All Commercial Real Estate Sectors Continue To Improve

 Shaking off a prolonged impact from the recession, fundamentals are gradually improving in all of the major commercial real estate sectors, according to the National Association of Realtors® quarterly commercial real estate forecast. The apartment rental sector has fully recovered and is growing.

The findings also are confirmed in NAR’s recent quarterly Commercial Real Estate Market Survey, which collects data from members about market activity.

Lawrence Yun, NAR chief economist, said new jobs are the key. “Ongoing job creation, which is at a higher level this year, is fueling an underlying demand for commercial real estate space, assisted by a steady increase in consumer spending,” he said. “The pattern shows gradually declining commercial vacancy rates, with consequential but generally modest rent growth.”

Yun expects the economy to add 2 to 2.5 million jobs both this year and in 2013, on the heels of 1.7 million new jobs in 2011, assuming a new federal budget is passed before the end of the year. “Although we need even stronger job growth, by far the greatest impact of job creation is in multifamily housing, where newly formed households striking out on their own have increased demand for apartment rentals – this is the sector with the lowest vacancy rates and strongest rent growth, which is attracting many investors.”

Rising apartment rents also are having a positive impact on home sales because many long-time renters now view homeownership as a better long-term option, Yun noted.

A large problem remains for purchases of commercial property priced under $2.5 million. “Our recent commercial lending survey shows that there is very little capital available for small business, which is significantly impacting commercial real estate transactions, although funding is less restrictive for bigger properties.”

NAR’s latest Commercial Real Estate Outlook¹ offers projections for four major commercial sectors and analyzes quarterly data in the office, industrial, retail and multifamily markets. Historic data for metro areas were provided by REIS, Inc.,² a source of commercial real estate performance information.

Office Markets
Vacancy rates in the office sector are projected to fall from 16.3 percent in the second quarter of this year to 16.0 percent in the second quarter of 2013.

The markets with the lowest office vacancy rates presently are Washington, D.C., with a vacancy rate of 9.3 percent; New York City, at 10.0 percent; and New Orleans, 12.6 percent.

Office rents should increase 2.0 percent this year and 2.5 percent in 2013. Net absorption of office space in the U.S., which includes the leasing of new space coming on the market as well as space in existing properties, is forecast at 24.7 million square feet in 2012 and 48.0 million next year.

Industrial Markets
Industrial vacancy rates are likely to decline from 11.0 percent in the current quarter to 10.7 percent in the second quarter of 2013.

The areas with the lowest industrial vacancy rates currently are Orange County, Calif., with a vacancy rate of 4.7 percent; Los Angeles, 5.0 percent; and Miami at 7.2 percent.

Annual industrial rent is expected to rise 1.6 percent in 2012 and 2.4 percent next year. Net absorption of industrial space nationally is seen at 44.1 million square feet this year and 62.4 million in 2013.

Retail Markets
Retail vacancy rates are forecast to decline from 11.3 percent in the second quarter to 10.7 percent in the second quarter of 2013.

Presently, markets with the lowest retail vacancy rates include San Francisco, 3.7 percent; Fairfield County, Conn., at 4.0 percent; and Long Island, N.Y., at 5.0 percent.

Average retail rent should rise 0.8 percent this year and 1.3 percent in 2013. Net absorption of retail space is projected at 8.0 million square feet this year and 21.9 million in 2013.

Multifamily Markets
The apartment rental market – multifamily housing – is likely to see vacancy rates drop from 4.5 percent in the second quarter to 4.3 percent in the second quarter of 2013; apartment vacancy rates below 5 percent generally are considered a landlord’s market with demand justifying higher rents.
Areas with the lowest multifamily vacancy rates currently are New York City, 2.1 percent; Portland, Ore., at 2.3 percent; and Minneapolis at 2.4 percent.

