Job Description

Commercial Real Estate Agent

 Almost every job has its own tempo,  from early mornings, to handling complex projects. There is almost always a portion of time in between when one clocks in and clocks out where they realize that they use the same few "traits" or "attributes" day in and day out. Since this is my third year being involved in the commercial real estate brokerage world, I have noticed a handful of qualities in myself that I use on the daily, anytime I am on the job which seem to compare to some other fields of work as well. 

Some fields of work that I seem to compare to on the daily are:

• A Detective

• An Analyst

• Marketing Manager 

Hearing these comparisons to a real estate agent may seem confusing but I will be explaining how I can somewhat resonate with some of the people who have this title as their job. 

Detective:

A detective's main job is to figure out whatever case they are working on and to gather as much evidence as they can in order to explain how they came to their findings. As I drive around some of these commercial properties in my area, I always started to wonder, who really owns these? Is it the business owner who has been operating out of there for the past twenty five years? Or is it a retired old couple who live halfway across the country just collecting rent? I believe that as a commercial real estate agent in the area I should know the owner of almost every single commercial property in the area in order to provide value to other business or property owners. That way I am able to call some of the people I have a relationship with and let them know, "Hey this is going on in your area" or "Hey so and so is shutting down his business and vacating that property across the street". The reason I resonate with a detective is because I know how valuable it is to know about something or someone before everyone else does, and believe me it is not easy finding out about some of the trends. 

For example, I was canvassing in the area (Knocking on doors letting them know about my newest lease listing) where I do most of my business. There are two outcomes while doing this, either the property owner who runs their business out of that location is there, or it is a tenant who has a lease. The main goal of the conversation for me is to provide value to them, letting them know about the newest listing and then seeing if I can pry some information out of them. In this one instance my partner and I met a tenant who was occupying about an acre and a half of industrial land with their fabrication business. When we told him about the lease we asked "Hey how is business going for you guys"? and with that question he was able to tell us that they are actually going to be relocating and leaving their lease early. This gave us enough info to know that the property owner was going to have a vacancy without even speaking to him, which means he will not be collecting any rent. Once we heard this I went back to the office, checked the title, found the LLC under the property, and searched the SEC business search to find the CEO ( who is the property owner ). After finding his name you would then need to find his number where I use true people search. We called him and let him know and he was surprised at how we knew before everyone else in the neighborhood. We were able to get a meeting out of him and it really solidified our reputation in the area. The reason for me bringing up this story is to show how similar it would be to a detectives scope of work in a way. Visiting the scene, analyzing the scene, asking questions, finding a lead, and then nurturing that lead. 

Analyst

An analyst is an extremely valuable person to have in your corner. They give you the truth about a potential investment opportunity and know that there is close to no room for error in underwriting. Like an analyst, I feel that there is almost no room for error in the advice or things I say to them. Any type of wrong calculation in underwriting or the wrong formula could have your client or investor going from saying yes or no, and may ultimately cost them thousands of dollars, in either a missed opportunity or investing at the wrong time or in an incorrect asset type. This type of pressure is something that I enjoy and it gives me satisfaction knowing what I am doing is important to my client or customer. 

Marketing Manager

As an agent and somewhat of an entrepreneur, I have found that I am stepping foot into a variety of different roles, especially as I am just starting out. One specific role that I feel I can relate to the most is being a marketing manager. Customer engagement and brand awareness/management are some of the key day to day activities that marketing managers do. Like a marketing manager, the main way I go about prospecting to building owners is through customer engagement with value. Whether it is about a property that was traded down the street from theirs, or if it is just to refer to them to someone like an eviction attorney or management company. This has allowed me to provide value to some clients who are not yet ready to transact but allows them to remember me whenever anything real estate related is brought up in the future.