@Joe Gilroy what size properties are you looking at?
2-4 family are multifamily properties and almost exclusively listed in the MLS with residential brokers/agents. 5-8 units I still see more on the MLS than on "commercial listing services" like Loopnet. But you are starting to get into a grey area. 8-50ish tend to start going to smaller multifamily brokers. These tend to be boutique firms that are either local or regional. 50+ you start to get into more of the national players: CBRE, Cushman Wakefield, etc.
These are general trends I see in the midwest, but price is also a factor. I have seen CBRE listing 4 families in LA.
@Charles Seaman offers some good tips as well. I have done this many times on Loopnet, seeing who tends to have a fair amount of listing up, and I try to get coffee with them.
@Joe Gilroy It depends on your definition of the word best. To me, the best brokers are the ones that bring me deals on a consistent basis. When I enter a new market, my normal approach is to reach out to the big brokerages (ex. Cushman & Wakefield, CBRE, etc.) and work on developing relationships with them because oftentimes they'll be the listing brokers on many multifamily deals and will have access to people and resources that other brokers won't.
I then check the commercial real estate websites (ex. Loopnet, CREXi, etc.) to find brokers that are active in that market. My intent with these sites isn't to find deals because most of the deals on these sites don't work for one reason or another, but simply to find brokers that are active because they likely have other deals that do make more sense than the ones posted on these sites.
Overall, you probably want 3-5 good brokers in any given market that bring you deals on a regular basis because this will give you plenty of deals to review and to potentially submit offers on. My process might be more involved than that of many others when finding brokers because I want to see which brokers send me deals regularly, which ones give me the information that I need to make informed decisions on those deals, which ones have access to helpful tools (ex. CoStar), and just their overall demeanor and attitude.
If you use Costar or have a rep you work with they can help you. Costar allows you to pull a list of brokers in any metro and sort by volume of deals completed. Most reps will give you this info in exchange for a demo with them.
@Joe Gilroy what size properties are you looking at?
2-4 family are multifamily properties and almost exclusively listed in the MLS with residential brokers/agents. 5-8 units I still see more on the MLS than on "commercial listing services" like Loopnet. But you are starting to get into a grey area. 8-50ish tend to start going to smaller multifamily brokers. These tend to be boutique firms that are either local or regional. 50+ you start to get into more of the national players: CBRE, Cushman Wakefield, etc.
These are general trends I see in the midwest, but price is also a factor. I have seen CBRE listing 4 families in LA.
@Charles Seaman offers some good tips as well. I have done this many times on Loopnet, seeing who tends to have a fair amount of listing up, and I try to get coffee with them.