After rising 2.2 percent last year, average apartment rent is expected to increase 4.0 percent in 2012 and another 4.1 percent next year. “Such a rent increase will raise the core consumer inflation rate. The Federal Reserve, in turn, may be forced to raise interest rates, possibly as early as late 2013.”

Multifamily net absorption is forecast at 215,900 units this year and 230,300 in 2013.

The Commercial Real Estate Outlook is published by the NAR Research Division for the commercial community. NAR’s Commercial Division, formed in 1990, provides targeted products and services to meet the needs of the commercial market and constituency within NAR.

The NAR commercial components include commercial members; commercial committees, subcommittees and forums; commercial real estate boards and structures; and the NAR commercial affiliate organizations – CCIM Institute, Institute of Real Estate Management, Realtors® Land Institute, Society of Industrial and Office Realtors®, and Counselors of Real Estate.

Approximately 78,000 NAR and institute affiliate members specialize in commercial brokerage and related services, and an additional 232,000 members offer commercial real estate services as a secondary business.

The National Association of Realtors®, “The Voice for Real Estate,” is America’s largest trade association, representing 1 million members involved in all aspects of the residential and commercial real estate industries.

How To Sell If You Hate Selling

Your success in business depends upon your ability to sell. It’s time to get over your bad attitude.

“I hate selling.”

I’ve heard that statement a thousand times–often from entrepreneurs whose success depends upon their ability to sell their ideas, their firm and their products.

And that’s a shame, because if you hate selling, you’ll never be good at it, and that means at least lost revenue–and in the worst case, company failure.

In my experience, it’s the entrepreneurs who really love selling who are the most successful. Steve Jobs, for instance, was incredibly good at pitching his products. Watch any video of Jobs at an announcement, and you can absolutely feel his sense of joy–not just in the product, but in telling a story about the product.  Jobs loved selling; there’s no question about it.

Time for an Attitude Adjustment

When I interview the CEOs of start-ups, I can usually predict whether or not the company is going anywhere by the way the CEO talks about selling. If they think it’s the soul of success, they’re going to do well.  If they think it’s a chore, not so much.

So, if you hate selling, it’s absolutely in your interest to get over it–and, even better, cultivate a love of the selling process. And that’s what this post is about.

To help you through this process, let’s examine the root of this “hatred.” In my experience, people “hate selling” because they hold one or more of the following beliefs:

• Selling is manipulative. Many people (entrepreneurs included) swallow that hokum that sales is all about manipulating people into buying something that they don’t really want to buy. By this line of thought, the typical salesperson is a fast-talking slick-head. Who wants to be like that?
• Selling is annoying. Selling sometimes involves repeated emails and phone calls, both of which tend to be unwelcome. Most people have had unpleasant experiences with pesky salespeople who won’t take no for an answer.  And who wants to be a pest?
• Selling is boring. Most business tasks can be undertaken full speed, with progress limited only by the amount of time you’re willing to spend. Selling, however, involves plenty of “hurry up and wait” while prospective customers mull things over before they “get back to you.”

If you personally hold any of those three beliefs (much less all of them), there’s no way that you won’t “hate selling.”

So the way to change your emotion about selling is to undercut those beliefs with different beliefs that will create a different emotion.

• Selling is actually helping.  Once you make the decision that you’d never, ever sell somebody something they don’t need, you’re free to see selling for what it really is: helping somebody else get what they want.  Most of the time, selling is all about making people happy by providing them with what they truly need.  What’s manipulative about that?
• Selling is actually sociable. If you make the decision that you’re not going to annoy anyone–much less a prospective customer–you’re free to look at the selling process in terms of making new acquaintances and having interesting conversations about stuff that interests you.  (Hey, isn’t that why you got into business?) It’s fun for you and it’s fun for the other person, too.
• Selling is actually learning. When you decide to learn something valuable in every sales situation, selling becomes far more interesting than watching TV or playing a computer game. People are fascinating–and never more so than when they’re making decisions. Get curious and you’ll never be bored again.

