Starting a career as a commercial real estate sales associate?

[Nick LaRocca]

Hello,

I'm currently studying for my real estate license. I have a few questions about starting my career on the right foot. I'm only interested in commercial real estate (office, industrial, retail, multi-family) and I've interned in office brokerage (investment sales mostly, did some leasing). My questions are as follows:

1. I know its best to specialize but how important is what you choose to specialize in? 

2. Brokerage is all about relationships so switching cities mid career can be a big deal. So, how do you choose the right market starting out?

3. How important is the firm you work for? I know some have training programs etc but is there a huge advantage working for CBRE or Marcus & Millichap vs a successful boutique focusing its effort on a specific prop type in only a few cities?

[Jordan Ray]

Hi @Nick LaRocca I just passed my exam and said I only want to do commercial but now I am testing both commercial and luxury residential to see what I actually like best. To answer your first question, I agree specializing is best but I am testing each part out to see what I enjoy doing the most. I would recommend finding a mentor, that is what I did. I have one for commercial and one for luxury residential. 

My end goal is to be a large-scale developer so testing everything will be best towards my end goal. Everyone is different. 

When selecting my brokerage I needed to find who would best support my needs, while giving me the best education. Hope this helps.