Start as a residential broker?
So I want to leave my job in tech by the end of the year to start a new career as a commercial real estate broker. I want to work at Kidder Mathews (Seattle area brokerage) and I know a few people who work there. My question is, should I start off in residential before trying for commercial. My only experience in real estate is buying a duplex as part of my investment portfolio. I believe I would much prefer doing commercial (retail,office), but some people suggest doing residential first.
[{"id": "ejaj2pz", "text": "Residential as in single family home sales? Absolutely not. Has no relation to investment sales. Just try to get in to a good investment sales group at a big shop. \n\nMy response also assumes you want to go into sales and not leasing...if you want leasing the answer is still the same though lol\n\nCredibility: multifamily investment sales broker at top 3 national brokerage shop ", "replies": [{"id": "ejaltv7", "text": "Thank you. It is a bit nerve racking because I\u2019m leaving tech to pursue this new career. ", "replies": [{"id": "ejapi18", "text": "Yeah totally get that. Good luck man. Make sure you have some cash saved up bc most people make very little money in the beginning ", "replies": [], "depth": 3}], "depth": 2}], "depth": 1}, {"id": "ejaj7b6", "text": "Residential and commercial are two very different fields.  Definitely start in the field you want.  If you go residential, you\u2019ll learn to get residential listings.  If you go into Commercial you\u2019ll learn office leasing, tenant representation and listing services.  You need to build your pipeline and your book of business and network need to grow before your savings deplete. ", "replies": [{"id": "ejaka60", "text": "Yeah I\u2019m currently saving money before jumping ship. I know there\u2019s a lot of risk, but real estate really appeals to me. ", "replies": [], "depth": 2}], "depth": 1}, {"id": "ejak2wq", "text": "Definitely do not go into residential if your goal is to work in commercial. ", "replies": [], "depth": 1}, {"id": "ejalnli", "text": "Hey! \nI am an investor in the Seattle and work closely with many commercial brokers from Kidder Mathews and others such as Colliers and CBRE. To answer your initial question no don\u2019t start in residential go to commercial straight away. However, the timing currently might not be the best and here is why. \nI have a friend that started at one of the above companies at the end of the summer and was laid off 3 months later. Not because of their performance but because they were downsizing their teams in prep for the expected recession/economic slowdown. This is not an isolated instance here as I have heard stories of this happening to others as well. Second is there is not much commercial inventory available right now and what there is moves very slowly. It is a difficult time to be a broker right now and even in the leasing side the office market which has been at an all time high has slowed for mid side plates. Much of the numbers are from large space pre-leasing. \nJust my two cents. Message me if you have thoughts/questions. Love Kidder they are an amazing group. However, they primarily try to recruit agents that already have training from other companies as they don\u2019t have much of a sales training course. \nGood luck!", "replies": [{"id": "ekm4ez1", "text": "I get that you are really trying to help but a lot of what you are saying is wrong. Some of it is correct but a lot is wrong. The amount of sq ft currently under construction with a finish date in the next calendar year is substantial. Future growth in Seattle is plentiful as we are improving our infrastructure to support more people, and developers are already taking note and starting projects in and around Seattle, the east side, and Tacoma. Also I work at kidder and got hired right out of college with no experience and no connections, just networked my ass off. I chose kidder over the likes of other brokerages because they have a great runnership program that trains beginning brokers very well. The only other one that is as good imo is cbre but it also takes 2.5-3 years to complete bc you have to be a research analyst for 1.5-2 years then a runner after that. That could be helpful given the salary and extra time, but to each their own.", "replies": [{"id": "ekn84ea", "text": "Thank you for the corrections. Please don\u2019t get me wrong I love kidder. I\u2019m just relaying what I was told when I talked with some brokers there when I was looking at getting into brokerage. But I work very closely with Kidder and they are an amazing group of people.", "replies": [{"id": "ekncye2", "text": "No worries. You have a point don\u2019t get me wrong, as the market realistically can\u2019t stay this hot forever. I just wanted to make sure you knew a little bit about it. Where do you work man", "replies": [{"id": "ekng7jc", "text": "I actually switched to development and investment. We have a few retail and office buildings. We build or renovate commercial properties in the greater seattle area then keep them. Currently on the hunt for more property but being cautious as we do so because who knows where the market is going.