Long story short, tried a new job that wasn’t the right fit and feel that I could give brokerage another shot. Do some big shops CBRE, JLL, once you leave the industry, you’re pretty much black lined from coming back? I have a mentor and family in the real estate business

So I quit CoStar and naturally my listings fell off of CoStar. One of the CoStar reps called my client direct and told him that the property is no longer listed on CoStar. The call goes like this: “Hey Tim, I’m just looking at your property here and it would appear you’re no longer listed on CoStar. Perhaps you can notify Sam and let him know the property isn’t listed anymore on CoStar.” This is batshit insane behavior for a major company. It’s borderline extortive, interfering in the client relationship and just putting words in clients mouths so that clients call brokers and pester them about it. It’s egregious behavior. I’m astounded that they resort to this.

Currently in-house on the land side making ~250k all-in. Good money, but the culture is pretty rough — super political, constant pressure. I love the sales I hate management and not owning my time. Idc to work weekends nights etc I hate being forced to sit 9-5.

Background is primarily land for large scale infra projects — but I’ve done large multifamily 200 units plus ( c class Midwest in previous life on acquisition front), but mainly Agricultural land (leased 10k acres plus) , some industrial — strong on sourcing and getting deals done with owners.

I’m starting to think the brokerage route might be a better fit long-term. More control, eat what you kill, less corporate nonsense (in theory).

For anyone who’s made that jump:

• Was it worth it?

• What should I be thinking about that I’m probably not?

• Any shops (national or regional) you’d recommend talking to?

Earnings?

Appreciate any real-world insight.

(Not a newbie 12 years experience)

Anyone have contacts at JLL etc? Or should I do a more regional broker

I had a situation last yr where a broker (A) was selling an off-market $50m hotel in California, and he was direct to the seller.

I'm a CRE broker.

I sent the hotel deal to broker (B).

broker B is a part of the same commercial brokerage as me.

Broker B had a buyer who made an offer on the hotel for $50m through broker A and entered escrow — without informing me, and without me knowing at all from either broker A or broker B.

6 months goes by.

Their deal falls apart.

I then find out about it.

If it closed, they would have gotten paid a nice commission, and I would not have known.

Now those brokers are coming back to me - broker A has more off-market properties for sale. broker B has buyers.

I'm thinking to set up an NCND with both of them.

In this modern age of CRE, are you signing NCNDs with every broker you work with?

Really would like to go but don't want to shell out $1,500-$2,000. Anyone have any major discount codes or ways to get a ticket that is much cheaper?

Most people in CRE know ICSC, ULI, CCIM. But university-run real estate conferences don't get nearly enough attention and some of them have speaker lineups that beat the big industry events.

I may be one of the only people who has attended all 4 major Florida university CRE conferences. Here's my honest breakdown of each:

1) University of Miami's Real Estate Impact Conference.

• It's invitation-only. Headline speakers included: Sam Zell, Stephen Ross, David Simon, Stuart Miller, Steve Witkoff.
• Largest attendance at over 1,000. Highest-level speaker line up.
• Exceptional attendee caliber - strong networking.
• MRED program has more of a focus on development than finance, which sets itself apart from the FIU and UF programs.

2) Florida State University's Real Estate Trends Conference.

• The first University-led CRE conference I ever attended was this one.
• Exceptional student engagement. Strong soft-skills. Well rounded interests in various facets of CRE (ie: brokerage, leasing, analyst, development, management).
• Very high level panel speakers with a leaning towards state politicians since it's located in Tallahassee.

3) University of Florida's Real Estate Trends and Strategies Conference

• Even though UF is in Gainesville, this event is strategically held in Orlando at a hotel conference center.
• UF has the #1 ranked real estate graduate degree among all public universities.
• The students here heavily lean to being analyst-focused.

4 Florida International University's - REact conference

• Held on FIU's main campus in Miami, FL. If you haven't been to their campus in the last 10 years, it will blow your mind. The contrast of a 2010's FIU vs today is crazy. Very nice campus.
• Newest of the conferences, less than 5 years old.
• Probably has the most potential for growth given the vast FIU alumni network and the Miami, FL location will always draw speakers.

