Commercial brokerages can be a big stepping stone, average commission is roughly 3% per property. Just today I spoke to a top 4 CRE firm broker and he was telling me how management level Execs make roughly $1M-$3M per year. Plus, the guys at the big 4 CRE firms work on bigger deals from firms like RBC, TJ Max, Wal-Mart and large pension funds or REITS.
But it’s a sales position so you must be willing to be meeting CEO’s and wealthy investors constantly 7 days/week.

The issue here is that if you want to get into a finance role, you need to act ASAP because recruiting takes place a year in advance of internships, at least at the large banks. So if your second year is currently *ending* then it’s probably not a great idea to switch right now. Overall, you should probably just stick with your current major, maybe do a finance/accounting minor on the side, and then try to win internships in a few of these industries ASAP so you can figure out what you want to do.

I’m a second year computer science major, but I’ve realized I’m much more interested in sales and investing as a profession. Now, my grades are good enough and I understand the material well enough that I believe I could graduate with my CS degree. My question is, should I?

I’m interested in real estate brokerage and private equity. I don’t know exactly how I want my career to play out, but I want to chase deals, and I find coding to be a bit tedious, though the logical problems are occasionally pretty interesting. I also like finance and watching the markets. Economics is really an interesting field of study to me.

Do you think it’s a good idea to swap to a business administration with economics focus as a major?

On the one hand, I don’t think I’ll enjoy software engineering work very much. It’s interesting, but I don’t like the idea of grinding out code day by day. The money is great, but I want to have interest in my work. I find finance interesting, and I think it would be a better foundation if I end up working in real estate private equity.

On the other hand, I’ve heard that engineering is considerably stronger as a foundation, due to its rigorous coursework. Software engineering/tech is clearly the way of the future, and it’s creeping into every industry as well. I don’t want to be on the wrong side of development, and I want to have a strong foundation as I sort through careers.

I might also be able to get a civil engineering degree and leverage that into real estate development, but I don’t want to end up on the construction side, I want to end up on the finance side.

It won’t take me much longer to graduate if I swap now, but I’m quickly approaching the point where I have to make a decision. I’d also like to note that I’m currently at a non-target, and given your post about the accelerated recruiting in investment banking today, it’s pretty unlikely I’ll make it into one.

I’ve considered tech sales as well, but I think I’d eventually like to scale into working on investment buy-side, and I’m not sure how that would translate.

Thanks for any advice you can give. Your site is pretty awesome.

The issue is that real estate does not require the same level of intensity/practice that fields like law or medicine do. You do not have to complete a “residency” to learn how to evaluate properties, buy them, and start operating them… you just do it.

Most people get into the industry by networking and doing enough reading and case study/model practice (see all the examples on this site) to prove that they know what they’re doing. You don’t need a Ph.D./J.D./M.D. to do it, and advanced degrees are often counter-productive.

We have a comprehensive course on Real Estate Financial Modeling, but you could also look at books and plenty of free sample exercises online.

PLEASE ANSWER THIS

Yes. There will be some pricing pressure, but real estate will be much harder to disrupt with technology than, say, hedge funds. The top firms should continue to do well. See:

https://mergersandinquisitions.com/

Do you think that CRE brokerage will still be a lucrative field going forward? Or will there be pricing pressure on fees? If so, which firms do you think will lead the market (I’m guessing CBRE, Eastdil, HFF, and JLL).

Thanks

“Q: So how much can an established broker expect to get paid, and what does the commission structure look like?

A: Everything is on a sliding scale. When the deal is first completed, the broker gets a commission based on the transaction price. This generally starts at ~5% for smaller deals, and the percentage gets lower as the deals get bigger.”