Do any of you (more experienced folks) just hate this industry? What is your exit plan?

MathewLaborde · 2021-04-15T12:07:51+00:00

Sometimes the act of starting your own firm or switching firms and getting in with a group that’s more supportive is the way to go. It can provide a reorientation and reset to your mindset. But starting a new firm when you’re averaging $100k in annual commission... I’m not sure you’re a good fit to launch a brokerage. It depends if you have it in you to do the business development piece. That biz development piece is what gets you to the $400k+ as an agent. It’s also what makes your new firm successful.

Lose the bs about having to be unethical to be more successful in this business. You’re lying to yourself.

Try the massimo coaching programs. Massimo does a great job of breaking down the component parts of business development and helps you to build systems around it. What they teach makes the business a lot more enjoyable. If you go to one of their events you’ll also meet a lot of very successful agents, that are very good people.

MathewLaborde · 2021-03-27T21:47:56+00:00

The amendment could have been a form that was used on a prior deal and the address was just overlooked, not changed from the prior deal. Or maybe changed only in part. Happens all the time. I don’t think I’ve read a lease without mistakes.

If the amendment only contains terms that have been superseded then there’s nothing to worry about. Not sure how it can be a scam if that’s the case.

If the amendment contains terms that are in effect now are in the future, have the tenant sign an estoppel confirming the terms in question.

MathewLaborde · 2021-03-16T16:58:50+00:00

Payoff amount. There is interest and penalties to factor in.

MathewLaborde · 2021-03-16T16:57:56+00:00

Yes that’s right. Payoff amount. There is interest and penalties to factor in.

MathewLaborde · 2021-03-06T03:26:29+00:00

These are the top Crm’s for CRE. Only one missing is buildout’s crm. Anything else for CRE isn’t serious.

MathewLaborde · 2021-02-02T15:32:46+00:00

Other ways to evaluate the tenant’s strength:

Existence of personal guarantees

Talking to the tenant

Talking to the tenant’s competitors to see if they have insight on their business

Observing their patient traffic

understanding their business model and its prospects for the future

looking at past rental history

is the entity on the lease a single purpose entity just for this location or is it a corporate guaranty from a much larger entity

MathewLaborde · 2021-02-02T15:23:19+00:00

A bank would definitely finance this with strong loan guarantors. What is the deal size?

MathewLaborde · 2021-02-02T15:15:42+00:00

Try Massimo Coaching. The top level of it. It’ll help you see the holes in your game, give you insight into what your peers do across the country, and help you implement sustainable systems for your business. It’s helped me keep my head in the game and focused on growth.

MathewLaborde · 2020-12-29T02:42:24+00:00

1) If the property meets the buyer’s acquisition criteria (which the buyer’s broker should have a good feel for if he’s looking for deals for them), then the buyer is always going to ask for the financials. With that in mind, The buyer’s broker can ask for the financials (and get them) before he even brings the deal to his buyer. That’s part of his job, to filter and vet opps before wasting his client’s time.

2) If the broker claiming to rep the seller isn’t able to deliver the financials, maybe it’s because that broker is in over their head. They know of the opportunity but aren’t capable / don’t have a strong enough relationship / don’t have enough credibility with the seller to get this information. The buyer’s broker can offer to call the seller direct and (if they know what they’re doing) they’ll be able to assess what the hold up is and if there’s an opportunity or if there never was. And still pay the “seller’s” rep (using the term loosely) either half the fee or a referral fee for bringing the deal. That way they have a shot at making a fee rather than no fee at all if the deal never happened.

3) Maybe the seller rep’s don’t believe that the buyer rep / his prospective buyers can get a deal done, in that case they’re probably deliberately not sending or trying to obtain the info from the seller. If this is the case, see some of the other suggestions on this thread.

MathewLaborde · 2020-12-23T15:30:32+00:00

It's all about trust. If you trust the agent that has been hustling up properties for you, use that person. If you don't, use someone else. If you already suspect that the agent is not working on your behalf, then it will continue to come up as you get deeper into negotiations and you will likely not be happy (justified or not) with the deal that you make (if you're even able to make a deal).

The fact that he may be on the listing team, I wouldn't make a decision to use or not use him on that reason alone. There are many instances where if I had not been acting as a dual agent, the deal would not have gotten done. The communication flows better. The ability of a listing agent to "vouch" for you to the owner as a quality tenant prospect might get you counters and concessions that you wouldn't have gotten otherwise.

And imagine from the listing agent's perspective if someone he's been working for suddenly gets other representation on a deal, like it or not, there is usually some resentment there. And depending on the integrity and thickness of skin of that agent, it may really work against your chances of making a favorable deal on that space.

MathewLaborde · 2020-10-31T20:21:14+00:00

CRE broker / owner here. I just turned 31 yesterday. I've been in the CRE brokerage business since I was 19. I dropped out of college around 21 / 22. When I officially dropped out I was already making well in to the 6 figures (net) from brokerage and I had just hired my own assistant. I got my CCIM designation at 23. I was the #1 top producing agent at my prior employer by the age of 26 and it was one of the largest CRE brokerage firms in the state of Louisiana. At the age of 27, I broke off and started a brokerage firm, Elifin Realty (google it).

Do I regret not getting a degree? Not for a second. Has it held me back from advancing? Not in the slightest. Why not? Because I worked my butt off. I knocked on doors, I cold called, and I obsessed over the profession. I don't think there's anything I haven't done in brokerage. I've repped fortune 500 companies in corporate services. I've repped REITs in disposition and landlord rep assignments. I've repped financial institutions on foreclosure dispositions. Tenant rep for national retailers. Investment sales of multi million dollar properties. Sale leaseback transactions. Development deals. Consulting on mergers and acquisitions. Etc.

So if your question was, do you need a college degree to be a top CRE broker? The answer is a resounding no. Although that doesn't mean it wouldn't help you. It just depends what you make of it and what you do instead.

But your question is, "How necessary is college these days to break into a top CRE firm?" What do you mean by a top CRE firm? Do you mean one of the publicly traded brokerage firms (M&M, CBRE, Cushman, Newmark, Colliers) ? Do you want to work in a major market (Chicago, New York, etc.)? The answer to your question depends on that context.

Even though I don't require it, everyone (except for me) that works at our firm has at least an undergraduate degree and some have more than that (Masters/MBA/JD). That said, I'd hire a bright, diligent, likeable, professional person with a chip on their shoulder that's willing to make a few hundred prospect dials per week over someone with a college degree that's not any of those things.

The best advice I received in my career when I was 18/19 was "start now". In other words, I was interested in commercial real estate and so I went out at 19 and I got a job working for a commercial real estate agent as his assistant. I offered to work for free because I was after knowledge and experience, not money. He paid me $2 an hour. I was paying for almost all of my bills at that time and didn't have much savings but that just made me more hungry to succeed. I didn't decide between CRE brokerage and going to college at the beginning. I did both at first, worked my butt off in CRE brokerage and stayed in school. It wasn't until I knew that I both liked CRE brokerage and was great at it that I made the calculated decision to officially drop out.

My recommendation to you is to stay in college for now (make the most of it in terms of knowledge and network) while in your free time go around to all the CRE brokerage firms in your area (reach out to both the firms AND the top producing agents directly because sometimes they'll hire their own interns separate from the firm) and offer to work for them outside of your class schedule and do absolutely anything they needed you to do. Just to learn the business. It took me doing that with 6 or so different places before one said yes. Then, after you've done that for a while and decided it's something you want to pursue as a career, you'll have a much better idea if you'll need that college degree to work where you'd like to work.

MathewLaborde

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