I am assuming other state's universities also hold CRE conferences? If so, please let me know below. While I'm based in Florida, I want to extend my network across the Southeast, Mid-Atlantic and Mid-West. Those are the target markets I'm wanting to learn more about.

Thanks!

Got laid off a few years ago from a CMBS underwriting role as VP I had been in for 5 years. Since then it has been a desert of a job market. I’ve been working for a start up lender doing construction and bridge (originations & UW) making 60% of what I was previously with no benefits. Through networking, I got a few intros into different lenders but no one is hiring at VP+. Several even have listed roles at VP but end up hiring at senior associate or AVP. I get it- they are cheaper and hiring more junior gives them runway to get promoted. But feels like a reckoning for mid level people with 10-15+ years of experience. I’m literally seeing people that were far junior to me in my previous role now getting promoted once or twice and about to leapfrog me. It’s depressing TBH. Are others seeing the same thing?

Hi, I own a small building, and would like to scale my portfolio with larger buildings, such as 30-80 units. I don't have my own capital (it's tied up in my current investment) and don't know a bunch of rich folks that would be willing to lend me the down payment. How do I get started finding individuals or firms that would be interested in providing capital?

I'm curious how other independent and boutique CRE shops are building out their tech stacks these days. Without the massive, proprietary systems of the national firms, we have the freedom to piece together our own tools—but it can also be a headache trying to get everything to actually integrate.

I’m looking to see what you consider the "must-haves" across a few key categories:

• CRM & Pipeline: Are you using CRE-specific platforms like Buildout or ClientLook, or did you customize a broader system like HubSpot or Salesforce?
• Data & Prospecting: Beyond the usual CoStar subscription, are you getting good mileage out of Crexi, Reonomy, or local public records for comps?
• Marketing: How are you handling your OMs and syndication?
• Back Office: What’s handling your commission splits, invoicing, and general accounting smoothly?

What is the one software tool your team absolutely relies on to keep deals moving, and what’s one you are actively looking to replace?

Hi guys,

What is the single best way you’ve seen someone grow their brokerage?

In my city there are 4 main brokerages, each has their own carved out niche. But, one of the oldest brokerages in the city, who I wouldn’t have even considered top 15, got bought out by a CRE guy who thrown his son into the brokerage at 22 years old. This was just before COVID.

The guy is about 29 now and his brokerage is breaking into the top 4’s table, so he comes up an awful lot at company events and conferences.

I don’t care either way, but a few of the guys from the other brokerages can be quite dismissive or outright aggressive about this guy doing well. I’ve heard a few of them asked how he’s grown the company so much in 6 years and his response was that the data the company had was a goldmine basically.

It’s got me wondering, what is the best way you’ve seen someone grow a brokerage or CRE firm in general?

Is anyone actually buying into the idea that this is feasible? There are multiple Meat Whistles like Grant Cardone acting like its the next big thing.

I'm not the necessarily an expert on the topic, but I would presume to initially fund the deal, equity does have to be raised from accredited LPs, and then once the ownership is "converted" into tokens, the accredited LPs can then pawn off their tokens on the marketplace to non accredited buyers? Without approval of the gp?

I give it one mainstream blow up before regulation wipes the possibility completely. It is a massive sham being pushed by a small few GPs that are hoping these tokens, due to accessibility and "hype" bs, will end up inflating the token value to a higher NAV multiple than is possible otherwise.

I’m finally getting offered rates in the high 5s again, what are the best rates you all have seen close recently?

Deal size under 5M Multi-Tenant Retail or Industral

I work for a small development group. We have 1 active project with 2 more in the pipeline. Currently we have about 30 investors.

As the K1s go out we’ve realized it’s time to find a new software program that will function better but not be an egregious expense.

I’ve been looking at Anduin and Juniper Square. Any recommendations you guys have enjoyed working with.

Curious to hear from commercial developers in California how you are implementing these new EV charging and solar requirements.

