Take 5 
How to Switch from Residential to Commercial Real Estate
With Michael Hinton
TRT: 3 minutes 46 seconds
Video Transcription


Michael Hinton directly addresses camera:  Ready to transition from residential to commercial real estate. While there are some similarities. Commercial requires an additional set of knowledge and skills. I'm Michael Hinton, senior associate of investment sales for Apex Capital Realty in Miami. I'm also teaching a class for the Miami Commercial Realtors that offers help to residential agents who want to start a career in

commercial. Let's take five minutes to talk about some of the ways you can help set yourself up for success in commercial sales. I started in commercial sales right out of real estate school and consider myself a generalist. I focus more on retail and office investment sales in the last few years.

When I first started, I didn't have a mastery of the analytics of commercial sales, but I had some great mentors along the way, which leads me to my first suggestion. Get your CCIM designation. It stands for Certified Commercial Investment Member.

I got my pin in 2018 and it gave me a new level of expertize with commercial sales. It may not be the first thing you do out of the gate, but I highly recommend earning it in the first year of your commercial real estate career.

When first getting started, you must prospect with a good database. For example, if you're going to be an office specialist, you need to know who owns the best office buildings in your market. you should also know what inventory is available and what landlords are charging for common area expenses, parking and other services.

Where do you get this information? Check out databases that offer specific information about commercial real estate, including realtor property resource Crexi and Bravitas. Once you assemble this information, you need to put it in a customer relationship manager or a CRM database.

Your CRM can be as simple as an Excel spreadsheet or as sophisticated as an immersive dashboard. Some examples specific to commercial real estate are HubSpot and RealNex. But there are many options. Next, do your research on values in commercial real estate versus residential.

It's less important to know what the neighbors building sold for in residential. We call those comps. But for commercial, we base price on development and highest and best use. And what can be derived from cash flow or an owner's use for the property?

Figuring these out requires you to understand some business calculations, which is why education is so important. Take as many commercial education classes as you can through your local association or those offered by your broker. This is where a CCIM designation is invaluable.

Next, find a mentor who can walk you through some of the more difficult valuations and transactions between in the field experience and outside education. You better understand all that's involved in a commercial career. CCIM has a mentoring network, as does CREW, which stands for commercial real estate women.

Now there's one area where your experience in residential can help tremendously, and that's in marketing commercial properties. We employ the same tactics as most residential agents just in different channels. Commercial agents are very targeted in their marketing because many of their properties are very specific.

For example, if you have a medical office listing, you'll want to market to other medical providers because they are the most likely purchasers. This is where your research and database come into play. You'll search for medical providers and market to them, specifically with phone calls, email and even doorknocking to find the highest and best use for that

particular property. At first, selling commercial real estate can seem daunting, but with training market research and a reliable database. Most residential agents can make the transition smoothly. Good luck.