After six years of working for commercial brokerage firms in Seattle, Mark Jackson Jr. decided it was time to strike out on his own. This month, Jackson launched the four-person Jackson Capital Group.

“The response for the opening is fantastic,” he said. “The pipeline of our transactions is better than I could have expected at this early stage.”

The 28-year-old Jackson said he opted to start his own firm after seeing flaws in the way the commercial real estate brokerage establishment treats its younger brokers. The industry is based on a “wait-your-turn” mentality that pairs junior brokers with the senior ones, basically until the elders retire, Jackson said.

Jackson said brokers need financial security and support staff to get the jobs done.

“If a broker doesn’t have the peace of mind of financial stability they can’t do as well as possible,” he said. 

Commercial real estate was not originally on Jackson’s career radar. In 2012, the St. John's University graduate was taking a gap year in New York City and studying for his LSAT. He planned to become an attorney like his father.

Then Hurricane Sandy hit and everything changed. He returned home to his parents’ house in the Redmond area to escape the hurricane-induced chaos taking place in NYC's South Seaport.

Not surprisingly, his parents told him to get a job. Though they meant a job for spending money, he ended up sending out résumés to several big companies.

He was soon hired.

He worked first for Marcus & Millichap’s Seattle office and then moved to JLL in 2015, where he was a broker on Stuart Williams’ team. He considers Williams his mentor. At JLL, Jackson covered the mid-market $10M to $46.5M sector.

"He has the drive to be successful and hopefully he can put it all together with his own firm and make it work," Williams said.

Starting his own firm may seem like a huge leap of faith for a 20-something to take, but Williams doesn't see that as something that will hold Jackson back.

"In a weird way, starting your own firm when you're young is a good time to do it," he said.

Jackson said he has no doubts.

“I’ve never lacked confidence in my ability,” he said.

Commercial real estate appeals to the former Division 1 lacrosse player’s competitive side.

“The commercial real estate industry fills that competitive side of me that I’d been missing since I stopped playing lacrosse,” he said.