How to Get a Job in Commercial Real Estate
Wondering how to land a career in commercial real estate, but don’t know where to start?
You’ve come to the right place.
Warning: commercial real estate has a high barrier of entry compared to residential real estate - there are far fewer commercial properties out there.
Fewer commercial properties = fewer opportunities.
It’s simply the law of supply and demand.
Opportunities in Commercial Real Estate
Since there are fewer commercial properties, rental rates and prices of commercial real estate tend to be higher; this translates into high-margin opportunities in commercial real estate compared to residential whether you’re an investor or you have a career in commercial real estate.
There are many avenues that you can travel in the city of commercial real estate. You don’t have to be an investor to break into commercial real estate nor do you need a background in the industry.
Lawyers, accountants, doctors, athletes, plumbers, and many other walks of life have crossed pivoted into CRE.
Which Career Path is Right for You?
Let’s examine our options with a shortlist of commercial real estate careers:
Asset Management
Appraisal
Analyst
Broker (leasing, sales, investments)
Development
Property Management
This list is certainly not complete, but it is comprised of the most common careers in the commercial real estate field. Let’s dive into what responsibilities you can expect with each job and why they would be a perfect fit for you.
Asset management:
An asset manager handles the day to day operations of a property.
They are tasked with maximizing the return on investment by implementing strategies to reduce costs and increase the revenue of a property or portfolio.
Managing the asset means that they oversee the property managers, renovations, leasing, sale, and repositioning of a property, if necessary.
If you’re looking for a role that places you in the captain’s chair, acting as the owner and being a “manager of managers”, then asset management is for you.
However, you must also be skilled in analyzing data, understanding your market(s), and knowledgeable of trends that influence these markets.
Appraisal:
A commercial real estate appraiser assigns values to commercial properties.
Value is determined on commercial properties based on sales comparisons of similar properties, the replacement cost, and the income or potential income that a property produces.
As an appraiser, the amount that an owner can lease their space for, the sale price, and the size of the loan that the owner can utilize as leverage for the property rests in your valuation.
Like asset management, being a commercial appraiser requires a keen sense of the real estate market.
An appraiser must also be able to analyze market trends as well as understand improvements that cause commercial properties to appreciate.
Analyst:
The rite of passage to almost every career in commercial real estate is becoming an analyst.
As you probably guessed, an analyst is charged with researching important real estate data, which could be:
Researching possible acquisitions and dispositions
Analyzing whether a company needs to reposition, sell, or lease
Any other research that would be needed for a company to make real estate decisions
Though the work can be tedious, you’ll learn a lot about commercial real estate due to the amount of research you have to do; Hence, this job is one of the most common jobs used to “get a foot in the door” to another career in commercial real estate.
Broker:
One of the more common careers in commercial real estate is a broker. There are 3 types of brokers:
Sales
Leasing
Investments
Sales brokers work with owners looking to buy and sell their property, while leasing representation brokers negotiate leases on behalf of the landlord or tenant. As I’m sure you guessed, investment brokers help investors place capital in commercial properties.
Commercial brokerage is one of the more popular fields in commercial real estate for a reason: you have a lot of freedom.
Brokers typically determine how much they are paid and how hard they work based on how many listings they acquire or how many tenants they chose to represent at a given time.
Development:
The biggest paydays in commercial real estate are found on the development side.
A developer builds property on vacant land or demolishes property for new construction; the margins for developers are high because construction costs of commercial real estate are generally cheaper than investing in an existing property.
Don’t start researching Lamborghini dealerships too soon, commercial real estate development is extremely risky! It takes a ton of expertise to buy land at the right price and factor in construction costs, building permits, architecture fees, etc., and still bring home a margin for yourself.
But, if you have the expertise, creativity, and know your market well, commercial development can one of the most profitable and dynamic roads to travel.
Property Management:
Property managers are some of the busiest people in the commercial real estate world.
They take on the responsibility of ensuring that tenants do not have issues with their space, and if they do, they are the tenants’ first call to get the problem rectified.
As a property manager, you will deal with a multitude of businesses, personalities, and problems on a daily basis.
You should expect to deal with contractors, painters, cleaning crews, and other businesses that are needed for tenants to comfortably operate out their business in the property.
If you enjoy problem-solving and are proactive, this is the career for you.
Next Steps to Take:
Now that you know a few opportunities that exist in commercial real estate, where should you start?
The answer to this question is simple: networking.
The age-old adage “it’s not what you know, it’s who you know,” applies when you’re starting out in commercial real estate.
Do your research and figure out the names of those who are currently where you want to be in the future; if you want to learn development, find your local developer and take them out for coffee or lunch.
Pick their brain!
Ask them every question that you have about their field and take notes. Stay in touch with them so that if they have an entry-level opening at their company, you’re the first person that comes to mind.
Start as an Intern
Also, you can seek out internships!
Get in touch with a real estate professional and tell them that you will work for them in exchange for getting experience in the field that they work in.
The knowledge, connections, and the experience that you gain through real estate internships, whether they are paid or unpaid, is priceless!
Connecting with your local real estate professionals and taking internships are great ways to get yourself noticed in the commercial real estate world, take it from me!
Is It Too Late to Get Started?
No matter where you are in life, what career you currently have, it is never too late to get started in commercial real estate.
Make it known that you’re looking to jump into real estate, connect with your local professionals, and apply for internships and entry-level positions at local commercial real estate firms and work your way to your goals!
Ben Dotye's passion and eagerness to learn about commercial real estate lead him to join the team as our brokerage and acquisition intern. He has proven himself valuable by assisting our brokers, being involved in renovation projects, and much more! His goal as our intern is to learn as much as possible so that he can soon be a part of Music City's growth.
A current Business student at Rhodes College, Ben is expected to graduate in 2022. Upon graduation, he plans to dive into commercial real estate!
Let’s dive into the Top 10 U.S. Commercial Real Estate Markets to Watch in 2025, as highlighted by the ULI and PwC's Emerging Trends in Real Estate® 2025 report.