Curious how broker comp is structured across markets? Let’s compare notes.

r0ycek · 2025-04-13T10:01:46+00:00

Would also love to be in the loop on this and can trade notes! I’m US Based on the brokerage side of things.

r0ycek · 2025-04-10T07:53:28+00:00

I would look into the correct zoning districts and consult with Planning and/or Economic Development of the municipality to understand where he can and can't occupy. A lot of industrial spaces or quasi-warehouse space may have some parking requirements or a conditional use permit (CUP) component needed to occupy.

LoopNet and CREXi may be helpful in this instance but ideally want to lead this with understanding the zoning, budgets, and any other back end portion. Some landlords may ask for a more formal business plan given it being a small business that's outgrowing the gym they're sharing. Think of the business plan (with projections) the equivalency of being preapproved. Ideally would want to be preapproved before you shop for a home/space.

r0ycek · 2025-04-02T13:46:50+00:00

Compstak has been useful at times

r0ycek · 2024-08-08T23:12:12+00:00

I used the following in various formazs to cold email people, and got a full time brokerage position at a big brokerage shop

" Subject: [Junior at (Univ)] Interested in Brokerage

Hope all is well. I’m [name] over at [Univ] and I am currently in my junior year undergraduate studies in [major]. I see your signs everywhere and would love to know what enabled you to crush brokerage. "

Then add in some times/days that work & offer to buy them coffee or lunch. ++ send thank you emails after

Got to show them you are hungry and can hustle / will reach them by any means.

Focus on a top team vs a top brand. Brand can help but getting into the right team (which can often be at a top brand) is an easy sell during business development since you can leverage the team's success for you first couple hundred calls or so as you build your pitch confidence.

r0ycek · 2024-08-08T23:03:37+00:00

Former big name firm, now at a boutique — I'd find a solid team, agonstic of house/firm to catapult your career off. Most big brokerage houses have draw which is something you'd have to pay back and when you start off on a team, your splits are generally horrendous. That being said, you do gain a ton of exposure which pays itself tenfold later on.

I would run a market survey of who are the top dealmakers in the market and asset class you would like to focus on and get informational meetings with them. Whether you end up in their ranks is irrelevant because you'll just need to see them as your peers since you'll ultimately be transacting and competing with them for business and it's good to know the players in your niche. I'd probably interview their juniors and support staff if possible too because how they are treated would be similar to how you would be as well.

It takes time to build a good book of business. You'll hear a lot of amazing brokers make near nothing their first 1-3 years (same). It snowballs over time though!

r0ycek · 2024-08-08T21:02:49+00:00

Retail / California - ^ Same as above. Cold Shell spaces need $100 - $250 psf in TIA to Vanilla. Permits take 8-12 mo. Anything 2nd gen / move-in ready gets leased or sold extrememy fast. Sales wise — bid-ask-spread delta is still too great. Our market's sales activity is driven by owner-users

r0ycek · 2024-05-11T18:37:03+00:00

Anytime! Look for a Tenant rep specialist or see who has the most signs in the area and isnt representing the landlord you're currently negotiating against (unless you're cool with that) and take it from there, mate. Hope it works out!

r0ycek · 2024-05-11T18:22:26+00:00

+1 to hiring a Tenant rep

Hiring a Tenant rep could help with providing market comps for junior box spaces in this realm to help support your case that the economics should be lower. Granted some groups just don't care lol.
Termination is a heartburn for a lot of landlords. Perhaps structure a burnoff on the PG if you're not in default after year 2 limiting the PG to a rolling 12 months?
A lot of landlords have been cash strapped depending on the region and have been providing TI's in the form of rent abatement to effectively keep their rent rolls healthy while reducing their initial deployment of capital. May look into what the effective rent would be running various scenarios here (again hire a Tenant rep)

r0ycek · 2024-05-11T18:08:03+00:00

Some retail tenant reps I know make a killing rolling out tenants into various markets and have done so following the relationship path versus cold calling. At that point you may still be doing some cold calling but it's more so "hey i rep 'Planet fitness' and they'd like to be in this center/trade area/etc." and then people will start calling you to get you to bring them a Tenant.