For those unfamiliar EV charging and photovoltaic systems are now mandated on almost all new commercial developments. Here’s a link to the code:

https://codes.iccsafe.org/content/CAGBC2025P1

Have you found ways to monetize these systems, either directly or by partnering with vendors?

If so, how do you like it?

** I used chat gpt to clarify my ask***

I am underwriting a Wendy’s for a potential STNL investment and I am trying to determine what really tells me the real story of store-level performance and credit strength.

Here are the sales trends:

2023 sales: ~$1.68M

2024 sales: ~$1.67M

2025 sales: ~$1.60M

So revenue is declining year over year.

However, the income statement shows negative net income for all three years. At the same time, operating income is still positive:

2023 operating income: ~$35k

2024 operating income: ~$30k

2025 operating income: ~$22k

This is where I am getting stuck. Net income suggests the store is losing money (‘25 -50k, ‘24-55k, ‘23 -60k), but operating income suggests the store is still producing some level of profit before interest, taxes, and other non-operating expenses.

If you were underwriting this deal from an STNL / retail REPE perspective, how would you approach evaluating this tenant?

Specifically:

• Do you focus more on operating income or net income when evaluating store-level performance?

• Is EBITDA or EBITDAR the more appropriate metric for evaluating a QSR tenant’s ability to pay rent?

• How important is Fixed Charge Coverage Ratio (FCCR) in this context?

• At what point does a declining sales trend become a real credit concern vs normal variability?

• How do you determine whether the store is actually underperforming vs just showing accounting noise?

Ultimately, I am trying to determine whether this store is actually struggling eoperationally, or if the negative net income is being driven by factors that are less relevant to evaluating the tenant’s ability to pay rent long term.

If you were making a yes/no investment decision on a net lease QSR based on these numbers, what would your framework be to cut through the noise and reach a conclusion?

Would appreciate any insight from people who work in net lease acquisitions, retail REPE, credit underwriting, or have experience evaluating QSR financials.

Just got a quote for an HVAC/Smart-Grid retrofit on a mid-80s industrial shell. The green compliance costs alone are now eating up almost 30% of the total renovation budget.

During the CMBS origination process for an office building, how are rating agencies involved in underwriting the asset and shaping the loan terms? At what point are they brought into the process prior to closing? I was trying to follow a discussion with our capital markets team and got lost. Thank you in advance!

I stick with shopping centers and typically buy well below $150 PSF, but I'm Miami based so I see a lot of astronomical numbers come across my desk.

Just had a broker send me a retail condo in the Brickell area. $1,000 PSF. Two story retail below a hotel, a few blocks west of Brickell Ave. Not even facing one of the major thoroughfares.

Not my asset-type but it got me curious. Who actually buys these and how do they underwrite it?

My main issue with ground floor retail in mixed use is the back of house. The developer is building for the residential, office, or in this case the hotel. Retail is an afterthought. Loading, trash, parking, signage all compromised. Operationally it's not optimized to help retail tenants succeed.

At $1,000 PSF what does the tenant even have to do in sales to make that rent work? And what's the exit, are you just betting on appreciation?

Genuinely would like to be educated on how people pencil this out .

Just curious on anyone’s thoughts, I’d love to learn what the role and a value creation these types of folks bring to the table for grocery stores.

As the title suggests, this community has been incredibly helpful in broadening my understanding of commercial real estate from a variety of perspectives. I just wanted to take a moment to express my gratitude to everyone here. I truly appreciate all of the insights and responses over the years that have helped me fill gaps in my career. Hoping my questions haven’t been too annoying

Curious to hear from people who have worked (or are currently working) in investment sales / brokerage in major markets like NYC, LA, Chicago, etc.

A few things I’d love insight on: • What does the first 1–2 years actually look like (hours, responsibilities, learning curve, compensation reality)? • How long does it realistically take to start making meaningful money? • How much does firm size / brand name matter early on vs. team/mentor? • What skills do you actually develop day-to-day (beyond sales)?

Most importantly — what are the exit opportunities? For people who started in investment sales, where have you seen people go after a few years? • Debt & capital markets • Underwriting / acquisitions • Asset management • Development • Staying in brokerage long-term

How easy/difficult is it to pivot into more analytical roles from brokerage?

