We were lucky to catch up with Joe Killinger recently and have shared our conversation below.

Joe, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today How did you come up with the idea for your business?

I have been involved in the real estate industry for many years, as a broker, investor, founder and mentor. The brokerage aspect of the real estate industry has always been an interest to me, especially the commercial side as I see a lot of opportunity there especially for a younger generation. The commercial brokerage industry is slow to adapt new tools and ways of doing business, the average age of the brokers across the U.S. is over 50 years old so there is definitely opportunity for a company to recruit younger talent into their company and become a respectable player in their marketplace.

I invest in a few small businesses and one I am heavily involved in is a full service commercial brokerage in Los Angeles, Commercial Brokers Int. This firm is one that we are growing by recruiting top notch talent that has the understanding of digital marketing, a deep understanding of the marketplace or are willing to do an intensive training to get up to speed quickly, a solid work ethic and of course fit our company culture of being a supportive team member. We also have one of the largest percentage of female brokers in our company which was not planned but is definitely something we are proud of. Find the right team members and giving the best tools to be the most efficient and productive broker in the marketplace is the main reason they are top earners early in their career.

We will see AI becoming a big part of the commercial real estate brokerage industry, we are testing many new AI tools every month and I am amazed how quickly these tools are evolving. When we speak with our competitors about the AI tools they are testing we are surprised they are focusing on their backend of their company, we focus on the front end as we feel the lead generation tools are more advanced right now and the more leads we bring in the more revenue our brokers will generate. Seems like a no brainer to us.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

I have been involved in the real estate industry for many years, as a broker, investor, founder and mentor. My father was an auctioneer in central Nebraska, outside of your typical auctions of livestock and farm equipment he also dabbled in real estate and for some reason the real estate fascinated me. When I went to college (University of Nebraska- Go Big Red) I decided I would get me real estate license as soon as I turned 18, I passed my state license exam when I turned 18 and was fortunate enough to be hired by the owner of a good sized residential firm in Lincoln Nebraska called Wood Bros Realty. The owner of the company gave me a shot that I truly didn’t think anyone would as I looked like I was 12 yrs old, he gave me a few minutes of training and a phone book and said your new clients are in there, good luck. I was fortunate that an older gentleman in the company that had a focus on selling farms took me under his wing and showed me the ropes, I learned a lot from him and I also learned how critical a good mentor is.

The real estate market during the time I was in Lincoln was very slow, that and the fact I was going to classes everyday and I had to have a paying job to make ends meet made it a real challenge but I was in the office most days of the week. I never did sell a farm but I did learn how the process worked thanks to my mentor.

While I was in college my family ended up giving the farm I grew up on back to the bank and my parents along with my little sister mover into a one bedroom apartment above the office they had in a nearby small town. I realized I didn’t have a home to go back to so I decided to make a move west, here I come California. I made the move with $1200 dollars to my name, when I got to flagstaff AZ my car was acting up and the mechanic said it would be $600 to get me back on the road ( I later learned I got scammed). I drove west until I was low on gas, I pulled into a nearby gas station and put some gas in my car and decided to look around, I drove a few blocks west and there was the San Clement Pier and the beautiful pacific ocean. I called my parents collect, not realizing it was midnight in CA and 2 am in Nebraska, they answered and accepted the charges, I told them I was safe and I was where I will be starting to look for work the next day.

I found a room to rent and immediately started looking for work, I would take any job I could find. I found a job at the Stride-Rite store in the Laguna Hills Mall within a few days and immediately went to work learning how to fit children’s shoes and a crash course in customer service. The childrens shoe store was a God send but not my end game so I quickly started the process for getting my CA real estate license. I passed the real estate exam and decided to wait before moving forward on my dreams of becoming a star CA broker, I saved every penny I could so when the time came I could have enough to tide me over while I grew my business. I decided to work some of my down time at the store with a residential real estate agent to learn the process and systems so when I was ready I would have that knowledge under my belt,

The time I spent with the residential agent was an eye opener for me, I now know that this is not a career I was interested in, I needed to find a new path.

