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Show Summary
In this conversation, Karly Iacono discusses her role in commercial real estate, specifically in selling net lease properties. She shares insights on the challenges and opportunities in the industry, the importance of relationships, and her strategies for success. Karly also emphasizes the significance of mentorship and offers advice for those looking to enter the field.
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Investor Fuel Show Transcript:
Karly (00:00)
someone in commercial real estate is not facing adversity of some sort, then they’re not really in the business or they’re not really trying hard enough, right? Because you’ve got to push yourself enough to where you get into situations that are somewhat uncomfortable or challenging,Quentin (01:48)
Hello everyone. Welcome to the Real Estate Pros podcast. I am your host Q Edmonds. You know what I’m gonna say? I’m excited to be here. I have another fantastic guest who I get to peek through their lens. They get to tell me what they do in real estate. And you know, that’s what I love to do. I love to find out what people are doing in real estate. And so I’m ⁓ super happy to be here. Listen, I’m gonna, normally I come up with a very, very grand intro. I’m gonna let…This person tell you about what they do. They are part of a fantastic company, 4,500 company. I think you’re going to find very interesting what they do. I think you’re going to find really, really good value out of the things that she’s going to say. And I should have asked her about our last name before we got started, but I’m going to take my shot. So I want to introduce you all to Karly Iacono. ⁓
Karly (02:48)
Iacono,Quentin (02:50)
Oh, I’m so sorry. Ms. Iacono, please, again, give me some respect on that. I apologize. Karly, Iacono? Lord, I’m gonna just stop.Karly (03:00)
You can just go with I. All good. You can just call me Karly I. We’re good.Quentin (03:07)
Pauline, I appreciate you so much. Thank you for the grace. I appreciate it so much. How are you feeling today?Karly (03:13)
I’m feeling amazing. How about you? Thanks for the opportunity to be here.Quentin (03:17)
I’m feeling good, especially since you extended me grace. feel even better because I love putting respect on people’s name, but I appreciate you. I’m excited to have you here. I’m being honest with you. I kind of want to dive in. I want you to tell us what your main focus is these days. If you want to give us a little bit of an origin story of how you got started, you know, how you walked up and got into the business where you are. love the heroes journey.And if you want to tell us where you are in the world, what markets you serve, know, what we work out of, we would love to know that too. So Karly, you have the floor.
Karly (03:50)
All right, let’s do it. That was a lot of questions at once. So I’m going to dive right in. Karly Iacono, I lead a team of investment sales brokers at CPRE. CPRE is a Fortune 100 company, global commercial real estate firm. My team specifically sells what are called net lease properties on a national basis. So across the US, net lease is an asset type with a long-term lease in which the tenant also pays all expenses. So a very passivecommercial real estate investment vehicle. I’m based in the New York Metro. And I think that’s the quick intro to kick it off.
Quentin (04:30)
I love it. I love it. How about an origin story? You want to tell us kind of how you got started? I feel like that would love to know if you’re interested.Karly (04:38)
That’s a long story, but I’ll give you a quick recap. I started in financial consulting, didn’t love it, did that for a few years, then went into residential real estate, didn’t like the nights and weekends and wanted something more with a finance element to it. So started in commercial at a different firm and transitioned, and that was a lifetime ago, and then was recruited over to CBRE where our team is now about five years ago.Quentin (05:51)
Beautiful, beautiful. I love it. So I’m to talk to you a little bit about strategies, right? And I’m going to ask you question. I would love for you to answer it two ways. If you want to answer it more ways, please be my guest. But I would love to know some business strategies that you use. Also would love to know if you have identified some core strategies that kind of help you along the way. And I said core strategies, I mean personal strategies. I know some people do meditation. Some people go on hikes. So have you found?personal strategies that have really helped you in business and also some business strategies that have helped you succeed.
Karly (06:26)
Again, I think we could go on for a few hours with just that one question, but I’ll give you quick answer. So we’ll start with the business strategies. What I like about commercial real estate, there are so many successful business plans. There is not just one way to make money. In my particular niche, you can buy a Walmart asset with a 25-year lease and just kind of set it and forget it. You have an investment-grade tenant, you have stable cash flow.and it’s extremely passive. Or you could buy something with a short-term lease that’s a redevelopment play that you plan to buy at a higher yield and re-tenant. So there’s endless forks to the road on how to make money in that lease, which is again, a very specialized niche within commercial real estate. So I love the diversity of business plans and the clients that we get to work with, everyone from small families up to institutions and…
publicly traded reads. a very wide swap. So business strategy wise, lots of directions to go. Personally, the industry is eat what you kill, very competitive, very intense. So there are hard days, even though I’ve been doing this for, gosh, 15 years plus now, 17, a long time, right? I still wake up some days and go, what in the world am I doing? I cannot believe that I have to start all over again, right?
if maybe a big deal fell apart or something like that. So exercise is key. Nature is key. And then realizing that this too shall pass is one of my favorite phrases if things are hard, right? And that goes for good things too. So you can’t, you know, celebrate the good, but those pass too. So just know that whatever you’re going through, this too shall pass. And the key is to keep moving forward because it’s the only only choice to get ahead. Yeah. And I kind of live by that.
