Help me better understand the role of brokers vs. agents
I am in Canada (Ontario), and I would like to better understand the role of brokers vs realtors. What are the key differences between Realtor (R) and a CRE broker?

I was recently sent a listing by a Realtor for an $8M rental property (multiple buildings on a lot). It's unclear to me how they came up with the asking price. I thought Realtors only look at comparables; for a property of this calibre, I would think they need to at least look at cap rates, NOI, and do some discounted cashflow homework
[{"id": "hqgid8o", "text": "In Florida, a real estate license is the same regardless of if you plan to focus on residential or commercial. Plenty of people do both. If an agent who focuses mostly on residential gets a commercial listing, they may not know what they\u2019re doing but they sure as hell aren\u2019t going to turn down a potentially fat check because of that. They figure they\u2019ll learn on the fly. Very possible they have no idea how to value the property and are just going with what the seller hopes to sell it at. \n\nIf I were you, I\u2019d do my due diligence and make an offer that works for you, regardless of the asking price. If they scoff at it, explain your reasoning.", "replies": [], "depth": 1}, {"id": "hqgon1g", "text": "I don't know about Canada, but here is the big difference in most of the US.\n\nFirst, let me explain to you some basic information:\n\nThere are Sales Associates and there are Brokers. Usually, you need to be first to be a sales associate and earn some experience in order to have the Broker license. Brokers can open a real estate company and have sales associates working under them.\n\nThere is the Association of Realtors. This is an organization and the affiliates can be either sales associates or brokers. In the residential market,  I would say 99% of agents and brokers are Realtors. This is not always the case in Commercial brokerage. \n\nThe reason is that the Association of Realtors, at least in my market, focuses mostly on residential transactions. Most commercial listings are rarely in the MLS, thus using the Realtor resources for commercial deals is not a great idea.\n\nCommercial deals are usually a lot more complex and require certain knowledge of financial math and concepts, zoning, due diligence, and other skills which are not needed for residential transactions. \n\nTl;DR Commercial transactions are very different than residential properties, thus look for a commercial agent or broker for commercial transactions.", "replies": [], "depth": 1}]