Thriving Over 50
Woodbridge, NJ — Right out of college – with a brand-new B.A. in English from Rutgers University and real estate license – NAI DiLeo-Bram & Co.’s Senior VP Marc Shein launched his commercial real estate brokerage career. Thanks to being coached and mentored by the best in the business, he successfully made the leap from lecture halls to closing tables and has never looked back. During the course of Shein’s 42-year career – and still counting – he has recorded office and industrial transactions that exceed millions in terms of square feet.
Among his most-recent highlights are the $4.3M sale of a 49,000 s/f multi-tenanted office building in Manalapan, for which he arranged the acquisition on behalf of the same client nearly 25 years ago; the $1.7M sale of a 12,143 s/f retail building and $1.25M sale of a 17,000 s/f redevelopment building for retail and apartments, both in Plainfield; $4.2M sale of 62 acres of industrial land in Lumberton; and a 56,000 s/f industrial lease in Somerset County. Shein represented the separate sellers in each of these transactions.
“In the brokerage business – and for the past four-plus decades – I have been fortunate to have enduring success thanks to my focus on relationship building – with clients as well as colleagues and in-house team members,” said Shein. “I’ve also been extremely fortunate to be associated with firms where work-life balance has always been a priority and family came first, whether it be a blood relation or a co-worker.”
It is this sense of loyalty to and support of one another that attracted Shein to NAI DiLeo-Bram & Co. in 2014. After getting his start with Jacobson, Goldfarb & Tanzman (JGT), he focused on the retail, industrial and office sectors as well as land sales and rose through the ranks over the course of 17 years to become a Principal at the firm in 1997. After JGT was merged into Newmark Knight Frank in 2001, Shein was named a Senior Managing Director. After 13 years in this role and working with what was basically the same company for over 30 years, he sought to expand his horizons.
“I have known Robert DiLeo for over 34 years and liked what he and Eric Bram Johnston were building – a niche firm with the best of both worlds: a personalized touch that had access to the global resources of the NAI Global Network,” said Shein. “I felt it was a firm, similar to JGT, which emphasized teamwork and where I could bring a lot to the table transacting business on behalf of my clients easily and efficiently.”
Another plus for Shein is that NAIDB encourages its brokers to expand their transactional horizons beyond one or two property types and supports them in doing so.
“This is highly unusual at a time our industry is gravitating toward specialization,” he said. “This business practice – which supports and advances the broker/client relationship itself because of NAIDB’s collaborative model where specialists team up for additional support – allows its brokers to handle the full spectrum of client leasing, acquisition and disposition needs of those with diverse portfolios across different asset types. NAIDB has a strong culture of professionals who work as part of a collaborative team and push one another to new levels of performance.”
According to Shein, who is known for his warm, gregarious nature, there are three must-have character traits that serve as the foundation for a successful brokerage career. These include honesty, integrity and personality. “I have a number of relationships that span 35 years and have evolved into true friendships,” he said.
While the commercial real estate brokerage business may not be for everyone, Shein is grateful for the opportunity to evolve as a professional and as a person in a career that he loves. “The work is never done but the shared purpose and spirit of collaboration continue to inspire me every day,” he said.