Any insight into interviewing and working at Marcus and Millichap?
I have an interview scheduled with M&amp;M soon and wanted to see if there was anyone here with insight into the interview process and work culture in general.
[{"id": "e7s7n1x", "text": "Meat grinder of a company.\n\nSpend 6 months making a database. Then cold call 250 property owners a week, schedule 4 meetings (if you can). 1 out of every 4 meetings should yield the need for a proposal, then hopefully those proposals turn into sales.Extremely cut-throat office culture, which can be fun or a nightmare. \n\nI think it is an extremely powerful place to get your start and to jumpstart your career. It\u2019s not for the faint of heart though. Be prepared to not make any money for a year and a half. ", "replies": [{"id": "e7s7qdu", "text": "Sounds like CBRE", "replies": [{"id": "e7s8d40", "text": "They wish.\n\nActually, no they don\u2019t.  Those guys would starve if their phone didn\u2019t ring with business. ", "replies": [], "depth": 3}], "depth": 2}, {"id": "e7sajz2", "text": "Appreciate the info. Do you think it\u2019ll look bad to other companies if they see that you only stayed at m&amp;m for less than a year?", "replies": [{"id": "e7sbiim", "text": "It has an extremely high wash-out rate. I don\u2019t think it necessarily looks great, but it happens all the time. It\u2019s all in how you sell it. ", "replies": [], "depth": 3}], "depth": 2}, {"id": "e7xiivw", "text": "This is very accurate.  ", "replies": [{"id": "e8rn1hn", "text": "How much do they charge for the M&amp;M training and how long does it take? ", "replies": [], "depth": 3}], "depth": 2}], "depth": 1}, {"id": "e7s852u", "text": "You have to have the ability to make 0 dollars for two years. If you have that kind of cash saved up or have another way to float by, go for it. ", "replies": [{"id": "e7sa312", "text": "Thanks for the response. Is this the case with most other companies? Also how much would you be realistically spending (e.g. training, licenses, etc) to work there?", "replies": [], "depth": 2}], "depth": 1}, {"id": "e7s9fze", "text": "They will probably hire you and you will learn a lot. It will help you get your next job and hopefully will take those lessons you learned with you ", "replies": [], "depth": 1}, {"id": "e7sbytt", "text": "Boiler room but they do a lot of investment sales so there is experience to gain. ", "replies": [], "depth": 1}, {"id": "e7sc23w", "text": "They would most likely cover those costs, but if you can't spend the nominal amounts to get licensed, you are not in a position to be a MM broker. \n\nThe other route is some kind of salary (analyst) position then transition into a broker after a few years.\n\nStaying power is the most important trait to become a successful full comission broker. ", "replies": [{"id": "e7sd8bb", "text": "They don\u2019t cover costs. ", "replies": [], "depth": 2}], "depth": 1}, {"id": "e7sk2vg", "text": "I just got offered a position with M&amp;M and I'll be starting next week. From what I can tell so far, it's absolutely true what they say about not making money for a long time. However if you're capable of seeing the big picture for an extended period of time, this can be the best job you'll ever have.\n\nFor the interview, it's basically them finding out if you have the personality and financial ability to do this job. Be prepared to answer the questions \"what's the hardest thing you've ever done in your life\" \"Why CRE?\" - this one is simple but important. And, \"how do you think you will handle a large volume of cold calls?\"\n\nGood luck! If you are really motivated to succeed in CRE, they will see that and hire you no problem. Just know that getting the job is the easy part.", "replies": [{"id": "ei4m0o9", "text": "So did you last at MM? ", "replies": [], "depth": 2}], "depth": 1}, {"id": "e7slrkb", "text": "Why do people still try to become brokers? Unless you have a massive network of landlords to tap, what value are you going to add? The fees are low, and going lower all the time since CBRE/JLL/etc view brokerage as a loss-leader to selling other services. \n\nMy advice is develop a proper real estate career, i.e. go to a developer, institutional fund, something like that, get a couple decades of experience under your belt. Then, when you're a veteran and know everyone in town, you can go into brokerage.", "replies": [{"id": "e7st6aj", "text": "I work at a boutique firm in DFW. Tell that to my boss who made $420k on one deal. ", "replies": [{"id": "e7syk0e", "text": "Yes, all the earnings go to the top. No one has any reason to list with a no name rookie with no track record. ", "replies": [{"id": "e7syo8i", "text": "That\u2019s why you work your way up and establish relationships. Plenty of people have done it. ", "replies": [], "depth": 4}, {"id": "e7tkbf0", "text": "generally people break into this business by listing lower priced properties, hard to sell properties, or being a junior broker on listings.... \n\nYou probably aren't going to be doing complex corporate or high income taxes or advisement if you become a cpa your first year either......