Leasing brokerage is one of the few CRE career paths where you can build a business that's genuinely yours. The relationships you develop, the market knowledge you accumulate, and the reputation you earn compound over years in ways that most salaried roles can't replicate. The technology company you help find their first 5,000-square-foot office today may come back to you for every expansion, relocation, and renewal for the next two decades. Their CFO recommends you to portfolio companies. Their law firm hires you for their own space needs. That network effect, built deal by deal, is the engine of a leasing career.
It's also one of the more accessible entry points in commercial real estate. Leasing brokerage hires from a wider range of backgrounds than acquisitions or development, offers lower barriers to entry at many firms, and provides immediate client-facing experience that most other paths don't offer until years into the career. If you're drawn to relationship-driven work, comfortable with commission-based compensation, and energized by business development, leasing may be the most natural fit in CRE.
Leasing brokerage divides into two distinct specializations that sit across the negotiating table from each other on every transaction.
Tenant representation means working exclusively on behalf of companies searching for space. Tenant reps spend a larger share of their time on business development, especially early in their careers, because income depends on continuously generating new client relationships. You wake up every day looking for companies that need space. The reward is a larger share of each transaction's commission (roughly two-thirds of the total) and the potential for deep, long-term advisory relationships with growing companies.
Landlord representation (also called agency leasing) means marketing and leasing available properties on behalf of building owners. Landlord reps typically hold exclusive listings, meaning income is tied to the portfolio of available space they control rather than continuously generating new tenant clients. The per-deal commission is smaller (roughly one-third), but landlord reps with strong portfolios tend to complete more transactions because they always have space to lease. In aggregate, earning potential is similar across both disciplines, just structured differently.
Most professionals make a deliberate choice early in their career based on their appetite for business development, their relationship style, and their preferred work structure. Beyond choosing a side, successful brokers typically specialize in a specific property type (office, industrial, retail) and geographic market, developing the deep expertise that makes them genuinely valuable to clients.
Leasing brokerage shares the same two-phase career structure as capital markets brokerage, and the transition between phases is equally important to understand before you commit.
The early years are focused on learning the market and supporting senior producers. As a leasing coordinator or analyst, you research available space, prepare market surveys and comparative analyses, coordinate property tours, assist with lease proposals, and manage transaction logistics. At larger firms like CBRE, JLL, or Cushman & Wakefield, this phase typically includes some level of training and a base salary with bonus potential. At regional and boutique firms, you may be on a draw arrangement (an advance against future commissions) that creates earlier pressure to contribute to production.
The production phase is where the career fundamentally changes. At some point, typically around year two to four, the firm expects you to generate your own revenue through personal client relationships and deal origination. Compensation shifts to commission splits, starting lower and increasing as you hit production thresholds. Senior producers typically retain 40% to 60% of gross commission income, with the firm keeping the balance for overhead, technology, research, and platform support.
The income dynamics require honest self-assessment. A typical office lease for a mid-sized company might generate $50,000 to $120,000 in commission to the individual broker, but even small transactions often take six to twelve months from initial engagement to signed lease. This creates lumpy income patterns where you might close multiple deals in one quarter and nothing the next. First-year brokers frequently earn modest income while learning the business. Successful brokers earning mid-six figures to seven figures annually have built sustained deal flow through years of relationship development, repeat clients, and referral networks. The ceiling is high, but the runway to get there is rarely short.
National and global platforms like CBRE, JLL, Cushman & Wakefield, Colliers, and Newmark offer the broadest infrastructure, including research departments, technology platforms, and global networks that support client service across markets. These firms run formal hiring programs, provide structured training, and attract institutional clients. The tradeoff is more hierarchy, lower commission splits at early stages, and more internal competition.
Regional firms concentrate on specific metropolitan areas, offering deeper local market knowledge, closer relationships with senior leadership, and often better work-life balance. Hiring is more selective and focused on cultural fit and long-term potential. Commission splits may be more favorable, though compensation ceilings tend to be lower than at national platforms.
Boutique and specialty firms focus on specific property types, industry verticals, or geographic niches. They hire brokers who can contribute immediately to specialized practices and offer more entrepreneurial environments with higher per-person responsibility. Hiring tends to be opportunistic, driven by business development opportunities rather than annual recruiting cycles.
