When I learned of the hotel brokerage opportunity in 1985 with Colliers, I jumped at it. After five years of consulting, I was ready for a change and brokerage seemed like an ideal opportunity to get one step closer to ownership, both monetarily and experience wise. After fantasizing about big deals and commissions for a few minutes, I took a deep breath and made a to-do list. I was just a little nervous. But some people were making money because they were there.
Hotels are a management-intensive business.
The value of the real estate has much more to do with the business than any other criteria. I believed that if a broker understood that business, he or she would be much more effective than the generalist who sold apartments one year and office buildings the next. I was right. After opening eight offices throughout North America, working for a great company, traveling overseas and working with some great people, I decided to hang it up. From my perspective, going from brokerage to ownership can be a fluid transition.