\n\nPlenty of brokers do well, its about how you get there.", "replies": [], "depth": 4}], "depth": 3}], "depth": 2}, {"id": "e7suc0s", "text": "This is misinformation. Brokerage fees are not low and those fees are a big portion of CBRE/JLL revenue. ", "replies": [], "depth": 2}], "depth": 1}, {"id": "e7svl55", "text": "M&amp;M\u2019s reputation has been deteriorating since I started in CRE 6 years ago. They still do a lot of investment sales but they take anyone and you give up the lion\u2019s share of the commission to your senior broker and the house. \n\nMany top brokers have left in recent years. That\u2019s how I got started, my senior broker left M+M. I\u2019ve read through their training: it\u2019s antiquated and not a good approach to the business, in my opinion. They will make you cold call hundreds of owners which is a good way to break you in. However, the scripts and approach are very aggressive and oftentimes rude. I would look elsewhere. \n\nGood luck no matter where you land. ", "replies": [], "depth": 1}, {"id": "e7tfuin", "text": "I worked at M&amp;M for less than a year and it didn\u2019t hurt me when applying to other places after I left. If you can successfully explain what you learned from your experience there and if it ended up not being a good fit why that was you should be fine (but don\u2019t just say \u201cI wanted to be on the buy side - mostly everyone wants that).\n\nYou will be around a lot of people you can learn from so try to soak in everything you can. You may find you like the type of work. Some do and are very successful and others don\u2019t and end up moving on to something else.\n\nWhat they say about pay is true. Whatever you do don\u2019t go in thinking you\u2019ll get your first check 6-12 months in. Plan for 2 years without a dime.", "replies": [], "depth": 1}, {"id": "e7z55ud", "text": "when i first interviewed at M&amp;M the RM asked me \"do you have a trust fund?\"\n\nit was a while before i put together why he asked me that.\n\nthe single most reliable and consistent predictor of success is staying power.\n\nhere are a few reasons why:\n\n1) you don't chase terrible listings -- people who are going broke and tired of cold calling start buying listings and working with unmotivated sellers.\n\n2) you don't work the buy-side -- nobody makes money on the buy-side until they have closed a bunch of deals. i only ever saw one guy close a buy-side deal at M&amp;M within his first 3 years. it was 2005, the market was white-hot. he latched onto an offshore whale that bought several deals through him and made like $500k quickly. the market turned. i think that guy left shortly thereafter.\n\n3) you can become a go-to guy in the upper-middle level -- M&amp;M has a weird thing where there are a handful of rockstars, then TONS of people at the bottom, but not a lot of new people in the middle. as i saw new \"cohorts\" (for lack of a better word, groups that all went to training at the same general time) come through, there would always be people dropping off over time. and the last few guys who were able to stick around always landed somewhere. sometimes on a team as a senior agent expanded, sometimes in a niche nobody else was doing. i also saw on several occasions where there was a senior agent who covered a property type and they left, then there's this big hole left and the next guy or guys start getting deals tossed their way. M&amp;M is really big on specialization. if the top retail guy leaves, then the next most senior guy or guys will start getting traction. there is, of course, no way to know if or when this will happen, but it happens.\n\n4) you can play the averages -- if you play the averages long enough in brokerage, you'll make money. but it can be a really long time in-between. and it's not just when you start. you may start today, find it takes 2 years to get a check, but by then it might be a downturn. your SECOND DEAL may not close for another 2 years. be ready for it.\n\n5) you need lots of capital even after you start cashing checks -- the first check will take out the cost of training, you'll pay down your credit cards, you'll hold back for taxes (hopefully) and what's left is likely to be not too much really. all of a sudden, that first check is gone and you need another. until you get to the point where you regularly have multiple deals in contract and have multiple listings at the same time, it will be a feast-or-famine struggle.\n\na very close second (if not a tie) is the ability to make 250 calls a week. nobody realizes how hard this really is. b/c you will make 250 calls, and most of those calls are voicemails. but about a third of them are probably conversations, which take more time. and about 10% of the conversations turn into meetings, which take even more time. and about half of those appointments turn into proposals, which take even more time than meetings. and, the 250 calls have to be done EVERY WEEK, so in week #2, when you are making your fresh 250 calls and doing all the above stuff, you're going on second listing appts, you are following up on messages or returning calls that came back in, etc, etc. in other words, it's truly a hard-core 80hr/wk job that has zero paycheck for a very long time and it takes a special person to be able to keep up that volume day-in and day-out for this extended period. keep in mind that 250 calls takes over 4hrs if you have the numbers and literally just go down the list and dial, let the phone ring 4x, confirm the number works, and hang up. maybe you leave a short message.\n\nthird place (related to the 2nd place one) is NEVER sell on the phone. the phone is for one thing and one thing only. it is to set appointments. you do not get listings over the phone. lots of people forget this.\n\nM&amp;M is a good place to start, and they will definitely give virtually anyone a shot at it. that's why the fallout rate is so high.\n\nthis is a culture thing too, b/c they don't protect even their most senior guys. the senior M&amp;M guys i know always complain b/c they will compete for a listing and (especially in multifamily) find they are competing against CBRE, Cushman, and two other guys from M&amp;M. but that works for the little guy. everybody has a shot at it. that's why they started IPA, to provide some protection. but that is a tiny percentage of people.\n\nas long as you know what you're getting into, you will learn a lot. and just maybe make good money doing it.", "replies": [], "depth": 1}]