I wanted to introduce myself. My name is Mark and I am a 28 year old residential broker. I have been in real estate for 6 years. My family has been in the business for 15 years, primarly residential. I really like what I do but I think I would be better suited for commercial. I worked as a Commercial Lender for a large bank for three years before getting into residential sales.

My family owns the company I work for and there are no commercial agents in my office. So I don't have anyone to lean to for advice. What I would like to know is how would I even begin to try to break into this "Good-Ole-Boys" club and start to get my feet wet. I am willing to do this slowly because of my residential business but I would love to eventually be in commercial full time.

Thanks for any help and advice.

Mark
Greensboro, NC

By the way...I love referrals.

G'boro, NC...i've got friends that went to UNCG and live outside of G-boro...cool little town.

When you say you want to go into comm real estate, what type do you mean? do you want to do free standing buildings? strip centers? Industrial? Land? Multifamily??

I would first pick which area you want to specialize in...each type has it's own subset of buyers and rules to work by if you will, and there is an entirely set of stuff you need to learn for each one.

Come back and tell us what direction you want to go in comm and then we can get more specific.

First thing i will say is defintely pick one route that appears to be profitable and of greatest interest to you and then become the expert in that area. Pick an area that you already know and understand market needs. For example, 90% of my work is within about 5-10 minute drive of my house and there is pretty much not one deal that goes by that I am either not involved in or know everything about it (to the point people joke and ask me when the city is passing the ordinance that i am to be the one and only broker here).

I guess my thoughts have always been around the free standing buildings and strip centers. But I obviously have more experience with selling rather than leases. But I do appreciate the time you have taken to help me out.

leases, in my opinion, are a massive pain. Only leasing i do is on properties i own.

Income producing properties always have a demand and frankly, can be much easier to sell in a timely manner given the current market than raw land is or can be. I would really pick an area that you know well that you think is very strong commercially and at a scale that you think you will be comfortable working on. Once you pick that area...go to the zoning office and learn everything about the zoning that is there or could potentially be there. Understand the direction the planning staff and overall community wants to see the area trend towards. Start calling on other listings in the area and ask questions...how much is the property, how much land, how many sq. ft. in the building, what is the zoning, are utilities all there, etc. etc. Ask to get a summary of the income statement, etc. Pricing income producing properties really is just a numbers game based on income, etc.
Pick that area of focus and then learn EVERYTHING about that area and start networking with people who own those buildings and people who may be interested in buying them.