So, we examined those opportunities as much about their diversification benefits; hopefully, margin benefits and so on from an accretion perspective, but also from a service expansion and client capturing and repeat business perspective. So, the long answer and the short answer to your question is absolutely, it’s been a focus, and we are as focused on it in this period as ever.
Blaine Heck : Great. Thanks. And I don’t know if I missed this, but can you give us any sense of kind of the size of those investments and potential returns you’re expecting on your investments in those platforms?
Hessam Nadji : Well, in terms of the investments themselves, they kind of give us an entry point into some of these really interesting platforms that we believe have a lot of growth ahead of them. And — but again, it comes back to the synergies and client benefits we can bring as well as benefits from our own sales force. And with a combination of three different areas. One is productivity gains; new business generation gains and the repeat business opportunities to our clients who we know need some of these services and are not getting it currently. So, the return on that investment is going to be measured by both how well the companies do, of course, and us as investors in those companies. But also, the incremental additional business we’re going to gain from having access and partnerships with these firms, which is very difficult to quantify.
Steve DeGennaro: Yes, Blaine, this is Steve. I’ll add a little bit there. And I want to point out that we’re not all of a sudden getting into the venture investing business. Each of these relationships started on the commercial side and looking at the benefits that they can bring to our business, our clients, our agents, as Hessam has indicated. We like what we saw on those fronts. There was an opportunity to invest in each of them. We did that — within our diligence, we did that. I will point out, though, that neither of these investments are of a size or percentage ownership that would require their quarterly operating results to impact ours, which if you’re — on the — from a technical standpoint, means the investment was less than 20%.
Blaine Heck : Okay. Great. That’s helpful color. Switching gears, clearly, the transaction market remains deeply depressed. But of the transactions that are occurring, I guess, what percentage or portion would you say are driven by some form of distress that’s kind of forcing sellers to [indiscernible] versus those that are occurring a little bit more naturally?
Hessam Nadji : As I mentioned, Blaine, in my prepared remarks, we’re starting to see situations that are unique to the owner, unique to the lender as opposed to large waves of distress being marketed or portfolios of distress, whether they’re loans or assets. being brought to market or even being really prepared to be brought to market. It’s one-off situations that are starting to happen, and we anticipate to see a lot more of them. as more loans come due over the next two years. And frankly, as some players continue to need recapitalization. We’re seeing a significant increase in the need for recaps in order to stay active in certain assets that are having either refinancing issues or operating issues. As a percentage of our closings in the third quarter, it wouldn’t have been significant, but I can clearly share with you that this bucket of transaction catalysts is on the rise measurably.
Blaine Heck : Got it. That’s really helpful. Can you talk a little bit more about how the market dislocation and depressed transaction market is kind of affecting your recruiting efforts? And I guess, how we should think about what broker count should look like as we move forward into 2024?
