East West Commercial Real Estate

Michael Duhs

President & Managing Director

Michael’s commercial real estate experience spans 27 years, working for large and small real estate investment, asset management, development, and brokerage companies creating value and managing investment projects.

He has overseen and participated in $183 million worth of real estate transactions of multi-family, retail, resort, office, industrial, and mixed use assets primarily in southern California. Michael understands the need to achieve above average ROI for his clients and has extensive experience as a Managing Partner, COO, Project Manager and Director of Leasing for all commercial asset classes.

In addition to sales transactions, Michael has financed over $23 million in commercial real estate over the years and understands all aspects of pre-development, entitlements, development and asset management. He was involved in acquiring over 24,000 apartment units in the western United States in the mid 1980’s and holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Real Estate Finance. Michael has held a California real estate broker’s license since 1987.

Brian Jacks

Vice President & Regional Director

Brian Jacks is a seasoned commercial real estate professional with over 15 years experience. He has been a licensed real estate broker since 1996.

Brian started a 20-year banking career with Wells Fargo in 1990 as a Teller in high school. After graduating with a business degree, he became a credit analyst with a Wells Fargo commercial real estate lending unit… underwriting loans for securitization. Over the next 10-years, Brian had personally underwritten and closed over 250 deals representing more than $1 billion in loan volume for all types of commercial income properties throughout the Western U.S. Throughout this period, he also took responsibility for the continuous design, testing, user acceptance and staff training for a sophisticated Excel-based underwriting loan model used by Wells Fargo’s nationwide lending platform.

In 2006, Brian was tapped by senior Wells Fargo management to lead a new commercial real estate lending initiative in San Francisco , where he hired and led a staff of 18 loan processors and underwriting analysts in support of West Coast loan production totaling $2.5 billion per year. In this role, Brian developed and implemented numerous management reporting tools, processes, and procedures to streamline workflow and improve efficiency. He also created a 6-month training program for junior lenders totaling 40 hours of classroom instruction.

In 2008, commensurate with the downturn in commercial real estate, Brian accepted a strategic sales/marketing role connecting over 20 Wells Fargo commercial businesses with cross-sell opportunities. He strategized with national sales managers from various commercial lines of business to identify highly targeted leads through use of data mining techniques.

Since 2011, Brian has represented clients directly in the sale, lease and finance of commercial investment properties. He enjoys establishing strong relationships and works diligently to accomplish client goals and objectives.