@Paul Dalton Think of the insurance agent market broken into 3 areas;1)  State Farm and Nationwide agents are referred to as "Direct Writers", meaning they only represent 1 company.2)  Independent agents - Reps for 10-50 companies.3)  Tweener - Erie is represented by independent agents, but Erie, the company, will only partner with small agencies as they want to be the main choice for that agent.  

I'm having my "interview" today, which after reading all these comments if I have the money I'm a shoe in!  

@John Morgan I was in your shoes a few months ago.  

At our last meeting our association rep let us know that we are well below those thresholds at 25%.

What is your approach if you are in my shoes? 

@John Mathewson as @Aaron McGinnis stated you don't really save as much as you think I buy lots of fixtures farm sinks etc from Amazon also other materials from discount center and other suppliers that if you go in and sit down with a sales rep you will get a hell of a lot better deals that what is on the price tag in the store front.But John what I do for every project is lay out a scope of work and spec sheet that is itemized in categories which lays out how many sq ft, sku or item # the store, location in the house, etc etc I would be happy to share this with you.  

I put 0 credit or thought into him selling his portfolio, not just for all that but also he is what, 70+ now, and a Billionaire, yeah, in those shoes, I'd probably go buy an island, build an entire city on it, buy a moth-balled destroyer and invite my friends to have a fun filled weekend of just blowing the place up for S&G, just because I could.     

I’m co-repping a tenant right now with a residential agent that reached out to me because he didn’t have any commercial experience.

If you are able to get REPS status, that would help tremendously.

@Matt Rubin - Go sit down and talk with your local Section 8 housing rep.