Is it really possible to change your beliefs and consequently learn to love selling.  Oh, you betcha.  I’m a perfect example.

When I started my own freelance writing business more than a decade ago, I dreaded selling for all the reasons I listed above.  However, I quickly figured out that my success would be just as dependent upon my ability to sell as my ability to write.

If You Aren’t Selling …

Back then I was writing mostly about high tech, but over time, as I learned more about selling, I was drawn to start writing about it. Now I think it’s one of the most interesting parts of the business world–because if sales aren’t happening, you don’t have a business.

I’ve also learned that selling is like any other human endeavor: The more you do it, the better you get at it.  Also, when it comes to selling, a little bit of effort put into training yourself goes a long way.  Ultimately, it becomes like riding a bike, automatic and easy.  Fun, too.

So, if you still hate selling, I strongly recommend that you put those old beliefs aside and change your attitudes. After all, whether you like it or not, you’re going to have to sell in order to be successful.  Learn to love it, and you’ll achieve your goals far faster.( credit inc)

6 Ways Successful People Stand Out

Be first, with a purpose.

Lots of business owners are the first to arrive each day. That’s great, but what do you do with that time? Organize your thoughts? Get a jump on your email?

Instead of taking care of your stuff, do something visibly worthwhile for the company. Take care of unresolved problems from the day before. Set things up so it’s easier for employees to hit the ground running when they arrive. Chip away at an ongoing project others are ignoring. Whatever you choose, do it consistently.

Don’t just be the one who turns on the lights–be the one who gets in early and gets things done. The example you set will quickly spread.

Be known for something specific.

Meeting standards, however lofty those standards may be, won’t help you stand out.

Go above the norm. Be the entrepreneur known for turning around struggling employees. Be the business owner who makes a few deliveries a week to personally check in with customers. Be the boss who consistently promotes from within. Be known as the person who responds quicker, or acts faster, or who always follows up first.

Pick a worthwhile mission and excel at that mission.

Create your own side project.

Excelling at an assigned project is expected. Excelling at a side project helps you stand out. The key is to take a risk with a project and make sure your company or customers don’t share that risk.

For example, years ago I decided to create a Web-based employee handbook my then-employer could put on the company Intranet. I worked on the project at home and a few managers liked it but our HR manager hated it… so it died an inglorious death. Bummer. I was disappointed but the company wasn’t “out” anything, and soon after I was selected for a high-visibility company-wide process improvement team because now I was “that guy.”

The same works for a business owner. Experiment with a new process or service with a particular customer in mind. The customer will appreciate how you tried, without being asked, to better meet their needs, and you’ll become “that guy.”

Put your muscle where your mouth is.

Lots of people take verbal stands. Fewer take a stand and put effort behind their opinions.

Say you think a project has gone off the rails; instead of simply showing everyone how smart you are by pointing out its flaws and revamping the timeline, jump in and help fix it.

It’s easy to criticize what’s wrong or to talk about what should be changed or could be improved. The people who stand out are the ones who help do something about it.

Show a little of your personal side.

Personal interests help other people to identify and remember you. That’s a huge advantage for a new business or a company competing in a crowded market.

Just make sure your personal interests don’t overshadow professional accomplishments. Being “the guy who ran a marathon” is fine, but being “the guy who is always training and traveling to marathons so we can never reach him when we need him” is not.

Let people know a little about you; a few personal details add color and depth to your professional image.

Work harder than everyone else.

Nothing–nothing–is a substitute for hard work. Look around: How many of your competitors are working as hard as they can?

Not many.

The best way to stand out is to try to out-work everyone else.

It’s also the easiest, because you’ll be the only one trying. (credit, Inc)

Going Global… Major Commercial Real Estate Companies Are Expanding

New commercial real estate brokerages are launching in the United States, in what may be a sign that the market’s recovery is durable.

Australia’s UGL Ltd (UGL.AX), a huge property manager, plans to expand in the Americas. BGC Partners Inc (BGCP.O), which brokers bonds among investment banks, built real estate brokerage Newmark Grubb Knight Frank from acquiring and combining smaller companies.

