The challenges we faced and tackled while transition from agents to brokerage owners.
Welcome to my story time! In this blog, I'll share the twists and turns of my transition from a seasoned real estate agent to eventually founding Commercial Brokers International - our own commercial real estate brokerage. This path was laden with unexpected challenges coming from the steep learning curve I encountered as I stepped into a leadership role. Here are the stories of how I (almost) failed, resilience, adaptation, and the lessons learned along the way.
Where Everything Started: Layoff
I had been a real estate agent for several years, specializing in real estate auctions and residential sales. However, I discovered my true passion in commercial real estate—a career I intended to build upon until circumstances changed. I joined DBL Realtors, a residential real estate firm, to establish their commercial real estate division. The plan was straightforward: hire experienced commercial agents and build a small team of 4–6 agents that could work the leads from the residential real estate agents. Initially, the process went smoothly, and we quickly onboarded five agents. Everything seemed promising until an unexpected call informed us that the company had been sold, and the commercial division would have to shut down within 18 days.
The abrupt closure was devastating. I was preparing to let go of the agents we had just hired and urgently assist them in finding new placements. One agent approached me with an idea: if I used my broker’s license to start a new company, they would all join me. Within weeks, we launched Commercial Brokers International, secured an office space, purchased equipment, hired a marketing professional, and began operations. However, I soon realized that while I excelled as a salesperson, I lacked the management skills necessary to lead effectively.
The Challenges of Transitioning to Management
The first few weeks as a business owner were among the most challenging in my career. Balancing the setup of operations, equipping agents with tools for their daily work, and managing my own clients was overwhelming. My prior training had focused on lead generation, negotiation, and closing deals—not on inspiring others, understanding diverse personalities, or strategic planning. The experience of building the team for DBL Realtors, really helped through this phase.
To address these gaps, I sought advice from other seasoned CRE managers in the industry (only a few responded) who generously shared their insights and many templates for us to get started. One critical lesson was the importance of quality hires; while our initial team consisted of kind individuals, many lacked the knowledge and drive required for true success in commercial real estate, that was on me as I hired them. Recognizing my limitations in marketing expertise and realizing the person I had hired was good at content creation but not the experience we really needed, we decided to go against the grain for most other CRE companies, and hired a person not in the real estate field, but instead a marketing specialist with a master’s degree in the psychology of marketing from USC to develop marketing templates, a website and strategies tailored to our agents’ needs. Thereby streamlining the process for us and our agents.
As in any business the bookkeeping and accounting was a whole new beast that I had never tackled at this level before, quickbooks was enough for the deals we were transacting as agents bit now to have multiple agents, payroll, multiple revenue streams was an entirely new process, we found a few different software programs from other managers and choose one that fit well for us, fortunately we had the same accountant for many years and he could recommend a great bookkeeper.
Building a Training Program
Hiring agents became a central aspect of running the brokerage firm. Recruiting experienced agents is costly and challenging but necessary; alternatively, hiring new agents necessitates creating robust training and mentoring programs. We decided to offer daily 45-minute training sessions at 8:30 AM—a schedule that helped filter out less committed individuals. My business partner George Pino led the training and some mentoring with the assistance of senior agents and myself. This collaborative approach proved effective in developing our team, and boosting their knowledge in a much more effective and efficient way than just “on the job training” through a typical Senior/Junior agent methodology.
This transformation took over a year and a half but significantly improved my management skills.
Advice for Aspiring Managers
Transitioning from an agent to management or broker owner is not easy and should not be done hastily. If you aspire to build a team or move into management roles or broker owner, start learning early by shadowing senior brokers or office managers to understand systems and processes. This proactive approach will prepare you better for leadership responsibilities and avoid many of the challenges I faced during my transition.
