Meetings

I spent three weeks talking with principals and managing brokers of many firms in St Louis getting to know the industry/market and looking for employment opportunities. Each person I spoke with addressed the difficulty of getting started in the industry especially from a financial and motivation stand point for the first 3-6 months. Commercial real estate is driven in large part by knowing an area’s prices, rents and investors very well and being able to network with owners. Developing this network is a long and difficult task.

Ultimately I joined Realty Exchange, a firm with department focusing exclusively on various areas of the market. Appartment Exchange is the property management branch, Coldwell Bank Premier is the Residential branch, Realty Exchange is the multi-family and investment branch and Realty Exchange Commercial Group focuses on retail, office, industrial and land brokerage.

I selected the multi-family and investment branch to begin because it is what initially drew me to commercial real estate, is the most relevant to my interest and has a faster learning curve than other segments.