These players offer a range of services for offices, shopping centers, and hotels, from helping clients buy, sell, or lease property to appraising to managing real estate globally.

The newcomers hope to rival the biggest real estate services companies such as Jones Lang LaSalle Inc (JLL.N) and CBRE Group Inc (CBG.N). Often upstarts hope to grow by acquiring smaller competitors in the highly fragmented industry, and hiring away established players.

But they could trip over their own growth plans if they overpay for acquisitions or hires, analysts said. They may also get hurt if the current economic recovery fizzles out.

“These companies that are making acquisitions will have some stumbling blocks,” JMP Securities analyst Will Marks said.

The companies say U.S. commercial property brokerage is a good business now because the market is recovering, and the pace of recovery could quicken. The United States has already moved past the pain that halved property values, even as markets in Europe and Asia are struggling.

“I’m a big fan of the U.S.,” UGL Chief Executive Richard Leupen said. “I have a belief that the outlook is still terrific in the medium term and we want to be part of it … It’s the largest property services business in the world by a long shot. If you’re in property, you have to be in America.”

Other foreign companies have been expanding in the United States as well. Canadian real estate services company Avison Young first stepped into the U.S. market in 2009; this year it opened five offices, including in New York and San Francisco. The company hired former Cushman & Wakefield CEO Arthur Mirante last month to build its New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut business.

U.S. MARKET FRAGMENTED

The value of global commercial real estate available for investing is between $10 trillion and $15 trillion, with half of that in the United States.

The U.S. commercial property brokerage industry is fragmented with 801 firms brokering property transactions of at least $10 million in 2011, according to a recent report by Real Capital Analytics.

According to Real Capital, only six firms are global – CBRE, Jones Lang LaSalle, Cushman & Wakefield, Savills, Colliers International and Newmark Knight Frank, now called Newmark Grubb Knight Frank. The top three – CBRE, Jones Lang and Cushman & Wakefield – accounted for 35 percent of the $326 billion in sales brokered in 2011.

BGC recently acquired bankrupt Grubb & Ellis for about $47.5 million, according to a source familiar with the case. It merged Grubb into Newmark, which it bought in October 2011. The two acquisitions totaled about $150 million.

“We just sold to a company whose objective is to grow the company,” said Barry Gosin, CEO of Newmark Grubb Knight Frank. “Grubb solved our scale issue. We now have 100 offices. We’re going to hire a lot of people.”

BGC’s expansion into real estate has offset declines in the financial markets, said Howard Lutnick, CEO of BGC and sister company Cantor Fitzgerald CNTOR.UL, on a conference call this month.

UGL has expanded from its property management business, which oversees the real estate needs of everything from universities to government offices, hospitals and shopping centers. It wants to be a one-stop shop for its large corporate customers. It offers research, fund management, cleaning services and energy management.

UGL bought Boston-based facilities management company Unicco in 2007 and Chicago-based real estate services company Equis a year before that. At the end of 2011, it bought British-based brokerage DTZ, which had been placed into administration in the UK. DTZ has a big operation in China and is active in Silicon Valley.

“If you clearly want to become part of the global offering, you have to be in America, and you have to be big in America, and we’re still not big enough,” CEO Leupen said.

10 Ways Old School Commercial Real Estate Gets It Done

 Credit to Duke Long, One Of The Great Blogs In CRE…tells it like it is, sometimes a blog post is worth repeating and reviewing.

Old school or new school. Pavement pounding cold calling or social media and technology. I spent a little time in the great city of Chicago this week(ironically doing two panels for social media and commercial real estate) and had some in depth and thoughtful discussions with several smart and savvy brokers. Interesting to me was the different opinions about what is or is not the way we in commercial real estate are should maybe or can be doing THE business of getting deals. Now obliviously I have leaned towards the tech side but there is still a pretty serious contingent of non tech people getting it done. This made me think a little bit back to the “old” days and I thought I would post up something I did along time ago. Basically I sat down and had lunch with a good friend of mine who I would certainly call old school. Picture an ex football linebacker type,clean shaved head pinstripe suit and a stare the melts the ladies and puts the boys on their heels.

