Real life in the CRE industry
May 6-12, 2024
By Susan Hill Gelé
Metro Little Rock’s robust commercial real estate (CRE) industry has the complete spectrum of companies. Investors, owners, and CRE professionals all have different needs and expectations for determining the right company to hire or join as staff. Deciding between a company with fewer employees having a wide range of knowledge and experience or a larger staff with an expanded scope and concentrated specialties is based on personal preference. Both types of companies offer the required services, but how investors, owners, and potential employees choose to make the puzzle pieces fit influences the selection.
Whether it is brokerage, leasing, property management, permits, design, landscaping, or modernization, CRE professionals use their skills, connections, and talents to ensure assets are established and maintained. For some, careers in CRE are accidental – answering an ad to find a first job or moving up from an entry-level position. Others come from families with legacy CRE connections or know from the time they are young that building or creating public spaces is their destiny. Investors or owners either have roots in a community or have chosen the area for development, and count on these professionals to manage their investments profitably.
Elizabeth Small, professor of UA at Little Rock’s School of Business Real Estate Program, has first-hand knowledge of students who have ambitions of working in the real estate industry in certain sectors as well as those just dipping a toe into the opportunities. When students consider and begin studies in the real estate program, many have residential real estate in mind. Although there are significant differences between the residential and commercial segments in real life, the required exam is the same for anyone seeking a real estate license. The expertise on the commercial side comes with training and on-the-job (OTJ) experience.
A small company can offer enormous opportunity for gaining a wide range of OTJ experience. In the Little Rock market, Small has seen that many skilled CRE pros have the capacity of, “jack of all trades – they’ve been at it longer and started out in other areas before they ended up in their current spots.”
Jill Bryant, principal broker and real estate manager for West Group Real Estate is an example of a career finding a person. After an introduction to CRE out of college as a receptionist then ultimately a property manager, Bryant used her accumulated experience and skills in writing, basic bookkeeping, and business management to aid her in running all brokerage and management for West Group and client properties. “I enjoy having a foot in each world. It’s a way to serve clients better.” She sees the difference between small and large companies as manpower-based. “Marketing, accounting, lease negotiation, and property management are departments or specialties in large companies. Our smaller company has to cover the same services for our clients but with less manpower and perhaps less extensive, focused training that larger companies provide their people.”
Larger companies have enough staff to allow for separation and specialization of specific tasks and areas. Specialization can be a way to appeal to certain clients. Investors with many properties who prefer less involvement in operations can depend on the extensive experience gained by members of a department providing only particular services. Large companies could also have access to tools for analysis that allow quicker response time on reports.
For Cliff McKinney, a managing member with Quattlebaum, Grooms & Tull PLLC (QGT), it is a matter of perspective whether a firm is small or large. By Arkansas standards, QGT is a large firm, but it is small compared to some of the national law firms. However, he feels that gives him the best of both worlds. McKinney is able to focus completely on the whole spectrum of real estate law, not having to cover other areas or become too narrowly focused on a specific area. “It is helpful for my clients that I have experience with a broad range of real estate law derived from being in a firm that is in some respects large but small in other respects,” he says.
Having a family knowledge of CRE can give an overview, but the actual work will help each person define the right use of that individual’s skills and aptitudes. Rebecca Catlett Cate, principal for Arkansas Commercial Properties, started out in a family business that managed their own apartments, motels, and office buildings. She initially planned on focusing on a residential career but ended up helping her father. While closing that business and selling those properties after her father passed away, Cate discovered she loved sales on the commercial side. “I have had the flexibility to own my own company three times as well as work at small and large companies, depending on my life circumstances. In every situation I knew I wanted to focus on sales and leasing.”
It can take investors and owners a couple of tries to find the size company that suits them. Some need frequent contact while others prefer just the budget and year-end report. Cate “used connections that had investments and was able to develop a client base specializing in industrial properties. I did what came naturally but had to focus on a specific area.” Bryant has developed long-term connections resulting from clients enjoying having one contact for all their properties and projects.
Small’s advice to her students is that they must, “take steps to get where they want to be. But first they have to get a job. The culture has to fit. There are many aspects of CRE and in a small firm they can learn about lots of areas from the ground up. In a large company, specializing can lead to so many other doors opening. Do what the company needs them to do and they will learn. Be willing to experiment for a little bit.”
McKinney emphasizes what he calls the “relationship-centric” nature of CRE as an industry, no matter the size of the company. “For investors, the person is key. They have to find someone they connect with and can trust. The goal in real estate is to cooperate so we can all make money.”
Susan Hill Gelé is the executive director of Commercial Real Estate Council of Metro Little Rock
