Aaron Inman | Senior Associate | Greysteel
Years with company/firm: 1.5 years
Years in field: 3 years
Years in real estate industry: 3 years
Real estate organizations/affiliations: AAREP, Greysteel Black Professionals Network
What is your greatest professional accomplishment?
My greatest professional accomplishment was co-founding the Greysteel Black Professionals Network to help drive more black representation in the Commercial Real Estate Industry, easier access to capital for Black investors, and educational resources for young black real estate professionals looking to launch their careers.
What is your most notable project, deal, or transaction?
My most notable transaction was the East Baltimore Single-Family Rental Portfolio. This deal consisted of 86 individual properties and 87 total units located within a six-block radius of each other. This included 14 different seller parties, 10 of which were foreign investors which required our expertise in FIRTPA transactions to smoothly get to the closing table.
How do you contribute to your company and/or the industry?
I contribute to the industry and my company by serving as an advocate for African American aspiring commercial real estate professionals looking to launch a career. Since the inception of Greysteel Black Professional Network in January 2022, our firm has hired and retained the highest number of African American interns, employees, and brokers in our company’s history.
Who or what has been the strongest influence in your career?
The strongest influence in my career thus far has been my team at Greysteel. The Mid-Atlantic Multifamily team consists of market-leading brokers with hundreds of years of combined experience in all parts of multifamily investment sales. This experience helped tremendously in cutting down my learning curve and arming me with the tools to be successful.
What were some of your early goals and did anything happen to change them?
My early goal was to own 100 single-family rental homes in Baltimore City by age 30. After selling a development site in Station North and learning more about commercial brokerage I changed my tune and decided to join an elite firm and focus strictly on building a brokerage business within a platform I feel has exponential growth possibilities.
Who do you feel was most influential in your life when choosing this profession?
My Dad was the most influential person in choosing my path as an entrepreneur. He started a software company in his mid-twenties and for much of my childhood, I watched him work through the growing pains of scaling his company.
What impact has social media/networking had on your career?
LinkedIn, Instagram, and even Twitter, have all been social media outlets that I’ve used to source for business, market activity, and closed engagements and have helped tremendously in not only putting a face with a name in a way that traditional cold outreach can not but also allows my clients and customers to have insight into my personality and human values which helps build stronger business relationships.
What unique qualities and or personality trait do you feel make you most successful in your profession?
Emotional Intelligence, hard work, and consistency are the three qualities that have made me most successful thus far in my career. When dealing with large-scale investments and housing for hundreds of families a strong sense of emotional intelligence is needed to hold all the pieces together as a transaction broker. Unlike residential real estate, there are a limited amount of opportunities that trade annually, and remaining top of mind means relentlessly outworking our competitors to sustain and grow our market share. Consistency in my opinion is the key difference between brokers who remain at a mediocre level and thus who climb to higher heights in the industry the same compounding effect we receive from compounding interest can also be said for compounding efforts; working consistently we can work the same number of hours in six months as someone does in 18 months which will provide a competitive advantage in the market place.
What inspiring word of advice would you give to a young executive graduating from college?
It takes 10,000 hours of consistent, purposeful repetition to master a craft. There’s no other way to succeed.