Marcus & Millichap Expands Capital Group

Rodiles says that the expansion of the MMCC staff reflects the fact that, with the capital markets currently in flux, providing clients with financial expertise is more important than ever. He says that expanding the staff of MMCC, which is a subsidiary of Marcus & Millichap Real Estate Investment Services, offers a number of benefits to the company and its clients.

[IMGCAP(2)]For example, the larger staff of MMCC professionals enables Marcus & Millichap to do more in terms of creating customized financing packages that best serve the needs of clients. The additional financing expertise "allows us to win business and to price properties correctly to sell, rather than to go to market and not close," Rodiles says. In addition, he points out, having the MMCC expertise on hand "allows us to evaluate our deals better and know that we have a good debt source that we can trust."

Rodiles points out that, since one of the obstacles preventing deal closings right now is "a huge gap between buyers and sellers," one of the keys to closing that gap is having agents who can articulate the true values of properties to buyers and sellers. Since debt is such an important component of most deals, an agent's ability to articulate the value of a property depends on that agent's understanding the debt side of the deal, Rodiles explains. The additional MMCC expertise, he says, will help to provide that understanding.

[IMGCAP(3)]In addition to Padilla, who has more than 10 years of commercial real estate experience and was an agent with Marcus & Millichap in Palo Alto and Long Beach before founding Menlo Commercial, the new MMCC professionals are Bobby Ramirez, Robert Hodge, David Estrada and Amber Vara. Padilla and Ramirez are working on loan originations, with Hodge and Estrada responsible for underwriting and analyzing loans, and Vara as the team's loan processor.

[IMGCAP(4)]The five new hires join an existing three-member MMCC team in the Long Beach office that is headed by Michael Derk, who in 2008 was the No. 2 originator in MMCC. Counting the new hires, MMCC now has three originators, three analysts/underwriters and two loan processors in the Long Beach office.

Rodiles tells GlobeSt.com that adding more MMCC professionals enables Marcus & Millichap to add more value for its clients, something that is being discussed more and more in these days of reduced deal flow. "The value that we add doesn't get discussed as much in good times because deals are flying off the shelves, but it gets discussed a lot more in times like these," Rodiles observes.

The Marcus & Millichap regional manager adds that operating an established firm with a reputation for adding value also helps with recruiting in times when deal flow has slowed. "Agents want to be with companies that can add value and have a reputation for adding value because they know that's what clients are looking for today," he says.