About two months ago, real estate broker Boomer Peterson reached a career inflection point that comes at some point for many in his profession.

The investment sales specialist who had worked more than seven years at a shop he owned had to decide whether he wanted to join a large brokerage firm. He knew making the move to a national brokerage would mean big changes.

Peterson, who founded Lincoln, Nebraska-based Pinnacle Commercial Group in 2015, faced the question owners of boutique brokerages across the country confront: When, if ever, is the right time to sell to join a big shop?

For Peterson that time was this summer, when he decided to join Lee & Associates Nebraska. The fact that Dan Dutton and Daniel Goaley, two brokers Peterson knew well and respected, started in March as co-managing principals of Lee's office in Omaha — Nebraska's biggest city — played an important role in his decision.

"Once I saw the opportunity, it was kind of a courting process of a few months," Peterson said in an interview. "But seeing the team and the dynamic they had, the deals they worked on, a lot of tenant rep, just a lot of things that maybe I wasn't around at the time, I think that sealed the deal with me."

The move has paid off so far, Peterson said. He's already done deals outside his home state, thanks to the Lee network.

At a larger shop, brokers also typically get "spooners," or inbound assignments secured without having to pitch for the business. Spooners originate when one of the firm's larger clients seeks spaces in several or smaller markets and looks to their brokerage to assign, or spoon-feed, deals to brokers in those areas.

"Going to that big shop, it kind of gives me a little extra gas behind what I am, behind my brand, makes people's heads turn a little bit more," he said, "because for whatever reason, consumers, buyers, sellers, they put some stock, definitely, into who's behind you, what flag you're flying, what brand you're with."

At his own small firm, Peterson said he "felt capped as far as where I could go."

He said he didn't typically have access to larger investment firms.

"Some of those clients seemed off-limits because I was a boutique, and I was jockeying for a listing or tried to get a deal done with a large company that would recognize a national name over what I had built," Peterson said.

Before Peterson headed to Lee & Associates, he took to Twitter seeking advice.

"As an independent #CRE broker I’ve always tussled with national brand, low splits vs boutique brand that keeps big amounts of the fee and doesn’t have support or back office," he wrote in his June 8 tweet. "Thoughts? Toying with going big shop, but in theory I have to work twice as hard to make the same money!"

Replies poured in from across the country.

Yandell Wood, a JLL broker in Louisville, Kentucky, in a post advised Peterson to think about what a big shop would offer that he didn't already have and whether it would make up for giving up the independence of his own company.

Mark Duclos, immediate past president of influential broker group SIOR, responded on Twitter with an offer to speak with Peterson. "We’ve received offers over the years to sell to large brokerage," the owner of Sentry Commercial in Hartford, Connecticut, posted. "Some advantages but culture and lack of control of direction and innovation are non-starters for me."

Real estate is in Peterson's blood, with his mother selling houses and his father trading commercial properties.

But Peterson, a Lincoln native, initially went into sales and lead generation at a pair of large non-real estate companies. After tiring of working in a cubicle, he moved into commercial real estate in 2011.

"I thought back to being fascinated as a high schooler when I had to run a contract across town for my parents because you needed a wet signature," he said. "And so that was very interesting to me. Every now and then I'd be like, 'Oh, what is this [contract] for?' He'd say, 'It's for a building in Lincoln, for a million dollars.' And I thought that was cool."

His father, Bob Peterson, remains at Pinnacle and is running the show there now that his son has moved on to Lee & Associates.

So far, Peterson is happy he joined a big brokerage shop. He's also looking forward to Lee opening an office in Lincoln early next year.

"The transition has been seamless," he said. "Check with me in a year. I don't know, maybe it'll be the best thing ever and maybe everything will just be, hey, you know we're plugging along. But my gut says I'm in the right place."