Narrowing my focus while expanding my options: How moving from Indiana to Chicago opened a world of possibilities

Dan Gabbard Chicago

As a young kid growing up in Fort Wayne, Indiana, I established two key indicators of what direction I intended on taking my life. First, was that entering the business world as an entrepreneur was what I wanted to do for a living, and second, was that Chicago is where I needed to be to make that happen. These two ideas helped shape both my educational experiences and the beginning of my professional career. This new role with Kiser Group has allowed me to bring those two driving forces together, and has given my childhood goals the legs to run with.

Entering the commercial real estate brokerage field directly out of college brought its fair share of challenges, but I would not trade the irreplaceable experiences I gained for anything. I learned how to establish and cultivate my professional network, develop valuable and reciprocal long-term relationships with key members of the community, and assist entrepreneurs in developing a strategic plan to reach their investment portfolio goals. After two and a half years of navigating a full spectrum of real estate transaction types for my growing list of clients in Northeast Indiana, I felt that I was in a position to become an expert advisor in one niche and better serve those clients moving forward.

At that point in my career, I had completed transactions in a mixture of retail, office, industrial, multifamily/mixed-use, land, and development property types in a smaller sized market. Feeling confident in my negotiating, market knowledge, and overall process as a broker, I started researching potential career opportunities based on transactional data and the general layout of nearby large markets. From that research, I landed on multifamily in Chicago, and quickly found Kiser Group to be the industry leader in that market.

I’ve always been interested in the trends of the multifamily product type and how national economic occurrences can affect this market. Combining that interest with my experience in a wide range of deals with several investors, I established a specific vision to bring these childhood goals to fruition; Investor focused multifamily advising. Working with investors on a personal level and helping them build their wealth became a special interest of mine, and one that I was spending the majority of my time on. I truly enjoy listening to their goals and placing myself in their shoes to pick up knowledge and preferences to better assist their strategic vision.

Early in the process of establishing myself as a commercial broker, I came to the conclusion that I had found that entrepreneurial job that I could turn into a career (not to mention a career that I was extremely passionate about). I found a career that fit hand in hand with my personality traits. Operating in a role that requires independent thinking and confidence in my abilities, having keen emotional intelligence to analyze client intentions, and developing relationships based on mutual benefit all fall in line with who I am. A career that offers uncapped potential and a knowledge requirement that is constantly changing and is never fully attainable excites me. This is not the type of career for any amount of complacency, which bodes well for who I am and where I am trying to go.

I am truly looking forward to the limitless opportunities that Chicago provides. I feel prepared to take on the challenge of this constantly evolving market, and am confident that whatever Chicago throws my way I’ll be ready to maintain those ‘client-first’ values I learned in Fort Wayne. This business is all about creating meaningful, long-term relationships and I can’t wait to start creating those here at Kiser Group.

Dan Gabbard Chicago