Hospitality Specialist: Commercial Real Estate Agent

The role

ELIFIN is hiring a Hospitality Specialist to own the hotel sector in South Louisiana.

This is not an entry-level seat and it is not an apprenticeship. We are looking for someone who already knows this asset class: someone who can read an STR report against the comp set, walk a property and estimate the PIP before the brand issues it, and tell an owner what a trailing twelve with no reserve line will do to a buyer's underwriting before the buyer's lender gets there.

Hotel experience is a hard requirement for this seat. If you are a strong salesperson who is not familiar with hospitality, apply to our Commercial Real Estate Agent posting instead of this one.

The territory

Every ELIFIN agent operates a Block, a defined territory by property type and geography. Blocks are how we build market share instead of chasing whatever comes across the transom.

This Block is hospitality in South Louisiana. One person, one asset class, one region. Investment sales and owner representation on single hotels and on portfolios, plus buyer representation for the groups acquiring them.

Most South Louisiana hotels trade inside networks. Deals move owner to owner, or through national hotel shops that engage once the key count clears their threshold. The owner with two exterior-corridor properties, a PIP coming due, and an insurance renewal that doubled does not have an obvious local call to make. Neither does the operator trying to add keys in a market they already run, or the developer weighing a flag in a submarket they have never built in.

That is the opening.

What you will do

• Generate and service hotel sale assignments across South Louisiana
• Underwrite and value hotels: RevPAR, ADR, and occupancy against the comp set, segmentation mix, USALI P&Ls, GOP and flow-through, franchise fees, FF&E reserves, PIP exposure, third-party management economics
• Normalize owner-operator financials to institutional standards: market management fee, market payroll, a funded FF&E reserve, market-rate insurance
• Run market and feasibility analysis: comp set construction, penetration indices, demand segmentation across transient, group, contract, and crew, and the permitted and under-construction pipeline
• Advise owners on flag decisions: renewals, conversions, and independence, and what each does to value
• Represent buyers on acquisitions, including SBA-financed first purchases, 1031 exchange timelines, and portfolio roll-ups
• Prospect owners directly and consistently, using our database and your own relationships
• Build ELIFIN into the recognized authority on South Louisiana hospitality: research, market reports, conference presence, and reputation

Who we are looking for

You have direct, verifiable experience in the hotel industry. That means one or more of the following:

• Brokered hotel sales or portfolios, at any shop
• Worked for a brand: Marriott, Hilton, IHG, Hyatt, Wyndham, Choice, or Best Western, in development, franchise sales, feasibility, or owner relations
• Worked for a management company or ownership group in general management, area or regional operations, revenue management, or asset management
• Developed, owned, or operated hotelsAppraised, underwrote, or financed the asset class on the lender or investor side, including SBA and CMBS
• Managed a hotel portfolio for an investor or family office

You are also fluent in the operating side. You have lived in a PMS and a revenue management system, or you have underwritten enough USALI statements to know where the add-backs live. You understand what happens to a hotel's value when the franchise renewal comes with a seven-figure renovation requirement and a decade of deferred capex behind it, and you can explain that to an owner who does not want to hear it.

Beyond the resume:

• You are hunting, not waiting. This territory has no inherited book. You will build the pipeline.
• You have the character to sit across from an owner, a lender, or a brand's development team and be the most knowledgeable person in the room on your product.
• You are coachable on our system even though you are experienced in your sector. Those are different things and we expect both.
• You call Louisiana home and intend to stay.
• Active Louisiana real estate license, or the ability to obtain one before you start.

What we bring

ELIFIN sells more commercial property in Louisiana than any other brokerage. Our platform behind you:

• A proprietary database of 59,000+ Louisiana commercial properties and 41,000+ owner contacts, built and maintained in house
• A weekly Clerk of Court review across our parishes, which means we see transactions before they hit the public data services
• More than 2,000 closed transactions worth of sales process, refined and documented
• Marketing, research, and transaction support so you spend your time in front of owners
• Offices in Baton Rouge, New Orleans / Metairie, and Lafayette

Compensation

Commission only. No base salary, no draw, no ceiling.

NOTE: ELIFIN is an equal opportunity employer and hiring or opportunities for advancement will not be based on race, color, religion, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, age, disability or handicap, veteran status, union affiliation or any other basis prohibited by federal, state, or local law or ordinance.