Does anybody know any high quality real estate brokers?

[EricSchleien]

Hey All,

 

I started a company in December doing real estate and have been either buying and/or consulting on deals all throughout the United States and also Internationally. I have about $50 million I can put to work and have been building relationships with brokers all across the country.

 

However, a lot of them aren't so bright or just content and lazy at their jobs so a lot of my job is actually weeding people out and only focusing on working with those that are extremely organized, professional, and have an incredibly high ethical standard. I figured some of you may have contacts in this field and would be extremely grateful to anyone who could put me in touch with highly ethical brokers who are easy to work.

 

Please connect me via my email: eschleien87@gmail.com

 

Thank you so much.

[villainx]

From my experience, most specialize in region (city, neighborhood, county, etc) or property type (single family, multi, commercial, etc) so ... need more detail?

 

But I also would think having one or two more people join your team to scour internet, as well as learning about local markets, would be more beneficial than getting broker network.  Not to disparage any profession, but that's like asking for a good stock broker ... when, you know, internet.

 

 

[thepupil]

I use interactive brokers to buy high quality real estate. Very low commissions regularly calls with off market deals.

[Gregmal]

I utilize brokers often as a way to learn about different markets. You have to do proper DD otherwise you'll waste time talking with pikers. But theres ways to learn who the big guns are and these people have immense value and connections. And, as is true with any broker, they are almost always willing to talk to you because its their job.

 

For instance, in April, I was talking to a guy here about some Newark/Jersey City area CRE, and he goes "no one is buying anything right now. Why would they when you can get Vornado where its trading?" Funny, but also partially accurate with a lot of the private market feedback I got. Public markets are a much better all around investment right now.

[BG2008]

I use interactive brokers to buy high quality real estate. Very low commissions regularly calls with off market deals.

 

ha, legit laughed at this.  Please tell Steve Roth that he works for us and he needs to get the stock price up.  Chop Chop, time is money Mr. Roth. 

 

If you are really liberal, you can buy 1 share of Alexander's and tell people that "you are the landlord to Michael Bloomberg and The Donald did not have the staying power to hold onto the most fabulous building known as the Bloomberg Tower."  One billionaire pays you rent and one pseudo billionaire/US president couldn't hold onto these assets.  Sounds ways more exciting than sourcing deals in the private market. 

 

[thepupil]

Eric, I think this is our way of saying we are of no help.

 

That said I am impressed by your fundraising skills/connections and wish you luck!

[gurpaul88]

Sent you an email.

[Read the Footnotes]

However, a lot of them aren't so bright or just content and lazy at their jobs so a lot of my job is actually weeding people out and only focusing on working with those that are extremely organized, professional, and have an incredibly high ethical standard. I figured some of you may have contacts in this field and would be extremely grateful to anyone who could put me in touch with highly ethical brokers who are easy to work.

I'm really confused. I thought your "tribal leadership" coaching was transformational and works really quickly. Why don't you just tribally transform them in to a high achieving organization?

 

Wouldn't that be faster and easier? Especially for someone with a lot of coaching experience and little real estate experience?

[gfp]

doing real estate and have been either buying and/or consulting on deals all throughout the United States and also Internationally.

 

What type of Real Estate are you "doing" ?

[EricSchleien]

doing real estate and have been either buying and/or consulting on deals all throughout the United States and also Internationally.

 

What type of Real Estate are you "doing" ?

 

GFP -

 

We're looking at a everything from single family homes to large buildings with one big tenant and everything in between. My call yesterday was with a broker in Mexico looking at some properties out there.

 

If the cap rates are there, we are interested.

 

And to answer the other person's question about Tribal Leadership, I can't tell if that's a genuine question or if you're simply trying to nit pick to be a jerk. However, like any kind of transformational body of work, you can't "use" it on someone. It's an inquiry. So there's nothing to "use" on people otherwise it would just degrade into a management technique or tactic. Yesterday's insight becomes tomorrow dogma. And my job when interacting with brokers is not to train and develop them or coach them. It took about 8 years of training to acquire that skill, and it was pretty brutal work. However, one thing I am very clear about is that it's a very voluntary conversation. It's an invitation to engage in that dialogue, not a demand nor even a request. One has to have ears to hear and to engage in a conversation at that level, which is not most people. Nothing wrong with that - it's just not for most people. And there's no amount of convincing, persuading, or showing people data, that will "get" people to change their mind. Then once they are in the conversation, I can't make anyone do the work and at this point in my life, I'm really only interested in working with smart people.

 

Sure, could I in theory spend hundreds of hours building a relationship with one of these brokers who I'm not too pleased with, start sharing them ideas and asking insightful questions, and then perhaps in 6 months to a year they'll want me to spend a few full days with them. Sure. However, that's a lot of time invested for one person, and would not have the bandwidth for that. Rather just focus on people who are already interested in that discipline. It's no different than trying to talk to a day-trader about value investing. Their eyes may just glaze over at first no matter what you say to them :)

 

Anyway, I am happy to chat offline or there are plenty of very smart people who do this work around the world who I could put you in touch with. However, I do invite everyone to keep the topic of the thread to my question about brokers and not get off topic.

[EricSchleien]

However, a lot of them aren't so bright or just content and lazy at their jobs so a lot of my job is actually weeding people out and only focusing on working with those that are extremely organized, professional, and have an incredibly high ethical standard. I figured some of you may have contacts in this field and would be extremely grateful to anyone who could put me in touch with highly ethical brokers who are easy to work.

I'm really confused. I thought your "tribal leadership" coaching was transformational and works really quickly. Why don't you just tribally transform them in to a high achieving organization?

 

Wouldn't that be faster and easier? Especially for someone with a lot of coaching experience and little real estate experience?

 

I would be more than happy to put you in touch with Glen Esnard who started the Private Client Group at CBRE who built it from scratch and took it to $100 million in revenue from 0 in 4 years while the rest of the company was in decline. He also was the former head of Colliers International in North America and pretty reputable in the world of commercial real estate. So he's worked with many brokers on just this.

 

I have also attached a case study I wrote up on the CBRE culture story which delves a bit deeper into this.

 

https://www.proxyactivism.com/articles/cb-richard-ellis-amp-tribal-leadership-a-case-study?fbclid=IwAR3eHbgxwiFakZV3uw5_X346S-Wzv8VZg0nmPThPdeLZgSlwupBUEqGuwjE

 

For more general understanding of how this kind of stuff works and how you can't "use" it on someone, I'd recommend three books:

 

1) Three Laws of Performance by Steve Zaffron

2) Tribal Leadership by John King (full disclosure, John is one of my partners so I am biased because I love that man like he's my own grandfather)

3) Community: The Structure of Belonging by Peter Block

 

 

Best,

Eric

 

[Read the Footnotes]

Thanks for explaining your original post. I thought that since your original post was promoting yourself as "doing real estate", maybe you weren't promoting yourself as doing transformational change anymore. Also, though I found your derisive comments about brokers amusing, it didn't really sound like someone who is involved in helping people get better at what they do, so I guess that also made me think that maybe you had given up on being coach or whatever you would call your role.

 

Two other questions about your original post:

1) you mentioned ethics twice and how that is really important to you, I'm wondering how you think about ethics?

2) Based on some of the responses I've seen, I think several people are very confused about what exactly you are doing when you are doing real estate so I would be interested in learning more.