A Step-by-Step Guide On How To Transition Into Commercial Real Estate Made Easy

[00:00:00] This week's listener of the week is Joe Schweid. Joe, thank you for your review. Make sure to DM us your mailing address, and for all of those listening. If you drop us a five star review down below, you might be next week's listener of the week. Now I know this is what y'all want. You want a step-by-step guide as to how to transition into commercial real estate, and this is geared towards investors and brokers.

Okay, so I wanna give you an anecdote for you to realize that it's not this massive hurdle that it seems to be. When I was trying to get my very first job in commercial real estate and I was interviewing at brokerages, I found there was an overwhelming similarity in the questions that I was being asked by the brokerages.

The two questions, [00:01:00] one, Do you have any sales experience? And two, do you have any real estate experience? Now, at the time, I didn't have any real estate experience, but what I learned was, had I worked in residential real estate, invested in residential real estate, I would've had experience. Right? I, I was a waitress at the time and.

The only experience I had was selling beer to people. So that's kind of where I, uh, the edge I took. And fast forward, we're all gonna be okay. But the point I'm trying to make here is that your experience in residential real estate being bro, be it brokerage or investing, is completely applicable. To commercial real estate, and so I want to really break down that fear that they're [00:02:00] so different and that one is more intimidating than the other.

Right. I hear this all the time. Commercial real estate is too expensive for me to buy, right? I can only afford residential or commercial real estate takes too much time. Commercial real estate's too hard. I don't know anybody in commercial real estate. And while I, uh, uh, you know, appreciate thoughtfulness, those are excuses, right?

When you say, I can only afford residential real estate. Then you buy a $400,000 house and then I sell a $300,000 commercial unit. Right? That, do you get what I'm saying? So if you only stick to residential, right, and you never dibble, dabble past this podcast into commercial, you will lose. A your time because you're going to be dealing with repairs and maintenance and the mania and the emotions [00:03:00] of your residential tenants.

24 7 365. You're gonna waste money because residential tenants are way more expensive than commercial tenants between the vacancy and the maintenance and repairs. Right? In commercial, a lot of the times, tenants are responsible for the maintenance and repairs. I, I put, I have to put paint and clean carpets in my residential units.

I don't do any of that in my commercial units. That's all money that impacts your bottom line. It is gonna be a lot harder to scale and to syndicate, and I'm just, I, I just wanna be honest. If you stay in residential, I know in the back of your mind, you're always going to regret not taking the leap to commercial and, and this fear is totally normal, right?

Commercial real estate's intimidating. The information is gate kept because the [00:04:00] gatekeepers. Don't want you to buy it, however, and well, and, and human nature just so has it that people don't lean in towards something that they're afraid of or, or overwhelmed by. But you, you're here already, so you know there's something to it.

And I wanna be the very first person to tell you that if I can do commercial real estate, so can you now. It's also really important to understand that commercial real estate is heading into a complete heyday. I know the media right now is saying the industry is crashing. However, the reality of the commercial real estate market and the real estate market in general is that over time it goes up.

So we'll take 2008, for example. Right, the real estate market crash in 2008. [00:05:00] Housing prices, you know, all these houses were foreclosed on. You could get a house for pennies on the dollar. Well, now it's 2003, it's 15 years later, and those houses have appreciated 4, 5, 6 times. So even if there's a quote unquote crash in the short term, we operate with a long term perspective.

Specifically in commercial real estate because that's how you get the most money out of the property, is with a long-term perspective. Now, the reality about the long-term perspective in commercial real estate is the bum silver tsunami. The silver tsunami is a significant pending retirement of the gatekeepers and the leaders of the industry.

Hmm. Uh, the average age of a commercial real estate broker is 60 years old. In the United States, the average [00:06:00] age of a person who retires in the United States is 65. What does that mean in five years, who a majority of the workforce retires, who's gonna be there to pick up the pieces? I will, I'll take all your leads, right.

There's such a large quantity of folks working in commercial real estate who are over the age of 60, and they are going to die and retire in the next five to 10 years. The opportunity has never been bigger in commercial real estate to get ahead, honestly, right now. So, What I want you to understand is that the very first step of really, really

seeing through your transition into commercial real estate from residential or from any job, is your [00:07:00] mindset, right? Mental blocks will kill. Your, the, your future of generational wealth and legacy and community, right? You need to understand that if I can do it, you can do it. And if he can do it, she can.

You know, your mind is everything and if your mind is telling, you know, nothing else positive will follow. Right? You have to understand that everybody started somewhere. This is why I'm really big on, uh, getting your brokerage license first, right? As a commercial real estate broker, I started with nothing, no money, no experience.

I worked as a waitress at night and a broker in the day until I built up my business enough to finally stopped waiting tables and to see brokerage through full-time. And what that did [00:08:00] was what I call my PhD in commercial real estate. I then, and I still do other people's deals, right? I do deals with other folks.

Money. I'm learning how to transact because not every deal, every single deal is different. And while I'm getting paid to learn how to transact, I'm meeting the players, I'm meeting the owners, I'm meeting the brokers, I'm meeting everybody I need to, to continue growth and success in the industry. So it's really important to understand, aside from the fact that the entire, uh, a large portion of the workforce is about to retire, there is so much opportunity in commercial real estate.

I could scream. Let me tell you one more commercial real estate. Is a very gate kept and a part of their gatekeeping is [00:09:00] keeping the information offline, right? You, you don't see a lot of these podcasts. You don't see a lot of social media. Why? Because the gatekeepers would rather pass, pass the wealth down and the knowledge down to their sons and their sons and keep the money in the family.

But something really exciting is happening, so, The internet and what the internet is doing is giving folks like you and I the ability to break down the gates and share the information of this unbelievable industry and it, this applies tenfold to commercial brokerage. And I built my company on the back of online marketing, right?

In commercial real estate. Nobody believes in online marketing. Nobody wants to do on, uh, uh, social media on the brokerage end. So what did I do? [00:10:00] I built a company off of online marketing and brokerage and, uh, it feeds me every single day. So now that we understand that the transition from residential to commercial is not as scary as the gatekeepers want you to think that all those gatekeepers are about to retire and that.

Leveraging the internet is going to be your key to financial freedom, generational wealth, et cetera. You can now see through a successful path in commercial real estate. Now, what questions do you have for me? Head over to any of my socials. And DME at Aviva Real Estate. If you wanna get started in commercial real estate today for free, head to my show notes.

I have a freebie in there, how to get started in [00:11:00] commercial real estate. It's very dense and I love, I really enjoyed making it. And next week we are going to be talking about. Should I buy residential or commercial real estate for my first investment property? I'm looking forward to it, and we'll see you next week.