Welcome to City-Data.com Forum!
U.S. CitiesCity-Data Forum Index
Go Back   City-Data Forum > General Forums > Real Estate > Real Estate Professionals
 [Register]
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
View detailed profile (Advanced) or search
site with Google Custom Search

Search Forums  (Advanced)
Reply Start New Thread
 
Old 02-22-2008, 06:04 PM
 
791 posts, read 2,948,649 times
Reputation: 345

Advertisements

If you are a commercial real estate agent what do you love and hate about your job?
If you did it all over again would you get into residential or commercial?

Thanks!
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message

 
Old 02-23-2008, 11:04 AM
 
Location: Gilbert - Val Vista Lakes
6,069 posts, read 14,722,898 times
Reputation: 3876
I'm not a commercial agent but had considered it, and did some studying on the subject. I had studied accounting in college and still have a basic knowledge, and it's helpful in commercial. A working knowledge of financial statements is required. One has to take an income statement; research it, and restate it.

You're working with a completely different client from the average homeowner. These are business people, who are sophisticated, shrewd and will eat your lunch if they can. There is the potential of greater income, but the deals can be farther apart also.

Consequently, I elected to go into residential with the thought that I would later go into commercial if I decided that may be best for me.

Presently, I've decided to stay in residential and work with both sellers and relocation buyers, and also investors. It keeps me closer to a market where I can also do investing. Later there is the thought that I may buy an office building with sufficient down that it would generate a good cash flow as a long term investment.

If you want to get into commercial then I would talk to several offices that specialize in nothing but commercial properties. Talk to the broker and talk to the agents to get their input. Then get a mentorship going with one that the broker recommends so you can learn the business directly from a pro.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 02-24-2008, 11:19 AM
 
791 posts, read 2,948,649 times
Reputation: 345
Quote:
Originally Posted by Captain Bill View Post
I'm not a commercial agent but had considered it, and did some studying on the subject. I had studied accounting in college and still have a basic knowledge, and it's helpful in commercial. A working knowledge of financial statements is required. One has to take an income statement; research it, and restate it.

You're working with a completely different client from the average homeowner. These are business people, who are sophisticated, shrewd and will eat your lunch if they can. There is the potential of greater income, but the deals can be farther apart also.

Consequently, I elected to go into residential with the thought that I would later go into commercial if I decided that may be best for me.

Presently, I've decided to stay in residential and work with both sellers and relocation buyers, and also investors. It keeps me closer to a market where I can also do investing. Later there is the thought that I may buy an office building with sufficient down that it would generate a good cash flow as a long term investment.

If you want to get into commercial then I would talk to several offices that specialize in nothing but commercial properties. Talk to the broker and talk to the agents to get their input. Then get a mentorship going with one that the broker recommends so you can learn the business directly from a pro.

Thank you! You are great for information I really appreciate it.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 02-25-2008, 07:01 PM
 
791 posts, read 2,948,649 times
Reputation: 345
Captain Bill,
In your opinion do you believe that successful commercial and residential agents make similar incomes?
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 02-25-2008, 09:56 PM
 
Location: Gilbert - Val Vista Lakes
6,069 posts, read 14,722,898 times
Reputation: 3876
Quote:
Originally Posted by redwhiteblue View Post
Captain Bill,
In your opinion do you believe that successful commercial and residential agents make similar incomes?
In a similar market for each of the types, I would think the commercial agent will make more money. The pay checks will be farther apart also, but they will most likely be bigger. But, expect to start with small deals first.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 02-26-2008, 06:07 AM
 
Location: WNY
1,049 posts, read 3,843,521 times
Reputation: 274
Default regarding commercial agents

Someone once told me that the larger commercial brokers / agents will not normally work with residential agents. Here is an example, a residential agent has a client who wants to invest some big money in commercial investments, residential agent finds something of interest, contacts the listing commercial broker/agent who is listing the property, the lister never calls back, finally out of desperation the client contacts the listing agent.....listing agent ends up with total commission.

Do any of you that have been in the business a long time agree with this? Have you seen it happen? To me it sounds very very rude and unethical.

Curious??? thanks.................
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 02-26-2008, 04:59 PM
 
791 posts, read 2,948,649 times
Reputation: 345
Quote:
Originally Posted by CAugust View Post
Someone once told me that the larger commercial brokers / agents will not normally work with residential agents. Here is an example, a residential agent has a client who wants to invest some big money in commercial investments, residential agent finds something of interest, contacts the listing commercial broker/agent who is listing the property, the lister never calls back, finally out of desperation the client contacts the listing agent.....listing agent ends up with total commission.

Do any of you that have been in the business a long time agree with this? Have you seen it happen? To me it sounds very very rude and unethical.

Curious??? thanks.................
I was told by the manager that I was interviewed by that they do not work with residential agents if they don't have to. In fact half of their company is residential and they are not allowed to do commercial deals.He basically stated the reason they don't like to work with residential agents is because they usually are not experienced in commercial deals and the commercial agent ends up doing most of the work.
Of course I don't know what the norm is but I agree with you that it's pretty rude to not return a call.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 02-26-2008, 06:48 PM
 
Location: Gilbert - Val Vista Lakes
6,069 posts, read 14,722,898 times
Reputation: 3876
Quote:
Originally Posted by redwhiteblue View Post
I was told by the manager that I was interviewed by that they do not work with residential agents if they don't have to. In fact half of their company is residential and they are not allowed to do commercial deals.He basically stated the reason they don't like to work with residential agents is because they usually are not experienced in commercial deals and the commercial agent ends up doing most of the work.
Of course I don't know what the norm is but I agree with you that it's pretty rude to not return a call.
It makes good sense that the commercial agent wouldn't want to work with a residential agent because it is a different business and the residential agent probably does not have the knowledge to represent his/her client.

What the agent should do is refer their client to a commercial agent, and then everyone will be happy and the client will be better served.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 02-26-2008, 07:19 PM
 
Location: WNY
1,049 posts, read 3,843,521 times
Reputation: 274
I understand, although you have someone interested in spending quite a bit of money and then go and give them to someone else that you dont know and end up with nothing, b/c I would assume with some of the mentality out there surrounding these issues, they would never refer someone back to you.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 02-26-2008, 08:45 PM
 
Location: Gilbert - Val Vista Lakes
6,069 posts, read 14,722,898 times
Reputation: 3876
Quote:
Originally Posted by CAugust View Post
I understand, although you have someone interested in spending quite a bit of money and then go and give them to someone else that you dont know and end up with nothing, b/c I would assume with some of the mentality out there surrounding these issues, they would never refer someone back to you.
Of course, but you sign a referral fee agreement prior to turning over the client. But one needs to take care of the client, and if the residential is not a commercial agent then he/she could get into trouble by attempting to represent a client in a field where she is not competent.

I have a referral source, a retired broker, and she referred me to a friend who had some acreage to sell. I don't know anything about land sales, as it is a specialty, like commercial properties, so I signed a referral fee agreement with an agent who specializes in land. That way I know that the client is in good hands, and the retired broker who referred the client to me knows that I did the best for her friend.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.

Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.


Reply
Please update this thread with any new information or opinions. This open thread is still read by thousands of people, so we encourage all additional points of view.

Quick Reply
Message:


Over $104,000 in prizes was already given out to active posters on our forum and additional giveaways are planned!

Go Back   City-Data Forum > General Forums > Real Estate > Real Estate Professionals
Similar Threads

All times are GMT -6.

© 2005-2024, Advameg, Inc. · Please obey Forum Rules · Terms of Use and Privacy Policy · Bug Bounty

City-Data.com - Contact Us - Archive 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37 - Top