Old School Real Estate Still Kicking Your Ass.

Think that all of your beeping gadgets and tethered toys are just the coolest things ever?  Do you know what the latest I- pop app or whatever they call them are and think it rules the world?  Well, great for you. I have some news for you son.  I’m kicking your ass and here’s how and why.

1.  I get my butt up and moving- First of all commercial real estate does not happen sitting at the desk. It happens in the field.  A successful pro must be in the field every day, yes every day.

2.  I am mobile- As in get in your car and drive your market, yes every day.

3.  I am really mobile- They have these things call shoes. Walking, knocking on doors, climbing stairs, you would be amazed what you see and hear. On the ground and the street.

4.  I meet people- Tenants, property managers, building owners, (remember them?)they are the ones who actually need my service.

5. I listen and learn- I get info from them about their families, politics, hobbies and their business.  Guess what, they tell me stuff.  Like lease information, when they are moving and what they really need.  In great detail. They like me. I am their “professional” friend and connection to commercial real estate.

6. I feel the market- I keep up with what businesses are expanding and contracting who is creating  jobs and who is bailing out.  I analyze why. It’s my job.

7. I know the ropes- Zoning, planning, permits, water, local, municipal. Yes, I went to school with the wonderful gals behind the desks at the city and county. I don’t abuse the relationship. I nurture it.You can’t get that type of info from any GIS or computer.

8.  I know where to go- I attend the events that matter for commercial real estate. Guess what they call it? Networking. Chamber of Commerce,Golf charity outings,BNI,Toastmasters,Monday morning lead group. Take your pick. I am their go to guy.

9. I’m a pro- The average broker spends 8 or 9 years in this business.  How many do you think are left from this last bloodletting?  Think they will jump back in when it looks like a little easy money can be made?  I’ll be here if they want to come back, but I doubt it.  They made the real pros look bad.  They probably went on to some Social Media “consulting” job.  It looked easy for a while didn’t it.  Good effin riddance.

10. Time- as in you are not willing to:

a. Stay away from the gadgets.  They are just distractions…..for the lazy.

b. Realize commercial real estate is NOT an online business.

c. Take time away from your “real” life.

This one may hurt but, you are not willing to be away from your family, friends and fun. “17 hours a day for 25 years.  That’s my secret.”  Balls in all the way or not?

Take this as friendly or not so friendly advice.  Just telling it like it is and showing you the way it’s still done today.  Play with your toys all you want.  I’ll just keep cashing my checks…for the next 20 years.

Clueless ?

My boy does not mince many words. Now you may say hey a mix of the old school stuff with some tech is the way that I do it and that most are seeing the next wave of new broker finally breaking the old school ways. Think for a minute. You have to know two, three, four guys in your market doing it old school. My simple question to you is why then are these boys still getting it done?

Large Investors Choose To Swim On Their Own

Some of the world’s biggest investors are betting they can beat real-estate fund managers at their own game.

Put off by high fees and disappointing performance of so-called pooled funds, major institutions such as Harvard University’s endowment, Canada Pension Plan and Abu Dhabi Investment Authority are building in-house real-estate investment divisions to acquire property directly. They are making fewer real-estate investments through outside fund managers who pool contributions from dozens of investors.

“When we can control what we buy, and how we manage it, our results tend to be better,” said Jane Mendillo, head of the company that manages Harvard’s $32 billion endowment, which is the largest college endowment in the U.S.

In addition to what investors see as lagging performance of pooled, or “commingled,” funds, others feel burned that some of these funds continued to seek capital during the downturn even when they had no investing prospects. Many felt the use of debt had gotten too high at the market’s peak.

