Best Route To Learn the Business

[Joshua Morton]

Hello All,

My name is Joshua and I live in the Raleigh-Durham area of North Carolina.  I have been married just under 4 years and my wife and I have a beautiful little girl.  I currently work in the relocation business, but want to cross over into commercial real estate.  I have been looking at commercial real estate companies in my area for ground level job openings.  Learning the business from being immersed around people on a daily basis seems to be the best policy to me.  I love to network and really want to learn this business.  Can anyone on here advise me on any companies to look into or alternative routes to learn the business?  Any advice is greatly appreciated!

Thank you,

Joshua Morton

[Joel Owens]

Hi Joshua,

To clarify when you say (work in the relocation business) what does that mean? You are licensed in real estate and handle owners relocating to other states for residential houses?

If you are not licensed then getting a job at a commercial firm isn't going to pay very much for clerical work. If you have a masters degree as a real estate analyst or similar then the pay can be decent but usually no upside.

If you are wanting to become a commercial real estate agent you first need to go to the real estate schools and pass the tests with the state exam as well to get licensed. You then need to activate your license going to a firm.

You need to decide what TYPE of commercial real estate you like? Retail, self storage, large multifamily,office,hotels,industrial, land development,etc. Do you want to transact or be on the leasing side? If the leasing side do you want to be a property manager that currently leases the center you run for your brokerage or be on the tenant rep side working with mom and pop,regional, and national tenants to find spaces?

There are also business brokers that just handle the sales of businesses and not real estate. Everything in commercial is highly specialized. There is a whole Universe of things you might have never heard of or even have thought of that exist in commercial.   

In the beginning as a newer agent you will be working a lot and making a little. If the town you live in is weak suburban to rural then usually a mom and pop firm is there that handles everything (residential, small time commercial under 2 million,etc.). If you live in a strong urban core to strong suburban market then likely larger specialized firms that transact larger and more expensive assets. In a rural location there might be an occasional sale of a larger asset but due to limited development in those areas the volume will be minimal.

When you go to a commercial firm generally there is a senior director, director, agent, junior agent,etc. They usually have where the senior agent gets most of the commissions and the junior agent gets the scraps and does the most work.

So if on a 3 million sales the commission is 3% to listing broker side that is 90,000 total.

Firm takes half as an example leaving 45,000 to split between 3 to 4 people on a team.

Junior agent might only see 15 to 20% of that amount after the higher ups take their cut.

Most commercial agents average about 80,000 a year. I make more than that on one transaction as a principal commercial broker with my own company as I keep it all. The high up people on a team could make 500k or more a year income but they have to do a lot of volume as half goes to the company they are with.