Quentin (08:23)
I love it. ⁓ This two show pass really resonates. My wife has a sand and please, I hope I don’t butcher it. But she says, if I won’t give it, if it won’t matter in five years, I’m not going to give it five minutes. Like, you know, like, you know, know, yeah, you know, if it matters, it matters. But if it don’t, if it’s not going to affect me in five, in five years, let me not give it five minutes. And so I love that. And I love how you said this too will pass for the good and the bad.I guess I could say good and bad. think that’s all a matter of perspective, right? But sometimes you gotta, we gotta ride the rate, ride the wave. Some things that make you feel this great dopamine gratification moment may not always last. So you gotta have something that grounds you. And I think that’s why like asking that question because there has to be things that ground you why you want this business journey because the roller coaster is going to come and you gotta ground yourself. Yes, it’s real.
in Israel. And so, again, I appreciate you saying it. I know you just mentioned sometimes maybe a deal falls through. And so I want to talk about adversity. Have you faced any adversity as you’ve been building towards success? Has times been when you had the pivot fast, you talked about deals falling through. Like, how do you handle adversity when it comes?
Karly (09:47)
Well, I think the first point I would make issomeone in commercial real estate is not facing adversity of some sort, then they’re not really in the business or they’re not really trying hard enough, right? Because you’ve got to push yourself enough to where you get into situations that are somewhat uncomfortable
challenging,
To really be all in it. So yes, of course, face tremendous adversity. One, being a woman in the industry is interesting. It’s getting much better. But wasn’t that why when I started?
So there’s some challenges there. And then deals coming and going, ⁓ obviously there’s many highs and lows in the business. I think what’s helped me stay focused is really looking at the pipeline, right? You have to have deals in every stage of execution. And if you’re an investor, you have to be looking at deals at all different stages of the deal process, keeping your pipeline full and moving forward allows you to not be too attached to any one outcome. And that’s really
I think the sanity in the business is just knowing that, okay, this one didn’t work out, but I have X number behind it and I’m fine. I know I did everything I could act it professionally represented the clients, if you’re transacting and did everything to the very best of my ability. And beyond that, some things just don’t work out for things outside of your control. So showing up as the most prepared, most professional, best version of yourself.
every single day, whether you feel like it or not, executing to the absolute best of your ability. And then when things don’t work out the way you hoped, and sometimes these are meaningful, you know, things that don’t work out financially, etc., you have to move on and focus on the next, the next deal or the next opportunity.
Quentin (12:06)
I love you said that I think that’s a great discipline that you have to be intentional about showing up doing your best showing up as your best authentic self No unlikely you have your pipeline you have your strategy You have your checklist you have the things that you know You’re supposed to do the things you said you was going to do the things you said you was gonna be integral about doing You do those things and then what things don’t fall out if things don’t go the way you expect you fall back to that discipline of aI did what I was supposed to do. I did my best. I showed up as my authentic self. And sometimes that just has to be enough. And I absolutely love that you said that. I really, do. Really, really do. And listen, and I’m gonna put this out here. There ain’t no brand sponsorship. But if you wanna see her talk about women in business, there’s a new episode of Land Man on Paramount+. If you watch that show.
Karly (12:59)
So I’m actually looking at a shopping center right where that show is filmed. I have not seen the show, but it has come up in so many conversations this week. It’s actually kind of ironic that you just brought it up. So the energy is converging on that deal. So I need to watch it. I need to watch.Quentin (13:14)
You need to watch it. Second season. Demi Moore takes over. Okay, I guess it’s not too much of a spoiler alert. No, I actually need to take a, I need to stop because it may be a spoiler alert. Pause. Edit that out. So you should definitely watch it. Especially now, you know, since the synergy is kind of there, right? Yeah. I appreciate you. I appreciate your mindset, your perspective. Let me ask you, what’s the next real goal?Karly (13:24)
Don’t tell me. ⁓Quentin (13:42)
And again, if you want to answer this key ways, that’s fine. You want to talk about the real goal that you have for the business and the position you’re in, or if you want to talk about some personal goals that you set. If you want to answer it both ways, I would love to hear.Karly (13:57)
So I think goals are an interesting thing. I always try to aim higher than is rational because if you do that, you may not hit this grandiose goal, but you’re going to fall a lot higher than if you aim for what you think or know that you can achieve. So on our team, we’re in the process of leveling up our deal size on transactions that we work on. we, we honestly, at this point of everything on market from a $2 million deal,to a $450 million portfolio. So we’re in a transition period of taking on lots of different types of business and transacting, but we’d like to get our minimum deal size up higher. So that’s our team focus right now. And personally, it’s growing the business, helping to mentor the junior people on my team and make sure everyone is growing throughout the next year and we’re all getting better at our jobs, whether that means, you know,
working on more complicated deals, larger size deals, and or, I think is a better way to put it, integrating new tools.
