Spotlight: Jeff Hertz and Cantor Fitzgerald

Wally Smith:
Jeff Hertz podcast with Cantor Fitzgerald. Jeff, welcome to the 1031 Show.

Jeff Hertz:
Thank you very much. It’s a pleasure to be here.

Wally Smith:
You bet. So you’re Senior Vice President with Cantor?

Jeff Hertz:
Yep. I head up national sales and advanced planning with our sales team.

Wally Smith:
Okay. And you’ve been with Cantor for how long now?

Jeff Hertz:
A little over six years.

Wally Smith:
Okay. And gone through several roles during that time?

Jeff Hertz:
Yeah. I started out as really more of a product specialist in a couple different strategies that we employ and now in more of a high level management role. But I’m involved with everything from acquisitions and dispositions to some asset management, to marketing, investor relations. Cantor is a large firm, but we’re a small component within a very large company. Always a lot to do.

Wally Smith:
Is most of your focus on DST specifically or just property packaged in a number of different ways?

Jeff Hertz:
To an extent I’m involved in all of our strategies, but in a way DSTs were my first love. They were my foot in the door to get into Cantor. I guess I’m the go-to person on the team when it comes to our DST solutions.

Wally Smith:
Very good. Well, before Cantor, let’s go back a couple of companies, before that you were with Inland, I think.

Jeff Hertz:
Yep. I was with Inland Real Estate for a dozen years, wholesaling in the Upper Midwest.

Wally Smith:
Okay. And then before that, another small company, right? Nuveen?

Jeff Hertz:
Yeah. In another startup, I think Nuveen was founded in the late 1800s. So when I was there, we’d been around for 120, 130 years or something like that.

Wally Smith:
Big company. Where did you go to school? What did you study?

Jeff Hertz:
Went to University of Oregon, studied psychology. I thought I was going to be the guy sitting with the person on the couch. But as it turns out, being in sales and management you tend to apply a lot of the things that you learn about the human brain and how people function.

Wally Smith:
Absolutely. We talk about that a lot here, really coming alongside the clients and figuring out what really do they need. Because there are a ton of products out, there are a ton of registered reps presenting products, but fortunately we’ve been pretty blessed, having a lot of people just feel like they have that connection with us. There must be a deep psychological aspect to that. So now for Cantor, you said you do a lot of different things, acquisitions, dispositions. Is there any one specific area that’s a focus?

Jeff Hertz:
Really just providing training and providing guidance with our sales team. But that extends into working with financial advisors. That extends even in some cases, into working with, not directly obviously, but working with individual clients. I might give a presentation with an advisor, with one of our salespeople, but we’re also talking to a family, in some cases even multi-generational. There’s a lot of attributes to it. What I really enjoy is actually getting into the real estate side of the business, understanding what we’re buying, why, how it’s going to be managed, all that. I think that makes me maybe a little bit better at my job in terms of then relaying that message to advisors and their clients. I like to go see our properties either before or after we’ve purchased them if feasible. I guess I enjoy the real estate side of the business as much as anything.

Wally Smith:
Are you on the road a lot?

Jeff Hertz:
Leaving for Boston tomorrow.

Wally Smith:
Oh boy. All right.