David Y. Young

@JohannVillalvir It could go either way.

@DavidYYoung Heavy labor based industry. AI making smaller brokerage more efficient = erodes organizational advantages from big shops

I’ve been waiting to share my thoughts since Wall Street repriced CRE service firms. Why the reprice? Because as service firms, the real asset has been the brokers and not the enterprise. AI is killing information advantages. Excellent workflows + agentic support trump all.

@RErookieGuy Absolutely, particularly since the business is usually nothing but a sales business the first few years. It can be beneficial to actually learn what you’re selling!

@DavidYYoung I can see how it would be a fruitful path

Has anyone done this: >Started in brokerage >Switched to work for a developer or REIT or major tenant in their space, etc. >Switched back to brokerage for an acute understanding of what their clients are looking for

Of course that's your contention. You're a first-time SaaS bear. You just got finished listening to some podcast, Dario on Dwarkesh, probably. Now you think it’s the end of white collar work and seat-based pricing is screwed. You're gonna be convinced of that til tomorrow when you get to “Something Big is Happening”. Then you’ll install ClawdBot on a Mac Mini, vibe code a dashboard on top of a postgres database and say we’re all just a couple ralph loops away from building a Salesforce competitor. That’s gonna last until next week when you discover context graphs, and then you're gonna be talking about how the systems of record will be disintermediated by an agentic layer and reposting OAI marketing graphics. “Well, as a matter of fact, I won't, because ultimately the application layer is just ….” The application layer is just business logic on top a CRUD database. You got that from Satya’s appearance on the BG2 pod, December 2024, right? Yeah, I saw that too. Were you gonna plagiarize the whole thing for us? Do you have any thoughts of your own on this matter? Or...is that your thing? You get into the replies of anyone posting a SaaS ticker. You watch some podcast and then pawn it off as your own idea just to impress some VCs and embarrass some anon who’s long SaaS? See the sad thing about a guy like you is in a couple years you're gonna start doing some thinking on your own and you're gonna come up with the fact that there are two certainties in life. One: don't do that. And two: you dropped thirty grand on Mac Minis and LLM API calls to come to the same conclusion you could’ve got for free by following a handful of VC accounts.

@bavedikian It pales in comparison to those passionate enough about something to defy the odds. Maybe I’m just too much of an Ayn Rand fan. Again, “man in the arena” mentality. The money isn’t the goal for Olympians and that’s why they’re elite.

@DavidYYoung Not saying they don’t deserve respect. Just saying the risk/reward isn’t there. Respectfully disagree that financial security is an empty goal. Lots of downsides and risks to financial insecurity

If you want to minimize your chances of achieving financial security, dedicate your life to being an Olympian in a sport nobody cares about such as figure skating, skiing, or bobsledding. If you achieve the ultimate dream of winning an Olympic gold medal, you make $37,500. Then you go home and train for 4 more years to try to win again. From a risk/reward perspective, there isn’t a worse career path to pursue.

@bavedikian But the broader point I’m getting at is that financial security is an empty goal. Passion for something noble in the pursuit of potential is far more honorable. The man in the arena. Our olympians deserve respect.

@bavedikian As somebody deeply tied to the military, it is the worst “career path.” Any Olympic athlete gets a look at any job given the exclusivity of being an Olympian.

@bavedikian No, it’s actually not. You learn weapons systems, chain of command, discipline, how to do your job, etc…sort of like being an Olympic athlete. Post military or athletic career, you have nothing that “careerists” have. What they have in common is service to country.

@DavidYYoung I love our military. Not sure I understand the comparison between joining the military and trying to be an Olympian. Military is a viable career path in addition to being a service to the country.

How does one become a curler? I would have liked that Olympic sport as a kid.

Occupier reps - Here’s a fun AI feature we’re shipping. Dynamic financial lease analysis run by AI. Generate client-ready lease analyses in seconds (yes, seconds). enaia.wistia.com/medias/ruqicx3… #crebroker #crebrokers

Enterprise AI strategy is backwards. Most people are focusing on Chief AI Officers and pilot programs, when the real value is in the unglamorous work where organizations bleed time. More thoughts:

@creromans Really depends on the market IMO. At 48, he may have relationships a 22 yo usually doesn’t have. Ive seen 22yo make $500k in year 1 and 40 yo never sniff $300-400k after 15y. So many unique variables.

What would you say to a 48 year old who wants to start a new career in CRE brokerage? He’s interviewing at M&M and a few smaller shops as well but doesn’t have a full understanding of the CRE industry. He just really wants to be in CRE and start as a broker. Doesn’t understand the differences between firms and niches in the industry - basically he’s just taking a leap of faith He’s been in construction project management for years and wants a change. Not married, no kids and low monthly expenses (like $3k/month low) What would you tell this person? Other than it’s going to take three years before you make any money. Given all of this information what’s your brutally honest advice, pretend this is a friend of yours.

@flexkavana05 @Bethazor1 @creromans Exactly my thought too

@Bethazor1 @creromans If they’re any good at all they’ll blow this out of the water starting in year 4

@kenashley Great caddyshack reference. Well played!

Santa said I’m on his good list! So I got that going for me, which is nice.

@bavedikian Definitely not accountants. There’s federal standards that govern the job. Attorneys also operate under enormous regulation. For the record, I’d support making licensing laws more stringent but I just don’t think that would solve much.

@DavidYYoung Do you think attorneys and accountants should do the same? Get rid of the law and CPA license and have the law firms and CPA firms create barriers to entry?

It’s inviting disaster. Flirting isn’t a strong enough word. It’s harder to get a barber license than a real estate license. If you get a bad haircut, your hair grows back. If you use a residential broker for a commercial deal, your money doesn’t grow back.

@bavedikian Agreed there should be higher barriers to entry but this falls on companies in my opinion. Mgmt consultants don’t require any licensing. The strict process for becoming one is all that’s needed. Each state is only incentivized to hustle as many licenses as they can.

Not arguing for standardization at all. But to need to prove some competency to be able to broker deals. If there were no license at all, what would a broker or a brokerage even be? Many already think they can broker deals without having any idea what it entails. No license would exacerbate

@bavedikian The issue is you’re asking for regulation and it would be the death of brokerage if CRE were regulated similar to finance. There is very little standardization across markets, all the way down to the local level. Standardizing it would crush the entrepreneurial spirit of CRE

@DavidYYoung I think there should be a license but the difficulty level should be closer to getting a CPA license than it is becoming a notary. And it should be completely separate from residential