Suggested brokerage supports both commercial and residential?

[Zach Adamson]

Hi! 
my name is zach Adamson and I am brand new to BP. I will be sitting for my RE license exam in a few months, and am also involved in a few budding real estate investments. 

My question is rooted in picking the right brokerage where I should hang my license to support the commercial real estate lease negotiations that I manage in my professional career, as well as the residential projects I manage on the personal wealth building side of my life. 

At my day job we consult with c-suit executives of retail, restaurant and location based entertainment clients using proprietary data licenses to help them determine the best location for opening new stores, analyzing can cannibalization of existing stores, competitive analysis and more. There is a huge opportunity that the company wants me to pursue of not just suggesting real estate, but then also managing all the way through the transaction. It is one of the reasons for getting my RE license.

On the other end, and the initial catalyst for me getting my license is I have a couple of syndicate groups focused on SFH build/reno and lease forming in my network that need a real estate agent and I fit the bill. I will take a portion of my commission on any of the deals and invest it into the deal to get residual income without necessarily having to come out of pocket.

When picking a brokerage for where to hang my license, I am finding that most brokerages (rightfully so) specialize in one or the other. 

Does anyone know if I hang my license at a commercial brokerage, if that will cover any residential transactions? Will they be able to support very well on those transactions? Will they feel entitled to commission on those transactions? 

The inverse questions also being applicable if I hang my license at a residential brokerage. 

The real question being is there a brokerage that would do a good job of supporting on both sides of the real estate spectrum? Or is there an alternative suggestion to consider?

Thanks BP fam! 🙏🏼🙏🏼🙏🏼

[Jonathan Greene]

Most traditional brokerages do both residential and commercial, but there are stand-alone commercial brokers who do the majority of the commercial business. If you look at a commercial listing by a residential agent, it's pretty bad, no data, no metrics, no true CAP. When you see a true commercial listing by a commercial agent, it has all the data, true pro forma, etc. So, take a brokerage like eXp. They have an entire commercial brokerage that you can join, but if you join the residential brokerage, you can still do commercial. It works like that with most brokerages, they just may want you to get a cert in commercial since most "regular" agents bone it up pretty good.

[Scott McElhaney]

I agree 100% with Jonathan’s response & advice to you Zach.  Personally when I’m hiring a Broker to either lease or sell a Commerical property I don’t even think about brokerage firms who do both Commerical & Residential brokerage. I look for a firm that not only specializes in Commerical leasing & sales, but also specializes in the particular asset class within Commerical real estate. In other words if I have a retail unit I’m trying to lease I want a broker that specializes in retail leasing.  In my experience going with this pointed approach means you have a broker on your team with intimate knowledge of that asset class & a deep network to boot.

[Carlos Pelegrina]

Hi Zack.. I went through the same, I am an architect and real estate investor and got the license to support that.

it seems you have experience and already some clients.

I think EXP is the best option so far for that, beside many different income streams it provides.

you can do both, residential and commercial from the beginning, and you are tide to MLS geographical locations, I will allow you to do both from the beginning. Actually I had a commercial property in a different state and convinced my business partner to join just because of that. it has great support and incredible people helping at any time.

Contact me if you want to know more.

Carlos

[Marian Huish]

Ditto what @Carlos Pelegrina said @Zach Adamson-  Not many brokerages support both and for those agents who join under eXp Commercial, they receive an 80/20 split with $20K cap which is unheard of in the industry!  Same if you join the residential side but cap is only $16K…. So essentially, after you sell $2.6M in residential or commercial sales, you then receive 100% for the remainder of the year.  Resets each year.  Best of luck with your exam and decision!