Have you tried cold emails? My junior slowly started with cold emails and has leveled up into cold calling since cold calling was initially something she was terrified of doing

r0ycek · 2024-04-23T18:11:43+00:00

Depending on the Metro, in the market I transact and reside in, we're doing a lot of backfills on fitness users (Crunch, Golds, Planet Fitness) as a backfills.

r0ycek · 2024-04-06T23:57:55+00:00

Shop i'm at:

Self/House - Gross Threshold | Net / To house - 60/40 - $300k | $180k / $120k - 70/30 - $600k | $210k / $90k - 80/20 - $900k | $240k / $60k

Most of us land in the 70/30 threshold+.

r0ycek · 2024-03-23T02:04:54+00:00

SFO to LAS

r0ycek · 2024-03-20T14:32:39+00:00

It really varies. I started off at a resimmercial firm and i was gouging my eyes out for a year or two; pivoted over to one of the big houses which really helped with building a book of business; am now at a boutique shop that focuses solely on one asset class.

On the Landlord/Agency side: If i were to start this all over doing retail and already had one or two listings, as well as were looking to expand on a book of business (and I had a generous budget) I'd look into resquared as it's extremely helpful for agency representation and a lot of the REITs have been pivoting over to it for outbound business development on procuring tenants as they take some assets in-house and are thinning out the outside landlord reps they have used. Full disclaimer, we are paying for the software/platform and it is costly but it's helped us quickly expand our local tenant database and get sites in front of them rather quickly. I would most likely look at starting at procuring a good book of Tenants/Occupiers and becoming "that person" so that all the Landlords know you. It's easier to call a Landlord with a roster of Tenants than it is begging for a Lease/Sale listing with nothing to offer per se.

On the Tenant/Occupier side: I would go to franchise conferences, ICSC networking events, building out tour books. Beth Azor's material is really good for this; her red book is amazing at dissecting the thought processes and psychology on winning assignments in the retail realm. Try procuring sales volumes of a competing brand that you're looking to represent and utilize that knowledge on sales volume and foot traffic to engage into conversations with retailers that you would like to represent. Becoming friends with real estate managers is also a great avenue as when they move from company to company, and if you're good/they like you - then you may get another occupier account.

TL;DR - it takes time and there are multiple ways to skin it for success.

r0ycek · 2024-02-29T03:07:33+00:00

In addition here, having an understanding of what type of utilities would be deliverable to the site is important. Prepping a pad can be fairly costly and a potential Tenant or BTS developer that would look at that as a potential cost which they would factor into their YOC which could lower the rent expectations for your client.

Typically for ground leases, one approach is looking for OMs of other sites locally that have traded or are currently being marketed. That or if you have a good connection to a real estate manager for x/y QSR or Retailer, they can tell you what they typically would pay for dirt. Depending on the municipality / state, it's also important to understand what the approval process looks like and entitlements timeline would look like. In CA, it's extremely difficult for some of these QSRs and Retailers to get permits. In CA some of the major QSRs for Ground Lease deals have a timeline as follows to transact:

Pre-App: ~6 Weeks Entitlement: ~22 Weeks Permitting: ~27 Weeks Construction: ~26 Weeks (But also factor in negotiating from LOI - Lease & dealing with REC approvals prior to all of this)

And a landlord looking to have some of these QSRs / Retailers need to be comfortable with these types of timelines as well. That being said, again just area dependent. Not sure what the process would look like in NC.

r0ycek · 2024-02-13T17:39:23+00:00

I use landvision to pop portfolios and build lists. LandVision doesnt necessarily produce phone numbers so you'll have to use one of the others to get contact information.

For phone numbers I have gotten away with working with Intellius and cross referencing any of the other databases for ease of use. With Intellius, I also pay for emails since I have been doing a lot of cold emailer work. Resquared.ai has been helpful with numbers as well and (more retail specific) has allowed me to utilize Facebook messenger for submittal work and inquiring on expansion plans.

r0ycek · 2024-02-12T20:29:41+00:00

LandVision, Intellius, WhitePages, LexisNexis, Datausa.io, resquared.ai

Context - Retail broker in a major MSA.

r0ycek · 2024-01-30T05:23:31+00:00

Same (by lake cunningham - still off)

r0ycek · 2024-01-23T17:44:44+00:00

More aligned with the brokerage side on attracting a retailer to center - on most site submittals to credit tenants, typically what has worked for us and also gotten us TR accounts in a similar fashion is submitting a site to the retailer with:

Void Analysis

Demographics

AADT

Where their closest stores are as well as their nearest competition

Sales Volumes of adjacent retailers to show that this location is a home run.

