I entered this field by default.  As a college student it was my ambition to be in the world of commercial development.  I left Boise for LA to break into the business.  I spoke to everyone I could until I ran out of money.  I was fortunate to land a job with Weyerhaeuser Real Estate Company.  My job was in the loan servicing department but, they also owned a residential development company and venture capital company.  After two years and no movement into development or capital,  I gave up Weyerhaeuser and returned to Boise.

After contacting all the local developers with no prospects, I pursued a path that one of my contacts recommended.  A career in commercial real estate as a way to move into development.  After contacting several brokerages, I landed a spot.  I knew very little about the industry, let alone how to do it.

On my first day I had an office with a desk and chair, and a phone and a phone book, a yellow pad with pen and pencil, access to the supply room, office support to answer the phone, and some typing, a couple seasoned associates, a broker who was going to show me what to do as soon as he got organized, which in the two years I was there never occurred.

What I didn’t  have was any knowledge or understanding on how to do the necessities of the position or learning materials or basic instructions on how to do the position. There was no internet or google.

So what did I do? I went to find people needing help finding tenants for their open spaces, people who are looking for space in buildings, people who want to sell their buildings, people who want to buy buildings.

I got to know the market.  What is it and where is it?  For months I drove every commercial street in the city.  I took a picture of every office building and made notes of what I observed.  I began to catalog every building on a 5×9 card with its particular information.  I purchased a big map of Boise identifying each building on the map, and correlating each building with a particular color of stick pin.

I also spoke to my Broker and asked him to share with me any books or educational material he had about the industry.  I went to the public library for additional resources.  I enrolled in seminars and classes to provide me with more knowledge. I  started knocking on doors.

Here is what happened: My broker started to refer small clients my way and I started getting work on my own.

Since that time, I  have been a building manager, formed a number of partnerships, teamed up with other brokers and became a brokerage owner. Now I am a successful, full service commercial real estate brokerage owner who has learned everything I know from hard work, a lot of study and many life experiences.