I will be working from our downtown office, 15 mins from my apartment, as opposed to the hour commute I currently have to our suburban office. I'm pretty young in my career and can suck it up for now. Further, I do not want compensation and location to be the sole driver though. If portfolio work will be good on the resume, then I think it might be worth it. If I will just be pigeonholed to corp real estate or tenant rep, then I'm not sure if it's worth it.\n\n\nThe team focuses mostly on office and industrial clients based out of our market. I know retail can be a headache, but that is not in their wheelhouse. I guess I made this thread to just get a sense if I should stay in capital markets or try something new. \n\n\nWhen I meet with these guys, would it be out-of-line to ask them about their deal volume, how much revenue they generated in 2016, etc.? \n", "replies": [{"id": "dd3ycac", "text": "I wouldn't think so personally.  I'd ask about average deal size and travel too.  \n\nYou didn't mention that last one, but when I think about portfolio I'm thinking retail mostly.  If you don't do that, and do office/industrial, I am assuming you don't have a lot of portfolio clients doing deals in your msa all the time and will be engaging with sub brokers and traveling a fair bit.  Or maybe we are talking differently when we say portfolio work.  I'm taking that to mean my clients are repeat and I'm doing multiple deals a year for them.  If you just mean tenant rep for industrial/office than that is different and a lot of that is one off and will be local.  Again though you are back to a lot of cold calling, databasing tenants/leads etc.  Not that there is anything wrong with that, its just not what I think of when someone says portfolio.  ", "replies": [{"id": "dd3z8b0", "text": "&gt; You didn't mention that last one, but when I think about portfolio I'm thinking retail mostly. If you don't do that, and do office/industrial, I am assuming you don't have a lot of portfolio clients doing deals in your msa all the time and will be engaging with sub brokers and traveling a fair bit. Or maybe we are talking differently when we say portfolio work. \n\nNo you are correct to assume this. So how it would work (I think), is they engage a large company based in our market. A large law firm for example, then they will work with the companies CFO on lease transactions throughout the U.S., splitting fees with boots-on-the-ground brokers in whatever market the transaction is happening. This could also be for industrial users who have a small portfolio throughout the country.\n\nOn the other hand, the team also does one-off transactions for large companies (like a large pharma company, etc.) in the market. \n\nThey are also the call team if a company wants to open an office or facility in our market. (That only happens if the company that is expanding is repped by the same brokerage company elsewhere).\n\nIt's a unique niche that only exists in large corporate firms (CBRE, JLL, Colliers).\n\n\n\nThis is an analyst position, and the only exit opps I see are: become a tenant rep broker, utilize tenant rep skills to become a landlord broker?, work for a corporation handling their RE porfolio or site selection, and that's about it.", "replies": [], "depth": 4}], "depth": 3}], "depth": 2}], "depth": 1}]