\n\nEdit: spelling", "replies": [], "depth": 5}], "depth": 4}], "depth": 3}], "depth": 2}], "depth": 1}, {"id": "ejav3lo", "text": "I can share my experience with you. \n\nI have been full time realtor for 3.5 years, and I started as residential realtor (Vancouver). About 1 year in i found out i wanted to be commercial advisor. It\u2019s difficult to get into commercial from residential side because no one will teach u anything. I self learned all the calculation/bylaws/due diligent because I was lucky enough to be involved in an assembly early in my career (quite rare for residential realtor). I can tell you self learning the knowledge is a difficult path. Furthermore when you want to switch over to a bigger firm (JLL/Cushman/colliers/CBRE) a lot of time people don\u2019t really recognize your experience. This year residential market has quiet down and I finally have the opportunity to search for commercial firm or works for a developer; and it took me 6 months to even get an interview from a major brokerage. \n\nMy advice: if you are determined to get into commercial real estate and become an advisor, go with the big firms. Go talk to all related people doesn\u2019t matter they are advisors, regional director, architect, developers, or whatever and get connections and meet people. Don\u2019t bother with residential experience because they are completely irrelevant (unless you can get inventory leads for development, but that something different.) ", "replies": [], "depth": 1}, {"id": "ejayn25", "text": "I made a similar jump not too long ago. From VFX in film to commercial real estate. I talked to a lot of people about this very topic. One brokerage tried to get me to go residential first but EVERYONE else said jump straight in to commercial. \n\nWho do you think learns more, someone who learns residential and builds up a clientele of families looking for homes or someone who dives in deep to commercial and starts working straight away with investors? \n\nI\u2019m now in commercial (retail) and love it. It\u2019s a bit scary to make a jump like that but if you\u2019re truly interested in it definitely go for it. Just a few more tips from someone who was in your shoes not too long ago:\n\n-Have a good amount of money saved up, these are strictly commission paying jobs and can be a year before you get a paycheck. \n-Find a brokerage who has a SOLID training program (and not just \u201coh we\u2019ll give you a mentor). Even if you do it just for the training and switch. It\u2019s a lot of cold calling and you won\u2019t get anywhere without a decent amount of role playing and practice. \n-Talk to everyone in the office. \n-Remember to have fun. \n\nGood luck ", "replies": [{"id": "ejazuqy", "text": "So 6 months saved up probably won\u2019t cut it I take it? Might have to save around $20k to do this. Can doing leases help with the lack of selling income?", "replies": [{"id": "ejb2l8h", "text": "Some firms will offer you a draw. Basically they pay you a really low \u201csalary\u201d that needs to be paid back from future commissions you earn", "replies": [{"id": "ejb3ojj", "text": "Yeah I heard this one guy on YouTube get an $18,000 one which would help a lot. Commercial real estate seems hard to enter due to needing a large savings account.", "replies": [{"id": "ejb4g5f", "text": "Some places will also offer an analyst role where you have a real salary and slowly transistion", "replies": [], "depth": 5}], "depth": 4}], "depth": 3}, {"id": "ejb3v7t", "text": "Leases can take just as long as sales to get up and running. Unless you have a network of business owners and managers with leases that are expiring and would hire you from the start", "replies": [], "depth": 3}], "depth": 2}], "depth": 1}, {"id": "ejb3nm2", "text": "Everyone's journey in real estate is different. I was a residential realtor my first year in. A long time ago my family owned a lumber company and built single family homes. I liked being in different homes and learned a tremendous amount. My second year I got really lucky and through a family connection started working for a developer. My title is acquisitions and retail leasing, I search properties for tenants we build for and I handle retail leasing for the plazas we manage. If I were to compare apples to apples I would say anything in real estate could take forever and a day to close and even when you think it's a done deal it could fall apart in a heartbeat. I learned that in my first year which prepared me to know and understand what rejection and disappointment is. Real estate is a funny thing, you learn a shit load about yourself and that nothing happens until YOU make it happen. Be true to yourself, be observant, be creative. Doing residential is cool but what's cooler is going to a mall and shopping for tenants instead of merchandise. I am not sure what Seattle's laws are but here in NY you have to be a real estate salesperson for at least 2 years until you can open up your own shop plus additional testing and every 2 years you have to do 22.5 hour of continual education to keep your license valid. I'm rambling now but it's true what \"Utopian1129\" said. Self learning is extremely true and important to practice.. podcasts, You Tube, books.. anything to fuel the fire. I'll end it with a quote that's helped me through the dark times... My pal Churchill... \"success is the ability to go from failure to failure without losing your enthusiasm\"     ", "replies": [], "depth": 1}, {"id": "ejbdfhg", "text": "I work at kidder in seattle, dm me if you want", "replies": [], "depth": 1}, {"id": "ejcb5gr", "text": "If you want to do commercial why delay your path do do resi. Just go for it. The sooner your start the sooner you start getting experience.\n\n&amp;#x200B;", "replies": [], "depth": 1}, {"id": "ek2show", "text": "I started in residential property management (also realtor doing sales), and the company was bought out by a broker who also managed some commercial. He asked if I\u2019d like to be the BM and now I\u2019m managing 100 commercial units and 130 single family residential homes. So you never know what might happen, but they\u2019re both very different. In my opinion residential is much more challenging.", "replies": [], "depth": 1}]