Going from residential agent to commercial

[Marcus Auerbach]

This is a question for commercial agents who came from the residential side that I am contemplating a lot and hope to get some insights. I have been an investor much longer than I have been a (residential) agent; my main reason to get licensed in the first place was to submerge myself more in the real estate market and gain additional insights and connections. I am pushing a good amount of business, but have noticed two things in the last months - my learning curve has started to flatten a lot and the connections I make are mostly with young investors. I absolutley enjoy mentoring, but I fall short on being mentored.

I have been speaking with the two biggest commercial brokerages in my metro area and of course they have an interesting story to tell; however I am somewhat sceptical if that is the right move for me. 

How does lead generation work for commercial agents? Is it true that a lot of it is the old boy's club and about the connections you have made 20 years ago? How does one break into that? I don't mind a good challange and hard work, but with the lack of a plattform like MLS it seems there is a lot of insider business being done.

I come from a corporate background and like the idea of working in a commercial setting. Residential real estate sometimes brings out the worst in people and it's a lot of nights and weekends with anxious clients - often times managing the emotional state of my clients is a bigger job than the actual deal, which is quite simple.

Keller Williams Commercial does not exist in MKE and I thought about spear heading it, but it seems to be crazy to take on that task if I could just join one of the market leaders and learn from someone who knows how to do things.

This is all part of a much larger question - where am I going to take my professional career? I have been a little bit all over the place in the last years: aside of managing our own portfolio and working as an agent I have also taken on some high end rehab jobs as a GC and I am currently cutting my teeth on new construction. The big question I am trying to answer for me is what's next and how do I bring focus back to what I do?

[Matt Honeyford]

Marcus, 

I’ve recently made this transition. I’m not a huge fan of residential, I feel that there’s no loyalty and too many emotional buyers/sellers. Commercial real estate has sooooo many things you can specialize in but it takes forever to get paid. 

Leads are a tough if your not partnered with a big commercial brokerage. I work with a company that primarily focuses on residential, in fact I'm the only commercial rep in the office. To generate leads I cold call, send letters, and advertising. I'm not sure about the old boys club thought, just be a person and go out and make relationships. There is an MLS for commercial, it's called CoStar. It's expensive, contractual and they own the market.

You and I struggle from the same problem, we are all over the place. I recently have found some success in identifying off market multi families and representing tenants. Both of which I have a great understanding of. It also helps fill the gaps while waiting for flips. 

Somebody told me once that you can only do three things very well, four is too many. I try and follow that lately. I’m building our rental portfolio, working as a tenant rep and identifying off market multi family homes. 

Hope this helps