How I Built a Real Estate Network From ZERO [Copy Me]

Commercial real estate is one of the most relationship focused businesses out there. And whether you want to land a job in this industry or just make your own commercial real estate investments, having the right connections in place can have a huge impact on your success. But if you go about the networking process in the wrong way, this can set you back a lot early on in your career and can lead to a lot of wasted time and effort that you ultimately can't get back. So, in this video, we'll break down the four-step method that I've used over the last 15 years to build real relationships with real people that have led to job opportunities and investment opportunities throughout my career and how you can follow the same exact steps to get the right people in your corner.

So, the first thing I want to mention before we go through these is that the timing of this matters a lot. And because of that, you ideally want to start the networking process as soon as you can. The best time to reach out to people is when you don't actively need a job. And the last thing you want to do is come off as desperate or salesy when having these conversations. If you can start this process in your junior, sophomore, or even your freshman year of college or when you're actively employed and not currently in the middle of a job search, this gives these relationships time to season so that by the time an opportunity does come up or you need to make some sort of an ask in the future, you built a really strong foundation that makes that a lot easier. So, with

that in mind and out of the way, the first step of this process to make sure you're being as efficient as possible with your time is to do your research on the industry first and identify the people that would be most beneficial to your career to connect with. And the first people I always recommend starting with outside of just friends and family are alumni of your university that are working in commercial real estate. A lot of schools have massive alumni databases where people have actively signed up to be contacted with these often including details on the industry each person works in, the company they work for, and an email address that makes reaching out a lot easier. And even if your school doesn't have an alumni database, LinkedIn search is another great way to find these people since you can search directly by school, industry, company, and location, and you can see even more details about each person's career path. The biggest thing to make sure of is that you're prioritizing talking to people who are in positions that you would ideally want to be in the future since these people will have the most relevant advice to your specific ideal career path. Now, once you've identified the right people to reach out to, the next step is to actually strike up a conversation and get a yes on an initial phone call or meeting. Now, in my experience, the best way to get in touch with someone is usually directly via email. But if you can't find someone's email address or you think this is too direct, the second best option is usually going to be LinkedIn. Regardless of the way you choose to reach out, there are really three things you want to make sure of when going through this process that can have a huge impact on your response rate when making these requests. And the first and probably most important thing you want to keep in mind here is to make it clear that your goal is to learn and get advice from each person you talk to rather than hoping to be immediately offered a job or be connected internally. No one wants to be hit up by a stranger and asked to put their own reputation on the line by making a recommendation without really knowing someone. So, you want to be clear that you're coming at each of these conversations as someone who's genuinely looking for guidance rather than a favor. And the second thing to keep in mind is directly along those lines. And this is to make it clear that you're evaluating a few different specific options. And you want to get each person's take on which of these you should pursue. People are much more likely to say yes to these types of conversations when they have a clear understanding of what they're going to be asked. And these types of messages tend to have much higher response rates than messages asking if someone can pick a person's brain. And the third thing to keep in mind as you're putting together your messages is to be very clear about why you reached out to each specific person and make it obvious that you being very intentional about who you decided to message. The more you can reference each person's specific accomplishments or career path, the more likely it is that you'll get a response. And while AI can be a really helpful tool to refine your thoughts or run a quick grammar check, you'll ultimately want this to be from you in your own words. You'll also want to make sure to keep your messages short. Ideally, only about four to five sentences and getting to the point as quickly as possible, asking for a 15 to 20 minute phone call or a meeting at each person's office if that's more convenient for them. Now, once you've gotten people to say yes to an initial conversation, the next step is to prepare for the call or the meeting itself by putting together a list of questions beforehand. Every person you'll talk to has a unique background and perspective that comes with that. And ideally, your questions on each call should be narrowed down to those that only the person you're speaking with can ultimately answer. And at the same time that you want to come in prepared, you also want to make sure that this actually feels like a real conversation. So, don't be afraid to go off script and let things naturally unfold. It's also really important to be respectful of each person's time and not go over your agreed upon time window. So, if you planned a 20-minute call and you get 15 minutes in, you need to start wrapping things up and asking your final questions. Now, on the note of wrapping these conversations up, there are two main questions that I usually recommend asking at the end of these phone calls or meetings. And the first is, is there anything that I can do to help you? Even if you're just a college student and you feel like there's not much you can bring to the table, just asking this question alone makes it clear that you're looking to build a long-term real relationship and trying to add value in any way you can. And the second question you'll want to ask is one of the biggest networking hacks I know of, and this is based on what we talked about today. Is there anyone in your network that you think I would benefit from talking to? This one question can lead to multiple warm introductions with people that wouldn't otherwise even respond to an initial email. And especially if you're not a fan of cold outreach, this can make the entire networking process a lot less intimidating. Now, speaking of building real relationships, the last step of this process is to follow up with these people both directly after the conversation and also in the future. Within 24 hours of the call or the meeting, I'd recommend sending a short follow-up email just to say thank you for each person's time, while also highlighting one or two specific things that stood out to you from your time together. This ultimately sets the stage for future communication, which should usually be anywhere from about every 3 to 6 months, depending on how close you are to actually needing a job. And these future communications don't need to be long drawn out messages or even additional calls, but just quick notes to let these people know about any progress you've made towards your goals or ideally how you've put each specific person's advice into practice. This sounds like a really small thing, but this goes a very long way towards showing people that you do what you say you'll do and you're willing to put the work in to get where you want to go. And if you want these relationships to lead to job opportunities down the road, this is one of the best ways I know of to make that happen. And if you are looking to land a job in commercial real estate and you want to learn more about the networking and job search process in this industry, and you want to make sure you have the technical skills you'll need to pass an Excel modeling exam that might be given to you when interviewing for roles at top real estate firms, make sure to check out our all-in-one membership training platform, Breaking a CR Academy. A membership to the academy will give you instant access to over 120 hours of video training on real estate financial modeling and analysis. You'll get access to hundreds of practice Excel interview exam questions, sample acquisition case studies, and you'll also get access to the breakin to CR analyst certification exam, which covers topics like real estate acquisition and development modeling, commercial real estate lease modeling, equity waterfall modeling, and many other real estate financial analysis concepts that will help you prove to employers that you have what it takes to tackle the responsibilities of an analyst or associate at a top real estate firm. And if you like this video and want to see more content on the networking process, make sure to hit the like button to let me know. And let me know in the comments any other parts of the real estate job search that you'd like to see covered in more detail in a future video. As always, thanks so much for watching, guys. I hope you found this helpful. 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