George Jamieson got his inspiration to join the commercial real estate field after seeing brokers in action and realizing he could do that – do it better, actually, since he wasn’t impressed with what he saw. Now, Jamieson is launching into a new phase, opening his own brokerage at a time when most are hunkered down and sticking as close to basics as possible; his new firm, Capital Commercial Real Estate, just opened its doors this month in Hingham. Jamieson spent 14 years at Jack Conway & Co., a Norwell-based Realtor, where he was vice president before he started his own shop. He talked with Banker & Tradesman about how to take advantage of a down market, convincing sellers that it’s not 2006 anymore, and what it was like to be in a seller’s shoes.

Why launch a new company now, of all times?

I believe that this is a good time to actually start a business because this is when other companies – maybe larger companies – in the industry might be taking a step back and slowing down, and so I’m going to take advantage of that opportunity to be poised for growth when the market does come back.

Of all the obstacles out there, what’s a major sticking point in getting deals done right now?

It’s going to take a while for sellers to understand that prices are not what they were. Capitalization rates are going higher, the sellers are still in the mindset that it’s 2006, 2007, when we were really at the height of the market. I’m not sure they’re prepared, if they are at the point of selling, to discount their price to where buyers are going to pay.

So sellers are still dragging their feet? What do you do to get around that?

I’m advising people, if you’re going to sell your property, do it now versus waiting 12 months… if they want to sell the property, they’ll probably get more money today than they will in 12 months.

I think there is a lot of misinformation – as far as the banks are concerned, they are lending money. I tell my clients, if the deal makes sense the bank will finance it. In [places like] downtown Boston, those deals are stuck, but those are deals that life insurance companies and overseas investors finance, and that’s where you’re going to see deals that aren’t going to happen. But over here, I deal with mom and pop [buyers and sellers], the $500,000 deals, the $3 million, the $5 million, anything under $10 million. This, I think, is really an area that is finance-able, as long as the deal makes sense. And again, the buyer and the seller, is probably where we’re having difficulty coming to a middle ground right now … that is not something that sellers want to hear, but it’s something that they’re going to have to accept over the next 12-18 months.

You worked at Jack Conway & Co. for a long while. How did you get your start in real estate?

It’s kind of a funny story because I had to take over a family business, the restaurant business. And that was not the love of my life, I knew that right away. I, at the time, was a regional salesperson for a company, and did a lot of traveling, and basically I had to leave that job to come and help my family with the restaurant, and turn it around, and sell it. So the selling process of the restaurant was basically what got me into real estate.

And you just thought selling property looked neat, or something?

I experienced the ups and downs of selling from a seller’s prospective, and basically thought I could do it a little better than the [brokers] I had the experience with.

What was so bad about running a restaurant?

It’s a difficult business, it’s a hard business. But subsequently, I’ve helped a lot of people in the restaurant business; a lot of them are clients of mine now. It gave me the experience in the business that I needed to have to do what I’m doing today, so I know the ins and outs of the restaurant business, especially.

And then you went to Jack Conway & Co., and then took a chance on building a new company.

Yes. People might think I’m a little crazy, but I don’t see it that way. I’ve got a plan to grow it strategically over the next 3-5 years, and bring in some commercial brokers, and have slow and steady growth. Keep the cost low – I think small is better, to provide clients with good quality service. I think that’s really the way that I wanted to be treated when I was a seller.