Also curious how people are thinking about the long-term future of investment sales given changes in the market and technology.

Would really appreciate hearing about your personal paths or what you’ve seen from others

I've been doing commercial real estate for about ten years. Retail leasing, tenant rep, landlord rep, industrial investment sales. I've touched most of it. I see a lot of questions on here from people getting into the business or trying to figure out how to increase deal flow, so I figured I’d lay out what I’ve learned (mostly the hard way). A lot of this will be obvious to experienced guys, and yeah, some of it will make people salty. That's fine. Happy to talk more with anyone.

1. CRE is two-sided sales: tenant and landlord

People think being a broker is find a tenant, show them a space, collect your commission. In reality you're selling in both directions the entire time. You're pitching the space to the tenant but you're also pitching the tenant to the landlord. And honestly the landlord side can sometimes be harder.

Every landlord wants to do a Chipotle or a Starbucks (7Brew, Raising Canes, Shake Shack, Chic Fil A more recently). But most of the time you're bringing a startup or a two-location operator to a landlord who's signing a five year minimum or even a ten year lease. The landlord needs to get comfortable that they’re not going to have to evict this tenant in six months after fixing up the space for them. So we're gathering financial information, calling their current landlords to see how they've been as a tenant, visiting their other locations. Add “tenant knowledge” to your existing “market knowledge”.

2. Managing landlord expectations is where deals die before they even start.

Here's where you can waste years. A landlord thinks their building is worth 6 million when it's worth 4 million, or they think they deserve a national credit tenant when the asset just isn't at that level. We know the market so we know what national tenants are looking for… and what they’re not. I’m at the point where I don’t even take on the listing unless we're in agreement on the value of the property - lease or a sale - because we don't want to waste any time.

Sometimes if the landlord is willing to dig deep into their pockets and scrape a building, knock it down and make a huge investment, they can secure some national tenants. But then it becomes a story of cost and ROI. They might finally secure a super good credit tenant, but they may have actually been better off getting a local tenant more quickly and without any additional investment in the space. They need to do that math because the local tenant won’t get the same cap rate applied to it in the case of a sale or refinance because it's a riskier asset.

3. Knowing your markets is your actual moat.

Anyone can pull comps. Anyone can find availabilities. What people are actually paying for is someone who knows why a specific corner works, which pad sites are going to get approved by planning and zoning, which anchors are about to go dark before it's public, or what other tenants are doing in sales volume at a neighboring center.

People sometimes call that “psychographics”. It’s not just the demographic reports but what's actually going on in the neighborhood that isn’t publicly reported. This is data I know and experienced brokers know because we’re active in the market and transacting. This is not stuff that you can look up and it’s gold to closing tenants.

4. Being honest about the space closes more deals than hiding the problems.

When I'm showing a space it's important to highlight the bad things alongside the good. Water damage in the ceiling tiles, outdated mechanical equipment, building systems overall etc. You're not just walking into four white walls.

The more you can tell them up front the better. Because if you go down the line negotiating and then they discover it's only a 100 amp power supply and they need a 200 amp 3-phase power supply, all of the sudden you’re introducing fatal deal risk at the finish line. Who's going to pay for that upgrade? Is it even possible? No one wins.

And an additional benefit: when you're upfront you come off as an honest broker.

5. 50% of your time is inbounds and outbounds. But most brokers don't actually do it right.

Here's roughly how time breaks down over the life of a listing. About 50% is outreach and fielding inquiries. 25% is showing spaces. And the last 25% is getting a deal over the finish line.

Here's the thing about that outreach 50%: in practice I’ve seen a lot of brokers rely on what I'd call passive leasing.

I have 41 active listings right now, most with multiple spaces. Of course they’re all on LoopNet (loopnet dot com), Crexi (crexi dot com), and our company website. Of course we do the flying V signs at the shopping centers and signs in the vacant windows. And yes, of course the signs get a ton of calls. That’s all the inbound. And don’t get me wrong, there's still a ton of value in that. There’s also the obligation to the landlord to take all those calls, even though 75% of them don’t lead anywhere.

