A thread on the journey as a CRE broker with tips/tricks & candor.

First year in the business is typically a brutal whirlwind where you're absorbing everything you can and prospecting like a wild animal. With time you get better and hone in to a better approach to hopefully work

smarter.

During this time, you're likely regularly second guessing yourself about what you got into and why you chose this business.

This is where something vital comes in, a true mentor in the business. You can go to work for a great company, but I'd encourage everyone to

focus on who exactly you'll be working with and how that person (or people) will help guide your career. Layer in the training that the firm offers and a blend of the two should be great.

Point here is that a big name firm could have a bad experience if there's no real guidance

and conversely a small firm with a great mentor would make all the difference.

My first year in the biz I basically made no money. This is to be expected largely, but a tough pill to swallow when all my friends out of school had swanky 75k-100k a year corp gigs.

The 2nd year:

now you're starting to gain some traction and hopefully have some pipeline from your grind in yr 1. You start to get some deals under your belt and make a little bit of money.

Crucial in this year is working on developing business & working on transactions. This is tough skill

to learn and a delicate balance because you basically spent the last year of your life trying to get some business.

This year in the business made a whopping ~72k gross, a little less than half of which went to the house). That's about 43k in pre-tax income in the last 2 years

for those of you keeping score at home. At this point I can assure you people will question you and think you're in the looney bin, but you've likely built pipeline and year 3 looks brighter.

Inevitably there's growing expectations and likely some set backs as you continue to

balance executing on business versus developing it. I had a solid 3rd year in grossing just over $200k and starting to build that "fly-wheel." Now you're finally taking home what your friends who had those corp gigs are, but nothing is promised tomorrow from a commission stand

point.

By this point, you're likely much more effective at biz dev and laugh at your self of 3 years ago.

The fun part here is you've built something and you have your own business and the world becomes your oyster. Years 4+ seem to be where the rocket ship really takes off

for brokers who have made it, although it's a high attrition biz.

As the ride continues, you're likely building out a team or partnering which transitions in another element of complexity of starting to run a small business.

Growth here can be exponential and it's not uncommon

for strong brokers in decent size markets to be taking home 300k, 500k, even $1m plus for the best in larger markets or national scale.

A difficult career path for sure, but one that is extremely rewarding for those who figure it out.

Any questions, ask away!