I took some time to do a deep dive into all my options and after a couple of years of saving money I made a move to Los Angeles, I knew I had to be in the top market in CA to really get the opportunity I was looking for, I tried doing some home flipping with a couple of partners but that was something I saw ending when the economy turned and boy did it. I had been fortunate enough to land a job in the marketing department of a large real estate auction firm called Kennedy Wilson. The job at Kennedy Wilson was fun and paid well but being a true entrepreneur I wanted more but I was loving the pay checks, fortunately they made the decision for me and laid myself along with about half of the staff after their was found to be an accounting issue on their recent IPO.

I was hot on the look out for a job i really wanted and it came to me within a week, I took one interview and found the company that would become my new home and I couldn’t wait to start, one of the largest residential firms on the west coast was launching a real estate auction company called The Sands Group, they hadn’t done an auction yet but I knew I could make it happen. The new job was exciting but scary as I wasn’t sure how I was going to get my first auction, I was calling banks and developers all day every day, I was starting to gain some traction after a few weeks but then the phone rang and it was George Pino, a guy I worked with at Kennedy Wilson and he just got laid off, he had been in charge of the closing department so he had some experience that I had very little in so I said come on over and we will split everything 50/50.

Within a few months we were the #2 auction firm in the western region, we worked 12-15 hr days 6 days per week but we were young and did what we had to do. The firm that laid us off was scrambling to keep us from taking a good portion of their business so that was fun. During our time running The Sand Group we sold between 600-700 properties per year for almost 6 yrs. The parent company of The Sands Group sold so we had to close it down which was a bit of a relief as the market was changing and auctions were slowly fading out.

We ended up at another large residential firm DBL Realtors, we launched their commercial real estate brokerage division which was interesting as we didn’t really have experience in commercial brokerage We quickly learned the ropes and started hiring experienced CRE agents and we quickly picked up a lot of the lingo and processes from them. When I speak with the original hires today they had no idea that we were that inexperienced, in all honesty we just didn’t speak a lot, we just listened. DBL Realtors ended up selling to a large firm that didn’t want a CRE division so George and I were out of work again.

We decided to control our own destiny, we launched Commercial Brokers International, a full service CRE brokerage and we run that to this day. We also launched a LLC Property Management, LLC Investments (a socially responsible investment firm), TheRRD- a real estate tech company based out of Dallas TX, we syndicated multiple properties that we eventually sold, we invested in our own STNL properties we own around Texas. We Launched Icon Capital Advisors- A commercial mortgage company, CRE Affiliate Network-A group of 26 Independent CRE brokerage firms around the globe and I now have my company Joekillinger.co that I use to mentor those that want to be in the real estate industry as an agent or investor. we also have a solid youtube channel under my name as well.

I launched the Joekillinger.co site and youtube channel because I see a need for a younger generation to find their career path in the real estate business, I would like to help them find their path as it was a bit of a struggle for me but that allows me to give guidance on their path. I know what not to do now.

Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?

The most important thing I learned on my career path was to not be completely set in my way on the way things should be done, don’t be afraid to pivot or listen to someone that just may have a different opinion. There are usually multiple ways to perform a function, yours may not be the best.

When we launched Commercial Brokers Int. we were told to focus on hiring experienced agents and don’t bring new agents in that you will have to spend time training. We tried that for a while and we did recruit a few great agents but we then decided to try and bring some new recruits in with the understanding the training was going to be 5 days a week at 8:30 am and 5 PM. (45 minutes each time). The rigid training schedule proved to be the best thing we did, the recruits willing to do the work have found success much quicker than companies that don’t offer it, some dropped out because of the schedule, but in the end we are happy with the results and we have some great team members.

What’s been the most effective strategy for growing your clientele?

The thing that sets our companies apart is our consistency. We have the entire management team have a weekly meeting, we make sure our systems are all in order. We know when our brokers need any tasks completed and we all work together to ensure they receive the best service they can, by making sure our brokers are taken care of they in turn feel they can trust the company and focus on their job of lead and revenue generation. Building that trust is key.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.joekillinger.co/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/joekillinger/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/JoeKillinger1
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/joe-killingerrealestate/
• Twitter: https://x.com/JoeKillinger
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@JoeKillinger