How to Become a Commercial Realtor

Member

By Wasatch
User-Submitted Video

Commercial Real Estate

I have sold residential and commercial real estate for some 2 decades now. I am often ask how to become a commercial Realtor.

Difficulty: Challenging

Instructions

Step 1

First of all Realtor is a trade marked designation for real estate agents who join the local, state, and National Association of Realtors. You do not need to have the designation Realtor to be a commercial real estate agent. Some companies require their agents to join the national association and others do not. It is more common for residential real estate agents to be members of the National Association of Realtors than commercial agents. Large firms and even small focused commercial agents work nation wide often and do not use the local board associations and listing services like residential agents do.
Step 2

There is no separate license to be a commercial agent vs a residential agent. You will need to take the courses and pass the state test to be a licensed real estate agent in your state. You can not be paid for selling real property except through a brokerage. The only exception to this is if you have a percentage of ownership, in my state 10%, or work for one client like a builder and are paid strictly salary and not commission or bonuses based on a sell. In some states an attorney can be paid a percentage if they are selling for an estate of a client. This varies with state law and bar associations.
Step 3

Once you are licensed you will need to work under a brokerage firm just like residential real estate sales agents. Interview with some of the commercial agencies sales managers where you live. Some firms will only hire if you have some experience already selling commercial property from a residential brokerage, others will hire anyone who passes the license exam as it is a strait commission job. For large firms it is very common to require you to be an assistant to another established agent until you reach a certain sales volume. You may even need to work in data tracking or mapping or some related job for a time so you know other departments in the firm before you are a full independent agent for that company. Each firm has it's own agent requirements.
Step 4

Commercial real estate sales is very specialized compared to selling residential homes. Some of this is purely because it is what your clients need. They want you to have more knowledge than they do in your specialty. There are many niches. Raw land, build to suit development, multi-unit residential apartment buildings, retail leases, tenant lease backs, franchise location etc... One agent in our office only sold mobile home parks. He worked in nearly every state in the U.S. and had clients who only bought and sold entire mobile home projects. Some agents worked with industrial warehouse space only. This includes both the sale of entire buildings as well as leases to large and small tenants. It is best to chose a specialty and focus there to reach the top of the commercial agent field. See if an agent who does a large volume in an area of interest to you needs help. Much of the commercial world works in pairs or teams.