We’re beta testing some AI tools, some new technology. We’re trying to just make sure that we’re at the forefront of commercial real estate brokerage, whatever that forefront looks like in a constantly changing world.
Quentin (15:55)
Absolutely. And I’m glad it’s funny. I’m glad you paused when you said goals and you say goals. That’s interesting because I’m with you. Well, you say this, but it’s interesting because I really don’t set goals. I set standards is like what is the standard that I’m going to live up to? And I think, like you said, when you show up as your authentic self, when you do what you’re supposed to do, whatever happens, it’s easy to fall back and know I did my standard. And so maybe I didn’t hit my goal, but I definitely hit my standard.And then, you know, maybe adjust my standard differently to try to get a better outcome. And so it’s interesting that you kind of paused on that because I’m like, I asked this question all the time, but I really don’t even set goals myself. So, yeah.
Karly (16:39)
And there’s a lot of pressure with New Year’s coming up to set goals here, but I think having a standard or a process is even more impactful. So I agree.Quentin (16:50)
Have you heard of the book Atomic Habits? It’s great. I’ve read it times. yeah, you get it. So I’m changing my identity. I’m not really saying I’m habit stacking. Those are the different things I’m doing. so yeah. So now, sorry. Glad you paused on that. asked officially, I might think I may change the way I ask that question on this podcast.Karly (16:52)
I’ve read it.Wow, really impacting the podcast.
Quentin (17:17)
Absolutely. And so you mentioned mentorship, know, making sure that you mentoring your team, the people that you’re bringing on. So I want to talk a little bit about relationships. I would love to know from your perspective, has relationships greatly impacted you? How do you value relationships? Give me your perspective when it comes to building relationships.Karly (17:40)
whole business is relationships. And I think that is the true value in brokerage is having a relationship to overcome obstacles. If you don’t know that person on the other side of the negotiation table, or you don’t have a strong relationship with your team, it’s much harder to overcome adversity. So I think the relationships are the foundation for good business. And we’re always striving to add new relationships, strengthen the ones we have.make sure that we’re continuing to grow because real estate of all types is really a people business. And even as we add and layer on more technology, technology is just for efficiency. It is not to make deals. And that’s a huge distinction, right? Everyone’s very excited about AI. We are too. It’s neat. It’s fun. Adds to our business, but that is not the business. It is just a tool.
Quentin (18:37)
So just so you know, I will definitely give you credit. I’m putting your name by it, but technology is for efficiency. I’ve never kind of heard it synthesized that way. I mean, it makes sense and we know it, but it cannot replace relationships. It’s for efficiency, but it can’t replace relationships. And so I think that’s a nice clean way to stay with technology is.know, it’s foreign. can’t be afraid of it. We’re all going to embrace it is going to help it is going to and is helping us tremendously, but it’s for efficiency, not to replace relationships. And so Karly, I got your name beside that. That’s going to be something I’ll be saying. Yeah.
Karly (19:21)
I’m out ofQuentin (19:23)
I appreciate you. Listen, is there anything else you want to say from an educational standpoint, motivational standpoint, inspirational standpoint, or just anything about your business, anything we haven’t said that you feel like you want to say before we wrap up?Karly (19:39)
I would just encourage any listener who’s contemplating getting into commercial real estate or is already in and is looking for some new relationships or maybe they want to level up their business, feel free to reach out. I talk to a lot of new people in the industry just in terms of giving back and helping mentors. So happy to help if I can. And then if there’s specific investments anyone wants to talk about, just even having another set of eyes, our team is always happy to meet new people and like I said, help where we can.I also have a podcast that I run for six years that was started for investor education. That was exactly why we started to reach more people to share kind of the basics of net lease and commercial real estate investing. It’s called Commercial Real Estate Now. So I encourage anyone to listen to that as well, share it ⁓ and reach out. LinkedIn is a great way to connect, but just Googling my name should bring up all sorts of options for you.
Quentin (20:36)
Absolutely. So you’ve heard it commercial real estate now. That’s the podcast. Definitely reach out to her on LinkedIn. ⁓ Karly, thank you so much. think this has been great for me. You’ve given me nuggets takeaways, shifting my mentality, shift away, you know, my, my nomenclature. So I’m going to talk a little differently. So yeah, exactly. So, ⁓ I say that is say, thank you. Thank you for your time.Thank you for your story. Definitely. Thank you for your perspective, the way you think. Like I said, I have had a mindset shift and as you know, our book, a Tommy happy thoughts about being 1 % better every day. And so I think you have added to my 1 % of being better today. And so I appreciate you being here.
Karly (21:24)
So kind. Thank you for the opportunity. Really great to be on the show and I appreciate you as well.Quentin (21:30)
Absolutely. So listen, y’all heard Ms. Karly. Go ahead and definitely check her out. Check out on our podcast. Get connected with her, but definitely make sure you are subscribed. You do not want to miss out on these amazing conversations that we continue to have. So Karly, thank you so much again. And to everyone else, we’ll see you on the next time.