In-house landlord leasing teams at property owners like Brookfield, Boston Properties, or Kilroy Realty offer a different dynamic entirely. These positions provide more stable compensation, better work-life balance, and deep expertise in specific portfolios. They lack the entrepreneurial upside of independent brokerage, but they appeal to professionals who want landlord representation experience with less business development pressure.
Leasing brokerage hiring is more accessible than most CRE paths, but the process varies significantly by firm type and market conditions.
Some national platforms run structured recruiting with predictable timing, but usually hiring is handled at the team level. Regional and boutique firms hire opportunistically, often when a senior broker wins a new assignment or an existing team member departs. In-house teams hire when portfolios expand through new acquisitions or developments.
Several catalysts create openings. New listing assignments and portfolio growth require additional staff to handle increased inventory. Market growth and business relocation trends drive demand for brokers who can capture increased transaction volume. Team departures at all levels create backfill needs. And expansion by national firms into growing metropolitan areas creates immediate hiring requirements.
Leasing brokerage also hires from a broader range of backgrounds than most CRE paths. Successful brokers have transitioned from enterprise sales, corporate real estate, property management, banking, and other CRE functions. Enterprise sales professionals bring comfort with commission compensation, quota-based performance, and client relationship management. Corporate real estate professionals bring deep understanding of how companies make space decisions. Property managers bring operational knowledge of buildings and tenant relationships. The common thread is a willingness to build your own book of business, not a specific educational background.
Career Bridge's Interview Mastery module walks through this entire framework in depth, with an Interview Prep Canvas worksheet, path-specific question banks, and AI-powered mock interview practice that gives you real feedback before the real thing.
Decide between tenant rep and landlord rep before you start interviewing. Firms want to know you've thought about this deliberately. Research both disciplines, talk to practitioners on each side, and have a clear reason for your preference. "I'm drawn to tenant representation because I want to build long-term advisory relationships with growing companies" is specific and credible. "I'm interested in leasing" without a preference suggests you haven't done the work.
Demonstrate business development instincts. Leasing brokerage is fundamentally a sales career with real estate expertise layered on top. Interviewers want to see evidence that you can generate relationships, handle rejection, and persist through periods without revenue. If you've built a client base in a prior role, led business development initiatives, or demonstrated entrepreneurial drive in any context, lead with those experiences. If an interviewer asks how you'd approach prospecting for new clients, have a specific, thoughtful answer ready.
Learn the market you want to work in. Know the major landlords, the institutional buildings, the recent significant leases, the submarket dynamics, and the competitive brokerage landscape. If you're targeting office leasing in Denver, you should know which buildings are seeing the most touring activity, where vacancy rates are tightest, and which firms represent the major landlords. That level of preparation is immediately visible and demonstrates the kind of market curiosity that predicts success in leasing.
Get on a team, not just at a firm. Leasing careers are built under the mentorship of experienced producers who teach you the business through live deal execution. The quality of the team you join matters as much as the firm name. Research which teams have strong deal flow, a reputation for developing junior talent, and a culture where you'll actually get meaningful exposure to client work. A role supporting a high-producing team at a regional firm is often more valuable than a corporate analyst seat at a national platform where your connection to live deals is distant.
Be financially prepared for the ramp. This is practical advice that most career content skips. If you're entering a commission-based role, understand that meaningful income may take six to eighteen months to materialize. Have savings, a realistic budget, and a clear-eyed understanding of the draw or salary structure your firm offers during the learning phase. The brokers who flame out early often do so because of financial pressure, not lack of talent. Planning for the ramp is planning for success.
Consider adjacent entry points. Property management builds operational knowledge and tenant relationships that translate directly to landlord representation. Corporate real estate experience provides insight into how tenants make space decisions, which is valuable for tenant representation. Lending and appraisal backgrounds give you market knowledge and analytical capabilities that accelerate your development. If the direct path isn't opening up, these roles build transferable skills while positioning you for a transition.
Leasing brokerage is one of the few careers in CRE where you're genuinely building your own business within a platform. The relationships you develop are yours. The reputation you build is yours. The market expertise you accumulate is yours. For the people who fit, that ownership creates a career experience that's hard to replicate in any salaried role. The path requires patience, resilience, and comfort with uncertainty. The people who build long careers here tend to find those demands more energizing than draining.
This post is part of our "How to Break In" series covering each of the six primary CRE career paths. Other posts in the series cover acquisitions, asset management, capital markets brokerage, development, and lending.