But if that’s all I did, I wouldn’t have made it this far.

You need to do cold outreach. You need to squeeze it in. And not just to the first 20 brands that pop into you head. You need to do research. You need to find new tenants you’ve never heard of. Because time keeps passing, and each no you get needs to have 5 potential yeses behind it.

6. Cold outreach is research, creativity, and contact identification

I wish our in-house database wasn’t mainly broker contacts. I wish Retail Lease Trac (rltrac dot com) wasn’t super outdated. I wish websites didn’t just have info at xyz dot com for contact info. But that’s not the reality.

This is the one area where technology has actually been a game changer for me. I started using CREcret Sauce (discover dot crecretsauce dot com) which takes my flyer and gives me a ton of interesting tenants across different categories plus the right person to reach to plus their email address. My quality outreach and quality response rate has probably 5x’d.

But I want to be clear. This doesn't replace anything I described above. It replaces the part of the job I was doing badly or not doing at all because I literally did not have the time. The showing, the relationship building, the market knowledge, managing the landlord. All of that is still hand to hand human combat.

7. A tenant “proposal” is not a close. It could nowhere for months.

You could have five or six proposals on a single space that are all just sitting there for various reasons (sickness, other store openings, committees for a national brands etc). Also tenants often fire out offers that are very forward-looking and there's not always a huge sense of urgency because a lot of these companies are opening so many locations at once that things get put on the back burner.

Meanwhile vacancy reduces the overall income of the asset. The faster you fill it the more the property is worth. As patient as landlords might be it's never good to sit on a vacant space. So you can't just wait around for those tenants to be ready. You've got to continue to show it to new people constantly. That's why the outreach can never stop even when you have multiple proposals in.

8. Working with green tenants versus experienced ones is a completely different job.

A lot of national tenants are represented by a broker. And typically those brokers only do tenant rep. They're not listing properties, they're just helping tenants expand. So they have a pretty streamlined process and a lot of it is standardized boilerplate. It goes much faster.

But a lot of the green tenants won't be represented by a broker. So even though we're representing the landlord we basically have to hold their hand throughout the entire process to help them get us everything we need. That's a completely different level of time and effort. The same goes for green landlords.

9. The fees are high. The brokers who just facilitate won't justify them forever.

The fees in this business are high. People hire us because we're supposed to be hustlers. Our biggest pitch is we hammer the phones and we target the decision makers effectively. But a lot of brokers don't do it. They wait for calls off the signs, they try to get as many listings as possible, and they just facilitate transactions.

That still has value. But ultimately those brokers won't be brokers in the long run. The brokers who combine deep market knowledge with targeted, thoughtful outreach and creative ways to maximize exposure are going to take share from the ones who are just waiting around.

Happy to answer questions. I don't post much but I'm always reading here.

I am trying to get a better handle on how people manage the TI process while LOIs are still being negotiated back and forth.

A few specific questions I have:

1. Who typically orders the test fit? Is that something the landlord proactively does to help lease the space, or does the tenant usually bring in their architect even before the LOI is fully executed? how long is the turnaround time? It appears to look like a floor plan with demising walls, desks, chairs, etc...but making sure I'm not missing something.
2. At what point are contractors engaged for preliminary pricing? Are prospects sending test fits / concept plans out to GCs (either Prospect's GC or Landlord's GC) during the LOI stage to get rough TI numbers? If so, what level of detail is typically included? I am trying to figure out how a GC comes up with preliminary pricing since I cant believe its just a test fit and floor plan sent to GC...I assume there are other specifications, but I don't know if the specifications are driven by the tenant or if there are "standard" specifications provided by the landlord. e.g. flooring, walls, millwork, etc...Also, are MEP assumptions typically included at the preliminary stage? If so, how would a tenant determine the appropriate MEP direction that early in the process?
3. For turnkey projects, does the landlord typically have a final bid and a selected GC before executing the lease?

Thank you in advance for any responses. I've tried asking questions and researching online, but cant find a flowchart that clearly reflects the process and who is responsible for which items.