“Commingled funds have more risk than investors are being paid for,” said Tom Arnold, head of Americas real estate for Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, at a recent Pension Real Estate Association conference.

In a poll of 472 investors world-wide with $10 billion or more in assets, 80% said they were either investing in real estate directly or considering it, according to Preqin, which tracks alternative investments.

These investors increasingly are beginning to show up in big deals. For example, Abu Dhabi Investment Authority recently took a 50% stake in the Oracle retail development in Reading, U.K. Canada Pension Plan has bought a major stake in a dozen shopping malls across the U.S.

Other institutional investors that have indicated a growing appetite for direct investing include insurer Allstate Corp. ALL +0.76% and DuPont Capital Management, the asset management arm of the DuPont DD +0.31% chemicals company.

“I think it’s a secular change,” said Sean P. O’Shea, managing principal at Sienna Capital Partners, a New York-based real-estate advisory firm. “Investors are developing their capabilities to go direct, allowing them to control the use of leverage and their exposure to specific property types and geographies.”

This go-it-alone approach among some of the world’s most influential investors helps explain why many of the hundreds of private-equity real-estate groups world-wide have been struggling to raise cash for new funds. Even well-established companies like Apollo Global Management APO +4.38% and J.P. Morgan Chase JPM +0.74% & Co. have struggled to raise money since the downturn.

Insurance companies and pensions used to buy nearly all their property directly until the commercial real-estate crash of the early-1990s. At that time, money managers began to form pooled funds partly to buy huge portfolios of distressed assets being sold by banks and the Resolution Trust Corp.

Creators of these real-estate funds included Wall Street firms like Goldman SachsGS +0.52% Group Inc. and Morgan Stanley MS +0.45% . Most of the funds used the private-equity model, charging a management fee and taking a share of the profits. Early on, many of them showed big profits.

In 2000, 59 closed-end real-estate funds world-wide raised $22 billion, according to Preqin. By the peak in 2008, 304 funds raised $142 billion.

Many of these funds had big losses on investments made around the market’s top. Institutional investors also became concerned about the future commitments attached to these funds, which made them more vulnerable if the funds called for cash in rough market periods.

In 2010, Harvard sold several positions in property funds after its real-estate portfolio’s value lost more than 50% for the fiscal year ended June 2009, according to Ms. Mendillo. More recently, she hired a former Carlyle Group executive to run the Harvard program like a private investment shop, and the endowment is investing actively after largely lying low for two years.

Some industry observers say the direct approach isn’t always a good idea. Only the largest institutional investors have the size and resources to build the team needed to buy directly, said Edward Schwartz, a principal at ORG Portfolio Management, an investment adviser. “You’ll need a staff as capable as a professional fund manager,” he said.

“It also creates new conflicts to manage,” Mr. Schwartz added, since an operating partner in a joint venture may also own a construction, leasing or property-management business that the investor may be forced to use.

Yet, some funds see the direct approach as a natural evolution. Canada Pension Plan started investing abroad through funds but is now investing primarily through partnerships. That meant staffing up from four people in 2006 to a real-estate team of 45 today.

The in-house team starts by picking a city and property type, like office buildings in Manhattan, said Peter Ballon, CPP’s head of real estate for the Americas. Then, CPP narrows its sights further, settling on specific neighborhoods, even certain streets, where it wants to own. It meets with potential partners, from property managers to real-estate investment trusts that have expertise and access to those property types and areas.

The investors, which often provide most of the equity, share in major decisions, such as when to sell. By contrast, managers of pooled funds usually make most major decisions, giving individual investors less control and sometimes less insight into the status of their investments. Fees for direct investing tend to be about half those paid to funds.

The government-run Abu Dhabi Investment Authority has assembled a real-estate team to rival even the largest private property investment groups, doubling staff size over the past three years to more than 100.

