Nick Stryland, now co-owner of boutique commercial property brokerage Spear Realty in Toronto, has spent his career in Canada. But his work for U.S.-based real estate services firms, including Cushman & Wakefield and JLL, has him seeing opportunity in America.
Spear Realty has grown substantially since its founding in September 2021 by industry veteran Diana Hoang, the firm's CEO. But the brokerage has larger ambitions, prompting Hoang to pick Stryland has her partner.
Stryland began his career 30 years ago as a broker for Cushman and as well as JLL Canada has had stints at Colliers, Orlando Corp., Dream Industrial REIT and Nicola Real Estate. He also serves as chief operating officer of Spear.
His years in the business led him to observe that proactively training staff is something more firms need to consider. And his background makes him think an opportunity might exist for his firm in the United States, given the heightened level of service he's seen that independent firms can offer clients, especially as larger brokerages buy and merge with competitors.
"The biggest difference between the U.S. and Canadian real estate market on the commercial side is that the ownership is a lot more fragmented. In the United States, you don't have as many big institutions owning such a high percentage of the overall market, so you've got a lot of very entrepreneurial boutique ownership groups that kind of aligns with what our strategy is, too," Stryland said in an interview.
Therefore, he said, "we think that's there's real opportunity there, especially in some of the Sun Belt states where you're looking at Florida, Texas. And then Carolinas and Georgia like those are all attractive markets for our business to expand to."
Spear emphasizes mentorship
As it considers expanding, Stryland said Spear has the advantage of serving as an incubator for young and hungry talent. While Stryland said many larger brokerages offer effective training programs, Spear’s boutique nature is more conducive to mentorship.
“I’ve worked with REITs, I’ve worked with private landlords, with institutionals, with brokerages, in third-party asset management, and each of those disciplines requires analyzing real estate deals differently,” Stryland said. “A REIT’s perspective on a deal, and how they manage their real estate, could be different than a pension fund’s or institutional client’s, or a third-party asset manager’s. It’s through that experience that, when dealing with a client, I know which levers to pull because I know what’s important to them.”
To share his knowledge and experience, Spear holds in-house seminars every couple of weeks for staff dubbed “Spear U." Stryland said Spear U is one of the company's culture-building initiatives and complements activities as when the team spent a summer’s day playing volleyball and eating barbeque in a park.
“We’ve established a very transparent and inclusive place between all of our agent and brokers, and our support staff as well, so that we can accomplish a lot more together than as an individual at a lot of other brokerages. Big-name brokerages are great — I know from experience — but there’s a lot of internal competition to get clients and deals.
That setup, he said "isn’t ideal for young talent, but our model is very effective because young agents can rely on our leadership’s decades of experience and work collaboratively."
“An agent by themself might lack certain skillsets needed to provide their clients those solutions, but a smaller boutique brokerage that encourages collaboration and learning from each other helps them achieve those objectives.”