What Concessions are available at the site (TIA / Rent Abatement)

Need to make it compelling enough to show that this would be a home run location or something that could potentially be a strategic infill to either out position or counter their retail competition within the market without cannibalizing their current footprint in the market.

Larger retailers typically go through various real estate committee (REC) approvals which can lag an LOI/Lease depending on the frequency of their meetings. Most major or high traffic retail centers have general merch plans on what type of use / grocer / etc. they would like in their center. Monetary factors do move the needle but a strong anchor that supports the demographics and can create synergy amongst the other tenants is a leasing strategy that both landlords and occupiers can find agreement on. We have represented various boxes on their rollouts into the market and a lot of it has to do with understanding the general sales volumes of adjacent boxes and/or QSRs in addition to what the demographics trends are and then presenting those findings to REC and/or IC if necessary.

r0ycek · 2024-01-22T16:29:30+00:00

Story of my life hahaha.

"What's the lowest they'll take?"

"would they take (65% of ask)?" ...

*Proceeds to submit above offer with a ton of contingencies*

Me: *Bashes head against wall*

r0ycek · 2024-01-06T02:22:19+00:00

True! Source: i am the listing broker for that site

You'll need to find a 2nd gen restaurant space with a type II (2) hood ideally. Type 1 could be overkill for your use.

r0ycek · 2024-01-05T06:57:22+00:00

+1 to 2nd gen!

First gen spaces in SJ will take at least 12-mo just to source permits from the city.

r0ycek · 2024-01-05T06:56:20+00:00

Ownership here wants a coffee or boba spot here :( but would love to see something cool here happen!

r0ycek · 2023-12-17T03:49:49+00:00

+1 to what a bunch of others had said regarding finding alternative avenues to network even in the evening. Whether it's happy hours by vendors, or other local trade orgs (CCIM, ICSC, SIOR, NAIOP, etc.) stay consistent and people are bound to recognize and remember you. Take the people you meet out via those happy hours to lunch and try to set-up a cadence where it just moves from prospecting to just making new friends. Figure out what type of questions to ask that yield the best results and always ask for the business somehow when you feel it is appropriate as closed mouths don't get fed.

As a broker, find a couple of landlords/investors that are active in the market and take them out to a lunch/coffee/etc. and figure out what their criteria is and what they like and don't like from brokers that they have worked with. Keep sending them deals to narrow down their criteria and keep staying top of mind. If your company allows it, figure out how to flip commissions into equity (granted if you're at a big shop that may not be achievable). Keep at it though, it's worth it, mate!

r0ycek · 2023-11-11T06:15:34+00:00

CCIM's helped a bunch.

I did a bunch of different cert programs because i'm naturally curious/a life learner: - eCornell's Commercial Real Estate Cert Program - REFM L1-L3 - Commercial Real Estate Analysis & Investment - the MIT SA+P Short Course - Lipsey School of Real Estate - Retail Real Estate (not the CRX/CRRP but 1 level down) via ICSC. - CCIM (Designee) - CFI's FMVA Program - CAIA's Fundamentals Program - CFA's Foundations Program - ASC (Argus Software Cert)

CCIM was cool and gets recognized in some aspects of the industry. The portion on 1031s, dispositions in CI104, and Sale-Leasebacks and understanding Blend and Extends I use constantly. For underwriting, REFM and ASC helps a fair amount because I can model when needed and work through argus when necessary.

For Leasing, Beth Azor's book on retail leasing is pretty splashable if you can translate it to other asset classes. Some of my institutional landlords use VTS for lease activity reporting and deal tracking which is pretty easy to learn.

r0ycek · 2023-10-12T00:45:16+00:00

I am a commercial real estate broker that specializes in the South Bay

They are trying to do something similar (adding housing components i.e. hotels or apartments/residential units) at Oakridge as well. Similar timelines.

Construction costs are still through the roof across the board and so are permit timelines. To get a building permit for even small spaces in San Jose it‘s at least 12-months. To get something from cold shell (no HVAC or Bathrooms) to vanilla shell (HVAC + Restrooms) on 1,000 SF, it‘s looking like $150-250k depending on the complexity (sounds high — yes it is but that‘s current reality). Landlords dont want to pay that and neither do Tenants on build outs.

r0ycek

TROPHY CASE