As part of its hiring spree, the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority has lured former real-estate executives at blue-chip names like Morgan Stanley and Starwood Capital Group. (credit creg karmin,  wsj)

Realtors Report Increase In Commercial Transactions, Income

- Realtors® specializing in commercial real estate reported an increase in transactions in 2011, as well as a rise in their median gross annual income, according to the 2012 National Association of Realtors® Commercial Member Profile.

The study’s results represent Realtors® who practice commercial real estate; these NAR members conduct all or part of their activity in commercial sales, leasing, brokerage and development for land, office and industrial space, multifamily and retail buildings, as well as property management. The survey shows that despite a challenging market, commercial members completed a median of seven transactions in 2011, up from 2009 and 2010 when the typical agent had five transactions. In addition, the median gross annual income of commercial members has increased for the past two years. The survey showed that the median gross annual income for 2011 was $86,000, up almost $10,000 from the previous year.

“The commercial real estate market still has a long way to go before full recovery, yet Realtors® are reporting positive trends that give us hope that the market is on its way to becoming healthy again,” said NAR President Moe Veissi, broker-owner of Veissi & Associates Inc., in Miami. “Realtors® who practice commercial real estate help build communities by facilitating investment and promoting the sale and lease of commercial space, which supports millions of jobs nationwide. They are hopeful that the market will strengthen and their business will help spur the nation’s economic recovery.”

According to the survey, the median sales transaction volume in 2011 including those members without transactions was $1,058,300. When those members who had no transactions were excluded, the median transaction volume was $2,010,500. Brokers typically had higher sales transaction volumes than agents, and 22 percent of commercial members had no transactions with sales volume. The median dollar value of sales transactions was $414,300 and the median square footage was 9,600. In both instances, brokers typically had higher median dollar value of sales transactions, as well as sold larger spaces when compared to sales agents.

The median lease transaction volume when including those with no transactions was $93,100; when excluding those members with no transactions it was $402,100. Thirty-four percent of commercial members reported having no lease transactions. The median leasing dollar value was $144,800 and a leasing transaction was typically 4,100 square feet.

The typical commercial member has been involved in real estate for 24 years, and has been engaged in commercial real estate and been a member of NAR for 15 years. In addition to NAR’s membership, many are also affiliated with one of several commercial organizations including the CCIM Institute, the Institute of Real Estate Management, the Society of Industrial and Office Realtors®, the Realtors® Land Institute and the Counselors of Real Estate. Fifty-eight percent of commercial members reported having a broker license. An additional 28 percent reported having a sales agent license. Investment sales is the most-cited primary specialty of commercial members and is also the top-ranked secondary specialty area.

A large majority of commercial members work at least 40 hours a week. More than half reported they spend 75 – 100 percent of their time on commercial real estate activity. Sixty-four percent derived 50 percent or more of their income from commercial real estate activity in 2011. When comparing sales activity versus lease activity, the differences in income become more apparent. Thirty-three percent of commercial members did not derive any income from commercial real estate leasing in 2011.

The typical commercial member is married, has a college education, is 57 years old and is male. While a strong majority of commercial members are male (76 percent), more female practitioners are entering the field. This year, 24 percent of respondents identify themselves as female. Thirty-six percent of those with two years or less experience are women, compared with 18 percent of those with 26 years or more experience. Sales agents also have the largest representation of female practitioners, at 31 percent. Racial and ethnic minorities comprise a small but significant portion of commercial members. Eighty-nine percent of members identify themselves at White/Caucasian. Asian/Pacific Islanders and Latino/Hispanics each account for four percent of commercial members. Black/African Americans account for two percent of commercial members. Thirty-six percent of commercial members have a bachelor’s degree, while 18 percent have earned a graduate degree.

The NAR 2012 Commercial Member Profile was based on a survey of 2,499 commercial practitioners. Income and transaction data are for 2011, while other data represent member characteristics in 2012.

The National Association of Realtors®, “The Voice for Real Estate,” is America’s largest trade association, representing 1 million members