Affinity groups should be helpful in CRE, but the list of them is long and making them work for you can be difficult.

"The world of commercial real estate affinity group organizations' conferences is so over-saturated," Dana Light, chief marketing officer of Buzz of California and long-time CRE marketer, tells GlobeSt.com. "You could spend your whole career out of the office, socializing and not doing your business." At the same time, they can be "a good thing for business development."

"When you meet people and look in their eyes, you connect with them," says Light. "When getting into sophisticated deal dynamics, people want to work with people they know and trust and like. People are relatively loyal to the people they trust and know they can get the deal over the finish line."